OC Arts Awards Recognize 26 Years of Creativity and Community

Representatives from dozens of local arts organizations gather to honor Ann Phong, Eli Simon, Janet and Walke Ray and other influential arts figures and organizations

Representatives from dozens of local arts organizations gather to honor Ann Phong, Eli Simon, Janet and Walke Ray and other influential arts figures and organizations

The 26th OC Arts Awards, celebrating outstanding local achievements in the arts, were held Tuesday night at Samueli Theater in Costa Mesa, in the heart of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Arts Orange County, the county’s nonprofit arts council, produced and hosted the event, which was attended by current and former ArtsOC board members, sponsors, artists and supporters of the county arts scene.

The masters of ceremonies for the evening were Patrick Brien, president and CEO of Arts Orange County, and Anne Hogan, dean of the College of Performing Arts and Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University.

“I was really pleased with how smoothly the event flowed,” Brien said afterwards. “We were able to keep a consistent energy throughout the presentations and performances. What made the night particularly special, I think, is the range of people and institutions we were able to honor.”

The 2026 Helena Modjeska Cultural Legacy Awards went to Ann Phong for Visionary Artist, Eli Simon for Visionary Arts Leader and Janet and Walkie Ray for Visionary Arts Patrons. A special Modjeska Cultural Legacy Award went to Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Phong, a Vietnamese American painter, has participated in over 200 solo and group exhibitions, spanning from local galleries and museums to venues throughout the United States, Seoul and Tokyo. In 2025, she received the Los Angeles Lakers’ “In the Paint” grant, which provides a $10,000 grant from the Lakers’ Youth Foundation to local artists of color, plus an exhibition in downtown L.A.’s Arts District. Phong includes found objects in her acrylic paintings, often commenting about the environment, immigration and the detritus of our existence.

“Thank you ArtsOC, thank you Professor (and ArtsOC board member) Thúy Võ Ðặng, and VAALA, the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association,” Phong said while receiving her award. “I learned from them how to share and how to love, how to love everybody, not just your community, but all the communities – how to shake hands through art.”

Simon is a Chancellor’s Professor of Drama at UC Irvine. He is the founding artistic director and managing producer of the New Swan Shakespeare Festival, a professional summer theater that performs on the campus of UCI with support from the Claire Trevor School of the Arts and the Department of Drama. He is also the author of three books, and has directed more than 100 productions at Shakespeare festivals across the United States and abroad.

“I wish to thank the Orange County Arts Awards for this honor, and for helping diverse communities of artists and our celebration of their work here in Orange County. It’s so important,” Simon said. “Artists need a few people who believe in them, no questions asked.”

OC Arts Awards Recognize 26 Years of Creativity and Community — Culture OC