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Orange County Performing Arts Center gets new name
The Orange County Performing Arts Center is no more. The county’s top theater switched to a new name at a big shindig last night.
With fireworks, a free concert and former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger giving philanthropist Henry Segerstrom the governor’s ring, the Orange County Performing Arts Center got a new name: Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
The Segerstrom family has donated millions to help the center expand into a 14-acre facility. The family’s 87-year-old patriarch says all the Segerstroms are grateful for the naming honor.
"It’s a legacy which we will all treasure," Segerstrom told the crowd. "And when the curtain goes up on the operation, I believe that new pathways of activity will create a new era of artistic growth in Orange County, which will improve the quality of life that we all enjoy here."
The Center is celebrating its 25th anniversary. It’s commissioning a new dance work for two dancers from the famous Bolshoi Ballet.
And it plans to make some $10 “Access to All” tickets available to each show this season – about 10,000 tickets over the course of the season. The idea behind that is to help make the arts more accessible to everybody.