Sunday, November 14, 2021 (3:29 pm)

Want to spend a fun morning at the farm? Discovery Days are the perfect opportunity to learn all about agriculture and really get to know Centennial Farm.

Discovery Days are open to the public and are perfect for mom groups, homeschool groups and more. Groups may participate in the following activities:

• • • • Self-Guided Tours: Volunteers are present to provide information.
      • Radish Seed Planting: Children will plant a radish seed to take back to school or home.
      • Chick Education: Learn all about the chick development process.
      • Oxen Demonstration: Demonstration days vary depending on the volunteers’ schedules.
      • Crops Education: Seasonal varieties.
      • See Livestock Animals: Swine, goats, sheep, cattle, rabbits and poultry.

Discovery Days are from 9 a.m. to noon on select dates, including: Nov. 16, Nov. 18, Dec. 1, Dec. 9 and Dec. 17. Reservations are required for groups of 10 or more and can be made at ocfair.com/discoveryday.

MORE WAYS TO LEARN ABOUT AGRICULTURE

We have online resources available so guests can learn all about the livestock and crops on the farm.

Animal landscapers: Our team of angora goats – guarded by miniature donkeys, a llama and a Maremma guard dog – is out on the Pacific Amphitheatre berm now through December. Read all about them.

Resident animals: From pigs and peafowl to oxen and chickens, Centennial Farm features a slew of animals year-round on the working farm. Read all about them and see photos.

Crops: We’ve got rotating raised garden beds, rare fruit trees and more. Read all about them and see photos.

Activity sheets : Staff has compiled farm-themed coloring pages, instruction sheets for harvesting seeds, various worksheets and more. Browse educational material.

Thursday, November 11, 2021 (3:13 pm)

Heroes Hall Museum has reopened its permanent exhibit, The SAAAB Story, which chronicles the history of the Santa Ana Army Air Base. The air base’s location once included the land on which the OC Fairgrounds now sits, and Heroes Hall’s building is a renovated barracks from the base.

The exhibit first debuted when Heroes Hall opened in 2017 but has been updated with several new artifacts and memorabilia.

“The SAAAB Story is much more immersive now,” said Carol Singleton, Heroes Hall Supervisor. “It will help people better understand what the cadets went through while they were training here. Everything about the exhibit is connected to the Santa Ana Army Air Base.”

The Costa Mesa Historical Society provided a lot of the artifacts, including original posters, uniforms, cadet personal items, trophies and telegrams. Previously the exhibit featured photo reproductions but now includes original photos on display.

Other new sections include information about:

• Women, Latinos and LGBTQ service members in the military during World War II
• Letters from 8th graders who were sent to internment camps to their white classmates in Westminster
• German POWs who worked on the base picking oranges
• Tuskegee Army Air Field, which is where the Black airmen who would have trained at SAAAB were placed were it not for segregation
• Victory gardens, rationing and other campaigns led on the home front

“My favorite part is the personal stories of the cadets that graduated here,” Singleton said. “There are eight different cadet stories, each one extraordinary, and all eight went on to the war in either the South Pacific or the European theatre.”

The SAAAB Story is a permanent exhibit at Heroes Hall. Heroes Hall is open year-round, Wednesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. The first-floor exhibit, Through Their Eyes: Artwork by Active Military and Veterans, will be on display until Jan. 20, 2022.

Monday, November 1, 2021 (10:19 am)

COSTA MESA (Nov. 1, 2021) – The OC Fair & Event Center Board of Directors has named Doug La Belle as Chair and Newton Pham as Vice Chair.

La Belle, who previously served as Vice Chair, replaces Natalie Rubalcava-Garcia as Chair. The board voted in new leadership at its Nov. 28 meeting.

La Belle is retired and most recently served as City Manager for the City of Chino Hills from 1995 until 2009. Prior to that he served as City Manager for the City of Signal Hill and began his career in local government in 1964 with the City of Garden Grove and has worked in various administrative capacities for the cities of Cerritos, Huntington Beach, La Mesa and Marysville. La Belle, pictured right, is a resident of Costa Mesa.

“I am excited to take on the reins of Board Chair again and help lead the organization as we move into 2022,” said La Belle. “I look forward to using my experience serving on the Board since 2010 to create opportunities for families, businesses and local organizations to come together to enjoy the annual OC Fair and all the year-round activities at the fairgrounds.” 

Pham has been vice president at California Bank and Trust since 2014 and was the principal financial analyst at Mitsubishi Materials U.S.A. from 2012 to 2014, senior analyst at McGladrey Capital Markets LLC from 2007 to 2012 and associate consultant at Smith Barney, Citigroup Global Markets from 2004 to 2007. Pham has served on the Board of Directors since 2016 and resides in Fountain Valley.

Exiting Chair Rubalcava-Garcia will continue to serve on the Board of Directors.

“I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to serve as Chair of the Orange County Fair Board,” said Rubalcava-Garcia. “It is with great pleasure that I can highlight our many accomplishments this past year which included navigating the pandemic, serving as a vaccine super pod site in an effort to help get the community vaccinated, hosting a very successful in-person 2021 OC Fair, initiating a community affairs committee which is tasked with ensuring OC Fair & Event Center is engaging with the community and focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and launching the organization’s three-year strategic planning effort.”

The Board also recently welcomed a new director, Melahat Rafiei. She has been Secretary at the California Democratic Party since 2021. Rafiei has been Principal at Progressive Solutions Consulting since 2009 and a Co-Founder of WeCann since 2017. Rafiei was Executive Director at the Democratic Party of Orange County from 2007 to 2009 and a Board Member at the Community Action Fund from 2007 to 2013. She is a delegate for the California Democratic Party and a member of Democratic National Committee and the City of Anaheim’s Cultural and Heritage Commission. She was appointed to the Board by Governor Gavin Newsom in September.

Board officers typically serve one-year terms and are nominated for office by a committee of fellow Board members.

Wednesday, October 13, 2021 (10:30 am)

A new exhibit at Heroes Hall opens today, Oct. 13, showcasing the artwork of 24 local veterans and active U.S. service members.

Through Their Eyes: Artwork by Active Military and Veterans will be the featured exhibit at the museum now through January 20, 2022.

New museum hours: Heroes Hall is now open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays.

Heroes Hall Museum is dedicated to honoring Orange County’s service members and providing a place where they can tell their stories. For this new exhibit, military service members have expressed their individual experiences through a variety of mediums including sculpture, photography, painting, carving and woodworking.

“It has been such a pleasure meeting the artists and hearing the stories behind their artwork,” said Carol Singleton, Heroes Hall Museum Supervisor. “Several of the veterans in this show turned to art as a means to heal both emotional and physical wounds. We are privileged and honored to bring this extraordinary exhibit to the community.”

Through Their Eyes was underwritten by the Heroes Hall Veterans Foundation. The judges were Dave Barton, Fatemeh Burnes and Denton Knapp.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Winning pieces are pictured below, and details about each of the artists are available on the Heroes Hall section of ocfair.com.

First Place: David Vargo for “Unlikely Path” (pictured above)

Vargo is an art professor at Laguna College of Art and Design, and has painted illustrations for companies like Blizzard Entertainment, Arch Enemy Comics, Lucasfilm and Wizards of the Coast.

“My love of the mysterious combined with my passion for the figure has led to a long-term art affair with imaginative realism,” Vargo said.

Second Place: Giovanni Berdejo for “Hope”

Berdejo is a photographer and author, and has taught photography workshops for student veterans at Chapman University.

Third Place: Ed Bowen for “Entrenchment”

Bowen is a Vietnam War veteran whose art is part of the Army’s war art collection and is displayed in various government facilities including the Pentagon and the Smithsonian.

Artists in juried show:

Kurt Bayless, U.S. Navy, Huntington Beach
Giovanni Berdejo, U.S. Army, Fountain Valley
Ed Bowen, U.S. Army, Corona Del Mar
George Davis, U.S. Marine Corps, Rancho Santa Margarita
Hanh Dinh, U.S. Marine Corps, Garden Grove
Reginald Green, U.S. Navy, San Diego
Linda Hicks, U.S. Air Force, Westminster
Charlie Hunt, U.S. Army, Huntington Beach
Sean Lenahan, U.S. Navy, Costa Mesa
Phyllis Miller, U.S. Navy, Santa Monica
Kimberly Millett, U.S. Army, Newport Beach
Darrow Minor, U.S. Navy, Long Beach
Cody Reed, U.S. Navy, Long Beach
Arthur Rivera, U.S. Navy, Anaheim
Abraham Romero, U.S. Army, San Diego
Casey Rydjeski, U.S. Army, Fountain Valley
Sandra Scott, U.S. Air Force, Yucaipa
Mario Solorzano, U.S. Army, Pomona
Bill Stewart, U.S. Air Force, Newport Beach
Gary Tegel, U.S. Navy, Costa Mesa
Paul Todd, U.S. Army, Orange
David Vargo, U.S. Marine Corps, Anaheim
George Wallims, U.S. Marine Corps, Huntington Beach

Special guest artist
Joe Pisano, U.S. Navy, San Diego

Read more about each artist at ocfair.com/heroes-hall/exhibitions/through-their-eyes-artwork-by-active-military-and-veterans/

Tuesday, October 12, 2021 (1:57 pm)

OCFEC Board of Directors will hold a board meeting today (Tuesday, October 12, 2021) at 3 p.m. to discuss strategic direction for OCFEC programming.

View agenda report

The meeting will be held in the Administration Building at OC Fair, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. 

Guests are invited to join via Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85322883030?pwd=Y3EyQ2FPYmdseDNRcy82SU8vbEpFUT09
Dial in option: 1-669-900-9128
Meeting ID: 853 2288 3030
Passcode: 718914