Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts to be featured guest at 13th Creative Edge Lecture

Arts Orange County recently announced that they will present a live, in-person talk by Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson at its 13th Creative Edge Lecture on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 10 a.m., in the Irvine Barclay Theatre. Admission to the lecture is free of charge thanks to the generosity of sponsors, but reservations are required through the Irvine Barclay Theatre ticket office. 

The Creative Edge Lecture is presented in partnership with the Orange County Department of Education and the 4th District PTA.

For more than 25 years, Dr. Jackson’s work has focused on understanding and elevating arts, culture and design as critical elements of healthy communities. Her work blends social science and arts and humanities-based approaches to comprehensive community revitalization, systems change, the dynamics of race and ethnicity, and the roles of arts and culture in communities.

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Photo by David K. Riddick

Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, will present a live talk at 13th Creative Edge Lecture in February

After confirmation by the U.S. Senate in December 2021, Dr. Jackson became the 13th chair of the National Endowment for the Arts last January. With this historic appointment, Dr. Jackson is the nation’s first NEA chair to be an African American and Mexican American woman. 

“When she was nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dr. Jackson was already a longtime leading voice on the importance of arts and culture in our nation,” said Richard Stein, president and CEO of Arts Orange County. “In her role as head of our federal government’s arts agency, she is well-positioned to observe the role creativity plays in the life of American communities. We are exceptionally pleased that she will spend time with us to share her observations and to inspire artists, arts leaders, arts patrons and students at our much-anticipated annual Creative Edge Lecture. Adding special importance to her appearance, this will be the first visit to Orange County by a National Endowment for the Arts Chair since 1988 – a period during which our arts community has grown tremendously in vitality and diversity.”

Ticket reservations may be made here.

Past Creative Edge Lecture speakers have included thought-leaders and best-selling authors on creativity, innovation and arts education, as well as two U.S. Poets Laureate: Daniel K. Pink (2010), Sir Ken Robinson (2011), Randy Nelson (2012), Tom Kelley (2013), John Maeda (2014), Sarah Lewis (2015), Dr. Charles Limb (2016), Juan Felipe Herrera (2017), Dr. Robert Duke (2018), Vijay Gupta (2019), Joy Harjo (2020) and Donn K. Harris (2022).

Arts Orange County (ArtsOC) is the independent nonprofit arts council for Orange County and is dedicated to sustaining, strengthening and advancing its creative ecology.

Irvine Barclay Theatre is located at 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine.