Laguna Art Museum Is Given $100,000

LAGUNA BEACH — The Laguna Art Museum has received $100,000 from the Joan Irvine Smith & Athalie R. Clarke Foundation in support of California Art of the Century, a three-year program (through 1993) of exhibits, research, education and collecting focusing on the history of 20th-Century California art.

The gift will help the museum meet requirements for a $40,000 California Arts Council grant that must be matched 3 to 1 in new donations by June 30.

Smith, a multimillionaire, is the granddaughter of James Irvine, who founded the Irvine Co., which owns a sixth of Orange County’s land. Clarke is Smith’s mother. Neither woman owns Irvine Co. stock any longer, but the family was among the original backers of the organization that became Laguna Art Museum.