Casa Romantica creates an ‘Endless Summer’ with its latest Casa Captivating theme

Some people live for sweater weather and pumpkin spice latte, but if you are among those not quite ready to let go of summer, head to Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens in San Clemente this season. The nonprofit arts destination is gearing up for its first of four themes with “Casa Captivating Fall and Winter Season: Endless Summer.”

Celebrating Orange County’s surf culture, Endless Summer includes programming centered around our oceans and includes a beach cleanup, jazz dance series, art exhibition, concerts and more.

Endless Summer opens tonight with a reception at 6 p.m. with an art exhibition, featuring three Southern California artists who will debut their collections curated for the program.

Work from artists Wade Koniakowsky, Kristianne Koch Riddle and Olga Lah will be on display on the Casa Romantica grounds, with a focus on the influence of the ocean.

Koniakowsky is a surfer and painter known for oil paintings of oceanscapes in Southern California, Hawaii and Indonesia, and his paintings of coastal scenes will be on display. Riddle is a fine arts photographer and interdisciplinary visual artist who will share photography in the exhibition. Finally, Lah will bring her installation, “The Constance of Glory,” to the Casa’s outdoor gardens.

The “Endless Summer: Kristianne Koch Riddle” exhibit at Casa Romantica.

(Courtesy of Casa Romantica)

In the classes series, an adult surf jazz dance class for beginners, set to 1960s surf music, will be offered until Oct. 11, while D. Yoder Family Sundays will adopt a Surf’s Up! theme on Oct. 2, with family-friendly activities, like a lifeguard talk at 10:30 a.m. On Oct. 12, a driftwood air plant display workshop will be offered, with casa attendees to create their own driftwood air plant display using driftwood and air plants — succulents that live outside of shells and rocks. The season closes out with a concert from Woodie and the Longboards, a Beach Boy tribute band, on Oct. 19.

Casa Romantica provides programs for all ages in arts, music, history throughout the year. Upcoming themes for “Casa Captivating” include “Vietnamese American Stories,” with an art exhibition from Hung Viet Nguyen in January, and “Romantic Era Arts,” focusing on European arts of the 19th century in February.

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