Born in OC

Anton Segerstrom Partner, South Coast Plaza: Board of Trustees and major donor, the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) A new cultural landmark for modern and contemporary art, OCMA opened in October 2022, on the campus of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. It’s across the street from South Coast Plaza, a global shopping destination with more than 250 extraordinary boutiques and critically acclaimed restaurants. There are many people to thank for this world-class museum that will be enjoyed for generations to come, but at the top of that list are Anton Segerstrom and his wife, Jennifer, who spent sixteen years laboring to bring it to fruition. Anton, who also serves as general manager of South Coast Plaza WEST, is the son of the late Henry Segerstrom, a founding partner of South Coast Plaza and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and one of the country’s most influential arts philanthropists. According to Anton, it was his mother, Yvonne de Chavigny Segerstrom, who instilled in him a love of the visual arts. A successful artist in her own right, she was a respected collector, champion, and supporter of many cultural institutions. It’s no wonder that the arts figured prominently in Anton’s own aspirations. I sat down with him at South Coast Plaza to learn more about his involvement in OCMA, his vision for its future, and his deep, life-long connection to Orange County. You are one of the few people in this book who was actually born in Orange County. Why don’t you start by telling me what it was like when you were growing up here in the sixties and seventies, and how it has changed. I was blessed to grow up here when the land was mostly devoted to agriculture—Orange groves and open fields. I remember very vividly being on our farm in Costa Mesa and having a 360-degree view. This was before the 405 Freeway was built, when Fairview Avenue was a two-lane road. It was a bucolic, beautiful environment. I remember riding my bike through orange groves and having orange fights with my friends. I walked to elementary school. There aren’t many people around here who can say that. Sadly, most don’t even remember all of those orange groves. I also remember when I started surfing. It was in the early seventies, after the surfing boom of the sixties when surfing was not that popular. You could paddle out and you’d know everybody in the water. It was just two or three people out there most of the time, and it was quite lovely. Wow. It’s a whole different thing now. What else would you say has changed or disappeared since then? The orange groves are definitely gone. When I was growing up, the city of Irvine didn’t even exist. It was all agriculture, and we would ride our bikes out to Peter’s Canyon before that was all developed. It’s sad, in a way, but the plus side is that there’s more economic opportunity. There’s more cultural opportunity. The loss is of the beautiful open environment, which was like a Shangri-La, with blue skies and gorgeous vistas and empty beaches. But there wasn’t a lot to do after dark. It was pretty quiet. You left Orange County for a while. Where did you go? College? I grew up in Santa Ana in the early seventies. My mother had the foresight to find a private school in Ojai called the Thatcher School and get me engaged there. So, at fifteen I moved to Ojai for four years. After that, I lived in Oregon for a number of years, went to college there, then left and worked in Osland, Norway, for SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) as a chef for a while. And then I came back to University of Oregon, finished out with a finance degree there. After that, I relocated to Yosemite National Park and worked at the Ahwahnee Lodge for a couple of years, in management. Eventually, in about 1985, I found my way back to Orange County. I didn’t know you’d done so many different things! And you were also a chef, right? Yes. I love to cook, and it paid the bills. Of all the places you’ve lived, do you have a favorite? I really didn’t think I was going to leave the Pacific Northwest. I lived there for quite a number of years and liked it a lot. But here I am now. Funny how things work out. Even in 1973, when I moved here, life was a lot slower. And of course it wasn’t as upscale. Now, there’s so much here. What I want to learn about next is your love of art. I know your mother influenced that. My mother was a lifelong artist, so I grew up around art. She was always sketching. She had a studio out by the garage and when I was young, I would make prints with her. She took me to Newport Harbor Art Museum (now Orange County Museum of Art), so I was exposed to a variety of artists. When I was about seven, there was a show there especially for children. There were walls where you would put your hands through and touch a sculpture, then walk around the wall and see it. This was very engaging and exciting to me as a kid. I also remember my mother taking me to Warhol shows in Los Angeles in the late sixties and early seventies. These made a deep impression. Kids don’t have filters built in; they’re very open and receptive to all kinds of art. They don’t know what they’re not supposed to like, so they just take it in and enjoy it.