Visitors this month to Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza, an iconic shopping destination known for its rich collection of luxury boutiques — everything from Prada to Cartier to Chanel — will have a chance to learn about how it was founded and developed decades ago by a retail visionary known the world over, helping to transform Orange County from a backwater bedroom community with agricultural roots to a thriving cultural center with attractions rivaling premier American cities.

Henry T. Segerstrom, the man who pushed to develop South Coast Plaza in the 1960s from what were once lima bean fields, is the subject in a free exhibition called “Courage of Imagination” paying tribute to his life and contributions to Orange County through May 31.

The exhibit, open 10 am to 9 pm Monday through Friday, 10 am to 8 pm Saturday and 11 am to 6:30 pm Sunday, presents historic photographs, video archives and memorabilia, as well as sculptures he collected, on display in South Coast Plaza’s Jewel Court. Much of the exhibition not only talks about how he developed South Coast Plaza into a world-class destination rivaling shopping meccas like Fifth Avenue in New York and Bond Street in London, as well as Avenue Montaigne in Paris and Ginza in Tokyo, but also about how his philanthropy helped support the development of the neighboring Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, one of the largest art complexes in the United States, has venues that have attracted Grammy-winning stars like Yo-Yo Ma, as well as Tony Award-winning Broadway musicals like Annie. It houses a collection of performing arts buildings and sculptures designed by internationally renowned artists like Isamu Noguchi and architects like Cesar Pelli, under the vision of Segerstrom himself. The Stanford-educated Segerstrom, born to a family of farmers, helped recruit these artists and designers to help make Costa Mesa arguably the undisputed center for the arts in Orange County.

Segerstrom died Feb. 20 in his Newport Beach home at age 91.

The exhibit captures black-and-white snapshots of Orange County’s agricultural heritage in which Segerstrom grew up, long before the development of gleaming skyscrapers and thriving cultural venues during the post-World War II era. One picture shows South Coast Plaza in development in the 1960s, surrounded by fields and the 405 freeway under construction. Today, South Coast Plaza is surrounded by buildings, also in pictures in the exhibit, in what is a thriving city. Orange County is shown in evolutionary development from the black-and-white pictures of grassy fields of the early 1900s to the colored pictures of a major urban center today.

Quotes on white walls in the exhibit from politicians like Governor Jerry Brown of California to retail executives like Terry J. Lundgren, CEO of Macy’s, to musicians like Placido Domingo, one of the most famous tenors in history, praise Segerstrom’s achievements.

“Henry was one of the most powerful advocates for the arts that Southern California has ever seen,” said Domingo in the exhibit.

If there’s one signature trait of Segerstrom that defined what he did for the Costa Mesa community and Orange County itself, it’s that he only wanted quality, from creating a top-notch shopping destination equal to those in Paris to orchestrating the launch of a performing arts center that can rival any in the world.

“If you’re going to buy land, buy the best,” Segerstrom said. “If you’re going to grow a crop, grow the best. But always be the best.”