Every month, the Arts Council funds wonderful community art projects at up to $1,000. Here are the seven diverse projects that received funding last month:
• The Monarch Celebration Mural at Hughes Middle School is part of the school’s Campus Monarch Conservation project created by 8th grade student Malik Karteron after seeing the thriving Monarch butterfly population housed in the school garden. The mural will be executed by Squeeze Art Collective and artists will hold weekly question-and-answer sessions with art students at the school.
• Greek Pottery with a Modern Day Twist is a pottery class taught by ICES Education. The program serves students from five Long Beach Unified School District Middle Schools. The workshops focus on the Classical Period with a focus on Ancient Greek pottery. Students will create their own pottery and work together to curate an exhibition of the work created during the week-long program.
• Arts Alive is a weekly dance course taught at Holy Innocents School. The six-month training program provides fundamental arts education and performance opportunities for youth in music, dance and the performing arts, in school and after school.
• Act out Theatre Company is a community theatre group in North Long Beach that provides training and experience in acting, backstage work, set construction, lighting design, audio, costume design, make-up, graphic design and photography to at-risk school-age children and their families.
• Para el Proyecto Pastorela Navidena is an ensemble theatre group made up of day laborers who perform plays for the day labor and Latino immigrant community. Workshops took place in October and public performances will commence the week of December 16–19, 2015.
• The Gingerbread Village Display showcases over 20 houses and is currently on view at MADE in Long Beach through January 2, 2016. The Gingerbread Village was built by master builder Isaac Salgado who also runs the Build-Your-Own Gingerbread House at the Winter in Wilmore annual event.
• Winter in Wilmore is an annual event that takes place at the Wilmore City/Drake Park Historic District. The event includes a 50 foot tree of lights, food, music, artists and vendors, children’s activities like the Build-Your-Own Gingerbread House workshop, snow and photos with Santa Claus.
For more information on the Arts Council’s microgrant program and other grants, please visit www.artslb.org/services/grants.