The New and Improved DROP IN & DRAW!

Our free weekly program, Drop In & Draw, will be hosting its last two concurrent weeks this Saturday, June 23 from 10 AM to noon, and again on Saturday, June 30 from 10 AM to noon. After that it will be held on the third Saturday of every month from 10 AM to noon beginning with Saturday, July 21 through the end of the year. It will remain free and open to the public, but tickets are required and available at Eventbrite.  

The Chuck Jones Center for Creativity presents a free program, Drop In & Draw! Held every third Saturday of the month from 10 AM to noon at the Center in South Coast Collection (SoCo). Each month a cartoon character from the fertile imagination of our namesake, Chuck Jones, one of the father's of Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner, will be our theme. Good for ages 5 and up, with four activity stations that feature coloring sheets for the little ones, model sheets on light tables, step-by-step instruction on how to draw the character, and a construction project. July will feature Bugs Bunny, followed by (in order): Daffy Duck (August), Marvin Martian (September), White Seal (October), Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner (November), and the Grinch (December). One of our teaching artists will be on hand at each Drop In & Draw along with our knowledgeable and creative volunteers.

Presence: An Invitation to Be Your Creative and Authentic Self

Words Alive, a leading literacy organization, provides integrative literary programming within 16 classrooms in Momentum Learning (formerly Juvenile Court & Community Schools), which includes a book club, writing program and annual arts project. Through this comprehensive programming, students experience attitudinal shifts toward reading, their education and futures, in addition to building upon their vocabulary, critical thinking, literary analysis and soft-skills.Each year through the Teen Services art program, our students have an opportunity to look at literacy through a different lens and find meaningful relationships to books and the world. As part of the arts program, students have an opportunity to make intrinsic connections to written text through a form of art they create.

This year, students will design their own stop animation film through a partnership with the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity. With this project, we focused on the theme "presence," and students read and discussed several prolific texts, including Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates), The Crossover (Kwame Alexander) and Letters to a Young Artist (Anna Deavere-Smith) with groups of trained volunteers in the classroom.

Students wrote a letter about themselves to a person or place of their choice. The letter served as a basis for the subsequent art project: the animated films. As a culmination of text, book discussion and art, students will have an opportunity to showcase their animated films at an event, open to the public, from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 6 at the Chuck Jones Gallery (232 Fifth Ave, San Diego, CA 92101) with an online gallery available on the Words Alive website to follow: www.wordsalive.org.

To learn more about the reception at the Chuck Jones Gallery and to RSVP, click here.

Words Alive and Chuck Jones Center Collaborate on "Presence" Project

Chuck Jones Center for Creativity has collaborated with the San Diego-based non-profit, Words Alive, to bring an art component to their most recent project. Words Alive works with under-served youth in the schools of San Diego County instilliing in them a love of reading that will last a lifetime. This year, the project is "Presence, an Invitation to Be Your Creative and Authentic Self" and the students will be reading Ta-Nehisi Coates "Between the World and Me" and illlustrating their concept of the project through stop-motion animation. Which is where the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity comes in. 

Craig Kausen, grandson of Chuck Jones and Board Chairman of the Center along with Denise Dion-Scoyni, Lead Teaching Artist, and Naylene Justis, a teaching artist at the Center met with the volunteer staff of Words Alive a couple of weeks ago and shared with them the ways and means of producing a short stop-motion animated film. The Words Alive volunteers will then take their new found knowledge and share it with the students participating in the program. 

Art produced in the creation of these short, animated films, will be displayed at the Chuck Jones Gallery for a reception honoring the students and their work in early June of this year. Watch this space for details. 

A Conversation Among Disney Imagineers--A New "Chuck Talk" at the Center

UCLA Alumni in partnership with Chuck Jones Center for Creativity present a new "Chuck Talk" with Disney Legend, Marty Sklar. 

There is a creative powerhouse behind the magic at The Walt Disney Company.They are artists, scientists, and engineers that push the boundaries of creativity, that harnesses the power of the imagination and craft it into a world for all to enjoy.They are the Disney Imagineers

"Disney Legend" Marty Sklar, (UCLA '56) introduces us to the team that turns dreams into reality at the "Happiest Place on Earth" and beyond. Learn what it takes to become an Imagineer and how UCLA plays a role in that journey.

Join us for a presentation on Sklar's new book, "One Little Spark! Mickey's Ten Commandments and the Road to Imagineering" followed by a question and answer session and book signing. Books will be sold on site by Barnes and Noble.

Monday, March 7 

7 to 9 PM, Check-in begins at 6:30 PM

Tickets $10 per and available by clicking here. 

Light refreshments served.

Children 10 years old and above admitted. 

Seating is limited, RSVP and ticket purchase a must.

Chuck Jones Center for Creativity

3321 Hyland Avenue, Suite A

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

949-660-7793 x 107

Red Dot Auction--the Photos!

A sneak peek at a few of the photos coming in from the night of the 4th Annual Red Dot Auction. More to follow and will be posted in the photo gallery on the website. Special thanks to Stephen Russo for his photographs of our events.

Totally Awesome Art Classes in Orange County Finalist!

The Chuck Jones Center for Creativity's art classes are finalists in the Red Tricycle Totally Awesome Awards contest! Red Tricycle is a digital guide for children's activities sent to parents around the country. We need your votes! Winners will receive all sorts of promotional benefits to help get the word out that "creativity is alive and well at the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity in Costa Mesa!"  Please follow this link to vote for the Center! 

With your help, the Center will win free listings for a year on Red Tricycle, a published Q & A in an upcoming monthly post, greater exposure through their blogger network, and one free "Hot Listing" in an upcoming issue of Red Tricycle!. Please vote for us here. Thank you for your continued support!

Infused with Enthusiasm

One of the attendees at the Center's recent fall fundraiser, Creativity Season, Laura Tanimoto, along with her mother, Lisa, sent the Center's Council president, Tracy Tanner, a wonderful thank-you note that they've graciously allowed us to share with all of you. Laura is a film studies student here in Orange County and supports the Center's efforts to reinvigorate the creative spirit in all of us. The card reads:Dear Tracy Tanner,

I want to thank you so much for inviting me and my mother to such a wonderful event. I was 1000% fulfilled by all of the artwork and people I met there. especially as a film major in college I thought it was very helpful to meet so many people that appreciate film, animation, and art. I was really infused with enthusiasm.

I also want to say congratulations on bringing the state of California to recognize all of the phenomenal things the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity does for the world. Art is so important and I would never wnt it to be forgotten in legislations. This was such a great thing to do and my mother and I were so proud when you were recognized!

Thank you once again Tracy for an exciting evening and for the gift of inspiration, enthusiasm, and passion that was left on our hearts! Sincerely Laura Tanimoto

And a quick note from Laura's mother: 

Dear Tracy, 

Laura wrote everything I wanted to say. Thank you so much!! Lisa Tanimoto