On Tuesday July 5, Mayor Steve Mensinger presented Michael Howard, the founder and executive director of Operation Clean Slate, with the Mayor’s Award to recognize the work his nonprofit has done to deter youths from vandalizing property with graffiti by having them paint murals instead.

“For your years of service to this community, your extraordinary leadership, and your passion for working with youth and providing them with a positive outlet for their creativity, it is my honor and privilege to present you with the Mayor’s Award,” Mensinger said.

Based in Costa Mesa, Operation Clean Slate has partnered with over 25,000 volunteers and produced over 1,000 murals at more than 800 schools throughout Southern California and in six other countries.

Howard started the nonprofit back in 1993 as a solution to graffiti and vandalism while teaching at juvenile hall.

In Costa Mesa, Operation Clean Slate has painted more than 45 murals on 16 different school campuses, including Rea Elementary which now has five, They have also painted murals around town at Bark Park, Mesa Water District, Doria’s Haus of Pizza and New Directions for Women.

“It’s an honor and I’m really excited that the arts are being acknowledged,” Howard said upon receiving the award. “It’s great to have the community recognize what we are doing and we are going to keep doing it.”

The City of Costa Mesa plans to roll out a brand new alliance between action sports enthusiasts and artists at the upcoming Action Arts in the Park event at TeWinkle Park on Saturday May 14.

The City’s Cultural Arts Committee came up with the idea of fusing the city’s thriving arts community with the equally thriving action sports industry.

“We are excited to transform the traditional Arts in the Park event into something newer and fresher,” said Tracy Taber, a Cultural Arts Committee member. “We want it to be exciting, interactive and full of energy. That’s why we chose TeWinkle Park and the Costa Mesa Skate Park as the backdrop of the event.  We hope that families enjoy a day in the park while appreciating plenty of arts, culture, entertainment and skating.”

Element Skate Brand has signed on as the title sponsor of this unique event and other supporters include the Segerstrom Center for the Arts and Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers.

The free event that runs from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. will include live music from local bands and a DJ.

There will be skateboarding demonstrations, artist exhibits, a rock wall and a mechanical surfboard and interactive art stations.

Families can also visit a kids zone and there will be food trucks offering up a wide variety of cuisines.

The event will also include demonstrations by Costa Mesa-based Operation Clean Slate, which discourages youth from graffiti vandalism and instead involves young people with hands-on activities to channel their talents and improve their community through aerosol art inspired murals.

“Costa Mesa really is a melting pot for all types of art and culture,” said Justin Martin, the city’s Recreation Manager.  “There is something for everyone here and that is what makes the scene here so unique.  The goal of the Action Arts in the Park is to build on the uniqueness that is Costa Mesa art and really highlight why we are the City of the Arts in a whole new way.”

Estancia High School’s award winning drama department ends the 2015-2016 season with the presentation of Urinetown, a hilarious tale of greed, corruption, love and revolution in which water is worth its weight in gold.  The Tony award winning musical sheds a satirical light on the drought, extreme political agendas, and musical theatre itself.

Urinetown premiered on Broadway in 2001 with Estancia alumna Spencer Kayden as Little Sally, the loveable pig-tailed girl who helps explain the plot.  Kayden is also known for her membership in the recurring cast of comedians on the sketch comedy series MADtv and also played the role of Mrs. Pepper in the popular Nickelodeon kids series Blue’s Clues.

Performances will be held April 28 – 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Costa Mesa High Performing Arts Center, 2650 Fairview Road.  Tickets are $10 for students and $15 for general admission and are currently available for presale. Tickets will also be made available at the door.

For ticket information call Pauline Maranian at (949) 515-6537 or the ASB office at (949) 515-6506.

On Tuesday, March 22 a total of 284 students from four various neighboring schools graced the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall with a common love of musical theater bringing them all to one stage.

The Segerstrom Center for the Arts presented Disney Musicals in Schools “Student Share Celebration” that featured students grades 3-6 all whom performed from selected musical numbers before a crowd of enthusiastic friends, family and teachers.

For 17 weeks’ students, teachers and professional teaching artists worked collaboratively during after school sessions, learning, rehearsing and performing scenes, songs and dance numbers from some of Disney’s beloved musicals.

The objective being to create a continual theater program in the participating schools.

The culmination of all their efforts resulted in presenting and performing a live 30-minute Disney KIDS Musical performance on each individual campus. Following their respective performances, the student’s grand finale was a performance at Segerstrom Center for the Arts as part of the Disney Musicals in “Schools Student Share Celebration.”

This provided an extraordinary opportunity for them to showcase all their great efforts and perform a signature song from their musical in front of students, family members, faculty and associates from Disney.

Disney Musicals in Schools is designed to create sustainable musical theater programs in public elementary schools. School teams are provided with the training and tools necessary to support student productions and empower them to continue this theater tradition in their school for years to come.

The Costa Mesa Senior Transportation Program’s bus has recently undergone a makeover.  What was once a simple, traditional, white passenger bus is now a colorful piece of art that transports seniors to and from the Senior Center and to personal appointments throughout the City.

The bus has been coined as the “Costa Motion” and now bears the slogan of “Keepin’ Seniors Moving.”

The artistic design, which was created by City staff, incorporates an area for both City program advertising and Conference and Visitors Bureau advertising.

This is just another unique way to promote Costa Mesa as “the City of the Arts.”

As part of its 2015-2016 Family Series, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts is presenting a series of sensory-friendly performances with the hope that everyone in the community will have the opportunity to experience the joy of attending a live performance.

Showing in the month of March are “Big Bad Wolf” and “Egg,” both performances specially designed for sensory sensitivity.

These shows are designed specifically for patrons on the autism spectrum, and others with sensory sensitivity, to enjoy with their families; this is the perfect opportunity to introduce young children to live theater.

Sensory-friendly precautions are taken to help patrons enjoy their theater experience:

In advance of each performance, families will receive a social story—a visual introduction for the child of everything he or she will encounter so nothing is a surprise. From a picture of the parking areas to ticket takers and the inside of the theater, everything will look familiar when they arrive.

They will also receive information about the show itself so they know what to expect from the performance.

Various components are highly considered and alterations are made in areas such as: lighting, sound, seat configuration, staff training and being relaxed when it comes to movement and speaking during a performance.

For more information about the Center’s sensory-friendly performances, visit their website at www.SCFTA.org/sensoryfriendly, or email Access@SCFTA.org.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts is preparing for its annual Six Days of Broadway summer musical theater camp for middle and senior high school students. Students participating in these week-long intensives are introduced to musical theater technique taught by some of the industry’s leading professional artists and instructors.

Classes will cover topics including musical theater performance, acting, dance, audition technique, acting on camera and introduction to the business of acting.  Sessions for students ages 11 – 13 will be held June 27 – July 2 and students ages 14 –19 will be held July 5 –10.

Enrollment is currently open and scholarships are available for both weeks of camp. These scholarships cover the full enrollment fee and are made available for families that require financial assistance.

(photo courtesy: Segerstrom Center for the Arts)

Tony Award nominee and Broadway/film star Erin Dilly returns to lead the program along with Broadway veterans Stephen Buntrock, Danny Gurwin, Hank Stratton, Emily Rozek and other notable guest instructors.

The program culminates with the talented cast of students showcasing their week’s efforts to invited family and friends. Classes will take place in the professional rehearsal and performance spaces of the Center’s education center located in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

For more information and to register, please visit www.SCFTA.org/SixDays, call (714) 556-2122 ext. 4333 or email classes@SCFTA.org.

The Witches, adapted by David Wood from Roald Dahl’s popular fantasy novel, and directed by Mercy Vasquez, will be presented by South Coast Repertory’s Junior Players in the Nicholas Studio, March 12-20, 2016.

The cast are members of SCR’s Junior Players (grades 6-8), chosen through audition after at least two years in the Theatre Conservatory.  These young actors attend class twice weekly during the school year, with additional rehearsal time prior to their annual performance.

The Junior Players portray all the roles in Wood’s stage version, and include Costa Mesa residents Sasa Klein and Caitlyn Roum in featured roles.

SCR’s Junior Players (grades 5-8), Teen Players (grades 9-12) and Summer Players (grades 4-12) present three productions annually in the Nicholas Studio and Julianne Argyros Stage. Players are chosen through audition from students in SCR Theatre Conservatory’s Kids and Teen Acting Classes.

Council Member Sandra Genis and members of the city staff attended the opening of the 35th Annual USVA Tet Festival this past weekend at the OC Fair and Event Center.

Costa Mesa was once again home the world’s largest Tet Festival, attracting over 60,000 guests to the three-day event.

Featuring culturally enriching attractions, live entertainment, festive games and rides, a variety of ethnic foods, and a spectacular firecrackers show, the festival celebrated the Lunar New Year and the “Year of the Monkey.”

UVSA is a 501(c)3 non-profit, non-partisan, community-based organization founded in 1982 to bring together Vietnamese American youth including students from different colleges and high schools throughout Southern California.

The festival serves as a vehicle to help develop student volunteers in the community to become well-rounded leaders with a strong sense of cultural awareness and civic responsibility to improve their communities.

Over the past 15 years, UVSA’s members have awarded over $1.25 million of festival proceeds as community grants to non-profit organizations across Southern California.

The opening reception of ARTventure, the Cultural Arts Committee’s new signature event, took place on Friday evening Nov. 13 at the Cisco Home showroom in the SoCo Collection.

The evening included an exhibition of nearly 150 pieces of art that were displayed on and around unique furnishings, fixtures and home design elements.

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Prizes were awarded to the artists by judge Kirby Piazza, in front of the more than 650 event attendees. The second day drew in a crowd of nearly 400 art lovers and included two live culinary demonstrations by Bistro Papillote and St. Patisserie, four musical performances including a flamenco guitarist, a jazz duo, a youth string quartet and a duo of dueling guitarists. An edgy graffiti artist demonstration ended the day.

The final day of the event was geared towards youth and familiesand included a saxophone soloist performance, four dance performances by Halo Dance for Autism Foundation, a techy robotics demo provided by Strategic Kids, a performance by the All American Boys Chorus and an afternoon with the author segment that featured child author Ryan Rector. About 300 people visited the event on this final day.

The City’s Cultural Arts Committee and Parks and Community Services Department have set the stage for a unique, three-day arts event that will feature more than 100 pieces of art submitted by local community members.

The artwork will be displayed alongside one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture and vibrant home décor inside of the Cisco Home Showroom located in the SoCo Collection design center.

“This inaugural ARTventure event is primed to become an annual signature event that highlights and signifies why Costa Mesa is known as the City of the Arts,” said Justin Martin, the city’s supervisor of Parks and Community Services, which is overseeing the event.

The new ARTventure event, founded by the city’s Cultural Arts Committee, is free to the public and will run Friday, Nov. 13 through Sunday, Nov. 15.
This one-of-a-kind juried exhibition of art will showcase the work of local artists in a non-traditional gallery style format that pairs individual artwork with furniture, fixtures, home décor and unique design elements.

Accepted submissions include a variety of media, including oil, watercolor and acrylic paintings, graphite drawings, metal sculpture, fashion, photography, fiber art, mixed media as well as literary art.

To enhance the atmosphere of the event there will be live entertainment featuring strolling vocal and instrumental musicians, dance performances, and literary and culinary demonstrations. Youth performances and youth art coming from K-12 Costa Mesa schools will also be part of the event.

Friday’s event begins at 5:45 p.m. with a welcome from city leaders and members of the Cultural Arts Committee. Awards covering several categories will be presented to selected winning artists. Food and beverage will be part of the festivities as well as entertainment by the Irvine Jazz Trio.

Saturday and Sunday’s event will both begin at 11 a.m. and run until 5 p.m. Saturday’s event will feature displayed artwork as well as culinary demonstrations by Bistro Papillote and ST Patisserie, and a special musical performance by Ruben Gonzalez of Pasion Gitano, provided in thanks to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Sunday is family day and will feature displayed art, demonstrations from the Strategic Kids Lego Engineering and Robotics Team from Davis Elementary School, an interactive animation station with special guest animator Lynn Okimura, a performance by the All-American Boys Chorus and an afternoon reading and discussion with 10-year-old child author Ryan Rector.

Ryan Rector

All submitted entries will be screened, juried and displayed at the Cisco Home venue. The art will then be judged by Kirby Piazza, Costa Mesa High School’s ACE Academy Visual and Performing Arts chair.

In addition to Cisco Home, the SoCo Collection design center and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts are sponsors of the event.

The SoCo Collection center is located at 3303 Hyland Ave, Costa Mesa.