Work of 400 Youngsters in the Spotlight : Art: The 15th annual Florence Arnold Children’s Art Festival runs through April 8 at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton.

The bar was pouring fruit punch instead of Chardonnay, and a juggling clown replaced the usual string quartet, but to the exhibiting artists, Sunday’s opening reception at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center was truly intoxicating.

The fun launched the 15th annual Florence Arnold Children’s Art Festival, in which more than 400 Fullerton grade-schoolers see their art promoted from the family bulletin board to the stately Muckenthaler gallery. Twenty public and private schools are represented in the show, which continues through April 8.

Sponsored by the museum’s Center Circle support group, the festival is the brainchild of Florence Arnold, 90, an abstract artist and longtime mover and shaker in the Fullerton artistic community. Arnold’s work has been shown locally at the Newport Harbor Art Museum, the Muckenthaler and the Laguna Art Museum, and she has had one-woman shows in galleries in Rome, Florence and Milan.

Arnold said she started the festival in 1976 to help give children an appreciation for the visual arts. “In school . . . (we) must encourage a love of visual art. They don’t have to pursue it as a career, but they should learn how to view it because all their life they will be looking at it in some form.”

The Children’s Art Festival is a non-competitive event open to all Fullerton pupils in kindergarten through eighth grade. There are no blue ribbons, no special prizes. As Arnold sees it, the non-threatening format shows youngsters that “they can be accepted for just being themselves, just doing their best.

“Children shouldn’t start out competing too early in life; there’s plenty of that as they grow older,” she continued. “Every piece here is a winner.”

(There is one exception. Each year, one entry is selected by Arnold and local watercolorist Jane Ingalls to be reproduced on announcements for the following year’s exhibit. This year, the women chose a watercolor by Gabriel Stan, a fourth-grader at Acacia School.)

The theme of this year’s festival, “A Look at the World and What’s Important to You,” prompted some surprisingly mature responses from participants. Through their art, the children supported such concepts as world peace, nationalism and family unity. They spoke out against gangs, drunk drivers, pollution and more.

Brian Hinch, a fifth-grader at the Berkeley School, packed a punch in his drawing. On the left side of the page, the word “gangs” is scrawled on a crumbling brick wall, which looms over a forbidding chasm edged in barbed wire. On the right side, another wall (this one in much better repair), towers above a pristine rolling meadow. Neatly lettered on the wall: “peace.”

Sarah Clark, a fourth-grader at Berkeley, promotes serenity on a global scale. In watercolor, she paints a simple blue and green world bearing the words, “Peace on Me.”

Family seems to take top priority to kindergartners Michelle Burchfiel and Michael Favela of Fern Drive School. Their charming crayon drawings feature a traditional lineup of moms, dads, kids and pets that would have made Ozzie Nelson proud.

Tom Haniszewski and John Mark Geiss demonstrate a little American spirit in their works. First-grader Haniszewski of Fern Drive School pays tribute to “Long Tall (Abe) Lincoln”; Geiss, of Sunset Lane School’s third grade, turned in a proud bald eagle.

Papier-mache sculptures from students at the Nicolas School seem to stray a bit from the show’s theme but drew plenty of smiles from viewers. Fire-breathing beasties took the day here, including a two-headed fellow by seventh-grader Juan Montes. The hot-pink dragon sports a skull-and-crossbones on his wings and spikes; flames spew from his ears and mouth and a set of wicked yellow talons adorn his feet. Eighth-grader Matt Sanders followed suit with a spotted green monster that resembles Puff the Magic Dragon on his worst day.

The 15th annual Florence Arnold Children’s Art Festival continues through April 8 at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center, 1201 W. Malvern Ave., Fullerton. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Admission: free. Information: (714) 738-6595.