Kids’ Art Chosen for Concert Program Cover

It wasn’t a job to be envied.

Intent frowns lingered on the faces of the five judges charged with choosing one of 63 children’s art projects Monday in Woodland Hills. The artwork they sought was to become the face of this season’s concerts at Warner Park; it would be reproduced on every concert program from June until September.

And although the volunteer judges were equipped with a strict numerical grading system to aid their task, a few seemed weighed down by the responsibility.

“I’m taking this very seriously,” said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick, one of the judges, who kept her pen ready on her clipboard as she made her way through the gallery.

“They are all wonderful,” said Wendy Marlett, who was trying to keep in mind which would reproduce well in the concert program’s black and white.

The event was the second annual Concerts in the Park poster contest sponsored by Valley Cultural Center. Fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders from area schools submitted entries, all built around the theme of “Friends, Family and Music.”

The posters featured stick figures shaped like microphones, animated musical instruments, harps, birds and beach blankets. One featured a fluegelhorn, complete with caption to identify it.

But in the end, it was the depiction of two dragons playing saxophones that distinguished the winning artwork, rendered by 9-year-old Adrienne Herbst-Holmes, a fourth-grader at Woodland Hills Elementary School. Adrienne described the dragon theme as one she has been developing over the course of several artworks and said she prefers drawing to music.

Not so for third-place winner Erika Leishman, 9, of the same school. Erika said her inspiration for a concert scene was simple and literal: Her parents take her to the concerts every summer.

“I love going,” she explained.

Adrienne will be awarded a $200 savings bond as a prize. Erika will receive a $50 savings bond, and second-place winner Evelyn Park of Welby Way Magnet School will receive a $100 bond.