LET IT SHINE : Young Artists Can Strut Their Creative Stuff at the Imagination Celebration

There’s nothing like a well-placed “attaboy” to keep you going when the going gets rough. And considering the financial constraints most arts organizations and school arts programs are facing, this year’s Imagination Celebration of Orange County is a timely andmuch-needed pat on the back for young artists.

Running Saturday through May 7 at locations countywide, the event is designed to foster appreciation and interest in the arts among the public, particularly children, while allowing thousands of young artists to strut their creative stuff at dozens of performances and exhibits. All public Imagination Celebration events are offered free or at low cost (top ticket price is $6, up $2 from last year). This year’s 10th-anniversary event is presented by the Orange County Performing Arts Center and the Orange County Department of Education.

Orange County’s Imagination Celebration, which involves more than 50 local arts and education organizations, is an offshoot of the first such event held in Washington, D.C., by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and one of several held in major metropolitan areas each year across the country. Organizers estimate that more than 1.1 million have attended the Orange County festival since its debut in 1986.

Subtitled “Let It Shine,” this year’s Imagination Celebration is a vital forum for young artists, from the kindergartner displaying scratch art in a mall exhibit to the teen-ager singing light opera on the stage of Segerstrom Hall at the high school choral festival, said Troy Botello, coordinator of education programs at the Performing Arts Center.

“Student artists need support now more than ever,” Botello said. “With all the budget cuts that are going on in schools, it’s easy for them to think, ‘Oh, there’s no sense in continuing with this, because the only thing there’s money for in school is athletics.’ ”

There are approximately 50 arts and education groups participating in this year’s Imagination Celebration, including some that would have held public events at this time of year anyway. By grouping them under a common umbrella, the events attract more attention and, organizers hope, will draw larger audiences.

Phyllis Berenbeim, coordinator of visual and performing arts for the Orange County Department of Education, says the department is committed to the festival even though the dollars it takes to back up that commitment are in shorter supply this year.

The county’s fiscal crisis has made the department unable to cover some consultant fees and other organizational costs it has paid for in the past, Berenbeim said, making it necessary for nonprofit organizations and individuals to fill the gap. For example, the Very Special Arts Festival on April 22, a day of performances and exhibits at MainPlace mall that showcases the talents of disabled children and adults, was paid for in part by local chapters of the Very Special Arts organization and the Council for Exceptional Children.

Preschoolers through high school seniors from 150 schools countywide have submitted some 6,000 pieces of visual art for display at Imagination Celebration events, including the Young Masters art show in Irvine (Saturday through May 4) and the 1,000 Pieces of Art exhibit at Costa Mesa’s Crystal Court (Saturday through May 7).

More than 1,200 high school students will compete May 5 in the ninth annual High School Choral Festival at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, and hundreds more high school and college musicians will perform at the West Coast Invitational Band Festival at the center on May 6.

Budding storytellers in elementary and middle school will join forces with professional storytellers in the first ImagUtelling Festival at Knott’s Berry Farm on April 29. Sagrario Gil, a Santa Ana teen-ager, will see her original story come to life April 28, when Opera Pacific premieres “Un Camino de Fe,” a bilingual family opera based on Gil’s story of an immigrant family struggling to adjust to life in the United States.

Every child can be an artist at one of the celebration’s most popular events, the Imaginarium, May 6 and 7. Offering 40 hands-on workshops as well as continuous entertainment on six stages, this year’s Imaginarium will be moved out of the center’s back lot to a parking lot four times that size.

Planners are also trying out a new concept, organizing workshops, demonstrations and some performances around a common theme of puppetry. Southland puppetry groups will perform on a special puppet stage. Regional companies such as Ballet Pacifica and South Coast Repertory’s Young Conservatory Players will offer free performances both days.

Two internationally recognized groups will headline Imagination Celebration events at the center. The Montreal-based Le Theatre Sans Fil presents its fully staged adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” with puppets, lasers, fireworks and other special effects, on May 3. And on May 7, the festival concludes with two shows by the French Canadian circus troupe Cirque Eloize.

For recorded information, call the Imagination Celebration hot line: (714) 556-2787, Ext. 888.