Arts Center to Host Children’s Festival

More than 16,000 fifth-graders from 200 Southern California elementary schools will gather at the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County today through Friday to attend the 30th annual Dorothy B. Chandler Children’s Festival.

All the children will see a free performance by the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company at the Ahmanson Theatre. The performances are at 9:45 and 11:15 a.m. daily.

For many of the youngsters, it will be their first live performing arts experience.

After the performances, the children will take the stage outside in the center plaza to perform a Latin-influenced dance set to the music of Astor Piazzola. The children’s dance times are at 10:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. daily.

The center is at Grand Avenue between Temple and 1st streets in downtown Los Angeles.

The festival was created in 1970 in association with the center’s education division. One of California’s longest free arts education programs, the festival has hosted about 750,000 children since its inception.

The festival is presented each year through the support of the Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation and members of the Blue Ribbon, a volunteer membership organization of the center.

Founded in 1968 by Dorothy Buffum Chandler, the Blue Ribbon comprises more than 625 women who support the performing arts and annually contribute more than $2.5 million to the center. Chandler, who died in 1997, was the wife of the late Los Angeles Times Publisher Norman Chandler and the mother of former Times Publisher and Times Mirror Corp. Chairman Otis Chandler and Camilla Chandler Frost, who is active on several cultural, educational and corporate boards.