Ongoing Events and Programs

Pasadena Chalk Festival – June 15 and 16, 2013!
Like PCF on Facebook

The annual Pasadena Chalk Festival, recipient of the 2010 Guinness World Record as the largest public art event of its kind, celebrated its 20th Anniversary on Father’s Day Weekend at Paseo Colorado. The annual festival is free of charge and attracts tens of thousands of spectators. This year’s event will extend into the front concourse of the Convention Center, will celebrate long-time veteran artists and include a special Friday evening concert launch.

Hundreds of artists come from all across Southern California and beyond to create spectacular chalk murals on concrete surfaces in every style imaginable. In addition to the unique opportunity to watch artists at work, guests will be treated to live music and entertainment throughout the weekend. The art of street painting is centuries old. In fact, it goes back to the 16th century and provided a living for many itinerant artists after World War Two. In more recent times, street painting has been popularized in festivals throughout Europe and North and South America. Produced by Light Bringer Project since 1993, the Pasadena Chalk Festival continues to benefit the community arts programs of the organization, and supports its innovative arts and learning programs in our public schools. For more information go to: www.pasadenachalkfestival.com.

View images from the 2011 Chalk festival HERE
All photo credit goes to Brian Biery

The 36th Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade
Like Doo Dah on Facebook
The Pasadena Doo Dah Parade marked its 36th year on Saturday, April 27th, 2013 stepping off at 11:00am in East Pasadena. Known as the twisted sister of the traditional Rose Parade, Doo Dah began as a grassroots event in 1978 to gain national attention for its eccentric and, often, irreverent satire. The parade, which has spawned numerous off-beat replicants across the country, was named by Readers Digest as America’s Best Parade, and was recently featured in the book 50 Places You Must Visit Before You Die!

Last year, scores of inventive, if zany, mutant art cars and floats accompanied a legion of frolickers past the mom-n-pop shops along East Pasadena’s shady tree-lined streets. Many first-time entries like the League of Steam, Machina Candeo, Conehead Rocket Sled, Hippie Cream, Easy Acres Chicken Sitters, Wisdom Arts Laboratory, Combined Bands of the 35th Dragoon Guards, Balkan Brass Band, and Mile High Bed joined veteran crowd favorites, the immortal Doo Dah house band Snotty Scotty & the Hankies, and many, many more! After-parties are scheduled at many locations along the parade route. To be an entry in the parade or to tryout for queen, please us for more details at (626) 590-1134 or email hurleypanne@yahoo.com. Parade visitors call the Doo Dah Hotline for up to date news (626) 590-7596.

The Doo Dah Retrospective “What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been” is currently at the Pasadena Museum of History until January 2013. For more information, visit pasadenahistory.org

View photos from the 2012 Doo Dah Parade HERE
All photo credit goes to Brian Biery

Expressing Feelings Through Art (Los Angeles County High Schools)
Expressing Feelings Through Art, is an arts and literacy prevention program delivered to public high school students of L.A. County. Begun in 1982, the program is a partnership of Light Bringer Project, a community-based nonprofit, and Mental Health America of Los Angeles, which is dedicated to service and education for mental health recovery and wellness. Expressing Feelings Through Art (EFTA) is highly valued by faculty participants and serves approximately 600 students per year.

In the course of the program, students in 9^th through 12^th grades are challenged to create works of art that tell stories that hold personal meanings for them. Topics run the gamut of subject matter and emotional tone and are often as moving as they are original. The students must also engage in an exercise of writing that sheds light on their visual imagery, provoking a thoughtful articulation of the stories they were artistically driven to tell.

A standards-based syllabus and instructional guidebook is also provided to each teacher. The curriculum, itself, is designed to broaden the students’ understanding of traditional and contemporary artmaking techniques, and to help strengthen their creative voices. For many of the students who find artmaking to be cathartic, this mentored self-exploration is very powerful. At year’s end, a jury of community artists and writers give awards and small scholarships to outstanding students.

The Annual EFTA Exhibition and Awards Receptions have been held throughout Los Angeles, to provide easy access to all the students and families of L.A. County. These locations include: The Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance, Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles City Hall, Pasadena Central Library, Watts Towers Arts Center, Olvera Street Art Gallery, Beverly Hills City Hall, Otis College of Art and Design, TBWA\Chiat\Day Advertising Agency, Polytechnic High School, Hollywood Library, and the Judson Gallery at Judson Studios.

We believe that EFTA has contributed greatly to the students’ self-esteem, and has gone a long way to build their visual and communication skills. Perhaps, equally important, it gives them a positive outlet through which they can tell us what matters to them most.

If you are a high school art teacher in Los Angeles County and would like to enter your students’ work, please contact us to find out how at 626-590-1134 or info@lightbringerproject.com

Exhibition and Awards Ceremony will be held in May, 2013.

Community Advocacy
Light Bringer Project has a policy of volunteering and supporting organizations (arts and non-arts related) and serving various sectors of the community. Many of us sit on boards of directors and sit on committees, supporting with our energies and expertise. Pictured here is Artist-In-Residence at Room13/JohnMuir High School, Mri Scott ElBey, speaking at her Leadership Pasadena graduation ceremony last year.  Tom Coston served as one of the founding board members of LP, and helped steer the organization in its early years. Patricia Hurley then continued Light Bringer’s participation on the board, and as a coordinator for the annual Arts & Culture session. After having completed the year-long leadership training course, Mri joined the Board of Directors. In this way, Light Bringer keeps the arts alive in the minds and hearts of emerging leaders in Pasadena’s professional community.