Celebrations for Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary are well underway this week, with festivities happening around the globe (so to speak). So when Parentology visited the Festival of Arts’ Family Day in Laguna Beach, California for the unveiling of the Junior Art Exhibit in the Fine Arts Shows, we couldn’t help but be transported back 50 years hence.
At the time, schoolchildren in the US were buzzing with excitement and preparing for Apollo 11’s landing on the moon. Kindergartners like Lee Tauber (see the featured artwork that opened this article) were constructing their version of the spaceship out of toilet paper tubes and pipe cleaners.
A time even before Neil Armstrong uttered, “This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Did kids back in 1947 see themselves flying a literal ship to the stars?
Or a vessel powered by butterflies, flowers and hearts?
What we do know for sure? Reaching for the stars continues today, even after that first foray to the moon.
Space, like the imaginations of children is, after all, limitless. And aren’t we all the luckier for it?
Catch the Junior Art Exhibit at Laguna Beach’s Festival of the Arts. Waiting in the Junior Art Gallery are over 300 works of art, chosen from thousands of submissions. Creativity put forth from Orange County, California’s new generation of artists and “a vivid testimonial to the value and importance of continuing arts education in our school systems.”
As for tonight, we’re tuning into CBS to watch the prime-time special Man on the Moon at 10/9c and raising our toilet paper rolls adorned with pipe cleaners towards the galaxy.
To learn more about the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach visit www.foapom.com.