Celebrate ! ! ! Shoreline Village and The Historic Long Beach Pike
BRICKERSVILLE
Brickersville is a youth-serving community of LEGO® enthusiasts and makers that finds its home in Shoreline Village, Long Beach, California. Brickersville provides activities, planning and support for events, as well as classes, summer activities and open design time for visitors to Long Beach and local students.
Brickersville’s leadership is a team of four committed enthusiasts: The Honorable First Mayor of Brickersville – is Jesse Miller, a LEGO Serious Play facilitator; Director of Bricking is NZ Fawkes (aged 10) and his mother, Mirium Purewal; Squigglemom, Trish Tsoiasue, community outreach and a facilitator trained in LEGO Serious Play and Creative Problem Solving.
Brickersville is working to publish a comic book about Shoreline Village and the historic Long Beach Pike and is seeking to create content that might be included in the comic book. Brickersville is teaming with Atomic Basement Comics, a Long Beach comic book store, artists’ community and publishing company (run by Mike Wellman and Anthony Davies) to create a new art contest: Celebrate! ! !
To do this, we are working to lower barriers to creativity by developing a community-created and accessible collection of artwork that can be used by writers in their stories, stories that can be used by artists in comics and illustrated works, and artwork that can be re-mixed and included in other artwork.
Contest entrants may opt-in to be included in the collection.
We start with Long Beach, California in Summer, 2020.
SPONSOR DOCUMENT
CELEBRATE! ! ! LONG BEACH
This global art contest is an open call for art focused on a specific place and time.
This first contest will focus on picturesque Shoreline Village and the historic Long Beach Pike’s role in amusement park history. There will be many different art forms and many different media. My current medium is the LEGO brick, and we seek to engage all LEGO enthusiasts. Entries may be mailed in and in-person, and there are special awards for LEGO creations in every category.
We are hosting training in LEGO Serious Play and Creative Problem Solving and providing special opportunities for trained facilitators to connect with groups to practice their skills.
We are also hosting community-delivered art training in a variety of styles and media, including the LEGO brick medium.
The intent of the contest is to engage with those who have visited, know of or care to learn of the historic Long Beach Pike (between 1902 and 1955) and picturesque Shoreline Village (any years) as they prepare their art entry.
THE HISTORIC LONG BEACH PIKE
From the late 1880s until 1954, the Long Beach Pike was the major weekend and holiday destination for Los Angelenos (those who live in Los Angeles, CA). At its peak, there were over 200 entertainment attractions at the Pike.
Amusement parks as they exist today did not exist then. In the USA there were just five amusement zones. One of those was in Long Beach. Rides were being invented and built. As I understand it, it was not an organized amusement zone. Different people and groups set up their entertainment activity. Folks got together and invented rides, then set them up and operated them.
Here are a just a handful of the rides: Bisby’s Spiral Airship (one of the first suspended roller coasters); the Cyclone Racer (a 17-hill wooden racing roller coaster); the Sky Ride (a double ferris wheel); the Bamboo Slide. Plus, the circus came to town regularly. So, you see, there is much to depict.
After Disneyland opened in 1955, traffic to the Pike was significantly reduced and it eventually closed in 1979. That Pike exists only in photographs, written words and memories. If you are in Long Beach, you can check out the redeveloped Long Beach Pike’s tributes to its historic past.
SHORELINE VILLAGE
For those who prefer to have something they can look at to draw, paint and model, there is Shoreline Village.
Shoreline Village is a picturesque shopping, dining and entertainment zone in Long Beach. It opened in 1982 and was built on landfill as part of a major expansion project by the City of Long Beach. It brags some very interesting shops and restaurants. There are stores dedicated to chocolate, ice cream, socks, beef jerky, hot sauce, Turkish rugs, Italian made clothes. There are restaurants, amongst them an Irish pub, a seafood restaurant and steak house, a Cajun restaurant. There are small boats, large boats, docks, piers and birds. There is also an arcade with games, where you can win prizes.
THERE IS BRICKERSVILLE.
THE LONG BEACH PIKE JOLLYBALL MACHINE
Additionally, there is one very special category, which is called “The Long Beach Pike Jollyball Machine”.
The Long Beach Pike Jollyball Machine is a LEGO Great Ball Contraption (GBC). For this category, individuals that have GBC modules, models, or artwork of the historic Pike or Shoreline Village will be teamed up so that they can create a GBC circuit, supporting visuals and team story of how the visitors (the LEGO balls) are participating in rides and visiting the various entertainment at Shoreline Village and the historic Long Beach Pike. We plan on creating multi-national teams that the event, so there will be opportunity for new collaboration and to create new connections.
This machine contest started, as do many LEGO projects, for a LEGO Fan Convention, Bricks LA. The goal of preparing for exhibition or competition provides great motivation for getting a project done. First with a concept for bringing GBC modules together in what was called “The GBC Flash Mob”. Joshua Gay from Seattle brought an entire circuit in lovely grey (all the same color). This year, Robinne Ponty, mechanical engineer, GBC fan and member of the Long Beach LEGO User Group (LBLUG, whose Ambassador is Jenny Tate), helped to make a circuit of our modules. It was the first Long Beach Pike Jollyball Machine! Joshua stopped by with a friend to say “I’ll be back” with more modules in 2021!
In January, we’ll head back to BRICKS LA 2021, run by Ayleen Dority, for our next GBC gathering!
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Those wishing to find out more about the contest should read the guidelines, visit the Brickersville website (https://www.brickersville.com), join the Brickersville facebook page, email list or email brickersville@gmail.com to keep updated with competition details.
If you’re visiting Long Beach, be sure to drop in at Brickersville, 419 Q Shoreline Village Drive and at the Atomic Basement Comics and Creator’s Lab, 400 E. 3rd Street.
Media wishing to interview our team, or who would like to have our media package, please contact us!
SUPPORT AND VOLUNTEER:
Sponsors wishing to support this project, should please join our Patreon group!
We are seeking individuals who may help to create the Zeroth catalog: The catalog of works that is provided to early contest entrants (of this first-time contest) who might be working remotely and need some additional information or inspiration. Artists, creators, civic leaders who may wish to assist with this task are please asked to connect with us. If you have historic family photos that may be added to the Zeroth catalog these would be most appreciated!
Volunteers will be needed to help with planning and execution of the event, outreach and cataloging of the entries.
Artists and creatives/creators interested in delivering classes and lectures around the Shoreline Village and the historic Long Beach Pike please contact Trish Tsoiasue at brickersville@gmail.com.
Businesses and civic locations that exhibit photographs of the historic Long Beach Pike that might be inspiration to artists are encouraged to contact Brickersville@gmail.com to be added to our Inspiration page.