Full disclosure: I’m the rookie member of the Orange Public Library Board of Trustees and a longtime resident of Orange.
But I’d love this exhibit anyway. Like many, I had Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones as my Saturday morning cartoon babysitter for, oh, five or 10 of my earliest, formative years (which explains a lot, come to think of it).
Turns out, here was a TV guy who loved books, too. And the newly reopened, tripled-in-size Orange Public Library & History Center has the proof.
Jones, winner of four Academy Awards for sketching and painting the likes of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Road Runner, created the “Read to Succeed” offerings nearly 20 years ago to promote youth literacy.
Orange already has a Chuck Jones gallery on West Chapman Avenue in Old Towne. Now, the late animator’s nonprofit arm, the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, is showing these works here, during regular library hours through mid-September.
The free exhibition includes 19-year-old posters and hand-painted animation cels.
The display is part of the 45,000-square-foot library’s contribution to the city’s “Year of the Library” festivities in 2007. In the past several years, Chapman University, Santiago Canyon College and now the city of Orange itself have opened new or vastly expanded libraries.
The exhibit’s downside: It’s small, covering only part of one wall. It stands to leave you wanting more.
For more information: www.ChuckJonesCenter.org, (714) 516-9540 or www.CityofOrange.org/Library, (714) 288-2471.
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Paul Hughes
