Mission

At its inception in 1972, a small group of the Children’s Creative Project (CCP) volunteer artists served 200 children at Franklin Elementary School in Santa Barbara. In 1975 the CCP acquired non-profit status and became a program of the Santa Barbara County Education Office under then-Superintendent William J. Cirone.

Now the CCP reaches more than 50,000 children annually, in 100 Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County Schools.

We are dedicated to the following:

To provide arts experiences for underserved children not normally exposed to the arts
To include the visual and performing arts in a child's basic education
To collaborate with school districts, artists, and arts organizations to develop arts education programs
To expand work opportunities for professional artists in the schools
To provide workshops and performances addressing Calif. State Dept. of Education Visual & Performing Arts Content Standards
To provide arts experiences as a positive alternative to drugs, vandalism and violence
To develop funds to support arts education programs

Team

About Page - Team

Kai Tepper

Executive Director

Kai comes to Children’s Creative Project from the Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation. She received a bachelor’s degree in Art from California State University Channel Islands with an emphasis in Studio Art and Art History where she discovered her love of arts nonprofits. A passionate arts advocate for the last decade, Kai has focused particularly on youth arts initiatives in Santa Barbara County. She is active in many community organizations.

Kate Yamasaki

Administrative Assistant

Kate has been involved with the Children’s Creative Project since 2006 when she began as a parent volunteer with the Arts Network. Kate’s involvement grew in 2015 when she accepted the position of Treasurer for the CCP’s Board of Directors. She officially joined the Children’s Creative Project staff in 2017 as a Program Associate. She was promoted to Administrative Assistant in 2023. She has worked with every aspect of the CCP and brings her enthusiasm for arts education and professional experience as a teacher to the organization.

Meredith Ventura

Program Associate, Resident Artist Workshops

Meredith has been a resident teaching artist for Children’s Creative Project since 2015. Having taught dance and creative movement in more than 20 different preschool and elementary schools throughout Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties as a dance educator for various organizations, she is excited for this new chapter as Program Associate for Children’s Creative Project. Meredith looks forward to helping expand opportunities for professional artists to develop and share their work while providing the opportunity for every child to have access to arts education.

Erin Sawyer

Program Associate, Resident Artist Workshops

Erin is a dedicated Program Associate and arts liaison for CCP. With a lifelong love for the arts, she has been preparing for this role since early childhood. From directing plays with the neighbor kids (The Sheep Parade, featured real sheep) to teaching kindergarten at an arts’ charter school in LA, Erin’s commitment to arts education has been unwavering. She has created arts programs in public and private schools and played a key role in developing an online theatre program for the Laguna Playhouse. Now at CCP, she is excited to use her expertise and enthusiasm to help ignite creativity, curiosity, and joy in individuals throughout the community through transformative arts experiences!

Kelly Mitchell

Program Associate, Resident Artist Workshops

Kelly has been a career art educator as a K-12 credentialed visual arts teacher since 2009. She has taught junior high and high school art for over 11 years, specializing in high school photography courses. As a classroom teacher, Kelly challenged her students to expand their definition of creativity and discover new ways of incorporating creative problem-solving into everyday life. Kelly holds a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from Brooks Institute and Academy of Art University, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art and Visual Culture Education from the University of Arizona. She comes to Children's Creative Project with a passion for equitable art education and is excited to broaden her reach to students county-wide through expanded resident artist programming.

The CCP Team

Recognition

In 1999, the CCP was among 91 nationwide model arts education programs recognized by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in a report, Gaining the Arts Advantage: Lessons from School Districts that Value Arts Education. The report was a study by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and Arts Education Partnership. It is the first national study to examine the success strategies of school districts in building and sustaining strong district-wide arts education programs.

In 1999, the CCP received The Creative Ticket Schools of Excellence award from the California Alliance for Arts Education, a member of the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network.

The CCP & Kathy Koury received the 2015 Leadership in the Arts Award from the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission.

Board of Directors

Featured

Bryan Kerner
CCP President

Director of Development, Engineering and the Sciences, UC Santa Barbara

Genevieve Badone Assili
CCP Vice President

Independent Art & Design Professional

Harriet Whaley
CCP Secretary

Assessment and Accountability Specialist, Santa Barbara Unified School District

Bridget Baublits
CCP Treasurer

Asst. Superintendent Student and Community Services, Santa Barbara County Education Office

Jessica Bixler

Retired elementary school teacher

Adrienne De Guevara

Programs and Fund Development Officer, Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative

Kevin McGarry

Associate Director of Public Engagement, Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation

Seth Miller
Director of Disability Services

Westmont College

Frankie Paolino

Founder + Lead Designer, Paolino Design Collective

Anna Pilhoefer

Director of Equity and Multilingual Learner Services, Santa Barbara Unified School District

Diana Rigby

Superintendent, Carpinteria Unified School District

Strategic Plan 2019-2022

Behind every successful organization is a strategic plan that accurately reflects its vision, mission and values; effectively appropriates its human, physical and financial resources; and undergirds its direction, its hopes and its dreams.
Take a look at the Children’s Creative Project Strategic Plan here.