As part of its “Bringing the Zoo to You” initiative, offering educational and entertaining activities and content from the Los Angeles Zoo into animal-lovers' homes during the COVID-19 crisis, the L.A. Zoo announced today a partnership with L.A. based artist Brian Kesinger, a 20-year veteran of Walt Disney Feature Animation and a Supervising Director for Disney Television Animation.
Going virtual for 2020, L.A. Zoo kicks off its "Wild for the Planet" event with a series of Facebook Live draw-alongs taking place on the L.A. Zoo Facebook page for four consecutive Saturdays, starting Saturday, April 18th. "Wild for the Planet" is an annual springtime celebration from Earth Day (April 22) to Endangered Species Day (May 15.)
Over the course of four weeks, Brian Kesinger will draw four endangered animals that the L.A. Zoo has helped bring back from the brink of extinction:
Week 1 (April 18): California Condor
Week 2 (April 25): Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog
Week 3 (May 2): Peninsular Pronghorn
Week 4 (May 9): Western Lowland Gorilla
In addition, Brian Kesinger created an original animal babies coloring book exclusive to the L.A. Zoo to celebrate the oodles of adorable animal babies born at the Zoo this spring. The brand-new “L.A. Zoo Spring Babies Coloring Book" is available on the LAZoo.org website now and uses the award-winning photography of Zoo photographer, Jamie Pham. Link to download the coloring book here: lazoo.org/coloringbook.
The L.A. Zoo is also planning to launch an official T-Shirt Design Contest later this spring, for which Brian Kesinger will participate as an expert judge, evaluating artwork submitted by the public. Come back later for details.
