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[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/fablehouse.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Clay-Achee-ziggys-arts-adventure-feat1-res.jpg” alt=”Clay Achee – Ziggy’s Arts Adventure” title_text=”Clay Achee – Ziggy’s Arts Adventure” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
A shudder ripples through the humid Louisiana night air. Two teenagers stargazing on a hill overlooking a junkyard sit up and point excitedly at the sky.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a shooting star!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, it\u2019s a meteor!\u201d<\/p>\n
A ball of light streaks down low and whooshes past the kids, blowing wind through their hair. The flash disappears behind a pile of junkyard tires and a soft skidding sound filters out, like pouring sand from a cup. An airlock hisses and discarded cans roll and clink in the soft air.<\/p>\n
Ziggy the nine-year-old alien has just crash-landed on earth. His quest? To learn about artistic expression.<\/p>\n
Just miles away at the corner of St. Louis and Chartres, a puppet in tie-dye pants plays an electric guitar for the passersby, belting out \u201cJohnny B. Goode\u201d by Chuck Berry<\/a>. Or more accurately, a puppet in tie-dye pants plays an electric guitar from the lap of puppeteer Clay Achee<\/a> for the onlookers strolling the French Quarter.<\/p>\n One of these scenarios is fictional and one is a recurring event, but both of them speak to the power that drives Ziggy\u2019s Arts Adventure<\/em> on Louisiana Public Broadcasting<\/a>:<\/p>\n The value of self-expression.<\/p>\n Ziggy\u2019s Arts Adventure<\/em><\/a> is an educational series for K-5 on LPB that teaches the integral \u201csoft\u201d concepts of art education, social skills, and emotional intelligence through an arc of nine ten-minute episodes featuring The Junkyard Band<\/a>, the group of Muppet-like musicians Ziggy meets in the junkyard when he crash-lands on Earth. Ziggy\u2019s inception was inspired by the 1977 launch of the Voyager I space probe, which carried a golden record with Earth\u2019s first intergalactic playlist<\/a> into space. The probe has been in interstellar space for 45 years and any wandering cosmic travelers can still pass by and hear the sounds of Earth.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/fablehouse.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ziggys-arts-adventure-fb1-res.jpg” alt=”ziggy’s arts adventure” title_text=”ziggy’s arts adventure” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”30px||30px||true|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Clay Achee is a Baton Rouge native, a self-taught puppeteer, and the heart and soul behind the creation of Ziggy\u2019s story:<\/p>\n One of those records (on Voyager I) had Chuck Berry\u2019s \u201cJohnny B. Goode\u201d on it. The idea of little green aliens Jump, Jive an\u2019 Wailin\u2019 to \u201cJohnny B. Goode\u201d makes my heart happy. That was the initial seed for it – this is the alien who found the Voyager and he came back to Earth looking for Chuck Berry.<\/em><\/p>\n Clay\u2019s career path directly reflects a driving theme of identity that Ziggy feels in the show: the desire to explore a new form of expression, possibly be extremely bad at it, and keep doing it simply because it feels good and it helps you connect with yourself and others. Clay started building puppets as a hobby when he was 30 as an outlet to do something creative with his hands. Those initial puppets, which took weeks to build and were completely non-functional, he gave as gifts to friends. Then he kept working at the craft.<\/p>\n He progressed to street performing in the French Quarter. He\u2019d take a puppet and busk for hours, working things out. From there he graduated to live performance and climbing up on stage with a puppet. He still actively attends karaoke nights as a laboratory for himself to hone his craft and learn new things:<\/p>\n It\u2019s been so important to me to work with the puppets in low-stakes environments. I continue to do that. I continue to street perform and do karaoke because it\u2019s an opportunity for me to try things in an arena where stakes are low. \u201cCan he jump off a piano?!\u201d I don\u2019t know, but I can try that at karaoke and nobody is gonna kill me (laughing).<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/fablehouse.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Clay-Achee-01.jpg” alt=”Clay Achee” title_text=”Clay Achee” show_bottom_space=”off” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”30px||5px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”13px” text_letter_spacing=”2px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Clay Achee (Photo: podcast.nsavides.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Clay\u2019s arena as a performer grew and he built the characters for Ziggy and The Junkyard Band. This became the Ziggy and the Junkyard Band Youtube channel<\/a>. His Youtube videos grew into a relationship with LPB and the birth of a show that could help children learn how to express their individuality in a social group setting with peers.<\/p>\n (Elizabeth) Foos and I, who\u2019s my educational consultant and writing partner for the series, we realized that this series was very well built to teach emotional intelligence. Educators call it \u201csoft skills\u201d: learning to share, learning to apologize, learning to accept an apology – all of these sort of things that are emotional intelligence skills that we learn as kids that are really easy to teach because they\u2019re all wrapped into narrative.<\/em><\/p>\n While Clay built the story elements and characterization, Elizabeth Foos<\/a> helped as the primary facilitator in integrating the series with the necessary educational elements. She merged her expertise in creative programming into Ziggy\u2019s learning experience, which includes fundamental art education topics, but also how art helps us communicate what we feel inside to the outside world. Clay spoke about integrating emotional intelligence:<\/p>\n What\u2019s interesting with Ziggy\u2019s experience is that Ziggy\u2019s home planet – they are emotionally telepathic. It\u2019s what his little antenna is for – but his is broken. So on his planet, they never developed the Arts because they\u2019re emotionally telepathic. The reason that we \u201cart\u201d is to share what\u2019s inside of us to the outside, and they (Ziggy\u2019s family) don\u2019t need that. Ziggy, because his antenna was broken, he did need that. When he heard music for the first time, it mattered to him. He needed to know where these self-expression tools were. So when he goes to Earth looking for Chuck Berry, it\u2019s not just because rock n\u2019 roll moved him, it\u2019s because he has an active need of these tools.<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/fablehouse.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ziggys-arts-adventure-scr1-res.jpg” alt=”ziggy’s arts adventure” title_text=”ziggy’s arts adventure” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”30px||30px||true|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Clay\u2019s transition from performing as a hobby to overseeing an entire production team as a director and educator in children\u2019s programming was a gradual growth over years. There was no immediate payoff. It was learning the craft, getting rejected for ideas, and with patience, an eventual bursting through into a space where Ziggy\u2019s Arts Adventure<\/em> is now prominent enough that it was aired on Thanksgiving before A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving<\/em> last year.<\/p>\n Doing it poorly for a while is the key to any art form, you know? The guy who did Peanuts<\/a>, Chuck, said you have 10,000 bad drawings in you – might as well start getting them all out now. So you\u2019ve got a bunch of bad puppets in you, you might as well start making them. When I was making them, it was absolutely for fun. I wanted to see if I could do it – I love Jim Henson stuff<\/a> – why not? Now that it\u2019s become such a part of my identity and my art form, it\u2019s been really nice having them there (the first puppets he built) to remind me that I sucked at this.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Ziggy\u2019s Arts Adventure is entertaining and informative for the K-5 realm, but really transcends demographic. The series addresses highly specific art topics such as balance, contrast, and proportion. All nine episodes are available now to stream directly through the Ziggy\u2019s Arts Adventure<\/em> Youtube channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n The learning lessons for children? They get to hang out with a curious alien and a groovy band and learn life skills through narrative. The lesson for adults?<\/p>\n No matter what your age, you don\u2019t have to crash-land in a Louisiana junkyard to find self-expression.<\/p>\n Sometimes it means simply setting up a chair at the corner of St. Louis and Chartres Street and working it out.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”30px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_cta title=”SUBSCRIBE TO OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER” button_url=”https:\/\/fablehouse.tv\/newsletter\/” button_text=”SUBSCRIBE” _builder_version=”4.19.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font_size=”24px” header_line_height=”1.4em” body_font_size=”16px” body_line_height=”1.5em” background_enable_color=”off” use_background_color_gradient=”on” background_color_gradient_stops=”rgba(0,0,0,0.69) 0%|rgba(0,0,0,0.41) 100%” background_color_gradient_overlays_image=”on” background_image=”https:\/\/fablehouse.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Enlight67-1.jpg” background_enable_pattern_style=”on” background_pattern_style=”diagonal-stripes-2″ background_pattern_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.15)” custom_margin=”||40px||false|false” custom_padding=”100px|35px|100px|35px|true|true” custom_padding_tablet=”100px|35px|100px|35px|true|true” custom_padding_phone=”80px|30px|80px|30px|true|true” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|desktop” header_font_size_tablet=”22px” header_font_size_phone=”21px” header_font_size_last_edited=”on|desktop” border_radii=”on|15px|15px|15px|15px” border_radii_tablet=”on|15px|15px|15px|15px” border_radii_phone=”on|15px|15px|15px|15px” border_radii_last_edited=”on|desktop” global_colors_info=”{}” global_module=”7346″ theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n No spam, we promise! Just the latest on Louisiana filmmakers.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_cta][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/fablehouse.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/fable-house-logo-shadow-2.png” align=”center” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n