Imagine an Oakland with a Gun Control Squad. Or a Green, Clean Parks League and a superhero named Green Thumb Girl. Imagine the Gulf of Mexico once it has fallen under the spell of Clean Water Boy. Or the state of Arizona after it comes face to face with Immigration Protection Man.

These and many other “Taking Action Figures” are poised and ready to tackle the city’s, nation’s and world’s problems courtesy of Kathryn Mapps’ fourth- and fifth-grade students at Lakeview Elementary. Mapps’ students developed their concepts as part of a challenge posed by Oakland’s Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA). 

For its "What the World Needs Now..." juried exhibition, MOCHA invited students from kindergarten through 12th grade to envision, through painting, sculpture, drawing, collage or any other media, their plans and ideas to make the world a better place. Entries from children and youth across Oakland and the Bay Area will be on display at MOCHA beginning June 6. The deadline to submit art is June 1.

MOCHA will host a Opening Night Gala Fundraiser June 5 from 5-9 p.m. There will be art-making, drinks, hors d’ouevres and entertainment, but the young artists and thinkers will be the evening’s star attraction.

“As a society, we often forget how concerned young people are about the myriad problems facing our city, nation and planet,” says Kristin Palm, MOCHA’s director of development and communications. “With this exhibit, we give the next generation a chance to share what matters most to them and, through the powerful vehicle of visual art, propose solutions. Their responses, not surprisingly, have proven to be both creative and profound.”

Using art as a tool for self-expression, learning and dialogue has been at the heart of MOCHA’s work for more than two decades. Founded in 1989, the organization serves 30,000 children annually through programs in schools and preschools, at community venues and events, and in its Old Oakland studios and gallery. The Gala Fundraiser helps raise money to sustain these programs.

“Every child deserves art,” says Palm. “In this time of budget cuts, we need to find new ways to support our programs so they remain accessible to children throughout Oakland and the East Bay, especially those in low-income communities where access to the arts is most limited.”

Mapps knows full well the value of using visual art as a teaching tool. For their "What the World Needs Now..." projects, her students researched a problem they would like to solve, then gave their “Taking Action Figures” super powers to solve their problem--from the BP Oil Spill, to dangerous playgrounds, to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to Arizona’s new immigration law. Students then created collages using their action figures and wrote artists’ statements describing their ideas.

“I’ve been trying to get them to draw connections with oppression over time and relate it to what they’re experiencing now and to have compassion for each other,” Mapps explains. Visual art is an ideal means to achieve her aim, she adds. “We’ve been doing art full-force all year long. They’re so expressive. There’s no fear. I never hear, ‘I made a mistake, I can’t do it, it’s too hard.’ They just do it.”

"What the World Needs Now..." runs June 6–July 15 at the Museum of Children’s Art, 538 Ninth St., Suite 210, Oakland. The Gala Opening Night Fundraiser is June 5 from 5–9 p.m. at MOCHA. Tickets are $50 for adults and $5 for children. For more information, visit www.mocha.org or call (510) 465-8770.