Mid-Week Intermission Friend Edition: Creative Action
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again — we’ve got the COOLEST community partners.
These are Austin’s friendly neighborhood nonprofits and organizations that do awesome things all around town that support the community, and who frequently work with the Long Center through collaborations and activations at our shows and events. As a nonprofit ourselves, these partnerships mean the world to us, and are a big part of what makes our mission of making the arts accessible to Austinites possible. And for Creative Action, we know the feeling is mutual.
Creative Action is an Austin-based nonprofit whose mission is to empower young people through the arts. Providing arts education across after school programs, day camps and summer camps, and clubs, Creative Action reaches children of all ages, serving 16,000+ members of the community in the 2025-2026 year, and they’re also a staple of Teresa Lozano Long Community Day at the LC!
Transforming the Kodosky Donor Lounge into KIDosky, an arts and crafts oasis for children of all ages, Creative Action has played a key role in making Community Day fun and special since year one.
With the fourth annual Community Day approaching on September 19, we wanted to dive into all things Creative Action and had Noel “Curly Fries” Gaulin, Senior Director of Community Engagement & Family Programs, give us the rundown.
Welcome to Mid-Week Intermission! We usually like to ask folks for a song to go with their interview — anything come to mind?
NOEL: Hey thanks for having me! Check out this fun music video – I think it sums up what we do at Creative Action.
So, Noel, tell us a little about yourself and how you came to Creative Action!
NOEL: Well, I should probably start with how our Creative Action community knows me. I discovered a long time ago that when you work with kids a nickname goes a long way. So thousands of young people across the greater Austin area know me as “Curly Fries”.
For 16 years now, I’ve been proud to supply kindness and radical joy at Creative Action. I’m also an actor with a couple awards on my dresser. I tour one-man-show adaptations of classic novels on the theatre for young audiences national circuit. I tell people all the time: Creative Action saved my life – it has been a place of purpose where I can use my skills in performance and theatre-making to create community.
What’s been the best part of KIDosky over the past few years, and how did this partnership with the LC come to be?
NOEL: It has been an honor to curate the KIDosky Lounge since the first annual Community Day! We are big fans of the Long Center and to transform a space for young people and their families is so much fun for us. The best part of the KIDosky Lounge experience has been witnessing the whole family – not just the young people – participate and engage together.
That’s how we view community engagement: it’s an opportunity for the entire family to spend their day being creative, learning a new skill and having fun at a community space. As an actor in Austin, I’ve always viewed the Long Center as a community resource and this partnership evolved out of longtime relationships with fellow local artists and performers. This is such a great new tradition!
Is there a particular Creative Action program that you secretly hold as your personal favorite?
NOEL: In my time at Creative Action, I’ve been lucky enough to deliver all of our programs. Now, with two kids of my own, I get to experience them all over again as a parent. Dancing with them at Music & Movement in the Park, hearing them talk excitedly about our Brave School show that visited their class or cheering at their performances in our after school and camp showcases. I’m excited for them to apply for our teen programs!
What have you’ve gleaned about Austin’s communities through the perspective of Creative Action?
NOEL: Well, the landscape of Austin’s communities has changed quite a bit over the last fifteen years as the central corridor has become less and less affordable. If we just look at this past year, many of our communities have been split apart due to public school closures. I view a big part of my job as being community responsive. So as the landscape changes – so do we. This past year, we offered more accessible summer programming than ever before. And we are now in new schools with programming for newly formed communities. We know that no matter how Austin evolves – we offer value.
What are some ways folks can support Creative Action?
NOEL: Go to creativeaction.org/donate to directly support what we do! And vote for public education that supports the arts and programming partners!
Can you give us a tidbit on what to expect in KIDosky at Community Day on September 19?
NOEL: Swing by the KIDosky Lounge and try on a costume, put on a puppet parade, dance in our drum circle, work on your watercolor or code a remote-control robot! I’ll see you there!
Thanks for the hang, Noel!
RSVP for Community Day on September 19 for free!
At the Long Center, we’ve always got a new partnership or something cool we know you’ll want to check out! Find and follow us @longcenter on your social media platform of choice, and we’ll see you real soon.
