Tag Archives: christopher agostino

Art and Stories Show for Libraries 2025

Presenting a creative adventure in art through stories and painted faces designed to encourage and inspire young artists, with fantastic, colorful folktales like The Rainbow Bat and The Power of the Jaguar; original tales like The Amazing Face Story and Picasso the Thief; plus fun bits of tales from the lives of famous artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Matisse and Monet.

In addition to folktales and original stories, this summer’s show includes material from my arts-in-education program Talking Art — exploring origins, inspirations and appropriations from the history of art, including the fundamental questions of what is art and why do we make it?

Featuring my 5’ x 8’ painting depicting the panoramic history of transformation in art, from Cave Walls to Andy Warhol, plus a D.I.Y. activity for parents and kids to do after the show in which they design a symbolic animal mask using traditional concepts that go back to the origins of art.

From a wide repertoire of stories I select tales to suit each new audience, and to be sure to perform new tales if I’ve been to your library before. A typical performance runs 60 minutes, with 4 or 5 stories involving 5 – 10 volunteers being facepainted onstage as I tell my tales. Like a magician would do, I pick volunteers from the audience to be part of the show onstage while I am also engaging the full audience with my storytelling and additional audience involvement. The content is targeted towards school aged kids and family audiences, including toddlers is ok. I bring a sound system, require no special equipment, and comfortably perform for small groups or audiences of up to 250.

Please contact me with any questions, or to schedule a performance.

Email to: info@agostinoarts.com

For a reference, please contact your colleagues at one of the tri-state libraries I performed at in 2024: 

Clifton, NJ • North Bergen, NJ  •  East Granby, CT  •  Rockville Library, Vernon, CT  •  Plattekill, NY  •  Bronxville, NY   •  Wyckoff, NJ • Cranford, NJ  •  Sayreville, NJ  •  Mattituck and Laurel Libraries, NY  •  Warren County Libraries, NJ  •  Hamilton Township, NJ  • Deer Park, NY  •  Sayville, NY  •  Patchogue-Medford, NY  •  Long Beach, NY  •  Centre Moriches, NY  •  Cresskill, NJ   

Christopher Agostino’s StoryFaces  is an exciting storytelling show in which I paint the faces of audience volunteers to illustrate the stories as I tell them, captivating the audience with my uniquely animated tales. It is an unusual show, with this unique combination of stories and visual art, so you might also want to watch the video: 

  See the video: What Is A StoryFace?

——   ALSO AVAILABLE for the Color Our World Theme ——

a banner image composed of 7 photographs of faces painted as recognizable art by famous painters, with the text reading Art On Your Face

Our Transformation Facepainting artists can turn your guests into living works of art for library events, re-creating recognizable paintings by famous artists and original designs inspired by fine art. You will be amazed at the quality of the faces and how quickly we paint them — these are all examples of faces painted on guests at events. 
Contact us for more information or to schedule an artist, and see the faces at the Art On Your Face Gallery.

a montage of photographs from StoryFaces performances

Christopher Agostino’s StoryFaces

Adventure Tales! — Become Your Own Hero

Adventure Tales! Become Your Own Hero

My StoryFaces performances have always featured hero and adventure tales, especially those about young or small protagonists, like The Tail of the Dragon, based on an ancient Chinese legend about a brave girl that saves her village, or Punia and the King of the Sharks, a Hawaiian tale about a boy who chooses to be a hero. The reason Punia can be brave in this tale is because he is small, an encouraging message for kids, that even the small can be heroes. A wide variety of adventure tales are available to suit the age range of your audience, from Aesop Fables to my original tales like When Man First Met Crocodile, The Tiger That Went to the House of the Sun and The Adventure of 2 LIzards on 4 Faces, or samurai adventure tales for older kids, like Raiko vs the Goblin Spider. 

Featuring my uniquely animated Amazing Face Story in which we see an audience member becomes the hero in an adventure on their own face — with a follow up DIY Amazing Face Story Activity for kids to create their own adventure tale in which they are the star. Adventure tales were the original motivational speeches, passed down through generations to inspire listeners to become the hero in their own lives.

logo image for performance called Christopher Agostino's StoryFaces: Adventure Tales! Become Your Own Hero. With 3 photographs of painted faces and the additional text "adventures come to life in an exciting StoryFaces storytelling show"

StoryFaces shows are a surprising combination of storytelling and visual arts that fully engages the entire audience as the stories come to life on the faces of audience volunteers. A typical performance runs 60 minutes, with 4 or 5 stories involving 5 – 10 volunteers being facepainted onstage to illustrate my tales as I tell them. Like a magician would do, I pick my volunteers from the audience to be part of the show onstage while I am also engaging the full audience with my interactive storytelling and audience involvement. If I’ve been to your library before, I keep a record of what I’ve told, so that I can always return with new stories for your audience.

See the video: What Is A StoryFace?

Please contact me with any questions or to schedule a performance.

Always exciting. And as much fun for adults as for kids.

Montage image of photographs of Christopher Agostino performing in StoryFaces shows, including images of him painting volunteers faces while storytelling.

learn about our other programs at:

Agostino Arts School Programs — our arts-in-education shows and theatre workshops

Talking Art — a special StoryFaces arts-in-education program of stories about art history origins, inspirations and appropriations, connecting students to some essential questions:  Why art? How does art work?

The Ocean Comes to Visit — sea life, magic fish and an ocean of possibilities

The Amazing Face Story Activity — an arts-in-education exercise to get kids to create an original story starring themselves.

The Power of a Story — an essay on why I tell tales

StoryFaces Movie — available online for streaming

StoryFaces came out of my 45 year adventure in theatre and facepainting, developing makeup art as a performance through my background in story theatre and physical comedy, enriched by exploration into the origins, inspirations and history of the art of transformation.

Coyote Makes Some Friends — for Libraries 2023

StoryFaces performances for 2023 Library Summer Reading programs

An original tale in which Coyote discovers that not only does it feel good to be helpful, it can also be the start of an adventure. 

The StoryFaces show I’m putting together for libraries this coming summer features a new version of the first story I told using facepainting on stage. Coyote Makes Some Friends is my original, modernized folktale about a mischievous spirit that comes down from the moon and uses the colors of nature to make his animal friends so they can all help to fill the world with life. 

The show will include my interactive retelling of Aesop’s Fable about kindness, The Lion And the Mouse, with its message that “a kindness is never wasted, for even small acts can have great results”.

Plus a renewed version of one of my favorite hero tales, The Tail of the Dragon. Based on a legend from China that is hundreds of years old, in which a brave and thoughtful young woman, and her faithful family dog, choose to face the Great Dragon of the Mountain.

My StoryFaces programs also include the Amazing Face Story Activity which provides kids and families an after show activity to create their own visual story starring themselves as demonstrated in my performance.

Three photos grouped together of people with painted faces. One depicting a lion and a small mouse, the second is a dragon, and the third illustrates the Tail of the Dragon story with a dragon, a dog and the female hero makeup.

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2022— StoryFaces was presented as a special event in three performances at the 50th annual National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN

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Christopher Agostino’s StoryFaces  is an exciting storytelling show in which I paint the faces of audience volunteers to illustrate the stories as I tell them, captivating the audience with my uniquely animated tales.

A typical performance runs 60 minutes, with 4 or 5 stories involving 5 – 10 volunteers being facepainted onstage as I tell my tales. Like a magician would do, I pick my volunteers from the audience to be part of the show onstage while I am also engaging the full audience with my stories and additional audience involvement. 

It is an unusual show, with this unique combination of stories and visual art, so you might also want to watch the video: What Is A StoryFace?

Please CONTACT US with any questions, or to schedule a performance.

Email to: info@agostinoarts.com