Chalk Festival
2008 Chalk Festival
Saturday September 20, 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Sunday, September 21, noon–5:00 p.m.
Fine Arts Garden
Enjoy chalk artists and entertainment at no charge!
The I Madonnari Chalk Tradition
In 16th-century Italy, beggars, using chalk on the plazas outside cathedrals, copied paintings of the Madonna by Raphael and his contemporaries. With these street painters, called I Madonnari (painters of the Madonna), an artistic tradition was born. Today I Madonnari festivals are held annually in Europe, Africa, and the United States. Our festival brings this Renaissance tradition to Cleveland.
For more information, please contact the Community Arts Department, 216-707-2483 or neisenberg@clevelandart.org
Featured Chalk Artists
Story Lee Cadiz
Mark Jenks
George Kozmon
Wendy Mahon
Debra Sue Solecki
Rafael Valdivieso
Robin VanLear
Entertainment at Chalk Festival
Saturday, September 20
Blues de Ville
Sunday, September 21
DubFlex
Chalk Your Own Pictures
Large square and 24-color box of chalk: $16 each
Small square and 12-color box of chalk: $8 each
Individuals, families, schools, and neighborhood groups are all invited to participate. Children under 15 must be accompanied by supervising adults.
Sign up when you arrive. Groups are encouraged to pre-register by calling 216-707-2483 by Wednesday, September 17. Non-paid advance registrations will be held until 1:00 Sunday.
Sparx Gallery Hop
The weekend of September 20-21 marks the sixth annual Sparx Gallery Hop where the work of more than 500 artists will be accessible to the public from inside galleries, studios, major festivals and art institutions. It's considered Ohio's largest art walk because of its geographic size and number of featured venues across downtown, Tremont, Art Quarter, University Circle and Little Italy neighborhoods. The Chalk Festival is an official Sparx Gallery Hop event. During the festival, a trolley stop will link University Circle to other Sparx in the City Events. Weekend passes are FREE!
Sparx in the City, a program of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, is a civic marketing initiative in Cleveland featuring regional artists as catalysts for stimulating vibrant street life and economic activity. Sparx in the City supports a multitude of Cleveland's street-level arts assets in many downtown neighborhoods. For more information, please visit: www.cleveland.com/sparx/
Workshop
Chalk Making and Street Painting
Sunday, September 14, 2:00–4:30 p.m. or Wednesday, September 17, 6:00–8:30 p.m. $25/individual, $75/family (includes materials and reserves a square for the festival)
Chalk Festival brochure available in the Adobe Acrobat PDF format (PDF). The Adobe Acrobat reader is a free download available from the Adobe website