Sarasota Chalk Festival Dedicated To Artists and Street Painting Enthusiasts

SARASOTA -- This year, the Sarasota Chalk Festival organizers would like ”to educate our community in the cultural performance art of pavement art.“ Denise Kowal, Founder and Event Chair, promises the event is juicier, with lots of fun activities for the whole family each and every day. In just its fourth season, the festival has become one of the most important contemporary pavement art venues in the world.

”The public becomes a part in the street painting, and the focus is on the interaction between the artist and the public“ she said. 

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Their lineup of artists include renowned talents from all corners of the earth, who will turn several blocks in downtown Sarasota into a history museum based on the theme "Pavement Art Through the Ages." Hundreds of artists will use chalk as their medium and average street pavement as their canvas painting masterpieces right before the public’s eyes. But the masters are not the only creators of artwork because the organizers have dedicated a whole block for children who are inspired to create their own for free.

Organizers encourage children and future street painting enthusiasts to get their hands dirty and pick out a square for their artwork during the week-long free cultural event. Chalk will be provided to all artists of varying levels of skills.
 
”This year, we expect about 5,000 children to attend and they always have a great time,“ she said. ”We do have something for everybody. And most first-time street painters are hooked after their first event.“

Organizing the event is no small feet either and takes a host of volunteers.

”Many of my artists are on different time zones, so sleeping is scarce sometimes,“ said Kowal.

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Even though, some concepts and ideas about installations are kept in secret until the event starts, one of the artists responsible for bringing this art form to America, Kurt Wenner, the inventor of three-dimensional pastel drawings or 3D street painting will be creating artwork and having a gallery show and lectures at the Ringling College of Art and Design. Other chalk artists include Edgar Mueller, Michael Kirby, Vera Bugatti, Genna Panzarella, Melanie Stimmell and many more will be creating artwork on the streets and walls.

When Kowal started organizing the event four years ago with only 20 local artists, one professional street painter and a small group of volunteers, little did she know that the festival will become the first international street painting festival in the U.S. With over 250 participating artists last year, the Sarasota Chalk Festival continues to expand into various other forms of art including poetry, dance, fashion, opera, mural art and music.

”The first event was ridiculously small, but it was a huge success,“ she said.

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This year, as part of the historical time-line the festival will recreate a portion of the Grazie di Curtatone Madonnari Competition, a 24-hour chalk drawing competition in Mantova, Italy, Kowal said. She learned firsthand what it will take because she just returned from the Italian festival where she was invited to be a judge at the competition that started 39 years ago to preserve the cultural tradition of street painting that became almost extinct after WWII.

”It was a great honor, as I was the first American and only the second foreigner to be invited,“ she said.  Similar to the Grazie di Curtatone, the festival in Sarasota preserves the art form of street painting.

The Sarasota Chalk Festival has events that span from October 25 through November 8, 2011 – with the main performances on November 4-6.