Cleveland Museum of Art Chalk Festival 2015 - A Day of Art & Sharing

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Julie Smith
Stuart O. Smith, Jr.

Cleveland Museum of Art Chalk Festival 2015
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Every year, we enjoy viewing the artwork at the Chalk Festival at the Cleveland Museum of Art (@ClevelandArt). As in 2014, Stuart was glad he was able to participate by adding his chalk drawing to the weekend display.

After viewing the photos in this blog post, please see our photos from the last three years. Every year, we are excited to see the wonderful and original creations.

Here is the official description of the Chalk Festival from the Cleveland Museum of Art website:

Chalk Festival

Fine Arts Garden

Children and adults enjoy this annual event where community members join professional artists in using the walkways around the Fine Arts Garden as a colorful canvas. Begun in 1990, our festival is a modern expression of a Renaissance tradition from 16th-century Italy in which beggars copied paintings of the Madonna by Raphael and his contemporaries, using chalk on the plazas outside cathedrals. Watching the chalk artists and enjoying the entertainment is free.

For questions contact Community Arts at 216-707-2483 or e-mail commartsinfo@clevelandart.org.

2015 Chalk Festival

Saturday, September 19, 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. 
Sunday, September 20, noon–5:00 p.m. 
Rain or shine

Our 2015 Chalk Festival Photos

If your device does not support Flickr.com photos/videos,
please view them here.

Normally, I would suggest just clicking though the above slideshow. This year, we took so many photos, that is is best to go to our Flickr.com album to view all the photos (this link will open in a new tab),

A Story of Sharing

We need to share with you a Cleveland story that happened at the event. We arrived late, and found that the festival had run out of chalk. The weather was beautiful, and there was a huge turnout of Cleveland artists. (This also explains why we have 296 photos on Flickr.com for this event -- many more than in past years!)

People were kind enough to turn in leftover chalk to the check-in table as they were leaving, so Stuart and others grabbed just a few pieces -- the minimal needed to make a simple chalk drawing. As Stuart began to work using about 6 pieces of chalk, children who had finished their drawing came up to him and offered their chalk. Stuart ended up with a large variety of chalk to complete his project. The best part was that we now have a lasting memory of the children's kindness and generosity.

Tweets & Retweets

Here are our @sos_jr tweets and retweets about the 2015 Chalk Festival.