DCPA NEWS CENTER
Enjoy the best stories and perspectives from the theatre world today.
Enjoy the best stories and perspectives from the theatre world today.
Chalk artists are a scrappy lot. Not only do the slave over pieces of art that will literally blow away in the wind, but they did not cower in the face of COVID. Once a mainstay of Larimer Square each June, the annual Denver Chalk Art Festival was disrupted in 2020 due to the pandemic. Undaunted, artists picked up their packs of colorful chalk and created original masterpieces in driveways and sidewalks throughout Denver.
The festival reappeared in 2021 as part of the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, and now, it returns to a new, permanent home in the Golden Triangle at a different (and hopefully cooler) time of year.
Held on the three-day Labor Day weekend (September 3-5), more than 200 artists will hunker down over an 8’x8’ square of sidewalk to create pieces of art come hail or high water. Some create their own original work. Others offer reproductions of famous classics. And a few “wow” audiences with 3D images that appear to be leaping from or falling into the very ground.
Additionally, this year’s event features five professional Madonnari, which is a term given to the event’s featured artists who embody Italian street painters of 16th-century Italy. Of the five Madonnari, three are from Colorado:
But the event is far from a spectator sport. Instead, families with their own budding artists can visit the Kids Corner where hands-on creativity awaits. And local school groups may enter the Youth Challenge for a change to compete for art supplies and literal street cred.
This year’s event is perfectly situated in the Golden Triangle at 2364 S. Broadway with its adjacent museums, galleries and workshops including the Denver Art, Clyfford Still and Kirkland museums. The event is free…but fleeting. Streets are cleaned at the end of the day on Monday, September 5, so make sure to arrive in time to see these works of art before they are no more than a beautiful memory.
DETAILS
Denver Chalk Art Festival
Sept 3-5 • Located in Denver’s Golden Triangle Creative District
Free