2026 Sidewalk Arts Festival
Written By Laura Sands. Photos by Laura Sands and Kayla Lybbert.
Beneath the low-hanging moss of Forsyth Park, thousands of people crowded the sidewalks under a burning sun to attend SCAD’s iconic Sidewalk Chalk Festival. With about 650 squares to cover, local high school students, current undergraduates, graduates, and SCAD alumni worked diligently to bring their artistic talent to a childhood favorite medium–sidewalk chalk.
The festival, which began in 1981, has been growing in popularity to the point where slots run out within an hour of becoming available. Tourists, community members, students, and their families filled the entire park for five hours. The Bee Sharps performed covers of popular songs on the main stage, bringing the already bubbly energy of the event to a whole new level. Looking down from the stage across the wide field, sponsors hosted a food court with Java Burrito, Leopold’s Ice Cream, Savannah Square Pop’s, Chick-fil-A, and other favorites. The closer you looked, the more pop-up tents there were: hosting games (life-sized Monopoly), selling SCAD merch, and welcoming alumni and student families for Family Weekend!
Even with all the extra festivities, there is no doubt that the sidewalk art was the star of the day. Hundreds of unique Art the Bee drawings, in different styles and pieces, crowded the sidewalk to compete for the SCAD Spirit Award: artworks that incorporated Art the Bee in the theme of Spring. SCAD imagery was definitely the most popular subject of the day, but there were also about a dozen ocean-centered pieces, especially jellyfish, and a good handful based around the recent Artemis II space exploration.
Square 387 was led by Hannah Kurinsky, a sophomore sequential arts major, which depicted “the goddess Artemis shooting a bow and arrow, and shooting the space shuttle back into earth.” The group was excited to participate because this was their first time doing the festival, and they even brought Artemis-themed Capri-Suns to stay hydrated. Kurinsky’s favorite part of the festival was seeing it all come together. “We didn’t really plan too much. We planned a little bit of this, but weren’t try-harding it.”
On the other hand, Morgan Anderson, a senior 2D-animation and motion media design major, advised against the laid-back approach, “A week ago, I went to Photoshop and drew it on a normal Photoshop file using a blend brush, which is the most similar brush to actual chalk. After I created the design, I split it up into squares.” Anderson then copied those grids onto her square and brought her octopus to life. She wanted to focus on the colorful blending of the octopus, but she struggled with that at times because it was hard to walk over to the other side without smudging the blending. Yet it was all worth it because the best part of the day for Anderson was getting off her computer. “It’s finals week. I’ve been on my computer for weeks.”
While this was a day off for Anderson, another group used the sidewalk chalk to work on their senior thesis. Luke Cooper and Cris González attended the festival with other members of their crew to promote their film about Indigenous cultures in the Amazon. Their square began as a watercolor painting from an Illustrator file. Their film features a huge Amazon tree that eats a Ficus Tree, the subject of their sidewalk art. “That’s symbolic of the Amazon because the other tree eats it. A lot of indigenous people are losing their heritage.” The artists handed out posters about funding their film to promote their story as music pumped from a speaker. This event was especially important for them to let people know about the film. “Usually, these guys are not here in Savannah, so it is a good way to let them know what we are capable of here at SCAD. This is what SCAD is all about.”
After four hours of drawing and an hour of judging, the winners were finally announced, with dramatic readings taking place on the stage. Each group (Alumni, graduates, individual undergraduates, and group undergraduates) had a second-place and a first-place winner, both with large cash prizes. Additionally, there were awards for Art the Bee themes, SCAD Spirit, alumni, all students, and the Best in Show–an art piece that transcends all categories.
Daniella Reilly, a senior painting major with a minor in drawing and art history, was responsible for creating the Best-in-Show with her depiction of Mary. She had the idea for a Renaissance-style painting through chalk since her freshman year, but this was her first year competing in the Sidewalk Chalk Festival. Reilly began by “blocking out the shadows and main shapes, then going in with shadows, with the dark, with the black and white. Then in between the black and white, [she’d] do an orange and a red so it looks like she has blood in her.” After that, Reilly blended all the colors out, creating a hazy, soft look of Mary, which is a stark contrast with the scribbled, more chalk-like background. This is her favorite part, when she can watch the chalk create its own natural haze after blowing on it. She finalizes by adding dark, standalone, sketched lines, creating a piece that brings Renaissance painting and simple sidewalk chalk together.
The Sidewalk Chalk Festival always brings in huge crowds with phenomenal art, and this year, the crowds were bigger, and the art was more spectacular. This festival is what SCAD is all about–using art to create connection. It brings together students and the community, unites majors and friends, and though the sun beats down on all artists, creative energy radiates from everyone.
