Sidewalk Arts Festival set for this weekend
Photo courtesy of SCAD
The 34th Annual Sidewalk Arts Festival will be held in Forsyth Park on Saturday, April 25 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. On this day, SCAD organizers promise a show of talent that can be best described as creative, energetic and fun.
Roughly 843 sidewalk squares will be transformed from blank concrete slabs into colorful canvases that show the vast spectrum of creativity. While current students, prospective students and alumni partake in the event, thousands of locals and tourists turn out to watch SCAD students create art.
People who participate in the festival are allowed to compete alone or as part of a group. A single person who is partaking in the festival is allowed one square and one box of chalk. If there is a group of people participating, they are allowed up to three squares next to each other. Groups receive no more than three squares with one box of chalk per square. There is no charge to participate.
“What is amazing is that people can take the same exact thing and create all of these different things,” said Assistant Director of Student Involvement Patty Henke, who oversees the event.
“Some students come very well prepared for the event, with all of these tools and they grate up the chalk and make it into paint,” Henke said. Others prefer to use the chalk in its traditional form. Participants compete for not only the chance of winning prizes, but also for the excitement and fun that is part of the event.
Students register for a square online via MySCAD, but according to Henke, this is the first year that registration closed early. By April 10, all current student squares were already registered for, but students may register on a standby basis the day of the event, Henke said. Inevitably, some students who have registered will not show up for the festival and their squares will be forfeited by 11 a.m.
“My recommendation is for students to arrive before 10 a.m. to get in line, since it is a first-come, first-served basis and each year it varies on how many squares will be forfeited,” Henke said.
This only serves to emphasize the rare opportunity the event offers spectators, Henke added. “How often do you go to Forsyth and see 843 squares being decorated in such unique ways?”
There are changes made to the Sidewalk Arts Festival this year. There will be greater emphasis on international flair, Henke added, as SCAD’s annual International Festival occurs simultaneously this year. There will be demonstrations tents and food, among other activities that will take place as the art competition is happening.
The festival coincides with Family and Alumni Weekend, as it always has. There will be many events that will be centered on families, including a 6 p.m. Friday picnic at the SCAD Museum of Art followed by an 8:30 p.m. screening of “The Boxtrolls” in the museum ruins.
The weekend’s activities will be capped with the presentation of the annual alumni awards at 6:30 p.m. in Trustees Theater. A screening of “Monsters University” will follow the ceremony.
To learn more about the Sidewalk Arts Festival please visit their website.
