Sat 8/20 @ 11AM
It’ll be a busy day in Cleveland Heights’ Coventry Village, with two big festivals happening simultaneously, right across the street from each other, and a free movie at dusk to cap the day.
When she was at the Cleveland Museum of Art, one of the events conceived by Robin VanLear (who also launched Parade the Circle) was its annual fall Chalk Festival. Now that she has her own company, located on the Coventry PEACE Campus, she’s bringing the festival there this weekend.
You can join in the art-making or just watch. If you want to participate you can book a square to decorate on the blacktop between the building and the lower playground. It’s $10 for a small square and a 12-color box of chalk and $20 for a large square and a 24-color box of chalk. It’s free to hang out and watch others work, including featured artists Bruno Casiano, Hector Castellano Lara, Wendy Mahon, and Jerome White, or listen to music by Cats on Holiday and No Bad Days. It takes place from 11am-5pm. Rain date is Sunday August 21.
Meanwhile from noon-5pm, the Pekar Comic Fest, honoring the late graphic story writer who captured the mundane aspects of everyday Cleveland life, takes on place on the plaza named after him outside the Grog Shop, sponsored by Coventry Village, Mac’s Backs, Heights Libraries, Gamer Haven, Zygote Press and Lake Erie Ink. The event is aimed at comics and graphic art fans of all ages, and includes face painting, a bounce house and crafts for kids, a video gaming tournament for all ages inside the Grog shop, and author presentations, with Ron Hill talking about political cartoon at 1pm, Derf talking about his graphic novel Kent State at 2:30pm, and Brad Ricca, Courtney Sieh and Jake Kelly sharing information about their book Ten Days in a Madhouse, recounting the story of journalist Nellie Bly, at 4-5pm.
Then have some dinner at one of the many restaurants on Coventry and head over to the PEACE Park at 8:30 for a free screening of Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. It’s a lot of day for very little money!