Sat 9/10-Sun 9/11 @ noon-5PM
The Cleveland Museum of Art’s Chalk Festival is one of a number of events created by CMA’s former community arts director and local creative sparkplug Robin VanLear. While she hosted her own chalk festival last month in Coventry Village, CMA has continued the tradition VanLear started in 1990, inspired by an Italian Renaissance tradition where street artists made chalk copies of religious paintings on the plazas outside cathedrals.
After a virtual festival in 2020, it came back last year for people to make their own designs on the sidewalk surrounding the lagoon at the Fine Arts Garden south of the museum. You can come and participate — a square and a 12-color box of chalk are $10 — or just come watch, admire the chalkwork of professional artists Hector Castellanos-Lara, Wendy Mahon and Oliver C. St. Clair, and enjoy music by Ropa Veija on Saturday and The Baker’s Basement on Sunday. That’s free. There’s also a community chalk drawing you can contribute to for free.