https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2022/03/31/chalk-festival-returns-venice-florida-first-time-since-2019/7210647001/
by Earle Kimel Sarasota Herald-Tribune, March 31, 2022
VENICE – It’s been a challenging year so far for the Chalk Festival which opens a three-day show Friday at the Venice Municipal Airport Fairgrounds.
The show marks the return of the festival to Venice for the first time since November 2019, after back-to-back cancellations because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pandemic-related travel issues have had artists scrambling to catch rescheduled flights and three international artists were not permitted to fly to the United States because they tested positive for COVID-19.
On top of that, two Ukrainian artists – Alex Maskiov and Tetiana Talanova – could not attend because of the war in Ukraine.
Talanova had evacuated to Poland, while Maskiov chose to remain to fight for his country, noted Denise Kowal, founder of the Chalk Festival and its parent nonprofit, Avenida de Colores.
Kowal noted that chalk and pavement artists from Russia, where dissident voices are being suppressed, participate in the festival as well.
“It’s hard,” Kowal said. “We have people that we care about and they’re being torn apart because of this.”
The combination of the uncertainties of the war, COVID-19 precautions, as well as the death of logistics director Adam Holbrook, make the 11th festival one of the most challenging yet, Kowal said.
“And now we have wind, and we have scattered showers,” she added with a laugh, referring to the weekend forecast for the area. “Our theme is resilience for a reason.
“This event, because it’s looking like scattered rain, we are actually mixing a binder in with the tempera, which is a chalk,” Kowal said of the medium artists will use. “That will help it not deteriorate so quickly in the rain.”
Race against the elements
Wind and rain, at least, are things the artists can prepare for, both by fast-tracking start times and using modified liquid chalk that should hold up better under the elements.
“We’re racing,” said Anton Puvirenti, a Sydney, Australia-based artist who arrived in Sarasota last Sunday to help prepare for the show.
Artists have pulled double duty every year, helping to prepare for the event in addition to creating their own artwork, but this year that has been more critical.
“We're super lucky because most of the volunteers doing the technical stuff – building these platforms, mixing the paints, gridding out the squares (where artists work) – doing all that hard work, are the artists who come in early to do that,” Kowal said. “They’re volunteers before the event starts, and then when the event happens, they switch roles from volunteer to artist.”
The festival opens at 10 a.m. Friday.
Hours for Friday and Saturday are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a longer day set for Sunday, when it will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Ticket prices reflect the change in logistics too.
Friday admission will be $10, Saturday will be $15, and Sunday will be $20 – with a three-day ticket available for $30. Children 12 and under are $5.
The airport festival grounds are at 610 Airport Ave. East, Venice. Tickets are available there or online at https://www.chalkfesetival.org.
Because artists are working in advance, patrons will see some finished artwork as early as Friday. The goal is to have every piece finished Saturday night, with patrons able to view a complete show and talk with the artists on Sunday.
Puvirenti, who was working on a helix-themed immersion room – a 3-D art piece that will allow visitors to stand inside a helix – Wednesday afternoon, said the pace has been “pretty frantic because of the storms coming.
“I was planning to have three more days at the festival to finish it.”
Puvirenti, who is attending his fourth festival in Venice, said he chose the helix because of the show’s resilience theme.
“A helix is a very strong form in nature, so it’s very resilient,” he said.
This is the first time he has left Australia since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Australia opened its borders a couple of weeks ago,” he noted.
International travelers need to get a PCR test before boarding a plane and many have a scannable international pass noting that they’ve been vaccinated.
“I’ve got an international vaccine (card) now and it’s attached to your passport,” Puvirenti said.
A few feet away from the helix, Santiago Hernandez, an artist from Mexico, worked on his immersion room, involving a figure releasing winged hearts.
Patrons at the festival might notice an uncanny similarity between Hernandez and the figure in his immersion room.
“I didn't find another model,” he said. “I had to do it with myself.”
Other artists, like Pablo Garcia, from Madrid, Spain, spent Wednesday on prep work for his design, while others built his vertical display.
“It was an interesting theme for me,” said Garcia, who is modeling the piece after his own growth through a sometimes troubled childhood.
“I think I'm a very resilient person,” he said.
The main protagonist in the piece, he said, will be a Black woman with blue eyes, surrounded by silhouettes.
“I will do the woman in black and white and the rest of the background with colors, purples, and blues.”
While she will be monochrome, her eyes will be blue,” Garcia, noted.
“It’s a spiritual landscape with a moon,” he added. “Black and white with strong colors like purples and blues – it’s going to be involved with the women but fully involved with the landscape.”
The immersion rooms constructed earlier in the week near the Chalk Festivals Base Avenue warehouse were scheduled to be broken down and taken by truck to the festival grounds, where artists will apply their finishing touches.
In anticipation of periodic showers, artworks will be grouped on the festival grounds, so the art can be protected both overnight and during any daytime rain.
Kowal added that artist Kurt Wenner designed little tents that can go over the immersion rooms, to protect those as well.
While there will not be an established concert schedule, some performers will set up and play throughout the days, Kowal said.
There will be food trucks, tables and chairs under tent cover, and portable toilets.
“We still have all the amenities, there’s still things you can sit under, we have tables, we have chairs,” Kowal said.
Ali H. Johnston, MBA in Real Estate
