10 AM to 4 PM
The Oberlin Chalk Walk, now in 2010 in its fifth year, has earned its place among Oberlin’s spirited downtown summer festivities. Together with local artists. 497 registered participants – area registrants of all ages, from schoolchildren to retirees – made their own art, brightening the sidewalks on Main from the Allen Art Museum to the Public Library, and on College from the College Bookstore to the Inn.
Preliminary programs were held on the two Saturdays preceding the June 26 event –an “Introduction to Chalk Art” for Kids and Families, and a free “Chalk Walk Public Workshop” for learning the techniques and history of “sidewalk painting,” instructed by Dan Cherney. On the 26th, five “master artists” created intricate and in-depth pavement drawings, affording visitors and aspiring chalk painters a chance to watch professionals at work. Main sponsors of Oberlin Chalk Walk are the Allen Memorial Art Museum, FAVA, Mainstreet Oberlin, the Nordson Corporation Foundation, and the Oberlin Public Library.
All materials are provided the participants free of charge. A group of twenty Kendal at Oberlin residents worked as Volunteers, Peg Schultz and Ruth Searles signing participants in at the registration and space assignment desk, and Ted Nowick and Robert Taylor distributing chalk and other art materials.
And so on this festive day, on sidewalk and wall panels, 497 artists drew and painted colorful images of all sorts, representational and fanciful – soon to be washed and blown away by wind and rain, but long remembered by all.