As businesses begin to reopen and Cuyahoga Falls returns to a semblance or normal life, many residents anticipate the changing weather and summertime festivities. While the city has canceled this summer’s Falls Downtown Fridays events on Front Street, the Downtown Cuyahoga Falls (DTCF) Partnership has plans for smaller-scale downtown enjoyment.
The chalk art contest Chalk the Block, originally scheduled for July 25th has now been postponed until 2021 due to safety concerns over the COVID-19 virus. Thanks to the DTCF Partnership, Collide, and the Cuyahoga Valley Art Center (CVAC), however, local artists will instead have the chance to submit their own design and “chalk it up” on one of seven chosen locations downtown–including the side of CVAC—as part of the Chalk It Up initiative. Temporary chalk murals will be in prominent places for the community to enjoy and, according to DTCF’s request for proposals, “add color and vibrancy to our Downtown and . . . accomplish our goals of supporting local art, encouraging the community to get outside and discover new places Downtown, and promoting a sense of community wellness.”
“The locations for this year’s Chalk It Up initiative were chosen because of their high visibility and the extent to which they are a ‘blank canvas,’” says DTCF Executive Director Abby Poeske. “We see these temporary chalk murals as prototyping for more permanent murals once the City’s Public Arts Plan is ready to go. This is a nice way to test locations and see how the community responds.”
Collide, a Cuyahoga Falls-centric arts and culture organization, brings support and sponsorship to this project as a way to promote local artists and help enrich the arts and culture of the city, particularly in a moment lacking in weekly downtown festivities. As one of multiple art galleries downtown, CVAC, in addition to hosting a canvas, will provide free chalk to visitors who have been inspired by the murals and wish to create their own masterpieces on open sidewalks downtown or at their homes–maybe even becoming one of next year’s artists.
Artists who wish to submit a proposal for their chalk mural must live or work in Northeast Ohio and their work must be visually appealing from a distance—preferably no less than 4 feet high. Work could give a sense of community and diversity, connect to the Cuyahoga River, or simply reflect the motto “the fun flows here.”
If chosen, artists will be in charge of providing their own chalk and other necessary materials (for which they will be compensated upon completion) and promoting their work on social media. No permanent materials will be used in creating these murals, only using washable chalk and pastels, which can easily be washed away. Since these are temporary, they are at risk of disappearing in a storm or being vandalized. Poeske remarks that “part of the fun is that these murals are ephemeral. The community has to catch them while they last!”
“Without the festivals that the City and other organizations had planned, we wanted to bring something vibrant and fun for the community to do in a safe way,” Poeske says. “My main objective is to get more folks Downtown and to make Downtown a more vibrant place, Collide’s is to support local artists and art, and CVAC’s is to build the art community and advocate understanding for visual arts. Therefore, this project aligns with all of our missions. We hope it makes downtown feel even more beautiful, interesting, and exciting.”
For more information about submitting proposals, visit www.downtowncf.com/chalkitup. Submissions are due by June 14th, 2020.
