Annual Chalk It Up festival turns sidewalks into masterpieces at a Sacramento park
More than 50,000 people will descend upon Fremont Park through Labor Day weekend to watch as hundreds of artists transform the sidewalk into a multicolored chalk masterpiece.
Responsible for the public art frenzy is Chalk It Up, a nonprofit organization that for 33 consecutive years has thrown the three-day Sacramento event to raise money for local youth art education.
Businesses, organizations and individuals pay $250 to sponsor one of 240 sidewalk squares ringing the park. Though the art will wash away within days, the festival funds field trips, art supplies and creative enrichment at Sacramento-area schools throughout the entire year.
Volunteer artists such as Jennifer McKernon will spend their entire long weekend on hands and knees, blending chalk into pavement. McKernon, who also goes by Max Denver, has been chalking it up since 2009. This year, her square along P Street honors Art Luna, the longtime owner of Sacramento arts hub Luna’s Cafe and Juice Bar, which closed at the end of August. Her square features a luna moth flying over Sacramento. It’ll take her the entire weekend, she said, and she called in some friends for backup.
Chalk it Up doesn’t use regular old hopscotch chalk. The organization orders professional-quality chalk — fit for the many professional artists who dedicate their weekend to the festival — from Eternity Arts, a Michigan-based company. Kids can receive a free chalk stick and attendees can buy more if interested in transforming their own home sidewalk into an ephemeral art piece.
Along P Street, students from Golden Valley Charter Schools’ eighth-grade classes crouched over their two sidewalk squares. They chose to mimic works by Oscar Ortiz, a Puerto Rican artist, in recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month, which begins on Sept. 15.
Golden Valley is one of the many schools that has received one of Chalk it Up’s $500 grants. The school used it to add murals to its playground.
In Golden Valley’s Waldorf curriculum, “everything is artistic,” said Teresa Thorman, an instructor at the school. “The arts are the vehicle, or the medium, to teach the alphabet, to teach chemistry, to teach physics in the middle school.”
Since 2012, Chalk it Up has distributed $67,000 in grants to support art-focused field trips, classroom art supplies, music programs and more. The bulk of that money is raised through the Labor Day weekend festival. The organization also partners with the Crocker Museum and other art institutions to host events, like a high school self-portrait competition, that engage Sacramento youths in the arts.
“Arts education is everything,” said Mollie Morrison, coordinator for C.K. McClatchy High School’s visual and performing arts program.
Students in the high school program dedicate their four years to seriously pursuing the arts. Morrison said the school gives back through Chalk it Up to make sure that elementary students had the opportunity to receive arts education, too.
After attending Chalk it Up for years, Debbie Lichtenberger decided to sponsor a square for herself to celebrate her 62nd birthday.
“It’s a birthday present for myself!” she said as her nieces and their children gathered around two sidewalk squares, transforming them into a whimsical scene of dragons and cupcakes.
While watching the chalk murals unfurl on the sidewalk, attendees can enjoy live music at the Taco Bell Cantina Stage from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., grub at food trucks and shop at local vendors set up around the park. The event runs through Monday evening.
This story was originally published September 3, 2023 at 5:00 AM.