3-D Chalk Festival bound for Sarasota after Venice airport grounds become unavailable

Earle Kimel, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
·3 min read
Eduardo Relero, a 3-D pavement artist from Spain walks a tightrope as part of an illusion he created in Sarasota. He is one of about 20 3-D pavement artists scheduled to create work in Sarasota from Oct. 20 to Oct. 31,as the Chalk Festival morphs into a free visual event, after Hurricane Ian forced the cancellation of the planned event at the Venice Municipal Airport.

Hurricane Ian's impact on the Venice Municipal Airport has forced the cancellation of the 15th Chalk Festival in Venice and left organizer Denise Kowal scrambling to find smaller alternative sites in Sarasota for 3-D pavement artists to create art over several days at the end of October.

“We really are working with lots of different locations downtown and we’re planning on a community event,” Kowal said.

The 15th annual Chalk Festival had been planned to run from Oct. 28-31 at the airport, with a theme of “Spirited.”

“We’ve been working two years on this specific event,” Kowal said. “This was an event we wanted to do in 2021 and we had to hold back because of the pandemic then.”

Following the hurricane-induced cancellation, Kowal and her nonprofit, Avenida de Colores, concentrated on bringing 3-D pavement art event to Sarasota.

Denise Kowal clowns around in a 3-D illusion room created by 3-D pavement artist Cesar Polack from Mexico. Polak is one of the 3-D pavement artists scheduled to create work in Sarasota from Oct. 20 to Oct. 31,as the Chalk Festival morphs into a free visual event, after Hurricane Ian forced the cancellation of the planned event at the Venice Municipal Airport.

Related: Chalk Festival will add artists working with flowers

Earlier: Chalk Festival returns to Venice

“We’re going to look at doing installations throughout the city of Sarasota to support our organization as far as the fortitude that we have moving forward through diversity and the strengths of our community,” she added.

The current plan calls for assembling 20 pavement artists to create their illusions between Oct. 20 and Oct. 31 at individual sites in Sarasota.

Kowal is still working on securing private locations and would have to apply for permits to use city property.

Given the spread of artwork, there will be no admission charge this year and as locations are confirmed, they will be posted on the festival's web site: https://chalkfestival.org.

Kowal said there will be one public component, with 3-D chalk artist Kurt Wenner overseeing one project that multiple artists will help create.

The date, location and theme of that piece – like much of the festival – are still being planned.

While the October event will only showcase 3-D art, Kowal envisions a separate event in the spring that will showcase both 2-D artwork and the flower-based art of “Infiorata” and “Rangoli,” that was expected to highlight this year’s show.

Early planning

Kurt Wenner from Italy and the United States, the creator of this piece, is one of the 3-D pavement artists scheduled to create work in Sarasota from Oct. 20 to Oct. 31,as the Chalk Festival morphs into a free visual event, after Hurricane Ian forced the cancellation of the planned event at the Venice Municipal Airport. Wenner is also scheduled to orchestrate a group piece that several artists will help create.

Earlier: Avenue of Art, a walk through 100 years of Sarasota's history

Related: Chalk Festival hosts 3-D museum in Sarasota

As early as Oct. 1, Kowal started exploring Ian's impact on the Venice Airport Festival Grounds using satellite imagery from NOAA at https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov to see how it fared.

Immediately after the hurricane, the grounds became a staging area for Florida Power & Light crews restoring electricity across the region.

Kowal contacted the city of Venice for updates as the recovery continued to weigh her options to put together a smaller version of the Chalk Festival in Sarasota.

On Oct. 7, Assistant City Manager James Clinch sent Kowal an email explaining that after FP&L vacates the area, airport staff will have to assess and repair any damage at the festival grounds.

Remko VanSchaik from the Netherlands is one of the 3-D pavement artists scheduled to create work in Sarasota from Oct. 20 to Oct. 31,as the Chalk Festival morphs into a free visual event, after Hurricane Ian forced the cancellation of the planned event at the Venice Municipal Airport.
Remko VanSchaik from the Netherlands is one of the 3-D pavement artists scheduled to create work in Sarasota from Oct. 20 to Oct. 31,as the Chalk Festival morphs into a free visual event, after Hurricane Ian forced the cancellation of the planned event at the Venice Municipal Airport.

In addition, police, fire and public safety staff, deeply involved with hurricane recovery, are not available to support the event.

Kowal has been busy canceling hotel and Airbnb reservations when she can and refunding early ticket purchases and vendors.

She expects the nonprofit to lose a significant amount of money because of the cancellation of the Venice Airport festival.

Kowal staged a a three-day Chalk Festival at the Venice Municipal Airport in April after back-to-back cancellations in November 2020-21 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Avenida de Colores sponsored an indoor 3-D museum and Avenue of Art – a pictorial tour through Sarasota County’s history during the pandemic – while the airport was not available because of the pandemic.

Earle Kimel primarily covers south Sarasota County for the Herald-Tribune and can be reached at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Chalk Festival to move from Venice Airport to Sarasota