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Jay Schwartz
will be featured artist at the 16th annual I Madonnari street painting
festival, May 25, 26, and 27 at the Santa Barbara Mission. Schwartz,
a graphic designer who loves living and working in Santa Barbara, has
participated in the festival for 10 years. Also, the festival will feature
a newly expanded area exclusively for children just west of the Mission.
The festival will open at noon on Saturday with a ceremony and will
run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. all three days. Admission and parking are
free.
I Madonnari is the first festival of its kind in North America to present
the performance art of street painting. One of Santa Barbara's most
popular open-air events, it is presented by the Children's Creative
Project (CCP), a nonprofit arts education program of the Santa Barbara
County Education Office, William J. Cirone, superintendent.
THE NEW EXPANDED STREET PAINTING AREA FOR CHILDREN will be located just
west of the Mission inside a private parking area. In response to an
increasing demand from those who wish to sponsor street paintings, the
festival has moved the Kid’s Squares for street painting to this
new location. A total of 600 Kid’s Squares will be available and
when completed will form a solid 40–by–60 feet patchwork of
street paintings. Throughout the three-day event, Kid’s Squares
can be purchased for $10 including a box of chalk. The first 100 Kid’s
Squares will be provided for free, on a first-come, first-served basis,
as a result of an anonymous corporate donation. Other activities for
children in this area include Roberto’s Foto Fabuloso, a new photo
opportunity with costumes and props for families and friends to create
a fun photo.
SQUARES will continue to be drawn in a grid on the pavement in front
of the Old Mission, increasing the total number of street paintings
to 200 squares. The squares range in size from 4–by–6 feet
to 12–by–12 feet and in price from $100 to $500, each one
bearing the name of its sponsor, which can be a business, organization,
or individual. As the public watches, 400 local artists then fill these
pavement canvases with images of often elaborate compositions in unexpectedly
vibrant colors. The response to this year's festival has been greater
than ever with the available squares sold out by April 25, according
to CCP executive director Kathy Koury. Visitors can sign up at the festival's
information booth to receive a 2002-year brochure to be a street painting
sponsor or to apply to be an artist. These are also available by calling
569-3873.
MUSIC and AN ITALIAN MARKET in keeping with the Italian theme are featured
on the Mission lawn. In the church, there will be one free concert each
evening from Saturday through Monday featuring Opera Santa Barbara (6–7
p.m.), the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra string trio (6:30–7:30
p.m.), and the Santa Barbara Choral Society (6–7 p.m.,). According
to Children's Creative Project President Marilyn Zellet, this year's
market will include: lemon-rosemary roasted chicken, pasta, pizza, Italian
sausage sandwiches, desserts, coffees, and other authentic Italian cuisine.
THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL IS DEDICATED TO DON AND KATHLEEN SCOTT who
each served on the Children’s Creative Project board of directors
for 20 years and have been instrumental in developing the festival’s
Italian Market for the past 14 years. During this time, they have raised
more than $100,000 for the nonprofit through sales of their famous lemon-rosemary
roasted chicken.
FEATURED ARTIST Jay Schwartz participates in street painting festivals
every chance he can get. He was a featured artist at Valencia’s
Bella Via Festival in October of 2000. Jay’s fearless approach
to color, refined at UCSB, translates perfectly to the pavement. As
a professional graphic artist, Jay meshes his fine art training and
skill with the needs of a diverse clientele. Jay is co-founder of IdeaWork
Studios, a Santa Barbara creative services agency specializing in branding,
technology, advertising, and multimedia. Jay recently designed and launched
a new website for the Street Painting Festival at www.imadonnarifestival.org.
Those who wish to participate in next year’s event can register
online.
I MADONNARI is produced by the Children's Creative Project. The organization
is the first to bring this delightful public art form to North America.
After traveling to the festival in Italy, Koury created the concept
for the fundraiser and produced the first-year event in 1987 when the
Santa Barbara Mission was celebrating its bicentennial. Father Virgil
Cordano and the bicentennial committee members agreed to accept the
street painting festival as a part of their celebration. From this time,
the festival has continued to grow and now is being replicated in other
cities throughout the U.S. Since 1992, the Children's Creative Project
has produced a second festival in San Luis Obispo to raise funds for
arts education programs in this county. This year’s festival will
take place on the weekend of October 12 and 13 at the downtown Mission
Plaza. The festival will be presented in collaboration with the American
Institute of Architects Central Coast Chapter.
STREET PAINTING, using chalk as the medium, is an Italian tradition
dating to the 16th century. Called "Madonnari" because of
their practice of reproducing the image of the Madonna (Our Lady), the
early Italian street painters were vagabonds who would arrive in small
towns and villages for Catholic religious festivals and transform the
streets and public squares into temporary galleries for their ephemeral
works of art. With the first rains of the season, their paintings would
be gone. Today, the tradition lives on in the village of Grazie di Curtatone,
where the annual International Street Painting Festival is held in mid-August
in the piazza of the Catholic church.
FESTIVAL PROCEEDS BENEFIT THE CHILDREN’S CREATIVE PROJECT, a nonprofit
arts education program of the County Education Office, William J. Cirone,
superintendent. The Project sponsors fine arts programs in the schools
for a total of 80,000 children.
"Through our Residence Artist program, 50 artists conduct visual
and performing arts workshops for more than 25,000 children," said
Kathy Koury, executive director. “Fund raising from the I Madonnari
festival is very important to continue the work of the Children's Creative
Project and to support annual performance events among other activities.
For example, a total of 2,000 children had the rare opportunity to experience
a performance by Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
at the Arlington Theatre this past September. The performance was presented
in collaboration with UCSB Arts & Lectures, the Santa Barbara Bowl
Foundation, and the Towbes Foundation. This year 80,000 children at
150 school sites viewed more than 1,000 performances presented by 50
touring companies sponsored in the Children's Creative Project's Arts
Catalog. To support this program, festival proceeds also provide every
county public school with a $200 arts credit to partially subsidize
touring company fees.”
FESTIVAL sponsors include:
Bennefattori Sponsor: Paseo Nuevo
Amici Sponsors: Armstrong Imaging Center, Cox Communications,
El Prado Inn, Ensemble Theatre, KCOY TV • KKFX Fox 11, KEYT NewsRadio
1250, KEYT3 children first, Koss Chalk Pastels, KSBY TV, Loreto Plaza
Shopping Center, Mission Santa Barbara, MNS Engineers, Inc., NS Ceramic,
Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, Santa Barbara County Education Office,
Santa Barbara News-Press, Smart Party Rents, Natural Beverages, UNICO
National • SB Chapter, Ventura Printing
Further information about the Children's Creative Project and I Madonnari,
is available by contacting Kathy Koury, executive director, at 569–3873,
ext. 102.
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