Ginnys Chalk Art: Art in the City 2019

Art in the City in Downtown Dayton

Aug. 2, 2019

I organized this event....

This is how it began: I tried to write a grant to gather artists to do art for this Art in the City event in Downtown Dayton. I didn't get the grant, but I was approached, via email by the Art in the City staff, about doing the chalk art anyway for the event. They said that they would pay us $100 per artist (up to 6 artists) to do chalk art for the event.

I was so excited to be the one organizing this event. Unfortunately I didn't get a great response from artists, many were already busy with other events. I was able to get 4 artists, including myself.

The event itself was from 5-9pm on that Friday evening. I told everyone that they could arrive as early as 3pm to get started if they liked. I decided to get there early so I could be there when people arrived. They had given us a spot one block down from Court House Square. I came by myself and arrived about 2pm. I unloaded my stuff and began to think about picking a spot on the pavement to do my chalk art. It was a nice shady spot, but there was another problem. There were lots of people milling around, not the nicest of people I might add. I was approached for money a couple of times and I just didn't feel comfortable at all. I could see the information tent for the event down the street, so I worked my way down to it and asked if we could switch spots. They said sure.

All this took me about 2 hours and before I knew it the rest of the artist started to arrive too. Long story, short, we ended up right in front of the information tent. Soon Hillary, CeCe, Chris arrived and we were all chalking right in front of court house square!

After all the uncertainty, it turned out to be a great spot. The event turned out just great! Hillary and I both got interviewed. CeCe was being watched by several high school kids while she worked. There were lots of people watching us and asking questions.

I was so worried about the heat, because the sun was right over us, but it wasn't the heat, but the wind that was a problem this time. I struggled to keep the chalk on the pavement! It just kept blowing off. In the end, I struggled so much that my artwork looked a little awkward. Fortunately, no one but me seemed to notice. Everyone loved it!