Announcements

Invitation to Artists: “Chalk the Walk” at 12th Annual Oak Ridge Street Painting Festival hosted by the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge

The Rotary Club of Oak Ridge urges artists of all ages and abilities to “talk the talk, then chalk the walk.”

Artists are invited to sign up for free for the tenth annual Oak Ridge Street Painting Festival, draw upon their artistic skills as they “paint in chalk on a sidewalk” a face, person, animal or scene, and compete for cash prizes. And artists are urged to invite their artistic friends to sign up, too.

The popular fundraising event will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1, and from 12 noon until 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 2, on the sidewalks of the Oak Ridge Branch Campus of Roane State Community College on Briarcliff Road.

The art must be completed at 3 p.m. Sunday so that it can be judged by 5 p.m. Sunday when artist awards will be announced. First-place winners in individual, team, amateur and professional categories, and the People’s Choice Award winner(s), will each receive a $50 cash prize.

The festival is organized and hosted by the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge to raise funds for scholarships for students at Roane State Community College. These students graduated from high school a few years ago, so they are not eligible for Tennessee lottery scholarships.

In the past eleven years, the festival has raised approximately $220,000 for scholarships. These funds contribute to educating East Tennessee’s future workforce, helping to attract new businesses and improving the local economy.

Winning artists will be invited to a Rotary noon luncheon meeting on Thursday, Oct. 20, at Flatwater Grill Events Center, 100 Melton Lake Peninsula, where they will receive their certificates and cash prizes.

Each artist will draw a picture in chalk on a sidewalk square or rectangle paid for by a sponsor--an individual, nonprofit service organization, or company. Art supplies and instruction will be provided for free.

Professional and amateur adult artists, teams of student artists and individual artists from schools, and adult-child teams are encouraged to participate. The public is invited to view the “chalk paintings” and the artists at work.

During the October weekend as the paintings are completed, musicians will perform, refreshments will be available, and activities for children will be under way. Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge Breakfast and Rotary Club of Oak Ridge Sunset will have food and beverages for sale.

To learn more about the festival, call Devrin Kuipers at 599-9145 or e-mail him at devrin@devrin.com.

To view previous years' winning paintings and to get the latest details about the festival, go to the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge’s Street Painting Festival website at http://www.rotaryor.org/streetpaintingfestival

Sign up now and urge your friends to sign up or attend the festival for free. You can download artist registration forms from the website and fill them out or pick them up for yourself and your artist friends at the front desk of Roane State Community College, Oak Ridge Branch Campus, 701 Briarcliff Ave.