Madonnari Arts Festival

From Madonnari Arts Festival Website:

EVENT SUMMARY. This 3-day cultural event will showcase elaborate chalk paintings created by artists directly on the streets of Little Italy. The event will be enhanced with Italian food, wine, music, theater and dance in a celebration of the contemporary renaissance of Baltimores historic Italian neighborhood.

Our model for this event originated in Italy in a tradition that dates back to the 16th century the art of street painting. Historically, i madonnari were wandering artists in Italy who traveled village to village to earn their livelihood at various festivals and on various holy days. The artists often depicted religious images in their paintings, thus earning their name. Such a festival was first introduced in America in Santa Barbara, California in the 1980s. Today, street painters create breathtaking traditional and expressionistic compositions using the street as their canvas and chalk pastels as their medium.

EVENT PROGRAM. Artists will create chalk paintings on Little Italys South High and Stiles Streets for the three event days (September 30-October 2). The street will come alive as it is transformed into fine works of art. The theme of the art is The Movement of Change.

Professional and student artists will become i madonnari for the celebration. Little Italy proudly hosts three Madonnari from Italy, Flavio Coppola, Francesca Arsi and Matteo Appignani and Baltimores own Maestro Madonnaro, Michael Kirby. Anthony Cappetto, known for combining 4d technology with 2d and 3d art, will also be featured among the exciting roster of participating visual artists. The street art will be judged by professional artists.

Local, national and international performing artists will participate in a series of indoor and outdoor events sponsored by the Little Italy restaurants. Laura Norris, founder and instructor of Mando for Kids, will lead her young Baltimore City musicians as they play Italian and contemporary music on bowlback mandolins. Actors from The Baltimore School for the Arts under the direction of Director Donald Hicken and Sally Boyett, Artistic Director of the Annapolis Shakespeare Company, will perform in commedia dell arte scenes to be staged in and outside of the Little Italy restaurants. Roving opera singers will also perform in and outside the restaurants.

Also on the weekends from 11:30 a.m. until 3 pm, the PNC Childrens Chalk Center, a family Madonnari arts area, will be the site of childrens street theater and face painting and free chalk will be provided to young artists who will be able to draw on the street alongside the masters. Children are also welcomed on the bocce court on Stiles Street, where bocce lessons will be provided.

Festival events on Sunday, October 2 include the Columbus Celebrations 5K and Parade, preceded by a wreath laying ceremony by civic groups at the base of the Christopher Columbus statue in the Columbus Piazza and followed by a bocce tournament and a live rooftop concert in a tribute to The Beatles 1969 concert on the roof of Apple Records provided by Baltimores Fab Five, The Apple Scruffs.