Chalk art festival aims to bring creativity to St. Pete community

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Twenty professional chalk artists from across the country will share their talents with St. Pete on Saturday as part of the Tampa Bay Chalk Festival.

The artists will transform streets in the historic Deuces Live District of St. Pete into their canvases. It’s the second year for the event hosted by the Pinellas Diaspora Arts Project.

"It came about because we wanted to bring art where it wasn't in the community," Debbie Yati Garrett, with the Pinellas Diaspora Arts Project, said. "That's one of our missions, to bring art to not just Black and brown communities, but to everybody in the community. We wanted to do it at no cost. We wanted it to be free, and we realized that art is one of the creative forces that basically balances the community."

The festival will take place at 22nd Street South between 7th Avenue South and 9th Avenue South from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

"This part of town sometimes gets pushed to the side when it comes to the arts or creativity or bringing things here due to different reasons, fear or just lack of the resources… but it's really, it's on its way to getting back to beautified," Rasta Geary Taylor, a local artist participating, said.

Taylor participated in the festival last year, too. He and other participating artists allow kids who come to the event to help them with their pieces.

"The community coming together with old people like myself, with the young is really awesome," Taylor said. "I guess I like to probably just say it ends up being kind of an inspiration on both ends."

Creative Pinellas and other groups helped sponsor the festival, and its theme for the artists is protecting the environment. Garrett said the event is also an important link to the past.

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"One of the really important concepts is to bring attention to the Manhattan Casino, the historical area, and this is where things were happening in the past. So, we want to bring that type of energy back into the community. St. Petersburg is changing in a lot of ways, but this is where things were happening, where there was a movie theater where people just came to have fun. So, we want to keep that type of energy in the community and continue to bring people back," she said.

With more than 30 vendors, food, music and a children’s art corner, there’s a little bit for everyone. Vendors pay to rent a spot and money from the event goes back into the Pinellas Diaspora Arts Project to create more local art, Garrett said.

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