By Blake Herzog
Photos Courtesy of the Launch Pad Teen Center
Starting in 2009, the Chalk It Up! street festival has drawn throngs of amateur artists and a contingent of professionals to a colorful spring fling held in the parking lot behind the bank building at 201 N. Montezuma St.
The location has been a constant, even though a few things have changed around the family-friendly event over the last 15 years. It’s being held once again April 20 and 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., so everyone can cut loose and create their art as music fills the air.
After a three-year pandemic-related pause The Launch Pad Teen Center relaunched the extravaganza in 2023 behind the same building, which is now Prescott City Hall as well as a bank building.
Catherine Robbins, director of fund development for the nonprofit, said “there was a great deal of enthusiasm about the event.”
“It went really well, we had about 1,000 people attend,” she says. There was about a 60-40 split between children and adults participating.
The parking lot will be taped off into boxes ranging from 2×2 feet to 6×6 feet, and every family will get a free box of chalk to take to the square they claim. After that it’s pretty much anything goes as everyone lets their imagination do the talking.
Nature- and anime-inspired drawings were frequently seen last year, but anything within a family-friendly lens is welcome.
Anyone who isn’t able to finish their art piece on Saturday is welcome to come back on Sunday to finish it up, Robbins says.
Four professional artists from throughout Arizona will be highlighted as “featured artists” and are given a bigger square, such as last year’s 3D horned toad, dog in a spacesuit, horses romping in front of the state of Arizona or close-up of a woman wearing a scarf.
But wait, there’s more!
The performing arts also will be a focus of this year’s event, with the Hawa Ensemble and Behnke and Friends among the groups booked to perform; DJs will fill in any gaps with upbeat tracks that will keep everyone dancing if they aren’t drawing.
Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona will have a table with free art projects for kids, and new this year is AZ Before I Die Chalkboard, sponsored by Good Samaritan Marley House Hospice.
Attendees will get to fill in blanks after the words “Before I die I want to…” to solidify their dreams for the future.
The event is free but donations are welcome, and the proceeds will go to The Launch Pad’s art and music programs.
Chalk it Up! won’t be the only game in Downtown Prescott that weekend, as it’s traditionally held the same time as the Earth Day Festival, which will run along Cortez Street at Courthouse Plaza April 20.
“It’s an opportunity for people to go back and forth between those two events,” Robbins says.
And while the majority of attendees are kids, Robbins said the event will give a colorful boost to anyone who comes out to join the fun.
“It adds to children’s creativity, their self-confidence. People walk by and talk about the art that they’re doing and praise it. So I think there’s a lot of benefits to everyone, not just children. It’s just getting out and being creative, artistic,” Robbins says.
