Arts & Entertainment

Chalk Festival is Going Vertical

Local and national artists will be creating murals on various buildings throughout Sarasota as part of the 2011 Sarasota Chalk Festival

As more than 250 artists take chalk to the pavement in Sarasota for this week's Sarasota Chalk Festival, several other artists are going vertical.

A new addition to the Chalk Festival in 2011, 'Going Vertical' has more than 17 locations around Sarasota where artists will paint murals on buildings.

One of the more prominent pieces of work will be the Palm Avenue parking garage. The . Each floor will have its own theme.

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The money for the garage murals came from the public art fund.

Other locations include the Burns Court Villas, Longboat Key Club, Growlers Pub and the Short Stop Market.

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Sunny Miller, an artist from Lafayette, Indiana is painting a dollhouse on a building along an alley running parallel between Cross Street and Dolphin Avenue.

On the surface, Miller's piece will be a dollhouse. But like most pieces of art, Miller said, there will be deeper meanings.

"The title for the mural will be 'Meeting of Minds', because the characters are moving toward and coming together around the table," Miller said.

Adding a Sarasota touch, Miller will be painting one of Sarasota's founders, Bertha Palmer, as one of those characters. 

"I’m developing characters that look like traditional dolls but they are invented characters," she said. 

For previous examples of Miller's work, visit, sunnymiller.us.

Mural Locations:

  • Historic Herald Square, 529 & 527 S. Pineapple Ave.
  • Burns Court Villas, 500 block of S. Pineapple Avenue
  • Dick Dickinson Photography, 543 S. Pineapple Ave.
  • Short Stop Market, 521 S. Orange Ave.
  • SRQ Magazine, 331 S. Pineapple Ave.
  • Williams/Parker, 300 S. Orange Ave.
  • Williams/Parker, 1544 Cross St.
  • Saba Plaza, 1055 S. Tamiami Trl. 
  • Pettey Properties, 1521 Main St.
  • Living Walls, 1311 Main St.
  • Palm Avenue Garage, 1200 block of Palm Avenue
  • Longboat Key Club, 301 Gulf of Mexico Dr.
  • Tube Dude, 1001 Central Avenue
  • Growlers Pub, 2831 N. Tamiami Trl.

:

  • Money was dedicated specifically to the public art fund from the construction budget of the Palm Ave garage.
  • On Sept. 27, the Public Art Committee voted unanimously, 5-0, to approve an expenditure of $25,000 from the Public Art Fund to commission five artists to paint murals in the interior of the Palm Avenue Garage.
  • The theme of the floors will be:
    • Second floor, dance
    • Third floor, film
    • Fourth floor, music
    • Fifth floor, theater
    • Sixth floor, opera


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