The Elmira, NY Street Painting Festival

Elmira's 150th Year Logo

My adopted hometown of Elmira, NY has a long rich history. Once known as the "Queen City" in Upstate NY, it's celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. The town has its origins in the Revolutionary war; long a home of the Iroquois, Europeans settled here shortly after the war, and legend has it that the city was named after an unruly child in a local tavern. It's a somewhat gritty post-industrial town still struggling to recover from a devastating flood that all but destroyed its downtown business district some 40+ years ago.

It hardly seems like the obvious place for an arts festival, does it?

Well, it took a lot of foresight and a big leap of faith to create the "Elmira Street Painting Festival" in July, 2008. The first year brought artists, bands, arts and crafts and food vendors to a downtown that would, on a normal weekend, be all but deserted.

This photo from the 2014 Festival shows the heart of the downtown business district

The festival was not without its detractors or growing pains; the first year was marred by rain and cold weather, but luckily, artists and city leaders saw the potential, and now the event has become an annual signature event for Elmira.

Street painting has a similar long, rich history. From the Elmira Street Painting Festival website:

Street painting, also commonly known as street art, is the activity of rendering artistic designs on pavement such as streets, sidewalks, and town squares with impermanent materials. Street Painting originated in Italy in the 16th century. Street painters were called "madonnaro", which translates to Madonna, because the early images were mostly of the Madonna. The madonnari were traveling artists. Aware of festival and holy days in each province and town, they traveled to join in the festivities. They created images in public squares and in front of the local church using bits of broken roof tiles, charcoal, and white chalk. Passersby would often leave a bit of bread or olive oil for the artist along with an occasional coin. After the festivities or with the first rain, both the painting and the painter would vanish. 

I'm a big fan of interactive public art, so street painting hits a sweet spot with me. There's something remarkable about watching simple tools like chalk and brushes in the hands of a skilled artist bring out results like these:

There was also live music throughout the two-day festival on two stages.

I also have a personal connection to the festival. For the third year, my son Andrew was participating as an artist in the festival. This was, however, his first year participating as a registered artist, and the first year since he's had formal art training. Andrew is a 22-year-old with Autism, and his talent for art has been extremely important in helping him integrate into the larger world outside the disability community. Here he is working on his drawing of JFK (with, ironically, Marilyn Monroe in the background. No, it wasn't planned that way):

There were several standout pieces, and the depth of the creativity was truly astounding:

One of the questions that comes up all the time is, "What happens if it rains?" That's not a hypothetical question in Upstate NY, where the weather is unpredictable at best. The weather held throughout the day Saturday, with some scattered rain clouds all around the city, but no inclement weather all day. There was some light rain on Saturday night, but the artists were prepared, covering their works in tarps and plastic, and carefully sealed tightly to protect their works in case of the worst.

Or so we thought. This is what we discovered with Andrew's piece when we uncovered it on Sunday morning:

We weren't alone. While most pieces survived unscathed, several were quite damaged. Like the other artists in that situation, Andrew dabbed the piece dry and set out to fix it, making it even better than it had been. One friend suggested that he should have left it the way it was, and titled it "Tears Of A Nation". Hmmm....maybe next year!

In the end, it turned out to be a fantastic day. Andrew's finished piece even won the "People's Choice" award, given to the work that received the highest number of votes as determined by festival-goers. It was great to see so many artists receive recognition for their temporary masterpieces.

I'm a firm believer in the ability of art to change communities. It was heartening to see thousands of people fill the streets over two days to share a common love of art, music and camaraderie in a town that's not known for its high culture. Elmira, like many communities, does not have to be bound to its past, its reputation, or other people's expectations. The words of JFK seem prophetic and oddly appropriate here:

"History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past washing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside."

Indeed.

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As an aside, I produced a time-lapse of Andrew's JFK drawing. This shows his progress through Saturday, before the rain got to the work: