Last year we set a world record for the largest chalk drawing. We also started the 501(c)3 nonprofit Re-Enchanting the World Through Art (REWA), which supports and inspires the creative spirit in youth and community.
Mark Wagner, the founder and original artist behind the Kids' Chalk Art Project has a bigger vision, to create several large chalk drawing around the world, unified by a narrative creating the world largest illustrated story and setting another new world record.
The vision is happening sooner than anyone thought and even before we could go out and make any connections, the connections have found us. Our first storytelling gig is in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 2 - 7. Chalk will cost approx. $1200 to buy and ship (expensive to ship).
We are actually doing a combo fundraiser for chalk. We have continued to chalk draw over the last year, both locally and around the state (Alameda, San Leandro Juvenile Hall, Walnut Creek, Fresno). With the school budgets desperately tight we are suppling the chalk for these events, allowing kids and the community to draw and be creative.
Our simple short term goal over the next month is: $2000 by Nov. 15
This is: 10 people @ $200 20 people @ $100 40 people @ $50 or 100 people @ $20
Please help us out by donating now. Be part of setting another world record, be part of investing wisely and creatively into our youth and our global community. Send your check or donate online and receive a tax deductible donation letter.
Please make checks out to: REWA (Re-Enchanting the World Through Art)
Mail to: c/o Mark Wagner 27 Powers Court Alameda, CA 94501
Yesterday chalk drawing at Walnut Creek Middle School.
Chalk Drawing with Artist Mark Wagner
Proposal: School Assembly, Chalk Drawing, Weekend Fundraiser
Elementary through High School
1) Mark Wagner will come to your school and present an assembly to share with students and teachers how he co-created the world’s largest chalk drawing, (a Guinness World Record), with the children of Alameda, CA, and which was completed on June 7, 2008.
2) Wagner will create a large professional chalk drawing on site with the help of a selected group of students.
3) Wagner will support your school in setting up a “draw-a-thon,” fundraiser to generate funding for each school's art program. These fundraisers will take place on a designated Saturday morning on the school playground with students and parents.
Cost: $200- $500. Chalk donated through REWA
Dear PTA and School Principals,
In collaboration with the City of Alameda, AUSD, the Alameda PTA Council, and AEF, artist Mark Wagner visited each elementary school last spring inviting the students to help him with a dream. The dream was to create the world’s largest chalk drawing, to raise awareness for the arts, to publicize that there were no art teachers in the elementary schools of Alameda, and to give the kids a creative experience that they would remember for the rest of their lives.
Over two weeks AC transit bussed out entire elementary schools to the Alameda Naval Air Station to participate in the Kids’ Chalk Art Project. In the end 6,000 people were involved, over 4,000 elementary school kids, who covered 90,000 sq. ft. of pavement (the size of almost two football fields), and set a new world record which was photographed by a satellite.
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Out of this project a nonprofit was created, Re-Enchanting the World Through Art (REWA), which supports and inspires the creative spirit in youth and community. Today there is a book and 30 minute documentary film about the project, Small Town ~ Big Vision. The Making of a World Record Chalk Drawing.
The assembly proposal involves Mark Wagner visiting your school and presenting through laptop and projector images, the world of chalk drawing and street painting festivals around the country, and photographs from the year of chalk drawing here in Alameda that climaxed in the Guinness World Record (photos to be published in their next book.)
Included is a Saturday morning chalk drawing event at your school (fall or spring weather pending) where the students are able to be creative with their parents. A “draw-a-thon” can take place where children get sponsored by friends and family to draw for ½ hour generating funding for your school’s visual art program.
Your school can then easily reproduce this event over the years to come creating a simple long-term sustainable funding and excitement for an integral visual arts program at your school.
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About Mark Wagner: Mark Wagner, MA is the visionary behind the Kids' Chalk Art Project. Wagner's first artistic adventures were in rural Pennsylvania where as a second grader when he began to draw monsters and spaceships. Wagner credits his brother for sparking a desire to draw and his mother for her encouragement.
Wagner's artistic endeavors span 40 years. He holds a MA from John F. Kennedy University, and a BFA from Pratt Institute. Wagner is involved in the film industry as a professional concept artist recently working for Pixar “drawing monsters and spaceship,” in addition to his work as graphic designer, illustrator, author, musician, and fine artist. His professional work can be seen @ www.heartsandbones.com
Wagner created a year-long pilot artist-in-residency program at Franklin Elementary School and has taught art and creativity in a variety of venues from digital art colleges to graduate school and prison, inspiring people of all ages to gain access to their own creative spirit. Wagner is also the author of"The Art of Being A Dad.” Wagner lives in Alameda with his wife, writer Laurie Wagner and their two children.
A year ago we were chalk drawing on the site, over the next two week we covered 90,000 sq. ft. and set a new World Record. Please join us now in celebrating by buying our new book to share the creative energy and support future project with youth and community.
SMALL TOWN ~ BIG VISION is the story of the Kids' Chalk Art Project ~ a creative community event that set a new world record for the largest chalk drawing, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
May 27 - June 7, 2008: 6,000 participants, including over 3,800 elementary school students; two weeks of chalk drawing, 90,000 square feet (300' x 300'), the story of a salamander and ginkgo leaf, lots of chalk, a satellite photograph, and a special dog.
The Kids' Chalk Art Project is the first collaboration of Re-Enchanting the World Through Art, a nonprofit that supports and inspires the creative spirit in youth and community.
For an Artist, a vision is a dime a dozen, that's less than a penny per vision. Having them is worthless unless you do something with them, which is priceless. ~ Mark Wagner
80 pages of beautiful color photographs of our world record chalk drawing made a year ago by the kids and community of Alameda, CA USA.
Please join us in celebrating our efforts into keeping the arts alive for our kids, for the future, and for us all now.
School flyer going out to all the elementary school parents.
Excerpt for the book: Along the Way: A Few Lessons I Learned About Dreaming Big Dreams
• If you are going to dream big, be prepared to pay dearly. Dreamers pay in blood, sweat, and real tears for the wisdom they receive and the experience they get along the way.
• Dreamers require co-conspirators. You need to enroll others in your vision, you can’t do it alone.
• Asking for help is an art of its own. Keep asking, never stop. You'll never know if the person beside you wants to be involved in the project otherwise.
• Be prepared to have your original vision changed along the way, it's a natural process, pay attention, go with the flow.
• You get much more out of a community project than you put in. Awareness of what you achieved will transform you for the rest of your life.
• To dream big dreams and see them through, you need a strong internal fire to keep going. That fire will have to keep you warm on many lonely nights.
• When it comes to volunteers, there are two classes: those with the best intentions and those whose best intentions are backed by real action. Whether your dream becomes reality or not depends on the latter.
• Consider carefully all the advice that you get along the way – but don't be afraid to ignore it and follow your intuition.
• Many people will not understand your dream at first. No matter: they will be inspired by your passion and want to be part of it themselves.
• If you are a dreamer and you aren't a master of all the skills you need (e.g. accounting, project management, organization), surround yourself as soon as possible with people who are.
• Many people will tell you that your dream is impossible to achieve. Thank them politely - and get back to work.
• Be a maker of miracles. Everyone wants to be a part of a miracle.
The Italian Street Painting Festival by Youth in Arts in San Rafael CA is coming up June 13 - 14th. It's one of the largest chalk drawing festival in the country and in the world. Hundreds of artist come to draw and thousands of people come to watch, listen to great music, eat excellent food.
If you live in the area it's not to be missed. I have been drawing there ever since it began some 15 years ago.
I saw this BMW ad last night at the movies for the first time - wow! I wish I had Art Directed that! It made me think about the chalk drawing we did last year that set a World Record.
I am going to get in touch with BMW, see if that want to do a chalk drawing ad with their cars!
Driving around my Toyota truck on site was always so cool, so big, surreal.
Creation continues to evolve. The transient energy of chalk and nature.
An environmental clean-up agency that the US Navy hired is running their trucks over the chalk drawing They are cleaning up radioactive radium that the Navy used to paint on item to glow in the dark, they dumped the toxic waste into the storm drains which are now being cleaned out.
I have know about the clean up for a year or so. The work had not been started until after our event was over. I am working on a sci-fi story about this Alameda Navy Air Base. I think I will use the idea of the salamander and gingko leaf chalk drawing being effected and transformed by the radioactive energy.
The chalk drawing has really faded where the truck have run, some areas have been watered down. All detail and colors from the hand drawn chalk is gone in those places, but interesting enough life finds it's way back, as always, evolving, unstoppable, the pure force of nature.
The chalk drawing will continue to disappear, when the wind and rain come it should be mostly gone from this world but will last perhaps forever with photographs, memories, and positive creative energy invested wisely into our youth.
And then there is a man and his dog. If you followed the actually event you will have seen many pictures of Mr. Z. He was on site for all two weeks, only leashed when the school kids were with us and then still able to be petted and oo'd and ah'd over. He's such a good dog around kids. He continues to be a guiding light in my life.
We are close to moving our nonprofit over from the "Kid's Chalk Art Project" to "Re-Enchanting the World Through Art." The book about the event has begun and we are beginning to brainstorm about what's next.
Hello Everyone!
