This past weekend, the greater Cleveland community joined Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Art students at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) for their annual Chalk Festival. Attendees created artwork surrounded by natural scenery, live music and food trucks. The festival actually began as a 16th century Renaissance tradition in Italy, where local artists made chalk copies of Madonna paintings by Raphael and his contemporaries on the streets outside cathedrals, according to the CMA’s website. To honor this tradition, every year the CMA provides space and materials at a low cost for the community to come and express themselves through chalk art. What started as a means to share coveted private artworks with the public has evolved into a way to bring the beauty of creation to that same general public.

When I arrived right at the start of the festival’s second day it was already bustling. For $15, I was able to get a reasonably sized square and a box of chalk pastels. I then spent the next two hours with a friend making drawings based on Disney’s “Tangled,” enjoying the beautiful weather and talking with other attendees. We were given no direction on what to make, just to have fun with art. The event attracted large groups and families collaborating, as well as independent artists who came to enjoy art surrounded by like-minded peers. Walking around I saw everything from black cats in pumpkins to hyper-realistic koi fish; scenes from “Bluey” to science fiction-esque city scapes. There was no overarching theme, only a space for people to leave brightly colored marks on the world.

One of the featured artists, Lacy Talley, was kind enough to speak to me about her process and journey with art. Talley has been in the art space her entire life, claiming to have become an artist at the age of three. She continued on this path and is now a Cleveland-based artist. Talley said her work primarily focuses on “‘I am’ affirmations and grounding work,” all with a bright color scheme and equally bright sense of identity. Notably, pastels are not Talley’s usual medium—instead she focuses on acrylic paint, resin, clay and digital art. Her first exposure to chalk art was at the CMA’s Chalk Festival last year, just like many other attendees. I think Talley’s journey represents the heart of this event. She is a person who loves art and uses it as a form of self-expression, but still found a new medium to do so through the Cleveland community.

While the Chalk Festival has come to a close for this year, I highly recommend checking out the other public programming and exhibits the CMA offers and to return to the Chalk Festival next September.