Artpace Chalk It Up has engaged and delighted thousands of participants for the past 17 years. School and community groups taking part in TeamWorks, San Antonio-based featured artists, visitors to our city, and our entire community have celebrated creative artistic expression together through the creation of chalk murals in downtown San Antonio.
This year, Artpace has adapted this ever-popular festival to ensure local artists, schools, and the public can participate safely – creating murals wherever we are!
School teams and community teams from all over San Antonio have the opportunity to participate in TeamWorks and can create murals anytime in September at a location of their choice (see TEAMWORKS tab). Teams will submit photos and statements about their murals, which will be reviewed in time for Chalk It Up day – October 10, 2020! Chalk It Up 2020 Co-Chairs Katie Pace Halleran and Cristina Peña Walls will choose 17 finalists from across every school district within San Antonio city limits. Finalists and a winner will receive gift cards courtesy of H-E-B and will be announced on our website and our social media platforms at noon on October 10. TeamWorks murals will be posted in the tab above as they are received, so check back often to see them all!
Artpace would like to extend a special thank you to Councilman Roberto Treviño, Honorary Chair of Chalk It Up 2020!
On October 10, twenty Featured Artists will create original designs in chalk on a sidewalk or pavement capturing our 2020 theme: community. Local artists from around San Antonio will be creating these murals at ten different San Antonio Public Library branches (see MAPS tab). The public is encouraged to visit the library of their choice to celebrate these artists and their visions of community – or spend the day visiting all of them! Drive-thru viewing ONLY will be available at all libraries! Look for our Maps to Murals, which will be posted on our website in October for more information and to plan your day!
#ChalkItUpOnHoustonSt: We’re excited to announce that Centro San Antonio will celebrate the history of Chalk It Up by installing a series of color photos in windows along Houston Street in October featuring artists’ murals from the past 17 years. Centro has long been a supporter and partner to Artpace’s Chalk It Up and is keeping our downtown history alive until we can return next year. Thank you, Centro!!
#ChalkItUpAtHome: Artpace will provide a Chalk It Up experience for everyone this year in the safety and comfort of your own home or neighborhood. Beginning Saturday, September 12, and occurring every Saturday leading up to Chalk It Up day on October 10, Artpace will announce a #ChalkItUpAtHome prompt, stemming from this year’s Chalk it Up theme – community. Each #ChalkItUpAtHome prompt will be announced on our social media channels and we encourage participants to share on social media—tag us: @artpace, #ChalkItUpAtHome; #ArtpaceAtHome; #MakeArtHappen.
This city-wide engagement is a part of Artpace’s #ArtpaceAtHome initiative, which invites the San Antonio community and beyond to continue to engage in contemporary art while practicing social distancing.
While Chalk It Up usually serves as one of Artpace’s largest annual fundraisers, this year Artpace is seeking only underwriting to support the festival’s realization. Please consider supporting Chalk It Up 2020 with sponsorship or a contribution. For more information on opportunities to support Chalk It Up, please contact Lisa Halff, Director of Development, at lhalff@artpace.org or 210.678.4180.
Map
Featured Artists
District CENTRAL LIBRARY
CASSIDY FRITTS
Cassidy Fritts is a San Antonio local who has a dedication to community and youth empowerment. She graduated from the University of the Incarnate Word in 2017 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, concentrating in Painting. Fritts is currently a Visual Arts Instructor at SAY Sí (San Antonio Youth Yes) where she teaches middle school and high school students. At SAY Sí, the project-based curriculum she co-creates uses visual arts fundamentals and experimentation to guide students to create artworks that discuss topics of their interest through a social justice lens. Fritts is also a local artist, exploring mediums of painting and printmaking, and is a local muralist. Her artwork typically explores themes of personal identity, mental health, interpersonal relationships, and community. Fritts was a featured artist in the 2019 San Antonio Street Art Initiative Showcase Phase II and has murals, public and private, throughout San Antonio; she has also participated in assisting with San Anto Cultural Arts murals.
Born in 1987 in the border town of Acuña, Mexico, Fernando Andrade has lived in San Antonio, Texas since he was seven years old. During Andrade’s early childhood years, it was considered safe for children to play outside, and he remembers playing outdoor games with his family during those years. As an artist, Andrade copes with the turmoil in his native homeland with two distinct bodies of work: representational drawings and abstract paintings. While the drawings are narrative explorations of the events taking place, the paintings are vehicles for nurturing feelings of hopeful joy and optimism. In his figurative drawings, Andrade creates simple narratives based on stories he has heard or experienced relating to social political events. Believing that everyone has their own childhood memories and can identify with the innocence of youth, Andrade stages some of his work using scenarios of children in place of adults, a strategy for enticing viewers to engage in his conversation. In the series Tierra y Libertad, groups of children appear to be playing childhood games but, upon closer inspection, are surrogates for the perpetrators and their victims. In his abstract paintings, Andrade expresses a freedom from the anguish that underlies his figurative works. Working improvisationally, the artist creates organic compositions that are colorful and animated. Viewing his process as a kind of spiritual meditation, Andrade becomes free to imagine cosmic visions that have rhythmic affinities with music or dance, and which celebrate the splendor and preciousness of life itself.
Please note, the TeamWorks competition takes place during September, and murals are not available for in-person public viewing.
Artpace Chalk It Up has engaged thousands for the past 17 years. School teams participating in TeamWorks, San Antonio-based featured artists, visitors to our city, and our entire community have celebrated artistic expression together through the creation of chalk murals in downtown San Antonio.
In response to the challenges and safety protocols in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Artpace has reimagined Chalk It Up to be a safe and inclusive citywide celebration of community by creating a model where schools, artists, and the public can participate collectively – even at a distance!
Our map above highlights and locates each of the ten San Antonio Library branches that will host our Featured Artists this year. Check back as more information is added to each icon on the map. Library icons will feature information about the library branch, including a link for directions. These icons will also include information about the two artists who will be creating murals at each location. School icons represent all TeamWorks participants, whose murals will be featured on the TeamWorks tab as they are received.
Maps to Murals will help you plan your Chalk It Up day, October 10, when you can meet the artists and see the murals at the library branch in your own City Council district – or make a day of it and visit them all! The website will be updated with fun Chalk It Up content regularly, so check back often!
Artpace Chalk It Up 2021
is made possible through
a partnership with
And through the generosity of the following donors:
2020 THEME: COMMUNITY
Artpace would like to extend a special thank you to Councilman 
