Tahoe Arts Festival features Italian Street Painting, July 11 & 12
Posted on June 30, 2009
Filed Under North Tahoe Art Scene
The Tahoe Arts Festival brings the romantic art of street painting, called I Madonnari, to the North Shore of Lake Tahoe on July 11 and 12, 2009.
Proceeds from the event go towards local non-profit organizations and provide scholarships to Lake Tahoe/Truckee art students.
An Italian tradition since the 16th Century, street painting – using chalk as a medium – is enjoying a renaissance in cities throughout Western Europe and the United States. Called “Madonnari” because of their practice of reproducing the image of the Madonna, the early Italian street painters were vagabonds who would arrive in small towns and villages and transform the sidewalks and public square into temporary galleries for their ephemeral works of art. With the first rains of the season, their paintings would be gone.
For the tenth year now, local street painters will be painting on squares at the Tahoe Biltmore Lodge & Casino in Crystal Bay, Nevada on Saturday and Sunday, July 11th and 12th, 2009. Admission is free.
In addition to the street painting, there will be an Artists Marketplace, local fare, entertainment and children’s activities.
