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| Artist- Cecelia Linayao, Photo by Michael Brown |
I Madonnari Italian Street Painting
Festival will celebrate its 27th anniversary from 10 a.m. to 6
p.m. on May 25, 26, and 27 at the Santa Barbara Mission, with a special
ceremony at noon on Monday, May 27, on the mission steps to honor Marilyn
Zellet. This year’s festival is dedicated to her, in recognition of her work for
the past 13 years in developing and coordinating the festival’s wonderful
Italian Market on the mission’s lawn.
The I Madonnari, the first festival of its kind in North America to present the performance art of street painting, is presented by and is a benefit for the Children’s Creative Project (CCP), a nonprofit arts education program of the Santa Barbara County Education Office. The festival is sponsored in part by The Berry Man, Loreto Plaza Shopping Center, Granite Construction, Bella Vista Designs, the Girsh and Hochman families, Union Bank, and Yardi Systems.
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| Artist- Julio Jimenez, Photo- Neil Campbell |
Marilyn
Zellet and her family members have been closely involved with the production of
the Italian Market since I Madonnari
began in 1987. They owned an event planning and rental company in Santa Barbara
and helped plan the Italian Market for the first festival. After selling the
company, Marilyn was invited to join the Children’s Creative Project Board of
Directors and soon served as its president. Taking on more responsibility for
the production of the market, Marilyn became the festival’s Italian Market
coordinator, a position she has cherished. Donn Zellet has continued to
coordinate the festival’s famous lemon-rosemary barbecue chicken, eldest son
Ian participated as a street-painting artist for eight years, son Trevor is
owner of Bella Vista Designs and provides electrical and sound equipment,
daughter Cristina and her husband Simon Bentley serve on the CCP Board of
Directors, and granddaughter Gaia operates the festival’s coffee and dessert booth.
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| Artist- Tom Meaney & Family, Photo- Neil Campbell |
Although
she is now spending more time with her grandchildren, Marilyn said she is
excited to help guide the festival’s new market coordinator, Bryan Kerner.
The festival features 150
street-painting squares drawn on the pavement in front of the Santa Barbara
Mission. The “squares” range in size from 4 by 6 feet to 12 by 12 feet, and in
price from $125 to $650, each one bearing the name of its sponsor — a business,
organization, family, or individual. As the public watches, 300 local artists
transform these pavement canvases into elaborate compositions in unexpectedly
vibrant colors. Members of the public can sign up at the festival’s information
booth to become a street-painting sponsor or apply to be an artist for next
year.
Featured Artists Cheryl and Wayne
Renshaw will create a 12-by-16-foot street painting as the public watches from
the mission steps. This year, the two artists will share their
three-dimensional image (in what’s known as anamorphic perspective) of what
angels see when they look down from heaven. Sentinels of the portal connecting
heaven and earth will include Father Junipero Serra, to celebrate his 300th
birthday; the late Father Virgil Cordano, longtime pastor of the mission; Saint
Francis; and Saint Clare of Assisi. The angels will play in and around the
portal as they witness the sights below.
Wayne
Renshaw is an architect and his wife Cheryl is a landscape designer. They live
in Santa Clara, a short walk from Mission Santa Clara, another mission founded
by Father Serra. This will be their 14th year celebrating I Madonnari at Mission Santa Barbara.
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| Artist- Tracey Lee Stum, Photo-Neil Campbell |
An expanded area for children to create
street paintings will be inside a private parking area at the west side of
the mission. Some 600 Kids’ Squares are available; when completed they will
form a colorful, 40-by-60 foot patchwork of street paintings. Throughout the
three-day event, 2-by-2-foot Kids’ Squares can be purchased for $10, which
includes a box of chalk.
Live music and the Italian
Market will be featured on the mission lawn throughout the three-day event.
In the mission sanctuary, there will be free concerts of sacred music from 6 to
7 p.m. by The Quire of Voyces on Saturday, May 25, and the Adelfos
Ensemble on Sunday, May 26. The fabuloso
Italian Market offers authentic Italian cuisine produced by the Children’s
Creative Project Board of Directors. According to Board President Phil Morreale
and Market Coordinator Bryan Kerner, this year’s market will include
lemon-rosemary roasted chicken, pasta, pizza, calamari, Italian sausage
sandwiches, gelati, coffees, and
specialty items designed from the prior years’ festivals, including T-shirts,
posters, notecards and more.
History
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| Photo by Michael Brown |
I Madonnari is produced by the Children’s Creative Project and
benefits its arts education program. The organization is the first to create a
festival in North America featuring the public art form of street painting.
After traveling to a street painting competition in Italy, CCP’s Executive
Director Kathy Koury created the concept of sponsored street-painting squares
as a fundraiser and produced the first event in 1987.
The I Madonnari festival also was one of a
yearlong series of events that celebrated the Santa Barbara Mission’s
bicentennial. The late Father Virgil Cordano and the mission’s bicentennial
committee members worked with Koury to include the street-painting festival in
the mission’s celebration. The festival has continued to grow and now is being
replicated in more than 100 cities throughout the U.S. and Mexico.
In November
2012, five I Madonnari street
painters — Ann Hefferman, Cecelia Linayao, Meredith Morin, Melody Owens, and
Phil Roberts — traveled to Santa Barbara’s sister city of Puerto Vallarta to
create street paintings with local artists and children. Koury has continued to
work with Santa Barbara and Puerto Vallarta Sister City representatives to
further develop the festival that has taken place in the city’s main plaza
since 2006. The project is co-sponsored by the Santa Barbara-Puerto Vallarta
Sister City Committee.
Since 1992,
the Children’s Creative Project has produced a second festival at the San Luis
Obispo Mission Plaza to raise funds for CCP arts education programs in that
county. This year’s festival Sept. 7 and 8 is co-presented with the American
Institute of Architects California Central Coast Chapter.
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| Photo by Michael Brown |
Street painting, using chalk as the
medium, is an Italian tradition that is believed to have begun during the 16th
century. Called “Madonnari” because
of their practice of reproducing the image of the Madonna (Our Lady), the early
Italian street painters were vagabonds who would arrive in small towns and
villages for Catholic religious festivals and transform the streets and public
squares into temporary galleries for their ephemeral works of art. With the
first rains of the season, their paintings would be gone. Today, the tradition
lives on in the village of Grazie di Curtatone, Italy, where the annual
International Street Painting Competition is held in mid-August in the piazza of the Catholic Sanctuary.
Festival proceeds benefit the Children’s
Creative Project, a nonprofit arts education program of the Santa Barbara
County Education Office. The project sponsors fine arts programs conducted
during school hours for 50,000 children in county schools. Through a program of
resident artist workshops, 43 artists conduct visual and performing arts
lessons for 23,000 children. Fundraising from the I Madonnari festival helps continue the work of the Children’s
Creative Project to support annual performance events, among other activities.
In February at
the Arlington Theatre, the CCP presented free morning performances of the African Children’s Choir of Uganda for 4,000
local elementary schoolchildren. Additional funding support comes from Yardi
Systems, The Towbes Foundation, Santa Barbara Foundation, and The Dreier Family
Foundation.
This year
50,000 children at nearly 100 school sites have viewed more than 450
performances presented by 50 touring companies sponsored in the Children’s
Creative Project’s Arts Catalog. To support this program of touring artist
performances, festival proceeds also provide every county public school with a
$200 arts credit to partially subsidize touring company performance fees.
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| Photo by Neil Campbell |
For festival photos (including photo
credits and artist credits), further information about the Children’s
Creative Project and I Madonnari,
or for help scheduling artist interviews, call Kathy Koury at 964–4710, ext.
4411 or go to www.imadonnarifestival.com.
TO INTERVIEW:
Marilyn Zellet — (805) 452-5891
Featured Artists Cheryl and
Wayne Renshaw — (408) 247-3428
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| Artist- Delphine Louis Anaya, Photo- Michael Brown |
