COVID-19 may have erased the chalk, but not the art. Instead of doing an event this year, New Haven decided to allow one artist to paint something for the festival each weekend in order to still allow the artists to flourish during these uncertain times.
Every year, New Haven hosts a chalk festival sponsored by The Shops of Yale, an organization of merchants from the Chapel Historic and Broadway districts. Along Chapel and Broadway, 75 artists compete for big prizes. The event also has a kids freestyle zone with a free box of chalk, free outdoor craft activities, face painting, exclusive offers to retailers and restaurants, a raffle and more. The prizes include a $1,000 gift card to Hull’s Art Supply and Framing, a $500 gift card to L.L. Bean and a $250 gift card to Patagonia. First place in each People’s Choice Awards category will receive a $100 gift card to J.Crew or Lululemon; Artist’s Choice winners in each category will receive a $75 gift card to Urban Outfitters, and a $25 gift card to Ashley’s Ice Cream.
This is Zachary Chernack, an artist from Naugatuck, Connecticut. Speaking to Zachary about the current situation, he said; “New Haven has chosen eight artists out of the 75 artists that they had to come and paint a mural every weekend. it’s a great opportunity to be able to come and do what I love.”
New Haven also placed the murals across the street from the event in order to show off the artists work. They plan to move the murals around to different areas in the near future.
Chernack has also been teaching at Cooperative High School for 10 years as an art teacher.
“The pandemic has affected me as an artist in a few ways. The first is that events like the New Haven chalk festival are being canceled,”Chernack said.. “It was always a fun event and a great way to meet new people and have new people see my work. Another way is that I haven’t had much time to work on my art.
Even during the pandemic, Chernack finds himself not being able to work on his art. But is still hopeful while being able to teach a subject that he absolutely loves.
“I’ve been teaching from home and at the beginning was helping my six year old with online learning. Now I’m still home with my six year old. So in between teaching from home I am taking care of her too. My art mostly consists of portraiture so it hasn’t changed much. However, my students’ art has changed to reflect how they are feeling.”
“I came up with the idea myself,” said Chernack, in reference to the theme of the competition. “The theme for all the murals was to represent New Haven, I thought pizza and Yale.” “The idea went through several iterations before coming to the final composition.”
Art means a lot to artists who spend their lives perfecting their craft and inspiring others to be creative and love their art, no matter how it looks.
“For me, as cliche as it may sound, art is a way of life,” Chernack said. “It’s defined me for as long as I can remember and as a teacher it is my goal to feed that same passion for my students.”