Barstow students create art in the Kansas City community as part of the Kansas City Chalk and Walk Festival.
This year was Barstow’s second time participating in the annual Kansas City Chalk and Walk Festival. The KC Chalk and Walk is a two-day event where Kansas City artists design chalk murals in Historic City Market in Kansas City. Five-by-five “street canvases” are sponsored by either businesses or individuals, and artists from all around the Kansas City area have the opportunity to promote their businesses and make new connections.
Ms. Amanda Lea, Barstow’s middle and upper school 2-D art teacher, led the Barstow-sponsored student group for the second time this past weekend. This year’s theme was Halloween. “The art was a bit better overall, because last year, the theme was really vague. It was just nature. So you have like a really wide range of interpretations and this year it was Halloween,” said Ms. Lea.
To register, students must submit a design for their plot that corresponds with the theme. Ms. Lea explained the process, “One person suggested to do something with Tim Burton. And so from there, we decided to do the Beetlejuice American Gothic Interpretation.”
The students then took a copy of their sketch and drew it with pastel chalk, laminating the copy due to how messy chalk can be. “It gets really dirty out there,” said Ms. Lea. “It’s a lot more work than you might think.” The event can get grueling, as multiple hours in the heat laboring over chalk takes a toll.
Lilly Kennedy Gregg ‘24, one of the students at the event, said that the chalk medium adds a layer of difficulty as well. “You have to make sure you don’t put too much on because it’ll get all dusty and kind of grayish eventually. So you have to work with that technique,” she said. “A lot of technique and style are put into this, specifically because the medium is so different.”
The students worked together to create their design, an American Gothic-inspired piece showcasing two characters from the movie Beetlejuice. After completing their first plot, the Barstow students added an extra smaller design of two characters in Halloween costumes from the show Bluey. The festival gave the students a chance to work together in ways they’d never done before. “Working with other people you have to be able to account for their style and make sure that everybody knows what they’re doing and how it’s going to work out,” said Kennedy Gregg.
Kennedy Gregg added that her experiences from Barstow helped her in the process: “Taking from Barstow, learning how to take critique and talk through with other people about your art process is really important.”
Taking away from the experience, Barstow could potentially incorporate some aspects into our school’s community. “I think it’d be really cool to do something similar here. Maybe like as a fundraiser for the arts department to do like a chalk festival where maybe like, you pay like a small registration fee and we block off an area in the courtyard,” said Lea.
Kennedy Gregg also had some suggestions for how a similar event could benefit multiple grades. “I think getting everybody involved in the Upper School and in the entire Barstow community to do something not only like with art but also like outdoors,” she said, “which is really important for developing your style and a sense of community within Barstow as well.”
Ms. Lea already plans to have Barstow take part in the event again next year. While it may be a tough event, in the end, it was worth it. “When you’re there and you’re hot and you’re dirty and sweaty, it’s kind of miserable, but then you see the final result and it’s pretty cool,” said Lea.
