Fourth grader Nichelle Campbell had a hard time drawing her self portrait.
“At first I didn’t know what I was going to do,” the 10-year-old Kingsley Elementary School pupil said. “But after I thought about a lot of things about myself I started drawing what I like.” She used markers to draw confetti and basketballs.
Her portrait was on display Saturday during the 16th annual Young Evanston Artists Festival. More than 4,000 students in 43 local schools participated in the event. The sidewalks and store windows along Chicago Avenue and Dempster Street were lined with paintings, sculptures, photographs and weavings.
But art lovers had to keep their wallets in their pockets — none of the art was for sale.
Festival founder Harvey Pranian said his vision was to create a non-commercial, non-competitive visual art and performance festival in which students teachers, business owners, residents and city officials could share a role.
“It’s always been my belief that a business community should give back to the community around it,” Pranian said. “There’s hardly a section of the community that isn’t involved.”
The festival also included performances from bands, choir groups and dance troupes.
Kids Can Dance, a tuition-free dance program at Noyes Cultural Arts Center, has participated in the festival for the last 10 years, said director Shannon Battaglia. The program’s senior and junior dance companies, about 20 girls total, closed the festival Saturday afternoon.
“At first I was nervous,” said Maya Odim, who dances with the senior company of Kids Can Dance. “But after the first piece … everyone is hyped up.”
The visual performers always draw a lot of energy and attention, said Susan Sneider, a festival organizer.
“The art and the creativity expressed has grown radically,” she said. “And every year we come back we think it can’t get better, and it does.”
Pam Baumgartener, an art teacher at Evanston Township High School, said the festival is often a progression of talent because students participate each year.
Many students have been involved in the festival since kindergarten. This year, Liz Albertson, 17, was showing her surrealist paintings. “We basically had a lot of freedom,” said Albertson, an ETHS student.
But this year’s festival was a first for 7-year-old Erik Baker, whose family recently moved from Cleveland. With his contribution’s prominent place tacked to a board about Chicago, no one could have missed the bright blue creation, which he named “The Person Scuba Diving in the Deep Ocean.”
“I like drawing because if you can get the colors you want you can draw whatever you feel like,” Baker said.
