In celebration of the National Arts Month, the UST Museum of Arts and Sciences held the Thomasian Chalk Festival, the first ever museum-sponsored inter-school chalk art competition.
Last February 28, the calm isles of the Benavides Plaza were filled with the colorful paintings of chalk on the floor. Among the participants were college students from the University of the Philippines, Philippine Women’s University, Far Eastern University, University of the East Caloocan, College of the Holy Spirit, St. Scholastica’s College, Technological Institute of the Philippines, Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology, Technological University of the Philippines, Feati University, St. Joseph’s College, and the University of Santo Tomas.
Chalk art started sometime in the 17thcentury in Europe where artists painted street walls with chalk pastel, often drawing an appreciative crowd who would drop money into the tin cans or begging bowls of the artists. The United States copied the idea and came up with the Chalk Festival.
Jocelyn Tullao of the UST Museum expressed delight at the number of participants. While the Museum prepared for 60, 123 contestants came.
The participants showed creativity in maximizing the use of limited colors by applying bristle brushes, sponges and rags to enhance their drawings that covered 49 square feet of the ground.
The contest theme was “Our World in Colors.”
The first prize winner was a collaborative effort of four students from different schools: Rogin Tallad and Jhervy Nuez of UST; Vicloreza Aznar of UP Diliman, and Gino Van Virnon Luna of St. Joseph’s College. They drew an image of six children of different races drawing graffiti on a wall.
The judges were Raul Isidro, president of the Philippine Association of Printmakers; Fidel Sarmiento, president of the Art Association of the Philippines; Alma Quinto, president of the Philippine Art Educator’s Association; and Victoria Erera of the UP Diliman Vargas Museum.
