A Sweet Ceremony for Winners of the North Park Festival of the Arts Poster Contest

The eighteenth annual North Park Festival of the Arts is right around the corner (May 17, 2014), and it promises to be the biggest and best ever. There will be scores of local artists, musicians, dancers, activities, food, and naturally, this being North Park, an epic craft beer garden.

In the lead-up to the Festival, the organizers held a poster contest where local artists competed to have their work featured on promotional materials for the big event.  This year, there was also a kids’ division, in which students at Jefferson Elementary created art based on the theme of alternative transportation.

Friends of Jefferson member Donna Posin, who was already involved in planning for the festival, came up with the idea of including Jefferson students in the contest. She, North Park Mainstreet Executive Director Angela Landsberg, Jefferson Principal Francisco Morga, 4^th grade teacher Lisa Martin, and IB coordinator Erin Knight, all worked together to plan the contest, which took place during the school day on February 21^st.

Display of student art on the fence in the garden at Art Produce

At a recent Friends of Jefferson meeting, Principal Francisco Morga explained that five local artists came to the Jefferson that day and spent several hours working with students and helping them translate their thoughts about the them into a piece of visual art. Francisco said that the 4^th and 5^th graders were very focused, and the artist-facilitators were impressed with their talent and dedication to the task.

On Thursday, March 13, 2014, Art Produce hosted an award ceremony for both winners from both the adult and kid divisions. It was a lovely event held in the garden behind the building, with food provided by URBN pizza, drinks supplied by Café Calabria, and the grand prize for winning kid—a rad bike and helmet—generously donated by North Park Bikes! 

Angela Landsberg of North Park Mainstreet addresses the artists and guests

The winner of the kids’ contest was Omar Capuchino, and the runners up were Luis Ruiz and Tiffany Park.

Ed of North Park Bikes presents the grand prize to Omar

The artwork from the winners of both the kids’ and adults’ divisions will be used in flyers, banners and other materials, and we are working on ideas for reproducing and selling some of the children’s art to benefit our foundation. Look for our booth at the North Park Festival of the Arts!

Photos by Donna Posin