Holiday Window Painting
On November 22, 2009 at 12:00PM, Elmira Downtown Development will host the 3rd Annual Holiday Window Painting Project for the downtown district. EDD is seeking local organizations, schools, families, and any community member who would like to participate into turning our downtown into a work of art for the holidays.

Please join EDD in this fun filled event –there’s a window for everyone. Come prepared with fabulous creative ideas. EDD will provide the supplies, cookies and hot chocolate…. And DRESS warmly. Again, EDD welcomes all groups, organizations, family and friends to brighten up our downtown windows with holiday scenes.

Also on that day, the Handprints of Pride project will be launched, said Jennifer Herrick, executive director of EDD.

Handprints of Pride is the second installment of the SquareART project in Clemens Square by local artist Brandi Smith and will involve community youths in taking a stance against vandalism, she said.

Area schools will adopt a pillar or a vacant storefront window, and students will participate by placing their handprint as a signature to take pride in their surroundings, Herrick said.

Each school will receive gloves and paints in their school colors, as well as cookies and hot cocoa, she said.

Interested students can also volunteer to participate in the first phase of the project that includes Smith’s painting of 15 cement pillars to cover negative graffiti left behind by vandals, she said.

* To register to paint or to volunteer to help with this event, call Herrick at (607) 734-0341 or send e-mail to jherrick@elmiradowntown.com. Volunteer forms are available at www.elmiradowntown.com.

Save-the-date for Elmira’s Masterpiece Weekend!

July 11 & 12, 2009

Familiar with the energy, enthusiasm and richness of the region’s artist communities, Elmira Downtown Development is confident Elmira will become an art destination experience. The Second Annual Elmira Street Painting Festival will foster such interest and attraction, gathering local, regional and national artists and visitors to engage in the outdoor creation of what we hope will be become one of Elmira’s long-standing legacies.

In sixteenth-century Italy, street painting began when roaming artists transformed nondescript pavement into art with their chalks. Four centuries later and an ocean apart, street painting continues to thrive as a vital element of artistic expression in community festivals across the United States, each drawing thousands upon thousands of visitors–viewers at art.

The Second Annual Elmira Street Painting Festival will offer a rare glimpse into the creation of art for both artists and viewers, challenging the perception of artistic environments from that of the lights and walls of a traditional museum setting, to one constrained only by the streetlights and sidewalks of a non-traditional canvas, the pavement.

Join artists and community members as we celebrate art and Elmira, outside of the box, outside of the gallery – simply and magnificently, outside!

A number of musical acts will perform during the festival. Saturday, the lineup is Paul Speck, 12:30 to 1 p.m.; Alvin & The Upsetters, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.; The Relics, 4-5 p.m.; and Banooba, 6 to 8 p.m. Musical lineup for Sunday: Grey Matters, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.; and Wendy Owen & Renegade, 2:30 to 4 p.m.

Leave us a comment and let us know if you plan on creating artwork or attending!