Welcome to the Avenue of Art - The Avenue of Art was born during the COVID lockdown as a socially distant, 24/7 chalk festival celebrating Sarasota County’s Centennial. Beginning with 100 paintings, it grew to 300 over three years, created by 240 artists from 20 countries, 80% of them local or regional. Themes range from indigenous histories and architecture to stories of resilience, wildlife, politics, and Sarasota’s cultural legacy.

The project earned the Heritage Award from the Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation for its integration of archival materials in contextualizing Sarasota County’s history. It became a beloved part of the City’s Public Art Master Plan.

Come and enjoy all the Burns Square area has to offer, and the only place on earth where 4 blocks of sidewalks are hand painted with images celebrating the Sarasota County Centennial 1921-2021. Organized and curated by the Sarasota Chalk Festival, Avenida de Colores 501c3 cultural arts organization, the experience is appealing, self-guided and educational.

THE TOUR: Your Avenue of Art walk starts at the corner of Oak Street and S. Orange Avenue by the Women's Exchange parking lot. Walk north to Laurel Street over new additions to the Avenue by Chalk Festival artists with a few community paintings too. At Laurel you cross to the east sidewalks and walk south towards The Fountain Kitchen & Wine Bar you will pass over roughly 40 sidewalk paintings. At The Fountain you walk around to the other side and continue the walk on the east side of South Pineapple Avenue, passing over 45 sidewalk paintings to Laurel Street. Cross Laurel Street and continue on the east sidewalks to Dolphin Street where you will see again, new additions to the Avenue. At Dolphin cross to the west sidewalks and head south along Burns Court. Continue to the next block passing over 34 sidewalk painting to Selby Lane. The final attached block of the walking tour consists of 21 sidewalk paintings from Selby Lane to Oak Street where the Avenue of Art tour ends. Then walk over to the SEE Alliance and Child Protection Center for the newest additions.

INFORMATIVE AND EDUCATIONAL: On most paintings, during year one, you could find a QR code affixed to the bottom right corner. With a QR reader app installed on your phone one could open your camera and aim it at the QR code where a link will appear. Clicking on the link to open the artwork page provides information about the painting and how it celebrates Sarasota County, as well as information about the artists and sponsors. One could also find QR codes for 'more info', 'donate now', and 'take survey'.

Don't have a phone? You can still come, stroll and enjoy the artwork and/or look through the paintings on your computer at home.

Artists of all ages and skill levels participated in this community event. During Phase I artist Lori Escalera traveled from California. Lori participated in the Sarasota Chalk Festival since its inauguration in 2007 and every year since. We also had two sisters, age 2 and 4, that did a sun sidewalk painting with handprints and footprints :). Chalk Festival artist Luther Rosebaro (sketch artist) from Sarasota, took up painting during the 3D Illusion Museum in 2020. Luther painted several paintings in the Avenue of Art. Kumpa Tawornprom did a painting of Snowflake, one of two full-sized elephants he carved for the 2012 Circus City USA Chalk Festival. Other Chalk Festival artists participated such as Tony Cuboliquido from Italy, Limnesh Augustine from India, Anton Pulvirenti from Australia, Cathy Gallatin from Oregon, Jincy Babu from India, Michela Bogoni from Italy, Sharyn Chan from California, Chris Conant from Illinois, Lele Cosmo from Italy, Hilary Frambes from Florida, Ivan Garz from Mexico, Pablo Garcia from Spain, Nancy Garza from Mexico, Maria Garcia from Mexico, Dicesar Love from Brazil, Kaitlin Kelly from Sarasota, Santiago Hernandez from Mexico, Kanako Matsumoto from Japan, Chris Monaghan from Florida, Sergio Nino from Columbia, Roberto Rodriguez from Mexico,Randall Sequra from Denver, Dogan Sitka from Turkey, David Surrena from Florida, Holland Winslow from Virginia, Joel Yau from California, Carrie Phillips from Florida, Fred Wilms from California, Janet Tombros from Orlando, Bridget Lyons from Tampa, Truman Adams from Sarasota, Holland King from Tampa, Erik Schlake and Deb Lawless from Ft. Myers, Dennis Pannullo from Florida, William Spiess from Montana who turned 80 this year, as well as Jeff Pilkinton from Indiana. We also had students from Ringling College and Booker High, families and groups of teenagers working together. This is a true international and local community exhibition of talent.

The web pages are filled with historical tidbits from our writers such as Nanette Crist who wrote content for over 45 paintings that are both clever and interesting; Bill Baranowski who thought up stories for some of the more interesting paintings such as his "have you ever buried a body at the beach" story; and content from Sarasota History Alive that has a plethora of history on its website, Mote Marine, and Save Our Birds.

Through this cultural art experience, you will uncover some surprising Sarasota happenings, including ground-breaking civil rights achievements, golf history, tidbits about natural environment, our local animal friends, and a few 3D illusions that remain from the beginning of the COVID shutdown in April 2020.

The Avenue of Art is ephemeral, just like like chalk art (Italian Madonnari), flower carpets (Italian Infiorata) and is disappearing through FDOT mandates. Enjoy it while you can.