Tacoma Urbanist
Aug. 7, 2008 at 12:22am
Government Finally Acknowledges Frost Park Chalkings
Nearly four months have transpired since the first Frost Park Chalk Off on April 11, 2008, nearly four months ago.
Chalk Off competitions have been repeatedly reported in local media such as the News Tribune, Weekly Volcano, Exit 133 and an uncountable number of blogs on Feed Tacoma.Yet the Chalk Off competitions have never to my knowledge been recognized by any governmental agency whatsoever. Until today.
MetroParks Describes Frost Park Chalk Off History
Metro Parks, the first government agency to acknowledge Frost Park Chalk Offs writes:
http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=742What's Frost Park? Frost Park is located at 9th & Pacific in downtown Tacoma and is named after Larry Frost, a Tacoma police officer who was killed in the line of duty in 1977.
What's it have to do with chalk? In March 2008, inspired by a discussion during Local Life's "Go Local or Die" event, a group began to gather for lunch there each Friday as an effort to make positive use of the often forgotten park.
In April, local artist R.R. Anderson introduced the chalk-offs as a bit of lunch-hour fun. The now-weekly showcase has included temporary works of art by some of Tacoma's top talent, as well as the all-ages scribblings and scrawlings of folks in it just for fun.
Comment : The rendition by MetroParks is pretty accurate.
Having a significant government agency like MetroParks acknowledge Frost Park Chalk offs will hopefully bring more interests in future Episodes. The act also lowers the chance that future chalk offs will be been illegal.
Perhaps MetroParks will even be a sponsor one day.
 by FunkomaVintage on 8/7/2008 @ 2:04am | I smell taxes, tickets and licenses, not to mention EIS requirements on the chalk. |
 by dawntown on 8/7/2008 @ 9:30am | I smell FUN! |
 by scout on 8/7/2008 @ 9:44am | I smell most excellent PR! |
 by tacomachickadee on 8/7/2008 @ 9:57am | A little birdie says Scout and Dawntown are on the right path ... the path to a CHALKTASTIC GOOD TIME!
The fabulous community spirit of Frost Park has been invited to haunt the pavement just south of Tollefson on Saturday. Should be interesting ... rumor is Stowe has something up his sleeve ... or will the spirits truly rise for this special event? ;) (Extra bonus: Deborah Page is playing starting at 11 a.m. Saturday ... great music to chalk to! Or hula-hoop to if you ask Lil' Chickadee ...) |
 by Erik on 8/7/2008 @ 10:08am | I smell taxes, tickets and licenses, not to mention EIS requirements on the chalk. So far we have been able to avoid having RR Anderson's chalkings to be cleared by the Arts Commission. BTW, in response to whether RR will be at this week's chalk off, he has replied "BIG FAT YES! (fingers crossed)." |
 by NineInchNachos on 8/7/2008 @ 11:39am | nice work team.
may the tax free, ticket free and license free CHALK REVOLUTION BEGIN! |
by Erik on 8/7/2008 @ 12:24pm | Now that a large governmental agency has officially recognized Frost Park Chalk Offs, I wonder if Wikipedia will allow us to have a post there? |
by NineInchNachos on 8/7/2008 @ 12:34pm | lets try for a proclamation !
tinyurl.com/proclam |
 by Dave_L on 8/7/2008 @ 5:22pm | I admit Funkoma did make me laugh with that one.
This is a good a place as any to tell you how enthused Teddy Haggery continues to be about the chalk challenge. I ran into him again yesterday (we tend to make pit-stops at the same places). Teddy thinks big, and he maintains that in two months your version of chalk event will spread around the world. Olympia (WA) is a start. We tossed ideas back and forth, International chalk day, sister-city chalk-offs, world-wide simultaneous chalk-offs….. |
by scout on 8/7/2008 @ 5:26pm | East Coast versus West Coast Championship |
by Erik on 8/7/2008 @ 5:39pm | East Coast versus West Coast Championship Good idea. Perhaps we can make an open challenge to Seattle first. Tacoma Challenges Seattle to a Chalk Off!! I wonder if the artists there and Jean Graves et al could rise to the challenge. Last we heard, Seattle was trying to recruit chalkers for $500 a head. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKr8QzjixJ4 I did find this though: seattlepi.nwsource.com/visualart/298633_... |
by scout on 8/7/2008 @ 5:44pm | Good question. Where is Jen Graves in all of this anyway? And who does she think she is not touting the hell out of such a big story not only here in the South Sound but in all of Washington... First we take Seattle then the Right Coast! |
by scout on 8/7/2008 @ 6:00pm | Regarding the Seattle story: The solution to increasing the value of chalk art is not to require that artists become faster at creating it; it is to place more value on the art. Tacoma's Chalk art is different from Seattle's in that it is the first Northwest chalk art done on the sidewalk - inherently fugitive, which makes it supremely more valuable! |
 by jcbetty on 8/7/2008 @ 6:09pm | --and not once, in this whole conversation, did any one allude to the inherently ephemeral nature of the medium.
Gawd I love this town!! Vive la chalkers, vive la frost!! (and a steady chant of , hip hip, HOORAY!!) |
by tacomachickadee on 8/7/2008 @ 10:15pm | All day chalking on a Saturday ... aw yeah. |
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