Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/92622
CHALK ONE UP FOR SARASOTA A clown beckons the onlookers. Photo by Norman Schimmel IN ITS FIFTH YEAR, SARASOTA CHALK FESTIVAL COMES INTO ITS OWN AS AN INTERNATIONAL VENUE AND MAJOR ATTRACTION By Scott Proffitt Staff Writer It was not her choice or her fault. She was just walking by on her way to take care of about a dozen things. Someone stopped her to ask something. Then another person came to a halt in front of her, and suddenly she was boxed in by people with multiple queries — so I decided to join them. By the time I had asked a couple of questions of Denise Kowal, the founder of the Sarasota Chalk Festival, we had been interrupted about six times. Many people would have been harried or fraz- zled, or at least asked me to come back some other time when perhaps they were not in the throes of setting up an international art show, steering 500 or so volunteers and interacting with a diverse group of folks from tenants to daughters-in-law. However, Kowal juggled all of this with a charm and aplomb that must at least partially account for her success on so many fronts. Not that success has come easily for the Sara- sota Chalk Festival, which is in its fifth year. Only in the past two years has the event ma- tured and reached a firm foundation, with art- ists from around the world eagerly coming to Sarasota to participate in it. That is the same time frame over which it appears the City of