Children’s Creative Project backers believe in mission to help partner scores of artists with schools throughout Santa Barbara County and beyond
By Jennifer Best, Noozhawk Contributing Writer | @NoozhawkNews
May 14, 2021 10:00 p.m.
[Noozhawk’s note: Third in a series sponsored by the Hutton Parker Foundation.]
Throngs of art enthusiasts will have the opportunity to admire locally produced street paintings in coronavirus-friendly, socially distanced style during the 35th I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festivalon May 29-31.
Artists of all ages and stages will fan out on driveways, sidewalks, and South Coast nooks and crannies to offer inspiration and raise funds for arts education across three counties.
“I Madonnari is a great cultural event that brings in potential tax dollars, money spent on local business as well as raising money for a good cause,” said Megan DeLoreto of Loreto Plaza, a family-owned business that has sponsored the event for more than 30 years.
“You’re doing a lot of things with this event while fundraising for great programs: arts education accessible to everyone in the community.”
The festival is the major annual fundraiser for Children’s Creative Project, a nonprofit organization under the aegis of the Santa Barbara County Education Office, which partners 67 artists with 80 schools serving nearly 40,000 students annually in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties.
I Madonnari’s sponsors and participants also help provide 80 schools every year with more than 400 assembly performances by 135 different touring companies in dance, theater, music and visual arts.
Click here for more information about sponsoring street art squares, or click here to make an online donation.
“I Madonnari shows the creative process in action, shows something from the beginning to completion,” CCP executive director Kathy Koury told Noozhawk. “That’s what we’re about as an organization, sharing the creative process with children,” Koury discovered the art form in the mid-1980s when photographer Jesse Alexandershared his images from an international street painting competition in Italy.
“Street painting began in Italy in the 16th century, possibly by disabled veterans and untrained artists trying to make a living,” she explained. “They would travel from town to town to draw during Catholic religious festivals in front of the churches. People would throw down coins to express appreciation for their work.
“The artists became known as the Madonnari.”
Koury, long a volunteer in Santa Barbara schools and a founder of CCP, launched a street painting residency at Peabody School with Kurt Wenner, an artist who had practiced the art form in Italy.
After a visit in 1986 to Grazie di Curtatone to take in a competition, Koury and CCP volunteers were inspired.
“I had been looking for a fundraising event that was different from a classic car show,” Koury said. “I saw this and I knew this was it. I saw people, young and old, drawing, small and large squares, amazing work.”
Within two weeks, a neighbor knocked on her door to volunteer, and within a year, she and a small crew of volunteers designed and launched the first North American street art competition.
With the historic Santa Barbara Mission celebrating its own bicentennial, and the art form’s traditional ties with the Catholic Church, the festival’s first choice of home was clear.
“We were thinking maybe we could have an exhibit of children’s drawings of the old mission, but Father Virgil (Cordano) embraced the idea,” Koury recalled. “The old parking lot was like gravel, but within 15 minutes, it was decided: they’d repave the parking lot.”
Francis “Sissy” and James DeLoreto were among the early sponsors of the event. They were proud Italians, their granddaughter, Megan, said, and true believers in providing arts education to all.
“It was unique at the time, and our family felt it was important to have arts in the community and schools,” Megan DeLoreto said.
Over the following decades, the little festival in a church parking lot blossomed into I Madonnari, a beloved event that draws artists to create under the watchful eye of thousands of wandering visitors. It expanded into sister events in San Luis Obispo and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and more than 200 communities have adopted their own version of the fundraiser across the United States.
“Santa Barbara has a lot of events, and they’re all wonderful, but I Madonnari was the one I loved the most,” said Barbara LaCorte, a CCP board member. “It’s such a celebration of community and creativity. It brought together local businesses, artists, sponsors, schools, family — a real celebration of Santa Barbara.
“And on mission grounds, what a wonderful place to put on a festival!”
When COVID-19 stood the world on its ear in 2020, I Madonnari went “underground.” The team of featured artists created their 12-foot-by-48-foot work within the confines of the Santa Barbara Bowl, and only news media members were provided access to share images of the sponsored piece with the world.
“We lost not only the ability to share that creative process with thousands of visitors, but a major fundraising opportunity through our Italian market,” Koury said.
“There were no sales of food or our specialty items, which typically brings us about $30,000 to use toward arts programs in schools.”
A year later, COVID-19 restrictions are gradually lifting, but I Madonnari organizers decided not to bank on full opening. Instead, just as they always have, Koury, her staff and a hard-working, loyal band of volunteers have rolled with the punches.
This year’s I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival will go virtual this Memorial Day.
New street paintings drawn with chalk pastels will be created by artists on their driveways for festival sponsors throughout the weekend. Photos of sponsored street paintings with sponsors’ names will be posted each day on the festival’s website, Facebook and Instagram accounts. Sponsored street paintings will remain on the website until next year’s festival.
“Sponsorship has never been about exposure for us,” DeLoreto said. “The longevity of this event and the importance of keeping arts in schools when schools’ budgets are constantly cut, that’s what continues to be important to our family.
“It just takes one teacher and one subject to keep a kid in school. There’s so much more appeal when it’s music or science or other activities than the three Rs.”
While fans will have to wait another year to pick up street-side gelato, Italian sausages, sodas and more, they can log on to the festival store to purchase festival-inspired merchandise. Among the wares are face masks featuring works from prior festivals, notecards, posters, T-shirts, tote bags and aprons.
“I’m feeling tremendous hope for the future,” LaCorte said. “It seems like things are getting better with the pandemic and everything seems to be a little more bright right now.”
Click here for more information about the Children’s Creative Project. Click here to make an online donation, or click here to sponsor street art squares for the I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival.
