09/08/2026
Avenue of Art: Remembering Sarasota’s Living History by Chalk Festival
It has been one year, but seems like yesterday when approximately 300 works of art created by hundreds of artists were removed from Sarasota’s sidewalks, bringing an extraordinary chapter of community-created public art to an abrupt and tearful demise
This year, we commemorate that anniversary not with silence, but with art.
In recognition of the 100th anniversary of the Ringling Circus’s arrival in 1927 making Sarasota its home, a chalk Coloring Book Installation celebrates the artists, stories, individuals, dreamers, and cultural traditions that have helped shape Sarasota as a cultural hub over the past century.
The installation invites the public to participate, where history is not merely observed, but experienced, and created collaboratively.
The project serves as both commemoration and continuation: a remembrance of what was lost, a celebration of hope endures, and a reflection on the vital role public art plays in preserving a community’s cultural memory.
Join us in coloring history.
Celebrate 100 years of Sarasota’s circus heritage.
Honor the artists who made the Avenue of Art possible.
Help us write the next chapter of Sarasota’s living cultural history.
Installation designed and created by Denise Kowal, refined with the help of Bill Baranowski, character development painted by Beck Lane, Circus Master given life by Sam Conable and the first to color in an elephant was Denise’s 3 year old grandson!
An Elephant Never Forgets - 75 individual sidewalk elements—24 elephants, 25 human circus figures and 26 colorful ball spaces—forming a continuous procession around the historic Burns Square : Events. .. 24, 25, 26 then the year 1927 when the Circus came to town!
