Prizes handed out to youngsters for ‘Chalk It Up’ efforts

Youngsters who tried their hands at pavement art during Crewe’s Chalk It Up event have been rewarded for their creative efforts.

Chalk It Up, an international pavement art festival, took place over the August bank holiday weekend and saw award-winning artists transforming Crewe’s Market Square into a riot of colour.

It was organised by Cheshire East Council, in collaboration with Liverpool-based Urban Canvas, with the authority also funding the event in partnership with Crewe Town Council and Whitby Morrison, renowned ice cream van manufacturers.

As part of the festival, youngsters were invited to enter a competition held on Lyceum Square, in which they were given free rein to create their own chalk drawings.

This week, Teigan Bailey, from Crewe, Hester Molyneux, from Worleston, and Kathryn Steele, from Church Lawton, each received prizes for their efforts after being selected as the overall winners of three age categories.

Six-year-old Teigan, a pupil at St Michael’s Community Academy, was named winner of the six years and under category for her mermaid drawing. In the ages 7-11 category, nine-year-old Hester, a St Oswald’s Primary School pupil, won with her picture of a sea turtle.

Finally, 13-year-old Kathryn, who attends Alsager High School, won the ages 12-18 category with her ‘silhouette skyline’ drawing.

In total, 86 youngsters entered the competition, with their artwork judged on composition, use of colour and overall design.

During a prize-giving ceremony held at Crewe’s Municipal Buildings, Cheshire East mayor Councillor Arthur Moran and Crewe mayor Councillor Diane Yates presented each of the winners with a certificate, desk easel, art pad and box of pastels.

Cllr Moran said: “Chalk It Up was a brilliant event for Crewe and one which really captured people’s imaginations.

“Well done to all the youngsters who entered the children’s competition – there were so many excellent entries and the standards were very high. It was a pleasure to meet the competition winners and I hope they’ve been inspired by Chalk It Up.”

Artists travelled from across the globe to take part in Chalk It Up, including from the United States, Mexico, the Netherlands, Italy, France and the UK.

More than 8,000 visitors attended the two-day festival to watch them in action and thousands more visited in the days that followed.

Cllr Diane Yates said: “Chalk It Up was fantastic and we are delighted to have worked with Cheshire East on this flagship event.

“People travelled from far and wide to attend the festival and it was great to see many of them having a go at pavement art themselves, especially all the youngsters who produced some brilliant artwork.”