Berkley Street Art Fest returns with expanded pet zone, dog adoptions

BERKLEY — Berkley’s colorful art festival is back to transform the streets of the downtown with chalk.

The Berkley Street Art Fest will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 12, on Coolidge Highway, highlighted by the return of its highly anticipated chalk art contest.

Beginning as early as 8 a.m., each artist or team will create a piece of art in a 5-by-5-foot space. There will be youth, adult and team categories as part of the judging, which will occur between 2 and 3 p.m. Awards will be presented at 3:45 p.m.

“We don’t know what their chalk art’s gonna look like until they get there,” said Darlene Rothman, Berkley Area Chamber of Commerce executive director. “They’re told that they have to be family friendly, but we don’t know what they’re going to do before they get there.”

Nonparticipants of the contest also get to take part, as there is a people’s choice award, where they can vote on their favorite chalk art to receive prizes.

“We’re very happy with the quality of chalk arts that come and certainly people come who’ve never chalked before and just want to have fun, and maybe they’ve been practicing over the last year and this is a good way to come out and do it,” Rothman said.

This will be the fifth year Megan Homanick has taken part in the chalk art contest. A Berkley resident and art teacher at Clawson High School, Homanick likes to create art of creatures, with past chalk art featuring chameleons, a bird, butterflies and a pond with fish and frogs.

Homanick worked as a team on each of these works with her father, Bob.

“The first person I thought of was my dad. My dad and I, we’ve always done collaborative projects,” she said. “We had never chalked before, so it was something new for both of us to experience and come up with.”

Homanick is a fan of creating chalk art because it’s temporary and washes away, but it’s still challenging with the layering and colors.

“To do it at the Street Art Fest, it’s awesome because you meet so many people as they’re coming through the festival,” she said. “You get to talk to other people about the art that you’re making, about the art that they’re seeing. A lot of people, especially kids, ask questions like, ‘How do you do that? What’s that supply?’ You get to kind of share this technique or this process that, for the last five years now, we’ve been kind of honing in on or kind of having fun and really kind of developing it and making it our own.”

Whether it’s from judging or from the people’s choice award, Homanick and her dad have won an award in some fashion in each year they’ve participated, which she said was an honor and which motivates her and her father to come up with something good for their next chalk art.

This year, Homanick said, they’ll be making chalk art of her dog, Lentil.

“We’re so excited,” she said. “We can’t wait. It’s something we look forward to every single summer. It’s kind of, you know, mark it on our calendar once the date’s announced and get signed up and start brainstorming and start working. Obviously, I’m a teacher so I have the summer off, and so it’s a nice chance for me to really express my art and have some fun creating with my dad.”

The Street Art Fest also is home to vendors, a beer garden, a kids zone and a culinary corridor with food options. There also will be an art demonstration from David Zinn from 1 to 2:30 p.m. and a collaborative mural project from Daniel Cascardo.

Expanded this year from the last festival is a zone dedicated to pets. There will be a Yappy Hour Dog Zone with Scrubber’s Dog Wash hosting dog adoptions, pet portraits and more. There also will be another dog adoption area from No Dogs Left Behind near the bounce houses.

Last year’s adoption event proved to be popular with 13 dogs being adopted, which led to the expansion, Rothman said.

“We wanted people coming who have dogs,” she said. “It’s a great event that’s family friendly and pet friendly. So, we want to encourage people that do have pets. Because we have a lot of kids events, people think, you know, they’ll bring their kids, but this one you can bring your dog. And because it’s a strolling event, it’s a good place that you can walk around with your dog to do that.”

To sign up for the chalk art contest or find more information, visit berkleychamber.com/berkley-street-art-fest.