RICHMOND, Va. — What kind of carpet is outdoors, brightly colored, and doesn’t have to be vacuumed? If you said “astro turf,” then guess again.
The correct answer is art carpet.
Julie Crowder, art teacher at William Fox Elementary, and Kirstie Hein Sadler, art teacher at Binford Middle School, adapted the project from traditional art carpets that are created in Guatemala during the Catholic celebration of Corpus Christi.
“In this collective act of celebration, community members lay out flowers, pine needles, dyed sawdust and fruits and vegetables to create an artistic and beautiful ‘carpet’ that paves the way for the holy procession to walk through the town,” Crowder wrote on the project website.
“All of my fellow travelers, students and professors alike were equally struck by not just the beauty of the carpet, but also by the way that the people of the community came together with such conviction to create something so beautiful and so temporary.”
On Tuesday, students at some Richmond Public Schools, VCU, and even students as far away as Mongolia, took their designs and visions to the sidewalk. Students used temporary art materials, and heaps upon heaps of sidewalk chalk.
“This event for us is about community collaboration and celebrates the way that art unites us despite our differences,” Crowder said.
Picture submissions from Tuesday are below in the gallery. To learn more about Art Carpet, click here.
