RIPLEY COUNTY, IN — The Ripley County Community Foundation, Inc. (RCCF), through its Ripley Youth Outreach Program, hosted the 2nd annual Chalktoberfest on October 9th. Chalktoberfest is a competitive chalk art contest for students in the 6th through 12th grades. The contest had 12 participants from five different area high schools and two different middle schools who competed for cash prizes. This year’s theme challenged each student artist to draw a 3’ x 3’ mural of their favorite album cover. Each of the talented student artists had three hours to complete their chalk mural. Student artists were judged on the use of materials, originality and creativity, execution of theme, and overall design.
During the competition, local musician Matthew Lamping, performed for spectators. Ripley Youth Outreach also welcomed five local amateur artists to create their own murals during the event. Hannah Lohrum, an artist from Milan, created a mural based upon the “Lion King” soundtrack. Kyle Hunteman and Andrea Grimsley, who are both teachers at Batesville High School, created a Joni Mitchell-inspired album cover. Matthew Gadberry, an art teacher at South Ripley High School, created a mural of Deftoner, and Heather Reichert, an English teacher at South Ripley, created a Manchester Orchestra-inspired mural.
Ripley Youth Outreach brought Chalktoberfest to Ripley County in an attempt to expand the opportunities available for teenagers to showcase their artistic talents. Abe Streator, member of Ripley Youth Outreach, noted, “Having professional artists creating murals at Chalktoberfest provided students with the unique opportunity to learn different techniques that they could add to their skill set.”
“Ripley Youth Outreach is one way that the Ripley County Community Foundation is able to give local youth a voice within their communities and the power to create the positive change they want to see,” stated Amy Streator, Executive Director of the Ripley County Community Foundation. Streator further noted, “The RCCF Board of Directors believes that it is important to foster a positive opinion of Ripley County within our young people so that they will stay invested in Ripley County into adulthood. This long-term investment by young people will help keep our communities vibrant and relevant for the foreseeable future.”
The 2021 Chalktoberfest winners in the high school division were: Megan Bauer coming in 1st place with her rendition of “Hysteria” by Def Leppard, Katie Mitchell coming in 2nd place with the album cover “Willow” by Willow Smith and 3rd place went to Rory Heffelmire with her “Born in the USA” album cover by Bruce Springsteen. The winners in the middle school division were: 1st place to Bella Weberding with her “Jaws” inspired mural, 2nd place to Aaron Bauer with AC/DC’s “Back in Black” album cover, and 3rd place to Leigh Walmsley with her album cover inspired by “I Spy”.
Chalktoberfest is just one more way the Ripley County Community Foundation is Connecting People Who Care with Causes that Matter. The chalk contest will return in the fall of 2022!
Any questions regarding Chalktoberfest should be directed to the Ripley County Community Foundation, which is located at 13 E. George Street, Suite B in Batesville; by phone at (812) 933-1098 or via email at office@rccfonline.org.
(Ripley County Community Foundation press release)
