Chalk it Up to Sacramento!

Chalk It Up is a non-profit arts organization established in 1991 by local artists and community art supporters. We are best known for the three-day Chalk It Up! Chalk Art & Music Festival, held annually over Labor Day Weekend in downtown Sacramento’s Fremont Park. The festival has been running for 35 years and celebrates our region’s arts and artists. Over the three-day festival, hundreds of artists, musicians, local craft and food vendors, and volunteers unite to fuel the festival, promoting community pride, civic participation, and social connection. The festival is free, and the number of attendees has grown significantly over the last three years, with over 40,000 people now attending. Our non-profit organization is deeply rooted in the principle of equity and is dedicated to serving all community members. We recognize our duty to amplify the voices of the most marginalized in our community. We will cultivate a safe and empowering environment for every community member at our programs and annual festival. We will ensure that our volunteers, artists, staff, and the education community we serve feel valued, accepted, and supported. We work to remove the predictability of success or failure that correlates with an individual’s social, cultural, or ethnic identity. With our community’s financial support, we will keep the Chalk It Up Festival FREE to the public. Chalk It Up’s mission is to empower and support the next generation of Sacramento artists through targeted art grants for young artists and programs that inspire them. In addition to the Chalk It Up! Chalk Art and Music Festival, we award $500 mini-grants through our Youth Arts Grant Program biannually. We hold the annual High School Self-Portrait Show each Spring to showcase the region’s talented high school artists. We believe in the arts, arts education, and festivals like the Chalk It Up! Chalk Art & Music Festival promotes belonging and social connections, vital to healthy, thriving communities