Imagine walking into work one morning and the office building directly across from where you work was suddenly covered in a huge black and white photo of children’s faces.

You’d notice it, right?

That’s exactly the effect our Community Engagement & Education Department was going for in designing the 2012 Art Walk for this year’s PNC International Children’s Festival presented by Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital.

The 2012 Art Walk was largely inspired by an artist who goes by the moniker JR. JR, a Parisian photographer who started his work as a young man simply wanting to put his mark on the streets, began his craft as a graffiti artist. Now 29, JR’s work has taken stage in many cities and countries across the world, including Paris, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, Kenya, Switzerland, China and Italy.

JR's piece: Women Are Heroes in Kibera Slum - Kenya. January 2009

Since his start in Paris, JR has become famous for doing large graffiti style photography installations in public spaces. His main focus has been to bring art to people by bringing it to the street saying, “In the street, we reach people who never go to museums.” You can see some of his art installations on his website here.

Using JR’s style of art as inspiration, this year we decided to shift the focus off of the artwork that children have created, and focus on the children themselves. To make the biggest impact possible, we took over the Hanna Building by putting up a 20’ x 140’ banner, featuring images of children.

Several artists worked on the Art Walk project, including Toni Starinsky, Eric Mull, and Gabriel Gonzalez. Toni, who is Chairman of Visual Arts and Director of Video and The Photographic Arts at The Cleveland School of the Arts and Gabriel, a recipient of the Scholastics Art and Writing National Gold Award, worked with student photographers from the STAMP organization (Students Teaching and Mentoring Photography).

STAMP, a program based out of The Cleveland School of the Arts, photographed children who had attended Children’s Theater Series shows. Their work can be seen on several flags in Star Plaza and surrounding area.

Eric Mull, a panoramic photographer and graduate of Bowling Green State University in Visual Communications Technology and author of The American Skyscraper, worked to create the banner hanging from the Hanna Building.

So why feature children’s faces, instead of children’s art?

According to Glynis Brault, Education Program Coordinator at PlayhouseSquare, the theme of the International Children’s Festival “celebrating the world we share” really inspired the Art Walk. “Every year thousands of children come to PlayhouseSquare to attend our Children’s Theater Series shows” said Brault. “These children come from different schools, live in different cities, and have different backgrounds, but when they come to PlayhouseSquare they are brought together and share in the same experience of watching live theater.  With that in mind we thought it would be fitting to take pictures of children who attended the Children’s Theater Series

this year and those would be the faces we displayed for the Art Walk.”

Come downtown and check out the Art Walk for yourself! The Art Walk, which wraps around the Hanna Building, will be up now through the International Children’s Festival, May 4-5. In addition to many shows, there are several free activities to take part in at the festival, including workshops, children’s films, crafts and of course, the Art Walk. Hope to see you there!