XII Madonnari Festival begins this weekend in Puerto Vallarta

From November 10 to 12, the Plaza de Armas will be filled with color from the “XII Madonnari Painting Festival”, organized by the Committee of Sister Cities Puerto Vallarta-Santa Bárbara, with the support of the Vallartense Institute of Culture.

With twelve years of tradition, the festival is a contest in which both consecrated artists converge with beginners, expressing their art with chalk colors on the sidewalks of the plaza, with free themes (except religion and politics). The drawing, the composition, the use of color and the depth of the works will be judged.

Laurel Carrillo, director of the contest, explained that there will be four categories: children, for children under 8 years; junior, under 12 years old; juvenile, under 18, and adults. The inscriptions will start at 10:00 am on Friday, free of charge, as well as the material.

The awards and closing ceremony will be on Sunday November 12 at 7:00 p.m. “This year we dedicated the festival to artist Pablo Torres, who died last year, who was the winner of the festival and represented Puerto Vallarta in Santa Bárbara.”

The winners of each category will receive prizes and the first-place winner will have the opportunity to represent Puerto Vallarta in the 2018 edition of Santa Barbara, California, with all expenses paid in May 2018. In 2016, there were more than 100 participants and this year at least a similar amount is expected.

On this occasion, the Santa Bárbara Rehabilitation Clinic and the Boca de Tomatlán Clinic were selected as beneficiares of the event, said Patricia Quinn, member of the Sister Cities committees of Puerto Vallarta and Santa Bárbara.

Kathy Koury, director of the “I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival” of Santa Barbara, reported that the invited artists are Ann Hefferman, Lisa Ashley, Delphine Louis Anaya, Blair Looker and Meredith Morin, who will also be part of the jury. Kathy created the festival in Santa Barbara 30 years ago, first of its kind in North America, and said that Puerto Vallarta is the first in Mexico. “I like to see this festival grow here as one more attraction of this beautiful city.”