Milford awash in art activities for Big Draw Festival

Mispillion Art League  presented the 4th Annual Big Draw Festival Delaware Oct. 4 in the Milford community.

Taking place in countries around the world, the Big Draw’s theme this year, Come Back to Color, was a celebration of the return to more vitality, color, health and vibrancy in everyone’s life after the past few challenging years.

Park Avenue in Milford was closed to traffic and art activities were positioned all along the street. While beach is not normally found in Milford, organizers brought one in, with eight tons of sand donated by Pennsy Supply. Children and adults walked barefoot and built sandcastles with the help of award-winning master sandcastle builders Darrell O’Connor and Andrew West. The City of Milford Parks and Recreation Department generously picked up the sand, delivered it to the avenue, and then cleaned up and carried it away at the end of the day.

A big wall of paper down the center of the street allowed artists of all ages, from toddlers to grownups, to draw to their hearts’ content with colored markers and crayons. The joy was palpable. Milford City Councilmember Dan Marabello attended to show his support, and Councilmember Katrina Wilson brought her creative granddaughter. State Rep. Bryan Shupe, R-Milford, came with his young son.

Art activities included mask making with colorful ovals, and lots of colored paper provided to tear and cut into shapes to create fun and fanciful faces.

A pass-the-drawing activity had entire families working together as one person started a drawing and passed it along to the person beside them to add on, with lots of laughter ensuing.

Pumpkins for painting were donated by East Gate Farm/Nursery in Milford. MAL’s next-door neighbor Red Bandana got in on the fun with a table full of pumpkins outside its shop on Walnut Street. At a table set up outside Dolce Bakery and Café, participants found out how much fun it can be to paint with coffee.

The Milford library set up a station for leaf printing, and Milford Museum showed participants the historic method of painting using milk with colored pigment added.

With the inspiration of steering committee member Harry Humes, Milford High School art teacher Julie Skerritt enlisted 15 of her students to paint their previously prepared designs for Windows on Walnut, adding ghosts, pumpkins and other signs of the season on the windows of MAL, Red Bandana, The Music School of Delaware, Dolce and Maggie’s Antiques.

Thanks go out to architecture and engineering firm and MAL neighbor Davis, Bowen & Friedel Inc., whose team printed more than 5,000 flyers that were distributed to Milford schools and all over town.

Downtown Milford Inc. donated banners promoting the festival, and placed them on light poles in the business district.

More than 50 volunteers from the Mispillion Art League and beyond turned out. Boy Scouts from Troop 186 came to help, bringing water and assisting volunteers.

Steering committee members were Rosemary Connelly, chair; Jane Dean and Carol Lehmann, marketing; Lori Barrett and Barbara Buford, supplies; Gervasio Ruiz Jr., photography coordinator; Patti Richardson, secretary; and Kathie and Bob Enright, who picked up the pumpkins from East Gate Farm, among many other things. Sonja Frey designed all the print and marketing materials.

Gloria Markowitz and Kathy Stetson delivered flyers all over town, and Paige Evers distributed flyers to churches. Many people played parts to make this year’s event a resounding success.