By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
A team from Bowling Green High School won the award for Best Overall in this year’s Chalk Walk with their portrait of Dolly Parton. This Bowling Green team also won an award for Best Composition.
Chalk Walk is a high school chalk mural competition where schools receive prize money for the school’s art department. The theme for this year’s Chalk Walk was “Blended Two,” taking two genres or artists/pieces and creating one piece.
Using the contest’s “Blend Two” theme, the team blended realism and abstract in their portrait of Dolly, said Alia Diamance, a member of the winning BGHS chalk art team. Dolly’s portrait is created like a black and white photograph, and the abstract blend is in bright, bold colors that includes Dolly’s signature butterflies.
“We had a good idea of what we wanted to create, based on the theme, but we tweaked a lot of it,” Alia added. “I think it came together nicely.”
Another Bowling Green team received an award for Best Collaboration for their depiction of a cherub.
Anthony Wayne High School won awards for Best Use of Medium and Best Interpretation, and Eastwood High School won an award for Best Use of Color.
Eastwood’s team started with Keith Haring’s style using bold colors and black outlines, and Laura Theresia Köhler’s colorful abstract style, said Sophia Brown, a sophomore at Eastwood High School. “We thought it would be fun to put (Haring’s) contemporary style and (Kohler’s) abstract style together.”
They had the concept for the artwork prior to the start of the contest, but Brown admitted they changed a lot while they were working on it. “But that’s OK because it worked out,” she said. “That’s what art is about, being kind of organic starting with a blank canvas.”
Another BGHS entry took a bold approach to a Renaissance classic.
AJ Johnston, a member of another BGHS team described their design.
“We wanted to take a famous painting, so we did (Michelangelo’s) “Creation of Adam,” she said. “We wanted to do something that we felt would be unique and also something that could be seen by everybody and noticeable.”
Combining Michelangelo’s concept with Haring’s “vastly different” style, created a bold, abstract design full of rainbow and symbolism, she said. “We just wanted to make it so that everybody can look at it and enjoy it.”
Beats on the Street winners
Bowling Green High School was also selected as the winner of this year’s Beats on the Street acapella vocal performance competition for area high school students.
Spencerville High School received second place, and Maumee High School received third place in the contest.
Each school that participated received prize money for the school’s music department.
Youth Arts stays bustling with activity
From the time Youth Arts opened at 11 a.m. until it closed at 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, the volunteers stayed busy cutting craft paper for hats, squeezing tie-dye paints for T-shirts, and handing out wood and glue and paint for the other youth arts stations.
Vivian Reinemeyer returns to the festival each year, ready to use her creativity to work in the Youth Arts stations. She was hard at work on her 2026 hat, drawing inspiration from the hat she created in 2025, she said.
Her brother, Bowie, already finished his hat, complete with feathers, ribbon and flowers, and waited “patiently” so they could move to another station.
Lucas Allard was found intently working on his wood creation before heading to make this year’s version of the Black Swamp Arts Festival hat. He and his family have been consistent visitors at the festival.
Quinn Hollinger, a junior at Bowling Green High School, was a volunteer in the youth arts. As she helped Chloe Witt of Bowling Green work on her wood sculpture, Quinn talked about her passion for helping kids and serving as a volunteer at the festival
Dr. Brett Holden, director of Bowling Green State University’s Chapman Learning Community, said he requires students in Chapman to volunteer at the festival each year. This is the 29th year Chapman students have been involved.
Students benefit from learning how they can be a part of theBowling Green community, beyond the campus community, and they also gain friendships as they start to bond with their fellow learning community members.
“This is the second largest service project that they are required to participate in,” Holden said. “It helps them build situational awareness and it gives them a chance to work with the public and meet people from town. It’s just really good to be here.”
