chART Planning Another Block Party, Art Walk

CHARLESTON - Already the Holy City's largest (and only) outdoor art gallery, the Charleston Art Outdoor Initiative, or chART, is expanding beyond the confines of Alicia Alley in the Avondale Point Business District, and it's throwing another block party to celebrate.

With well over a dozen murals adorning the walls in the alley, including several still in progress, the gallery has grown dramatically since chART's first block party and grand opening in June. owner and chART Founder Geoff Richardson said the next phase for the initiative is to expand to other areas.

"Eventually I want all of Charleston to be an outdoor gallery," Richardson said.

The party is scehduled for noon - 5 p.m., Sunday Nov. 20, and in addition to a DJ, live entertainment and food, a new chARTist will be working on chART's first installation outside Alicia Alley. Electric Dirt Creations will install an ocean themed recycled glass and LED light sculpture in the alley between Mellow Mushroom and . The alley will be called the Space Ocean Gallery.

In addition to the Electric Dirt installation, local writer and poet Marcus Amaker has donated a poem that will be painted in the alley as well.

Richardson has also been working with Charleston County School District art teachers to set up a mural competition for students. The competition winner will get a section of wall in the Space Ocean Gallery to paint.

Several of the initial murals that were begun this summer have been completed, and several others have been added. The most recent addition comes from KOC Grafitti and is a traditional piece of lettering on one of the longer walls in Alicia Alley.

"Last time we did this I said I wanted to have QR codes on all of them," Richardson said. "Most of them will have the QR codes by Nov. 20."

The QR codes, the blocky barcode style labels that can be used to store information including web addresses and can be scanned by smartphones, are a big part of Richardson's master plan for chART.

"My plan is to eventually create a guided tour, a website with a map that you can use to find artwork on your own, and have a way for people to tag other artwork on the map," he said. "Using technology for our gallery is turning out to be a great thing because everyone has a smart phone now."

"No one else in Charleston was doing it."

Richardson said chART is also working on a project in North Charleston in the Park Circle area.

"The city of North Charleston has been great about it," he said. "The first pieces will be up by early 2012."

During the first block party chART collected donations in a large plastic jug, and Richardson plans to do the same thing on the 20th, but chART has also started taking donations through its website.

"If anyone wants to donate under a specific artist's name, that artist will get a portion of the donation through a quarterly check," Richardson said.

If a donation is made in someone's name 25 percent of it will go to that artist, 25 percent will be used for supplies, another 25 percent will go to the future projects fund, and 25 percent will go to administrative costs, Richardson said. For donations not directed to artists 25 percent will go to administrative costs and the rest will be split between supplies and the future projects fund.

"It's all volunteers right now, which I'm really grateful for, we put out a call and people answered," he said. "I'm very grateful for all that has happened, and to the city for its continuing support."