The City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD) reports that this year’s Chalk the Block festival turned out to be a huge success with an estimated 36,000 people attending the event.
During the festival, the El Paso Museum of Art hosted 2,091 visitors, a 271% increase from the 564 visitors the previous weekend. On Saturday, 231 people worked on the mural in the C2 Gallery.
The El Paso Museum of History hosted 531 visitors, a 254% increase from the 150 visitors the previous weekend. Numerous visitors to CTB took the opportunity to explore the Digital Wall outside the Museum of History as well.
The wall had 171,490 individual touches during the CTB weekend compared to 47,359 the weekend before.
“Since this festival started nine years ago, it has been a way to consistently draw people to downtown El Paso,” said Assistant Director of Museums and Cultural Affairs Ben Fyffe. “The community and the region have embraced this festival and take advantage of every aspect of it from the chalk art to activities at the Museums of Art and History.”
Every October, thousands of people from El Paso and the surrounding region converge on Downtown El Paso to enjoy three days of art, music and entertainment at the Chalk the Block public art festival (CTB).
The festival creates a significant economic impact, with a projected $1 million pumped into the local economy during the CTB weekend.
