^{e/motion, a creation by Olivier Landreville© Init}

Academy Street Artwork Projects (ASAP) presents GLOW, a temporary outdoor display of light and technology art installations on view in downtown Cary from January to March. These pop-up, temporary installations bring a sense of wonder to the darkest parts of winter, surprising and delighting viewers when the artworks are discovered. The annual Under the Silver Moon lantern parade kicks off GLOW  with an evening of community, light, and celebration for the whole family! GLOW will create a dynamic sense of place that adds energy to the street environment, creating memories and moments of celebration for all who encounter the artworks.

Learn more about GLOW.

Artists Lisa Gaither and Janet Tombros take over the pathways at Spring Daze 2025 in Bond Park! Follow the path on the pavement as you immerse yourself in the interactive chalk art pieces where you have the opportunity to add your own chalk art and leave your mark! Their performance art of rendering artistic designs with chalk and tempera paints on streets and sidewalks with impermanent materials is a must see!

Click here to learn more!

Saturday + Sunday, August 23 - 24, 2025   |   9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Eleven prominent street painters from around the country take over sidewalks along Academy Street and Frantz Plaza inside Downtown Cary Park. Rendering artistic designs with chalk and tempera paints on streets, sidewalks, and town squares, these artists use impermanent materials to create dazzling chalk murals. Some of these artists are best known for their dynamic 3-dimensional illusion chalk art.

Street painters or chalk artists, most commonly called in the US, are Madonnari which comes from the word Madonna because these street painters recreated images of the Madonna. Tracing back to the sixteenth century, the Italian Madonnari were itinerant artists, many of whom had been brought into cities to work on cathedrals. When the work was completed, they needed to find another way to make a living, and thus often would recreate paintings from the church onto the pavement. 

Click here to learn more about the Chalk Walk.

Artist Map

Artist information

 ^{"Fly Away Home" by Patrick Dougherty, 2022. Photography by Kurt Hilton} 

In March 2022, artist Patrick Dougherty led a community art project creating a monumental willow sculpture in Carpenter Park. Known as the “Stick Wizard”, Dougherty has made willow sculptures all over the world - and now Cary! Dougherty lives in Chapel Hill, NC and his "internationally renowned art manages to make a permanent impact with a temporary footprint. It never strays very far from the notion that one day the wind will blow and this will all be gone –but not before we get a chance to revel in it.” -Jim Moriarty, Pine Straw Magazine

Click here to learn more about Patrick Dougherty and the Willow Sculpture Project.