Chalk-tacular: 3-Acre Art Project to Reclaim Dan Paul Park
​August 8, 1-4PM
​Parcel B (the waterfront property due east of AA Arena)
Downtown Miami, FL
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If you draw it, it will come. On August 8th, hundreds of students, families and local artists are teaming up with Engage Miami and a growing coalition of Miami-based community groups to send a very big message to Miami Dade County commissioners and the Heat. This coalition of community groups, students, and artists will work together to create a massive 3-acre chalk drawing that will cover the entire sheet of asphalt currently sitting on top of the infamous Parcel B site (the waterfront property due east of the American Airlines Arena). They want the County and the Heat to deliver the “world-class waterfront park” that was a centerpiece of the advertising campaign the Heat used to persuade Miami-Dade county voters to pass the referendum in favor of building the AA Arena back in 1996.

Co-hosts for this event include Engage Miami and Chalk Project, Catalyst Miami, Center for Social Change, Celebrate Diversity Miami, Colony1, Dark Matter Collective, Dream Defenders, Emerge Miami, Guitars Over Guns, Guns Down Bikes Up, Instagramers Miami, Miami City Chess Club, Miami Parks Foundation, New Leaders Council Miami, The New Florida Majority, The New Tropic, Roots Collective, SMIA Group / Sustainable Miami, Urban Environment League, Urban Paradise Guild UPG and the list is growing.

“We hope this day of fun-filled community engagement will send a strong message to Miami-Dade County commissioners and to the Heat that Miami residents won’t back down until we get what we’ve been promised,”​says Maydee Martinez (19), an Engage Miami board member and current MDC student.
Miami residents’ promised park (including a mini-soccer field) remains just that, a promise. Residents have been waiting 20 years.

“When you don’t get what you want, you gotta do it yourself. And when you do it yourself you might as well go big– real big,” ​says ​Nando Jaramillo of Colony 1 urban farm in Wynwood.
To drive their message home: They’re striving to win a Guinness World Record for the largest collection of independent chalk drawings done in a single setting. The current record is 308 drawings is held by a group in Toyama, Japan.

In addition to reaching out to other community groups, coalition members will send invitations to all county and city commissioners. But, Justin Wales, an event organizer and leader of Engage Miami, says that just showing up is not enough:
“Let’s be clear. Residents, especially young people, are tired of waiting for our elected officials to act. We are claiming this park for the public, as it was promised to us, and we ask that young people across Miami join us.”