St. Cloud Art Crawl Puts New Focus on Families

ST. CLOUD -- The St. Cloud Art Crawl is looking toward the future with a new focus on families, an interactive guide and prizes to win.

The Downtown St. Cloud Art Crawl Takeover happening Friday, in downtown St. Cloud, is bringing musicians, festivities and other arts and crafts for families to enjoy.

Donella Westphal is the owner of Jule's Bistro and one of the organizers of the St. Cloud Art Crawl. She says for August's art crawl they really wanted to add more events for kids. The Central Minnesota Optimist Club that meets at noon is sponsoring a performance by the Teddy Bear Band from the Twin Cities.

"They've done over 9,000 shows. They will be here playing from 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. near Fiddlestix on 8th Avenue. We'll also have face painters and balloon twisters down the street a little further. There will be a chalk artists wondering all over downtown creating chalk art that people will be able to jump in and add to."

Four St. Cloud Art Crawls are hosted every year, Friday's will be the third event of the year. Westphal says new this year they've partnered with the St. Cloud Convention and Visitor's Bureau to help create a guide to the art crawl.

"We are using their 'Visit St. Cloud' app as a guide to the art crawl. People can download the 'Visit St. Cloud' app and all of the venues are listed on that app. And when you check in at seven of the venues you'll receive an invitation to register for a $750 prize package. That package includes $250 in gift cards to downtown businesses as well as a $500 gift card to purchase art from any of the artists at the art crawl."

About 40 downtown businesses are a part of the Downtown St. Cloud Art Crawl Takeover.

The event will run from 4:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Parking is available in all downtown ramps and on several streets.