San Antonio ISD

YWLA-P earns recognition at 20th annual Chalk It Up

10/19/2023

YWLA Primary Chalk It Up More than 20 San Antonio ISD schools participated in the 20th annual Artpace Chalk it Up Saturday, creating large chalk murals along Houston Street corresponding to this year's theme, Dream Big!

At the end of the festival, the Young Women's Leadership Academy-Primary Blue Jays had quite the surprise when they learned they had won first place in the elementary category for the whole competition.

“When I heard our name I screamed,” fifth grader Makayla Campa said. “I had never won first place before in a competition that big.”

The girls had created a mural called “Dream Machine” that put the viewer at the center and asked them, “What can you do to make your dream a reality?”.

“The idea developed organically while talking about what it means to ‘Dream Big,’ art teacher Manny Esquivel said. "Do you wait around waiting for dreams to come true, or do you go get them?”

The theme was perfect for a public art event, he added.

“I want these young artists to know that their ideas are bigger than the space on our bulletin boards,” Esquivel said. “Public art events like Chalk It Up give them a place to take their big, weird ideas and let them play. They get to spend a day covered in chalk making cool stuff for an incredibly large audience.”

On the day of the event, about 25 YWLA-Primary students, aged kindergarten to fifth grade, worked on the project.

“It was truly a community effort,” Esquivel said. “It really is inspiring to watch them gather around buckets of chalk and work together.”

The community effort made the victory all the sweeter.

“When you make art by yourself you can be proud of yourself, but when you do it with a team you get to experience the joy together,” Campa said.

Check out the beautiful murals made by YWLA-Primary and our other SAISD participating schools below. Click the thumbnail to see a larger image.