Renowned street artists from around the world will descend on downtown Chatham next week for CK Can Jam.
"We bring in artists from all over the country, and now all over the world, and they come to Chatham, and they put up large-scale murals for us as a gift to the community," said organizers Sarah Steele and Shannon Young. "You can come watch those murals be done between the 23rd and the 29th of August."
This is the third year for the event, and this year it's going International.
"We have two coming in from overseas this year," said Steele. "We just kind of decided to reach out and see what they would say. We've got Nina Valkhoff coming from Rotterdam (The Netherlands), and TEMPONOK coming from Paris, France."
Five artists will also work in Tecumseh Park on panels that will eventually be put up in other communities.
"We call it CK Can Jam for a reason. We want to incorporate outlying municipalities, so we've got five panels getting shipped out to surprise communities within a few months," added Steele.
The exact locations will be kept secret until the event begins on Sunday, August 23. The artists will work until Saturday, August 29, in Downtown Chatham, and local residents are encouraged to stop by and watch and ask questions.
Steele added that she started the event to give back to the community.
"I've been in Chatham-Kent for 10 years, and I just wanted to make it pretty, and have fun, and have friends, and come paint," said Steele. "Now we've created this thing that is a part of Chatham-Kent, and we're very grateful that people have been so receptive."
Once the event is completed, the number of murals in downtown Chatham will be up to 30. For more information, visit https://ckcanjam.com/.
