Main Street Art Guild’s 24 hour Art-a-Thon Raises Money For Community House

By Mick Parsons For The Prairie Advocate News

MOUNT CARROLL – If you were in downtown Mount Carroll during the September 24th Cruise Night, you might have noticed people painting and writing inside and outside of Market Street Commons, formerly known as the Kraft Building.

Area artists such as Heather Houzenga, Melissa Mattingly Parsons, Joe Morrow, Pam Sorg, and others were on hand, sponsored by the Main Street Art Guild, Market Street Commons, and Brick Street Coffee, participating in the first ever Artwërks Art-a-thon to raise money for Mount Carroll’s Community House Project.

If you were there later in the day, you also might have seen 5 Minutes of Fame and TLP Arts and Music Festival performer Marques Morel; and if you were there even later, 5MoF regular and TLP Arts and Music Festival performer Dave Cuckler was on also hand along with Marques entertaining everyone and helping to keep the artists awake. And if you were there Sunday morning – and yes, there were some of us left – you would have seen Elizabeth Chambers Tessendorf of Photography by Elly on hand working on her painting skills.

In addition to raising around $1026 for the Community House, which needs ADA bathrooms, a new ramp, and a paint job, the event also hoped to – and succeeded in – demonstrating that art is more than something pretty to look at, read, or listen to. Art can also be a form of community action.

The participating artists agreed to spend anywhere from two to twenty-four hours creating art and found people willing to sponsor them for at least a dollar an hour. The event was meant not only to highlight the important role that the Arts can and do play in the community and everyday life, but find a way to engage other people in the community in trying to get something done that needs to get done, but that, for one reason or another, has not. The Community House is not only a symbol of Mount Carroll and a part of it’s colorful history, but it’s a structure that is still used and is in high demand in spite of the repairs it needs.