The third annual Italian street painting fundraiser is already underway this weekend at the Festival of the Arts in downtown Palo Alto.

More than 50 professional artists, amateur painters and PAUSD students have begun their large chalk street paintings in a special section of the festival on Tasso St. hosted by the Palo Alto Partners in Education.

Between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Aug. 27-28, the artists can be seen working on their square paintings, each of which is sponsored by Bay Area companies and families to support the teacher grant program and the arts in PAUSD.

Although most festival attendees enjoy just watching the artists in action, visitors can also sponsor and paint their own squares. In the Chalk-a-Lot zone, children can paint two by two-foot squares for only $10, and they also receive chalk materials, a goodie bag from Stanford Shopping Center, membership for the shopping center’s Kidgits Club and a photo of the painting they created.

According to the event’s co-chair, Cindy Ziebelman, more than 100 children painted last year, and for the next two days, they are planning for around 200 kids to participate.

“It’s amazing to watch the kids,” Ziebelman said. “They’ll see the professional artists and then [the kids] too will start making grids and blending.”

By the end of the event, all the kids’ individual paintings make up a large collage; what Ziebelman calls a “continual quilt.”

According to Ziebelman, the event has grown significantly in size, with so many more artists wanting to participate that the planners required applicants to submit plans in order to be selected for the event.

“We have several highly acclaimed artists,” Ziebelman said. “And we are fortunate to have all these artists who donated their time and effort for the fundraiser.”

According to Ziebelman, all the money raised from the event is through sponsorships alone. Last year, the event raised $15,000, and Ziebelman’s goal for this year is to raise at least $12,000.

As for a Paly presence at the event, sophomore Ariana Hoyt and freshmen Julia Singleton, Grace LaPier and Garrett Morton will be painting at this weekend’s fundraiser.

“We came to paint last year too, and it was fun,” Singleton said.

According to Singleton, this year’s paintings will be oriented on a family theme.

“[The event] is more family-centered this year, but artists can still draw anything,” she said.

In line with this theme, Singleton, along with LaPier, will be recreating an image of Winnie-the-Pooh, an endeavor that should take until mid-Sunday to complete.

Generally, the artists work from smaller pictures and use grids to find out where the pieces of the picture should go on the large six by six-foot squares.

“It’s hard to transpose something that small, to something that big,” Singleton said.

Many Paly students also volunteered at the event. Sophomores Julia Blum and Kelly McPharlin were spotted working at the check-in booth during the first Saturday shift, and senior Eben LaPier helped out before the event officially began too. More students are signed up to help throughout the day as well.

According to Singleton, the artists welcome onlookers as they work throughout the day.

“People are really nice,” she said. “Sometimes [crowds] can be intimidating though.”

Besides just watching, however, the artists encourage festival visitors to actually participate for the cause.

“Give it a shot,” Singleton said. “Everyone’s [painting] is different. It’s fun to experiment and see what you get.”