A bit about Chris... Curator.

The curating side of parProject's has been developing over the years. One of the early projects that Chris curated at the University of Dayton (Rike Center Gallery) was called, "North of U Street." The exhibition was a pairing of two artist and friends; Billy Colbert and Michael Platt.

The two artists drew from experiences in the historic U Street corridor of Washington, DC. The images featured in the exhibition are unique blend of photography and printmaking, focussing on themes of african american identity through the subject of the figure and focussing on geographic influence.

Thanks,

 parProjects parProjects 

Veneer anyone?

This cozy container home can be found down in Texas.
It made this blog because it uses veneer much as we would like to
...just in the opposite way.

In other words, we'd like to cover the man made portion of our structure with a veneer created out of damaged shipping containers. And while this idea is still in its infant stages, re-imagining the above image may help you to understand our thinking.

More images of this beauty can be found at http://gliving.com/the-cordell-shipping-container-house/.

 parProjects 

Well...

...we finally missed a day of blogging ...and are a bit excited about it.

It's a weekend evening and we got caught up in stimulating conversation about not only the importance of arts, but better yet, about the need of good marketing to inform the general population that the art is not only out there, but it indeed is worth seeing. There's (really) a tremendous amount of displays of creativity worth appreciating.

That's it for now though, a statement. The conversation must continue ....oh how the time flies. Please let creativity influence you as it hopes to.

1/24 - 1/28 in Review

This week was another one for the books. We presented our ideas further ...this time to a Development Officer of the city. We submitted some paper work to The University of Cincinnati in regards to our upcoming kinetics show ...and hope to continue working with UC's DAAP Galleries. We received a great initial 2' x 3' blueprint of our phase one structure. We stopped by this month's Northside Community Council meeting. And of course, we successfully finished week one of our new blog structuring.

Still, the most important aspect of the week was to remain focussed as we approach the oh-so-important month of February. On the 2/1/2011, it will officially be 4 weeks till Pepsi Refresh! This is where we'll need the support of the entire tri-state (and beyond) to win the popularity contest that, indeed, could land us the $50,000 needed to complete phase 1! For starters, we're trying to double our Facebook "likers," so please help spread the word.

We've officially started flyer-promoting our idea. So, now we'll offer you the ability to do the same. Got a Thumb Drive and a local FedEx Kinkos or Office Max??

If so, and you want to help spread the word, click HERE or anywhere on this paragraph to find the downloadable, double-sided PDF of our current  promotional flyer!  The front of it is pictured above.

By saving the above file, you can take it to your local printer and get your print on. We suggest a heavy card-stock, but if you want to just print on regular paper, go for it! Kinkos will even cut them for you ...just don't let them "shrink-to-fit" when printing!

Thanks for the help! More specifics and updates of all we started this week will launch soon!

 parProjects 

Kineko at Solway

Jun Kaneko


We attended the opening reception of Jun Keneko's exhibition at Carl Solway Gallery on friday. And for those of you who are not familiar with the gallery...some might say, "you are missing out." The premiere gallery in the mid-west is located on Findlay Street and resides in the heart of the west end of Cincinnati. It just might be the only gallery in the region, outside the museum structure, where one can see current work of the art super stars. True to form, the artist Jun Kaneko delivers. 

Kaneko's solo show features ceramic sculptures, large paintings and print work. The ceramic sculptures combine the simplest of shapes and form with the activity similar to the Post-painterly Abstraction of the 1960's. When you enter the front room of the gallery, you are overwhelmed by more than a dozen life size free standing sculptures. The large shapes are activated by brilliant glazes of color applied by brush. The mark-making is exquisite. There is a strong contrast between the colorful marks and the ceramic shapes. The stand out artwork in the series is much more subdued than the others. The color scheme relies primarily on black, red, and white, which is broken up sensitively by geometric shapes (left).

During the opening we were able to speak with Carl Solway. Over the last week the conversation caused a great deal of reflection for us. During the brief conversation, Carl spoke of being an art advocate for his generation. He continued... saying that it was important for young people to be advocates for their own generation. The experience was humbling.

We were pleasantly surprised at what we found while looking deeper into Jun Kineko's work. The project and now organization is called "KANEKO"

+ KANEKO is a new kind of organization - not a museum - not a gallery - not a library nor a research center - but an open space for open minds that nurtures and promotes creativity in the arts, sciences, and philosophy.

+ Through progressive exhibitions, performances, lectures, symposia, and innovative programming we encourage people to explore and experience the creative process that is essential to all human activity.

+ Organized as a public non-profit, KANEKO has begun its own creative process, developing programs and evolving its facility in Omaha, Nebraska.


Jun Kaneko at Carl Solway Gallery thru April 23, 2011
424 Findlay Street. Cincinnati, Ohio 45214

 parProjects 

pROJECT oUTLINE

parProjects would like introduce you to our educational outreach programing. In addition to our commitment to the arts... we are also aware of the importance of community and collaboration. We plan to introduce the following educational project along side of the Kinetic Exhibition planned for the summer. 

"Kinetics and Sustainable Design"

Description

+ Learn about the advantages of solar powered technology 
+ Work in teams to build functioning solar PV panels.

Create and Participate

Work together to power a permanently displayed kinetic artwork, powered by solar PV panels built by you.

Outreach project 

 Partnering with: 
Clifton Cultural Art Center 
& surrounding businesses and organizations

parStudents will:

• Learn about solar energy and receive  hands on experience with harnessing the suns energy
• Create and parTicipate in a public sculpture that will use custom made solar PV panels to create "movement."
• Awesome...

Selected Artist & Artwork: TBA

Location: TBA

 parProjects 

Projects deserve collaboration…

Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people all remark
We have done it ourselves
   --Lao-Tzu Tao Te Ching

The “project” focus of our organization will always be the driving force behind what we do. Therefore we would like to share a little bit more about why we do what we do and how this relates to our current project.

Our projects are always motivated by our love for the arts. We make art, teach art, talk art and most recently engage people with art. There is so much art available that the opportunities couldn’t touch the amount of offerings to choose from. That is why we have chosen to participate by creating opportunities for others. We’ve realized the way to reach audiences is to engage them where they are.  Our audiences are also our collaborators and ultimately, we simply, ask them to participate. This has led to the most amazing learning opportunities for us and we are constantly humbled by the generosity of the people. 

It is in this spirit that we introduce our next project, featuring Kinetic artwork and installations scattered throughout the neighborhoods of Clifton, Clifton Heights, and Northside. We are engaged in the early stages of development with several organizations including The CCAC, University of Cincinnati-DAAP Galleries, The City of Cincinnati & its Parks Board, Bloomfield/Schon + Partners (Can Complex in Northside) and BEI Benedict of Middletown.

More after the break...

Meet Brian...

Brian Sykes joins The Road To Refresh team from Washington, DC as an architectural consultant. So, for the most part, all of the polished renderings, section drawings, elevation drawings and floor plans we post here from this point on will be compliments of Mr. Sykes' diligence.

Like most of the people who have teamed with parProjects for this venture, Brian is a bit of a rare breed. We say that because unlike most in the field of architecture, he holds master-level degrees in both fine arts -- where he focussed in sculpture -- and architecture -- where he dedicated a great deal of energy toward sustainable design and interiors  ...from The University of Maryland, College Park (where we first met him circa 2005) and Virginia Tech respectively.

To say the least, Brian's enthusiasm and dedication to the project are greatly appreciated. But more importantly, his creative approaches to architecture have already started influencing our center's original design. For example, the tented area that first showed up on THIS POST (link) was compliments of Brian and his creative problem solving.

Like everyone else on the team, we trust him to make certain judgements; and in turn, he trusts us to keep the ball rolling. He's a good friend and dedicated teammate who is donating countless hours of his personal-time (away from the internationally recognized architecture firm he currently works for) in order to help make this project happen. He believes this a great project/idea ...and we believe he'll continue doing everything within his power to help see it to fruition.

Thanks again,
 parProjects 

Inspiration from Indonesia

Courtesy of the good folks over at inhabit.com, here's a public library and health clinic -- located in Batu, East Jawa, Indonseia -- utilizing five shipping containers...

We especially enjoy this facility as it's a fine example of a structure using both shipping containers along with traditional building materials.

More images and information can be found at: http://inhabitat.com/indonesian-health-clinic-library-constructed-from-traveling-containers/

See you soon,
 parProjects 

Need a data lab?

Find a container. They have a lot of great uses ....like this secret, mobile, data lab created by our friends over at Microsoft.

Oftentimes we find inspiration in the most unexpected places.

See you soon,
 parProjects 

1/17 - 1/21 in review

This week has been action-packed to say the least. We've had a lot of positive meetings that have kept us navigating around town. We received some great, new, professional renderings from our architectural consultant (coming soon). But most importantly, we decided on the future structure of this blog ...and today marks the first day of fulfillment with our new plans.

For the most part, the upcoming kinetics show was the focus of our day-to-day. Last week our hub venue of The Clifton Cultural Arts Center was approved (for mid June - mid August), so we've been off to the races ever since.

This will without a doubt be our largest and most important undertaking to date, so we're doing as much early ground work as we can to make sure things run smoothly. Notably, we held meetings with the director of the CCAC and have started strategizing everything from the educational components we plan to offer alongside the show, down to potential sites around the city to host our satellite, shipping container gallery spaces. Today we even met with DAAP Galleries of UC to discuss the possibilities of landing a few container-spaces on the University of Cincinnati campus ...and while that idea is still in its infant stages, their was enough mutual excitement for us to remain hopeful.

Aside from that, we've simply been trudging away on the bigger project, the art center. We held a tele-conference with developers from the city and submitted a proposal for the prime real estate we mentioned HERE. We also continued with our poster-design/fundraising planning ...which we should have more to report on next week.

Also, as it's our hope that posts like this will keep you better abreast to where we're at as things move forward, we hope you let us know if they are not helping. Feedback on anything and everything we do is not just welcomed, it is greatly appreciated.

Till next time,
 parProjects 

Thanks Steve...

Today, through suggestion and lengthy conversation, it was agreed that it's finally time to add a little more structure to this blog/journal. We're proud of ourselves for not missing a day of posting since we started getting into the meat of things; but at the same time, we realized we aren't sure what'll be next from time to time.

If you remember, a while back we added the category "Weekend Inspiration," so we'd know what to search for & reserve for Saturdays and Sundays and now we're expanding on that.

Our new daily structure (that we'll follow to the best of our ability) is:

Mondays -> The Team: Highlighting specifics about parProjects and the people we've been working with and will be working with

Tuesdays -> Curating Notes: Focussing on some of the exhibition specifics of parProjects

Wednesdays -> Education Projects: Detailing educational aspects parProjects is currently focussing on

Thursdays -> Independent Feature: Highlighting specific artists/creatives in the area

Fridays -> Weekly Summary: Giving a detailed breakdown of what we were up to during the week

Saturdays & Sundays -> Weekend Inspiration: Simple images and videos that are simply posted for your enjoyment

Of course this new structure gives us a bit more work (as far as blogging goes), but that's fine with us. The work and research is and has always been taking place. Now we just have a more efficient way of sharing everything with you.

Thanks for your continued interest,
 parProjects 

One of those...

Today/tonight has been one of "those" days/nights. We traveled from meeting to meeting and surely made progress towards our project. But now, we're at a loss of words. As our mission continues, our excitement continues to grow in regards to our kinetic show mentioned HERE. But, for now we'll leave you with a simple image.

This was surely a fun one for us to discover. Out of all the places we expected to find shipping containers, in the trees was not one of them. Please enjoy...

Thanks,
 parProjects 

Prefab Environmental Education Pavilion

The PGA PRAIRIE HOPPER by Anderson Anderson Achitecture  is designed to be mobile. It can be folded up and transported just like an ordinary shipping container. Therefor, with this mobility feature, it can be placed anywhere and everywhere it is needed...

"The structure is intended to be fun, functional and educational and is constructed of re-used components, high-recycled content steel, recycled content shade cloth and modular, xeriscaped planting trays.  Protected within a limestone-composite thermal and evaporative-resistant mass, native prairie grasses, cactus and several hundred additional species thrive without regular irrigation. The project was deployed 55 days from napkin-sketch, through detailed design, fabrication, assembly, and delivery. Remote team collaboration was facilitated by a central BIM database and various social networking applications.  All professional services were pro-bono in the interest of advancing environmental education and construction prefabrication technologies. The shade screens variably articulate to provide optimized shading whatever the pavilion orientation, then fold flat for transport. Ganged, evacuated-tube solar thermal collectors provide potable, sanitary hot water. The pavilion is self-powered by building-scale wind turbines and high-efficiency photovoltaics."  

-Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture

This project, again, demonstrates how a great idea and some fearlessness towards innovation can transform shipping containers into great spaces for education. Because they are design with such internationally stringent specifications, shipping containers make great building blocks. Upon purchase, you know exactly what you will get as far as size, shape and load/weight capacity. And because the containers are designed for transport, they make great tools for educational outreach.

Bringing education and creative experiences to people in their own communities is a great way to collaborate and further fuel conversation about various topics.


Fly Away,
 parProjects 


("Ka-kaa!")

Diversity & A Dream

At parProjects, we truly believe our ethnic diversity is just as important as our diversity in skill-sets ...and our ability to dream. Being able to help one another better understand, communicate with, and approach our surroundings without offense is extremely important to our mission. And being that we truly are dreamers, this translated ability to communicate our ideas within various cultures and communities is invaluable.

So on this great day of celebration, we'd like to leave you with a song of inspiration. Happy MLK Day...



Believing in dreams,
 parProjects 

Simple/Elegant

Here's a simple shipping container structure with a nice overhang ...similar to the one in our design.

Also, they seem to have a rooftop garden area.

 parProjects 

APAP OPEN SCHOOL, Korea

DAY & NIGHT.

http://www.lot-ek.com/

Cheers!
 parProjects 

A little about us: parProjects

As we researched color schemes that Andy Warhol has used over the years, it dawned on us that we've never really introduced ourselves on this blog/daily-business journal.

So speaking in the third person...

parProjects is comprised of Chris Hoeting and Jonathan Sears.

Chris is a professionally trained painter and mixed media artist who attended UD (Ohio) for his undergraduate studies ...earning a dual-concentration BFA in painting and sculpture.

Jonathan is a professionally trained graphic artist who attended Barton College (North Carolina) for his undergraduate studies ...earning a dual-concentration BFA in graphic design and photography.

Both artists attended the UM (College Park) for graduate school ...and "equally" hold Master of Fine Arts degrees from the university in Studio Arts ...though Jonathan likes to tote being part of UM's first three-year fine art graduating class ...while Chris enjoys touting his perfect GPA through his two years of study.

By profession, both artists have held university-level teaching gigs ranging from the 100 to 300 level (teaching or having previously taught at The University of Maryland [College Park & Shady Grove campuses], The University of Dayton, Xavier University ...and a few community colleges along the way).

If interested, more is after the break...
 parProjects 

Now accepting proposals for Movement

Aside from our educational components (mentioned last post), we're continuing our efforts to provide outstanding fine art exhibitions to you, our public.

Our next major exhibition is coming up this June (2011) and, ARTISTS, you now have a chance to involve yourself in our next experience! Above is an image of Clifton Cultural Arts Center (Clifton, Cincinnati, OH). This is where the kinetic-themed show, "Movement", will be home-based. CCAC will also be accompanied by a few shipping-container-gallery-spaces spread throughout the city of Cincinnati, OH.

Hopefully, this combination of venues already has your interest!

So please apply or suggest a talented artist and/or art collective you know to do the same. As long as the work incorporates moving parts, your proposal will be accepted for consideration.

Details on how to apply can be found/downloaded HERE ...or after the break
(click Read more >> below).

Thanks again,
 parProjects 

Educational Aspects

A substantial part of our mission as parProjects is to offer educational components as they relate to the arts ...within the realm of specific projects and events. The glass blowing demonstrations and open studios that worked in conjunction with our glass exhibition, The State of Matter, are examples of this.

Within our proposed center though, we'll have the ability to offer more focused training and learning opportunities geared towards educating adults both young and old ...who practice arts professionally and/or can simply gain value from creative problem solving in their day to day work/life.

Below is an outline of how we plan to approach our educational services (taught by paid staff, community volunteers and/or visiting artists).

-------------------------------------------------------------------
parProjects Education
-------------------------------------------------------------------

To date, our overall structure is as follows:

 + Each calendar year will be divided into 8-week scheduling blocks.
 + Each calendar year will host 5 blocks of scheduling

 + Classes will run either two, four, or six weeks ...meeting once a week.
 + All classes will take place weekday nights ...or during the weekend.

Our 4 and 6 week classes will fall within one of the following categories:

 + Creative Development and Skills Training for professionals

 + Practical Design Fundamentals and Planning

 + Multimedia: Merging Traditional Materials and Digital Technologies

 + Creative Solutions in Sustainability

Within these four categories, we'll be able to offer classes such as:

 - Creative Instruction Techniques for Art Educators

 - Practical Web Development and Planning

 - When Digital Media Collides With The Canvas

 - Creating Solar and Wind Energy at Home

 - Urban Gardening and Planning

Our 2 week (tutorial) classes will address:

 + Practical Development for Professional Artists

-------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Within this structure, we're confident we can put our years of University-level teaching experience to good use for the community.

We've found a lot of creative resources are geared towards educating our youth ...which is great. But we feel that our adults (oftentimes the parents of these same children) don't have as many valuable resources available to them. We'd like to help fill this void.

Thanks again,
 parProjects 

The Interior of Phase 1

Returning to yesterday's rendering, we decided to post the interior of our Phase 1 design. Within the single-floor structure, we plan to house an entry gallery space (green), an artist studio (orange), an education/programming space (blue) and an office space (yellow).

In addition, the striped area represents the indoor/outdoor space, which can host receptions and handle traffic flow. This area is housed by the tented structure from yesterday's rendering.

We hope you enjoy our progress. To enlarge the image, just give it a click.

Thanks again,
 parProjects 

A new rendering of Phase One.

We recently realized we haven't posted much beyond our inspiration of late. So now we'll begin to remedy that with our next few posts.

Below is a recent rendering sent to us by our architectural consultant in Washington, DC. This is simply a rough draft rendering of Phase One ...which we mentioned a while back in our post HERE. But for us, it's a great start/continuation for what's to come. Please enjoy!

Thanks,
 parProjects 

Gregory Barsamian

If it's Kinetics your after... then look no further than the mind blowing work of
New York artist Gregory Barsamian.

"Feral Front"

"The Scream"

http://www.gregorybarsamian.com/

Thanks again to our friend John Hancock for introducing us to Barsamian's work.

Enjoy!

 parProjects 

LightBorne "Inspiration"

Cincinnati Based production company Lightborne.

The image below is screen capture from the beginning sequence of a 2009-theatre reel.
Enjoy the exciting use of  Kinetics!

http://www.light-borne.com/index.php/theater/2009-reel/

Thanks,

 parProjects 

A Container Space w/Water View

Nice right!

Banksy (cont..)

Last night we tried to post about Banksy vs Bristol Museum, but Blogger had some thoughts of its own. 

If you all aren't aware of Banksy, Google him. But if you are, you may not have known about his Bristol Museum exhibition back in 2009. The powers that be actually let him roam freely and make the entire museum space his personal canvas. It was spectacular (well from the documentation we've found since ...as we were unable to make the show). 

Banksy vs the Bristol Museum from Brad Hamilton on Vimeo.

...and there's plenty more "out there" if the above video interests you. 

The kinetic work at the Banksy vs Bristol Museum show simply has us excited about the possibilities of moving art. We look forward to sharing more with you all.

Other than this great work, Banksy is more known for his street art (some say graffiti), so we've included some images below for you to enjoy.

Cheers!

 parProjects 

Reminded of Bansky vs Bristol Museum (TBC)

"Chime Mobile" by Anthony Luensman

Installation\Set up

The featured project is called Chime Mobile by Anthony Luensman and it was first exhibited at the Kaohsiung International Container Arts Festival in Taiwan in 2005. 

Photos: Anthony Luensman

Kaohsiung, Taiwan [2005]

To our surprise it was recently brought to our attention, by the gracious folks at the Weston Art Gallery (Cincinnati, OH), that there was a well-known Cincinnati artist & native that recently executed a container project in Asia.

We at parProjects were pleased to learn of this project and the use of kinetic elements within the installation. We read this as a great sign for what is developing in the world of Kinetic Art as well as new possibilities for the use of containers as installation space for artwork. We also took this as a reminder of the talent that lies just around the corner ...maybe even the next block over.

Video #1- Chime Mobile

Video #2 - Chime Mobile

In addition, we'd like to thank Anthony for sharing his project documentation with us.  We hope that you share in our excitement and optimism for this exciting project that reaches beyond the gallery ...to bring the arts out into the open and to an audience in more creative and interactive ways.

http://www.anthonyluensman.com/

Thank you,

 parProjects 

To Our Surprise!

To our surprise we, parProjects, were mentioned in this week's (December 29, 2010-January 04, 2011) issue of CityBeat (Cincinnati's News & Entertainment Weekly Newspaper). In the Arts 2010 Year in Review (Escape to Experimental Places: A look back at the year in alternative art spaces and exhibitions By: Matt Morris), we gained a brief mention of the trials & tribulations we've been through ...from The Northside House to parProjects. We were also credited for our multi-venue The State of Matter glass exhibition.

So for that, we'd like to say "Thank You!" to CityBeat and the Greater Cincinnati Metro community for embracing us and helping with so much along the way. We have a long way to go, but with your continued dedication and support, we're looking forward to the continued journey.

Respectfully,
 parProjects 

Delivering Containers

 parProjects 

Happy 2011!

"Cheers!" to an exciting 2011!

Here's a little inspiration from "illy."

http://www.trulydeeply.com.au/madly/2010/05/03/zag-brand-design-stand-out-melbourne/

Till next time,
 parProjects