William Busta when in Cleveland

As promised in our last week in review, we feel the need to mention some of the great experiences we had when we were in Cleveland last weekend. And for the record, I must say "Wow, what a welcoming place!" 

Surely another interaction or two will be mentioned along the way, but for now it's fitting that we start by saying "When in Cleveland, visit the William Busta Gallery." It was our first stop into town ...so we recommend it be one of yours too. 

For us, it was kind of like the Carl Solway Gallery (Cincinnati) of their city. And to clarify, I mention that as to say, they both are large, well lit, fairly amazing spaces with friendly staff and equally genuine owners ...which parProjects has thankfully shared interactions with (Thanks again for the solid in-town food recommendations Bill). Plus, if this past grouping of artwork is indeed the norm, they both host outstanding shows!

While I could go on and on about the outstanding works of Lorri Ott (something quiet), Mark Cottle (The Geometry of Clouds) and Darice Polo (Through A Galss, Darkly) , I'll focus my energies on Andrea Joki and her show "Crossing" ...which closes April 23rd if you happen to be in the Cleveland area.

A prospering talent...

As you all may (or may not) know by now, we like to use Tuesdays to focus on our ongoing curating efforts. This Tuesday is no different. Featured below is a video from another artist who has accepted our invitation for involvement in the upcoming kinetics exhibition "Movement!"



His name is Alex(ander) Lidsay and he's currently finishing up his MFA studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art. So, if you find yourself with a little free time, click some of the links below and see what this artist will be bringing to the table.

Relevent links include:
http://www.adlindsay.com
http://vimeo.com/adlindsay
http://www.cranbrookart.edu

Thanks again,
 parProjects 

Another Rendering (50%)...

Our thanks goes out (again) to Brian Sykes, our architectural consultant. Below is a new rendering he's sent of the total Shipping-Container-Arts-Center build. And according to him, it's only about 50% complete at this point. So to say the least, our excitement remains high and we look forward to sharing further developments with you all.

Cheers,
 parProjects 

Bohen Foundation

Lot-Ek is at it once again. In their design for The Bohen Foundation they have made an astonishing renovation to an existing building. Imagine if your gallery could transform itself for every exhibition... the possibilities are endless.

The Bohen foundation is a private organization that supports contemporary art and culture. The space was designed for maximum flexibility to help it house a variety of exhibitions, of all different media types. Facing the windows, in the design, are container structures that slide on tracks. And beyond that, ten foot tall walls roll along the same tracks, giving curators the ability to create virtually any space configuration they might need for an exhibit.

The Bohen Foundation was commissioned by LOT-EK and completed in 2002, in New York City's meat packing district. This building is 15,000 sqf and was budgeted for 1,500.000. 

415 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10014.

Thanks,

 parProjects 

3/21 - 3/26 In Review

A bit of travel and a bit of discussion would sum up the week for us. Luckily, within our journeys, we gathered a large amount of post-worthy source material for you all. So, please enjoy some of it in the week to come.

Aside from a Northside Community Counsel meeting, Monday and Tuesday were used primarily for in house business. Calls were made, emails were sent out, and miscellaneous items like the writing the script for our video-promo were taken care of.

On Wednesday, things started getting more interesting when we met with Celene and Jarrett Hawkins about our upcoming kinetics exhibition "Movement!" The two seem to be extremely interested, so we're now anxiously awaiting their proposal.

Thursday brought parProjects back down to Northside, to attend the "Save The Pool" fundraiser ...which featured a local "Surf Band," Elementz Hip Hop Youth Arts Center, as well as talented music duo Agape Alive. Over $1,500 was raised to help keep the Northside Community Pool open, so we were delighted to be part of such tremendous energy. (A YouTube video of Agape Alive is below.)

Then Friday came along and it was off to Cleveland, OH to meet some wonderful people, take in some regional talent, enjoy some cutting edge architecture and visit one of the state's (if not the nations) best museums! But, more on the trip will populate the blog in the upcoming days, so I'll stop there.

In essence though, we absorbed a tremendous amount of positive energy this week, and look forward to some of the developments we were able to put into motion. We hope you shared some of the great luck (and sometimes staggering timing) with us this week, in regard to whatever passion drives you.

Relevant links include:
http://hawkinsandhawkins.biz/
http://elementz.org/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Agape-Alive/107092582660681

Cheers to the future,
 parProjects 

A visit to Cleveland

...some Cell Phone Images from our art/architecture-filled trip.

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Some reports from this trip will be posted later this week.

Relevant links include:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gehry
http://www.clevelandart.org/
http://www.clevelandartists.org/

Cheers,
 parProjects 

A good show at Fabricate

Most Second-Saturday's, I visit Fabricate (Northside) to see their latest art-wall offerings, grab a Pabst Blue Ribbon or two, and chat it up. Plus, they always have THE BEST crafty odds & ends (from bags & bracelets, to handmade soaps). But, rarely do I feel the need to take pictures or jot down notes about their shows. "An Evening With Richard" -- their current art-wall-exhibition -- is/was a delightful surprise and a reason that norm has changed!

Heading into the show, featuring works by James Judd, I had no idea what to expect. So, when confronted with a rather aggressive installation, I couldn't help to think to myself "this really works ...especially in this setting."

In his own words, James Judd is peddling "Cheap Sh*t For Cheap F*cks," but the show really is much more than that. From what I've gathered, the artist creates a lot of small crafty pieces that transform into magnets, book ends, and really a host of "crafty" applications. Still his work shouldn't be dismissed. If nothing else it has flavor. He mixes "cutish" bulbous figures, with elements of grime and descent. Plus, he's not afraid to curse up a storm ...which, as risk-taking artist, I can definitely appreciate...

Repurposing Education

The discussion of education has made us ask the question 

"How do you introduce sustainability to children?"

We ask ourselves this as we begin to develop one of our education programs for the CCAC. This program will introduce sustainability to 6-8 year olds over the summer. The goal of the program will be to continue our mission of combining art practices (in this case kinetics) with sustainable design (recycled materials).

The program will first introduce wind powered technologies... and will follow up with a hands on workshop where children will create moving pinwheels made entirely out of recycled/repurposed materials.

This idea of using recycled materials in creative ways, both as art and as an education tool, is not a new idea. One particular project, that has some similarities, will be introduced to the city of Cincinnati on April 8th on Fountain Square. The group Cincinnati Energy Alliance presents EcoSculpt, in celebration of earth day.  Groups and individuals are asked to create sculptures that are made entirely out of recycled and/or recyclable materials. The project will continue thru April 28th.

Last years 2nd place was awarded to
Christopher Daniel and Sandra Gross with
"Vitro House," a card house made of reclaimed glass windows.













Thanks,

 parProjects 

Lee Running

While the pieces below aren't of a particulary kinetic nature, we'd like to highlight artist and tenured professor Lee Emma Running of Grinnell College (Iowa) who will be participating in our upcoming kinetics exhibition "Movement!"

The fascinating thing about Lee's participation is that she's recently been involved with the art collective "The Moving Crew" ...which primarily works with shipping containers ...on many levels. But rather then wasting your time with too many words, here are some of Lee's images. Please enjoy:

Relevant links include:
http://www.LeeEmmaRunning.org/
http://www.themovingcrew.org/

Thanks again,
 parProjects 

"The Neighborhood"

"Northside"
On this lovely Monday, we'd like to take a few moments to recognize the most important member of our team. Without the overwhelming support of the community of Northside, we wouldn't be able to build our dream. Many organizations have helped us throughout the last year, so we'd like to recognize them as collaborators, mentors and friends.

The Northside Business Association and Northside Community Council dramatically effected our ability to continue our artistic role in the community. Both have helped transition our gallery experience into a project much bigger than us ...so we are extremely grateful to say the least.

Not only have these organizations allowed us to access the community's resources, to bring public programming to the public (i.e. Jacob Hoffner Park), they've also connected us with local business leaders and collaborating partners.

A few other mentors, that have helped along the way, include Happen Inc., Prairie and Thundersky Inc. With their project collaborations, we've found great strength in Northside. The advise and support from these generous people has been essential to our growth, so for this we owe them a great bit of gratitude.



Still, one of our greatest champions, and noted supporter of the arts, is Bloomfield / Schon + Partners. With their partnership and commitment, we've been introduced to city officials able to progress the creation of our arts center in Northside. And with their collaboration, we will continue our mission of sustainable design in the building's architecture and the organization.

We also have to mention some of the fantastic organizations that we have met along the way. We also look forward to collaborations with them in the future. They are...
Arche (Arts Restoring Culture for Healing the Earth),
Chase Public,
Fabricate,
HazelGlas,
Gotoff Studios,
Take the Cake,
The Comet,
Building Value,
Art on All Floors, and
Visionary and Voices.

Thanks Northside,
 parProjects 

3/14 - 3/20 in review

In review, this week had a number of ups ...that kind of halted for us around the time of St. Patty's Day. (We apologize for our daily readers who were left longing for posts on Thursday and Friday).

For starters, the "Movement!" line-up has begun to take shape and a number of artists have been accepted so far. To date, artists will be participating from Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Maryland, Michigan and Washington DC. Still, we've extended our proposal deadline for applications, due to the sheer interest that has been building with the exhibition. So, we'd officially like to send a respectful "Thank You!" to all of you who have helped spread the word about this exciting venture of ours.

Aside from the exhibition build up, we also had a few extremely important meetings regarding our community arts center and a couple other major Cincinnati projects this week...

Models

Creating a good model can help an architect more easily communicate their design. Throughout our designing process we have made several models, at varies stages, to help us see what our structure looks and feels like three-dimensionally.

This inspirational model we found along the way, features a container "home" structure from a student project back in 2003 called "Space Analysis." Research finds like this one will surely help guide the way  for our final model.

Thanks,

 parPojects 

The Electric Hotel

It's containers. It's dancing. It's voyeurism. It's performance
...and much much more.



It is the Electric Hotel! And after our latest meeting today with Pones Inc., it seems appropriate to mention the artist group.  With performance currently being developed into the "Movement!" programming, we are extremely optimistic about what the body in motion can teach us about how to relate to physical movement. We are excited about education possibilities in the future.

Relevant links include:
http://www.ponesinc.com/
http://www.shunt.co.uk

Thanks,

 parProjects 

Extended Deadline for "Movement!"

In response to a few requests, our deadline for "Movement!" has been extended to April 28th, 2011. So, please don't hesitate to apply.

We are now excepting proposals for KINETIC ARTWORKS that incorporate physical movement.

Including: 3 Different Categories
Official Call for Entry: Guidelines

• Installations (for 20 ft. Shipping Container Spaces) 
• Sculptures (CCAC gallery space) 
• Performances

Thanks,

 parProjects 

The American Can...

Through our various channels, we recently learned that The American Can Building/Factory Square project located in Northside (Cincinnati) is full steam ahead at this point, so we simply wanted to take the time to offer the group in charge a respectful "Congratulations!"

A plan by Morris...

Morris Architects of Houston, Orlando, and Los Angeles have great plans for shipping containers that have caught our eye. One of their goals is to convert oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico into luxury hotels.

Still, our interest is in the way they've developed expandable shipping container units to use throughout their proposed structure. A design like this could really prove valuable for our mobile outreach strategies ...currently being developed.

Of course, you can learn more about Morris Architects' bigger project by visiting their website and following a path of:

~+> WHAT ~+> ADVANCEDESIGN ~+> OIL RIG RESORT 

...so please check them out when you have a moment. Their website is located at: http://www.morrisarchitects.com/

The next image is an interior rendering of the aforementioned expandable container. We hope your weekend treated you well...

Thanks again,

 parProjects 

BristleBot

While researching ideas for the educational component for the Kinetics show we came across these "BritleBot's." A clever idea for young creative students to explore simple mechanics.

Special Topics in Interactive Art & Computational Design:
Canegie Mellon University / Spring 2010

Enjoy,

 parProjects 

Reading...

It's "fun"damental...

Using 64 color, pattern based graphics is fun too ...from time to time.

Relevant links include:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fj9vlWjLgo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6NVJQUWPiE

Happy weekend,
 parProjects 

3/11 - 3/17

The week started with a visit to the Clifton Town Meeting (http://www.cliftoncommunity.org) to observe some of the community's goings ons. Our kinetics project & exhibition will be based there, so it's important for us to involve those it will affect both directly and indirectly. We listened to some great presentations and let some of Clifton's community leaders know that we are, indeed, interest in helping build some creative solutions for them.

From there, as previously mentioned HERE (link), we met with both the CCAC and UC's DAAP Galleries to continue conversation about the "Movement!" exhibition slated for this June. Our roster continues to build with the exhibition, so we're excited to start sharing more of the talent that has agreed to be a part of the show.

Over the week, we also bounced out to DIY Studios (http://www.diyprintingshop.com/) to check out the movement Aaron has going on there. To all of the silk screen printers out there, this is a good place for you to work freely. Check them out when you have a chance. Seriously.

Our week started rounding out nicely with a trip to the Elementz (http://elementz.org/) fundraiser at the 20th Century theater.

Now it's Friday and we just left the opening of the Collector's Choice Exhibition down at FUNKe FIRED ARTS (http://www.funkefiredarts.com/). A visit to Brazee Street Studios (http://www.brazeestreetstudios.com/) and Country Club (http://www.countryclubprojects.com/) were enjoyed as well today.

We'll see you soon with some inspiration.

 parProjects 

Growth

And then there was four...

Today, parProjects sat down at the CCAC with several key entities that will be involved in "Movement," the future Kinetic exhibition scheduled to open in mid June. The program will include exciting educational programming that will be introduced in conjunction with the exhibit. Sustainability was emphasized as a key theme to the education out reach in the meeting. There were several elements discussed...  and we would like to share an initial outline of what is in the works.

• Ages 6-8 - Sustainability Workshop - Art (working with recycled materials)

• Ages 14-18 - Docentitos (Learning to Teach) A program that would be modeled after the    Weston Art Gallery, Docentitos (of the same name).  High School student will give tours of the exhibit and learn about artists, artworks, and sustainability.

• Ages 18-UP - "Kinetics and Sustainable Design" - Project Outline (previous blog entry) Learn to build PV Solar Panels

• All Ages - Examples of sustainable design  (Use of Solar and alternative uses of energy through participation, interactive artworks in the exhibition)

• All Ages - Solar powered Kinetic Sculpture (Lasting Imprint of the Project... An example for the Community, Public Artwork Project)

Please don't hesitate to contact us if your interested in participating or volunteering in our educational programming. Contact us at parProjects1@gmail.com.

Thank you,

 parProjects 

This is a simple quote worth thinking about, made by renown exhibition curator David Elliott ...who may be most well known for putting together the exhibition
Art and Power: Europe under the dictators 1933-1945 (that took place back in 1995).

As we continue trudging along, we just thought we'd leave you with that bit of food for thought.

Relevant link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Elliott_(curator)

See you soon,
 parProjects 

Elementz continues...

One thing we forgot to mention in Friday's weekly review is that last week we met with the local, hip-hop inspired, community group leaders, Elementz ...after enjoying another one of their events in person.

In that meeting, we discussed teaming up with them in the future for collaborative programming ...and really just continuing a dialog as we feel like they have great ideas worth hearing/sharing.

To note: We first saw one of their youth groups perform on stage at the Duke Energy Convention Center last year, for an event promoting children's health & awareness ...and have been following them ever since. So, when we noticed they were holding a show at Cincinnati State last week to promote their upcoming anniversary celebration, we felt the need to attend their event and personally introduce ourselves.

In a nutshell, this is an extremely positive and energetic group of (primarily) young leaders bridging gaps throughout urban communities in Cincinnati through dance, music, audio-production and visual arts. And it just so happens, they are gearing up to celebrate their sixth year (of doing the right thing) THIS THURSDAY, MARCH 10th at the 20th Century Theatre (3021 Madison Road), here in Cincinnati. So we thought it would only be right to let you all know about this vibrant group that's keeping kids off of the street with their inspirational programming. (During our meeting, we were actually given the opportunity to enjoy original music produced, written and performed by a group of ambitious teenagers).

Their upcoming event is called Elementz presents: Don't Fear The Unknown ...and frankly, we hope that you won't. Tickets are affordable and available at a host of locations detailed on their site at:

http://elementz.org/wp/  and http://www.elementz.org/tickets

...so please don't be shy. You may learn something!
Plus, more is on their facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elementz-The-Hip-Hop-Youth-Arts-Center/144944207197?ref=ts

Also, if you've been following this blog for a while, you may remember This Post (Link), which continues to give us hope into what's to come!

Thanks again,
 parProjects 

by Jure Kotnik Arhitekt

This polka-dotted weekender is customizable.
Read more by linking after the images.

Relavent Link:
+ http://zerocabin.com/?p=59

...and just because it has pink polka-dots:
+ http://www.pinklineproject.com/

Happy Week(end),
 parProjects 

Fuel Cincinnati

Here's a fun vid about Fuel Cincinnati ...an organization we mentioned last post.


Happy Saturday,
 parProjects 

2/28 - 3/4 in Review

This week started with good times and ended the same way for us.

Monday brought us to the monthly Northside Community Council meeting  (http://www.northside.net/NCC/index.php),  where the new board took their reigns. Congratulations all. We're sure you'll continue a fine tradition of leadership and positive influence.

Aside from that, we've primarily been in contact with our building/construction team hammering away at concerns dealing with the full mobility of our (proposed) arts & education center.

On Wednesday, things continued in the realm of positivity. We attended a meeting for Fuel Cincinnati (http://fuelcincinnati.org/) -- a local non-profit organization dedicated to funding projects created by young, driven individuals that support ideas revolving around community building, education, diversity and environmental concerns. And while this was a rather informal gathering, it was great to see what other young community leaders had to offer. Plus, the volunteers of Fuel Cincinnati carry with them tremendous amounts of positive energy. Please click the link above to get a better sense of who they are.

Billy Colbert

Artist Billy Colbert will join the kinetic exhibition this summer at the CCAC. His new work features a selection of football helmets that incorporate movement and video elements. Several of Colbert's sculptures  from the "Love is a Losing Game" series  will be included in "Movement."

http://billycolbert.com/

Images provided by: Dakota Fine

Thank you,

 parProjects