Monday, December 20, 2010

Request for Proposals

Starting now and until Jan. 10, we’re accepting proposals from the greater Syracuse community for arts projects that you believe would make the city a better, more dynamic, more vibrant place to live.

For more information, please visit our proposals page. We are looking forward to hearing your ideas!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Launching the new logo design!

DISHES has a new look:
Thank you to Damian Vallelonga! We love it!



Projects that have made it to the finish line


Want to see some examples of what sort of projects DISHES hopes to fund?


Take a look at Melanie Jelacic's proposal for the Metropolitan Pool shower room, which she pitched at FEAST in Brooklyn last February. Jelacic recognized that the showers at a public pool in Brooklyn were really moldy and - frankly - ugly. She also knew that if the city were to tile the showers, it would do so without much attention to aesthetic. So she designed a mosaic for the showers, sourced tile at-cost, and hired a bunch of neighborhood kids to install the tiles. (You can see her pitch by clicking here.)


Another grant-winning project, pitched by a graphic designer in Brooklyn, involved creating a designed "wallpaper" to put up on the many abandoned buildings and dumpsters that described his Brooklyn neighborhood.


Inspired? Share your great idea with us in the form of a proposal! Hit the tab 'Proposals' above for more information.


Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Lingering questions about DISHES?

Here is a link to an article written on ARTSblog about FEAST in Brooklyn (the inspiration behind Salt City DISHES). Need some visuals? Check out this video created by FEAST in Brooklyn that shares the short and sweet of it.
Be safe on the roads tonight, Syracuse. More snow is headed our way!

New Facebook Page!

If visits to our blog don't meet your daily dose of DISHES... we've got great news: our new facebook page!

Do check it out and 'Like' us, so that you can make your love for Salt City DISHES public.
Looking forward to seeing your face!

Monday, December 13, 2010

New look!

Our site is much more gorgeous -- and far easier to use -- thanks to Damian Vallelonga.

With Bre and Stasya, two other drivers of this arts-as-community-development bus, Damian is also at work on a new logo. Stay tuned for that, as well as the musical act and menu slated to make DISHES a lively debut.

Monday, December 6, 2010

The power of microgrants

DISHES is slated to be a great party. This much we know.

You might not know the extent that microgrants and microloans have been proven to transform the lives of go-getters from Bangladesh to Burma.

Best known among them is Grameen Bank, founded by Nobel Peace Prize-winner Mohammed Yunus. Grameen Bank extends small loans to entrepreneurs in Bangladesh -- and charges affordable interest rates, which aren't easy to secure if you don't have any collateral to put up against the loan.

Kiva.org and TrickleUp are some of the U.S.-based organizations that enable donnors to give loans and grants to entrepreneurs in the developing world. (Kiva works with people in the States, too.)

Although the types of projects DISHES supports may differ from ones enabled by these other institutions, the spirit is the same: if everyone donates a little bit, our city -- and our lives -- will be the richer for it.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Venue Spotlight: Saint Clare Theater


Thanks to NorthsideUp, DISHES has a home: The Saint Clare Theater, 1119 N. Townsend Street. Here are two photos of the beautiful space!





Stay tuned for updates about the menu, new logo, and musical guests!


Sunday, October 24, 2010

DISHES Launches!

WHAT IS DISHES?

Dine In. Support Happenings. Enliven Syracuse! is a quarterly community dinner/arts event that aims to spur community development through the arts. Once a season, we get together on the North Side to share a delicious meal, listen to one another’s suggestions for a community-based arts project, and vote on the project that has the most potential. The winner takes home a grant to realize her project – and returns to the following DISHES dinner to tell us about how it went.

Starting now and until Jan. 10, we’re accepting proposals from the greater Syracuse community for arts projects that you believe would make the city a better, more dynamic, more vibrant place to live.

January 23rd is our first DISHES/community dinner at the St. Clare Theater on the North Side. Everyone is welcome. For a $10 donation, you’ll get a delicious dinner and a ballot to vote for what you believe is the best proposal. The winning proposal takes home the money that we raised that evening, from attendees, to make her project possible.

DISHES is entirely volunteer-run, and survives thanks to donations from the community.