Past Presentations

Here is a summary of all the creative ideas that have been presented at DISHES since its debut in 2011:


DISHES Dinner Event #8

February 19, 2017


WINNER: 

Kids Take Over: Science Showcase connecting refugee youth with passionate high school mentors, the program will culminate in two science fairs at the Museum of Science and Technology.

SECOND PRIZE WINNER: 

Syracuse Refugee Unity Day aiming to build community between refugees through a day-long celebration that allows them to share and celebrate their cultural diversity


OTHER PRESENTATIONS:

Picture81 brings artists' portrayals of the physical existence and social aspects of Interstate 81 to local gallery spaces.

Where Dumbo Came to Life would allow for a public art installation to commemorate the contribution of Helen Durney, Dumbo illustrator and Syracuse native, to children's literature.

Sanctuary City is a short documentary focusing on two refugee families in Syracuse. The production team aims to involve interview subjects in their process.



DISHES Dinner Event #7

February 21, 2016



WINNER: 

Syracuse Plays Chess by Anton Ninno

Syracuse Plays Chess improves Syracuse by engaging people of all ages with a challenging and ageless board game that builds mental discipline, executive brain function, and emotional stamina while offering social opportunities and encouraging new friendships.

The group created a series of free, public chess events where people of all ages learned to play chess, and made new friends all over the Greater Syracuse area. 

Chess can be learned by anyone, from kindergarten through senior years. Syracuse Chess was incorporated in April 2015 to promote the game of chess in schools, neighborhood centers, libraries, recreation centers, and senior programs throughout Central New York. 

Chess is a game that knows no boundaries. Size, gender, race, wealth, and religion make no difference across a chessboard. Not even a common language is required. A child can play with a grandparent, a bartender with an architect, a Muslim with a Jew, a conservative with a liberal, a pauper with a prince. 

Syracuse Plays Chess events span to February 2017. Since winning the DISHES grant, Syracuse Chess expanded its reach to local libraries and community centers around the city, teaching workshops and organizing tournaments. 

SECOND PRIZE WINNER: 

Paint the Town by Melissa Fierke

Paint the Town is a project to make an eye-catching mural across the center of a neighborhood intersection to get drivers to navigate the crossing with caution. The mural will be located adjacent to the Ed Smith Elementary School, at the intersection of Lancaster and Broad streets in the Westcott-University neighborhood. The bright colors on the street will slow traffic at this important crossing and will also bring the community together through the hands-on creation of public art. Students at Ed Smith, Syracuse University and ESF will together help paint the street.

OTHER PRESENTATIONS

Syracuse Olympics by Paul Colabufo
Showcases Syracuse neighborhoods as the premier places to live that they are, giving Syracuse residents a reason to get excited about where they live, and beautifying Syracuse Neighborhoods.

BeWellSyracuse.com by Shavon S. Greene
A platform for Syracuse residents to not only learn from others in the community but to teach through their own life experiences.

Silence to Violence by Tamika Barnett

Brings the inner city back together showing the youth alternatives to violence.

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DISHES Dinner Event #6
February 8, 2015


WINNER:

Second Line Syracuse by Melissa Gardiner
Second Line Syracuse is a New Orleans style brass band with a Central NY flare that will energize the streets of Syracuse with live music and by bringing neighbors together with spontaneous celebration. A second line is a brass band parade tradition in New Orleans. The "main" line or the "first" line is followed by a second line, where folks join the parade, strutting, dancing, and enjoying the music.

The parade will take place in the Near Westside neighborhood of Syracuse and will be on June 21, 2015, to celebrate International Make Music Day. The day is a global celebration of music making that gathers people from diverse backgrounds together to celebrate the unifying power of music. Last year, Second Line Syracuse! performed on this day, and many curious neighbors opened their doors surprised and delighted by the music coming from the streets. Children and families joined in on the fun, and the park filled up quickly with youthful energy and happiness.

In the spirit of New Orleans, one of the most incredible cultural melting pots, this Second Line parade celebrates neighbors, music, and culture on the Westside. The event will begin and end at Skiddy Park, with a large banner being carried along the parade route inviting everyone to join us for a final celebration afterwards.

SECOND PRIZE WINNER:

Cooperative Federal Student Cash Stash Pilot by Thomas Dellwo
The Student Cash Stash Pilot is a new financial capability program at three Syracuse high schools, where students will use a smart phone app to connect with mentors and create and reach savings goals.

OTHER PRESENTATIONS:

Her Village Day by Nicole Watts
A gathering of women from many nations sharing crafting, art, ethnic cooking lessons, and more to experience the beautiful diversity of our community

Yoga for Everyone by Kristin Kadaji
A series of free yoga classes for community members that would not otherwise be able to afford classes or have the means to travel to a class outside their neighborhood

The Songambele Cultural & Adult Education Foundation by Emmanuel Ndeze
A center that assists refugees with reading and writing skills, while also allowing them to share their culture with the Syracuse community

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DISHES Dinner Event #5
February 23, 2014


WINNER:

The Forget-Me-Nots Chorus by Francine Berg
The Forget-Me-Nots is a chorus developed for persons with dementia and their caregivers. It provides a unique opportunity for them to practice music and perform in front of an audience. The program aims to bring light to the issue of Alzheimer’s and show how persons with dementia can live fulfilling lives.

The Forget-Me-Nots Chorus is a 10 week program, that will be offered 3 times in 2014. Public performances will be planned at the end of each 10 week session, and will be held at Menorah Park in Syracuse. Each session begins with a half hour social gathering then a one hour rehearsal, filled with vocal warm-ups, breathing exercises, and songs that are stimulating, rhythmically driven and energetic, resulting in the joy of singing.

The Forget-Me-Nots held their first concert, at the conclusion of their first 10-week session, on June 29th 2014. The group was made up of 36 people; sons and mothers, daughters and fathers, husbands and wives, and residents of Menorah Park. The chorus sang a variety of songs including show tunes by Rodgers and Hammerstein; a medley of Pete Seeger songs; love songs; songs of hope; some “oldies and goodies”; and a medley of songs from George M Cohan. The Forget-Me-Nots are continuing with two more 10-week sessions this year.

SECOND PRIZE WINNER:

Westside Walks by Karaline Rothwell, Rob Walter, Gary Bonaparte, Jeff Jull, Mother Earth, Obdulia Boston, Sterling Boston, Susan Hamilton, and Rev. Marti Swords-Horrell
Now in its 2nd year, WestSideWalks (WSW) presents the Winter Challenge: a volunteer snow shoveling brigade that meets weekly to shovel sidewalks in the Westside that need the most attention. WSW creates safe, walkable streets, and aims to encourage residents to make the neighborhood a better place to live.

OTHER PRESENTATIONS:

LEGO Cuse by John Cardone, Stacey Lindbloom, and Jason Foggie
Build-A-Cuse plans to build a fully to-scale model of downtown Syracuse made entirely of LEGOs and offer the public the opportunity to reimagine and “create” the city they would like to see.

The Prophet by Ken Keech
The Prophet aims to take Syracuse MP3 Experiments to a heightened level with a large scale improv performance documented with aerial quadcopters with gopro cameras. The modified MP3 experiment will involve “The Prophet”, or a participant, receiving instructions and leading “The Hoard”.

Art on Parade by Brani Andreev
A one-evening showcase that connects local artists, musicians, artisans and photographers with the annual Parade of Homes. The collaboration brings business and arts together into a partnership to benefit local artists enabling them to promote themselves and become established and recognized.

Syracuse Grows by Rozlynn and Mable Wilson
Syracuse Grows, now in its sixth year, aims to continue to help a growing network of community gardens prepare for the spring planting season with an influx of volunteer labor; compost, manure and mulch deliveries; free seedlings and seeds; and new and used tools.

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DISHES Dinner Event #4
May 11, 2013


WINNER:

Cooperative Permaculture Garden by Reina Apraez, Symone Campbell,and Sterling Lowry
Syracuse Real Food Cooperative and Nottingham High School F.A.C.E.S. (faculty, alumni, community members, educators and students) committee is currently collaborating on the development of a community permaculture garden utilized by the Nottingham community as a hands-on learning site for healthy life skills and the sciences. The garden will also serve to provide fresh, natural foods to Nottingham family members in need. It will be a natural, regenerative ecosystem focused on edible perennials, with a set of large container planters to provide edible annuals.


The garden site will be located at the “G.W.” South-facing courtyard of Nottingham, next to the entrance of the Max Newman Swimming Pool. The constitution of the garden is based on cooperative principles, and therefore, the garden will not have plots claimed by individuals, as is typical to community gardens. The development will be determined democratically by those who work on the site. The harvests from the garden will be rewarded to the worker-volunteers in equal shares. Eventually, surplus vegetables will be donated to Nottingham families as CSA shares at pick up sites (to be determined) on all four sides of Syracuse on a first come, first serve basis, based on reduced and free lunch status.

This project is focused on outreach to populations across the city, community connection, youth empowerment, food access, health, and education. Depending on the success and demand of the first garden site, we will expand into other viable and open areas of the Nottingham landscape and establish a Syracuse City School as a hub for Urban Agriculture and healthy organic food access.

This project is truly a community-wide endeavor. The designs for the garden came out of the “Community Training in Ecological Design” course taught by Alchemical Nursery and the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute over this past winter. The plan for a student-focused garden has been monumentally supported by the Nottingham administration and is now a facet of an overarching landscape development for the entire school exterior that has been occurring for the past year. Furthermore, with more city-support for urban agriculture, the more that further landscaping designs at Nottingham will be catered to edible and native plants, as well as retrofitting the exterior infrastructure towards conservational energy and responsible disposal.

OTHER PRESENTATIONS:

Salina Street Refreshed by Peter Waack and Cayetano Valenzuela
This project aims to repaint old faded advertising signs in Syracuse, starting on Salina Street, in Little Italy. The refreshed ghost signs will become an outdoor art gallery, with a map to each sign and the history of the sign and business that is promoted. Funds raised from this event will allow local artist, Cayetano Valenzuela, the opportunity to put his mark on an old sign. Cayetano recently launched a sign painting business, The Black Rabbit Studio, as a side business to his fine art paintings.

Trees: Symbols of Powerful Experiences An Art and Poetry Competition by Maria Rizzo and Lindsey Bellosa-Mc
The Artist and Curator in Residence for the Tech Garden Gallery, Maria Rizzo, wants to create an art and poetry competition that will explore the history of trees' symbolism and their role in today's environment. This competition, open to all Onondaga Country residents over 18, will empower our local artists and poets by giving them a chance to show their creation on the walls of The Tech Garden and to win a great number of money awards to honor their talents.

NOexcuses | LOWdowns by Michael Haegerty and Christie Smith
NOexcusesSYR is a collborative effort to tour travelers, transplants and locals alike through the many neighborhoods of Syracuse. But first, we need help from the community. We want to collect and make accessible people's personal histories and anecdotes about the places in their neighborhoods that are important to them. Through story telling narrative, we'd like to create a collection of the intimate, neighborhood level voices that tell the day-to-day stories that make up our city.  Our objective is to record these stories using an audio device, that will then upload onto a telephone service that will allow anyone to use their cellphone to call a number that will play a story back in a voice-mail format. We will create and post signage throughout the city where these stories can be heard.

Syracuse In Print by Jason Luther and Patrick Williams
Many cites across the U.S. including L.A., Brooklyn, Chicago, and Buffalo boast vibrant small press festivals where DIY publishers are able to exchange zines, comics, and handmade books with each other and with the general public. Although Syracuse is admittedly smaller, we know our residents have gripping stories, important arguments and innovative ideas that simply need to be shared in a celebratory public setting. Thus, we propose to host Syracuse In Print, a series of events culminating in the first annual small press/zine/chapbook/print festival with hopes that subsequent fests would be held each year and will eventually build a large archive of our voices through time. To boost interest and awareness, we propose to initially hold zine- and bookmaking workshops in various Syracuse communities -- Westcott, the Near West Side, Eastwood, etc. -- and then solicit interest for the festival. A select number of $50 grants will also be distributed to workshop attendees to offset printing costs. The festival itself will include a wide variety of presenters, events and activities, and be held on a weekend next spring in the City of Syracuse.

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DISHES "On the Road"
Summer 2012


WINNER:

Food Forest Gardening for Culture and Health by Frank Certera, Mack Macner, and Andrew Greco
The Alchemical Nursery, which uses Permaculture design principles, will establish an edible forest garden planted with perennial fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs, and tubers. Modeled after the current project at 3100 South Salina Street, the Rhama Free Clinic's Edible Forest Snack Garden, this new garden will coordinate with a health care related site such as a clinic, doctor's office, or wellness institution.  It will be located on the Northside or Westside.

Plantings in this new garden will be native to the places where the people who tend it come from. In this way, the garden provides education on different cultures' food traditions and heritages.  And, by growing fresh food, the garden addresses the challenge of accessing fresh produce within the city, which will be available as free pick foraging.  Community is key to this project: residents will help to decide what to plant, and will be a fundamental part of sheet mulching, planting, and maintaining the garden.

OTHER PRESENTATIONS:

The 26 Neighborhoods by Jamil Munoz
This project pairs filmmakers with community residents to create short documentaries about each of Syracuse's 26 neighborhoods.  The teams will focus their films on whatever they like -- a person, place, event, business, landmark, anything -- so long as it has a prominent connection to the neighborhood.  The resulting "shorts" are assembled into a single documentary.

Kindness Kits & Kindness Kitstallation by Sarah Sellman and Greg Grano
Participating teams receive a kindness kit equipped with notepad, markers and other materials, along with a booklet of missions, such as "Write kind messages on Post-it notes and post them at a bus stop, on a windshield, or give it directly to a stranger!" The kit also includes a disposable camera to document these kind acts.  While these acts are taking place in Syracuse, other Kindness Kits will be happening at the same time in Dallas, New York City, and Richmond. When each mission is completed, the kit is passed to the next team that has signed up to participate in the event. The last mission includes instructions to mail the disposable camera to the organizers (envelope with postage included in the kit). The Kindness Kitstallation turns the kits into a lasting art piece, using photos of acts taken in all four cities around the nation. The photos of kind acts from part one will go on display as a collage, along with three-dimensional cubbies that include instructions for kind missions or nice notes to pass on to someone nearby.

Laugh-a-Cuse by Anna Phillips and Della Brown
Syracuse needs laughter. To bring the city such joy, the project launches a three-day comedy festival that includes local and professional talent and comedy workshops. The organizers will then use this festival to launch a Northside-based stand-up comedy series. The city's emerging comedy scene is struggling to blossom, and this event will expose residents to a talented group of local up-and-coming comedians.

Westcott Night-Light by Brendan Rose and Damian Vallelonga
These artists aim to create a unique, glowing art-piece for a public space at the intersection of Westcott and S. Beech streets, where a small grassy knoll now resides.  The aim of the night-light is to make the space more attractive, feel safer, and to delineate the space from the adjacent parking lot. Power for the installation would be generated using solar energy. The organizers are currently working with the City of Syracuse to redesign this small park area, in such a way that it is transformed into a public space that can be used by the community. To that end, they are working to forge a path into the space to craft a sculptural bench at its apex.


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DISHES Dinner Event #3
February 19, 2012


WINNER:

Salt City Slam by Mozart Guerrier and Seneca Wilson 
Salt City Slam is a monthly spoken word/poetry slam competition on the Northside of Syracuse administered by the Underground Poets (undergroundpoetryspot.com), a Syracuse poetry collective that has been in operation for the last two years. The Salt City Slam 6-month series began in April 2012 and wrapped up in September 2012.

OTHER PRESENTATIONS:

Mobile Sauna by Caitlin Foley and Misha Rabinowich
We aim to create a Sauna which will provide an open and comfortable environment for warmth, rejuvenation and conversation. These are all things essential to a productive and healthy lifestyle and extremely difficult to come by during the winter months in Syracuse. The Sauna will hold up to six people at a time with a two tiered seating area.  It will include a small shower and changing room. We plan to bring the Sauna to art openings and cultural events throughout Syracuse, NY with potential visits to other cities.

CINECUSE by Jamil Munoz and Theodore Schaefer
The Indie 48 would bring a nationally recognized independent filmmaker to Syracuse to write, shoot, and edit a short film while working with local filmmakers and actors. The films will showcase the people, places, and events the city has to offer. Once the films are complete, the public will be invited to a special screening featuring the brand new short as well as a feature work by the filmmaker. 

Dog Park by Dan Hammer and Benjamin Lockwood
The Dog Park aims to provide a fun, social place for people to bring their dogs on the southern edge of Barry Park, on the Eastside of Syracuse, NY.

The Erie Canal's Rustiest Bike Circus Tour by Meghan Holtan
Circus artists will bike between Syracuse and Rochester, performing along the Erie Boulevard and presenting historically themed circus shows in canal communities along the way.  Each show will be filled with juggling, live music, magic, mayhem, and more! The shows will be free and open to the public. 

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Dance for DISHES
August 21, 2011

In the summer of 2011, we decided to throw a DISHES fundraiser and a dance party naturally fit the bill!



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DISHES Dinner Event #2
May 1, 2011


WINNER:  

Bikes4Peace by Ursula Rozum, Emma Anderson, and Jessica Maxwell
Bikes4Peace is a community bicycle recycling and repair program that engages youth in cooperative bicycle repair. We promote positive relationships between peers and adults through learning about bicycle maintenance. We aim to empower youth to realize and develop their problem-solving skills through constructive group activity - bike repair!

OTHER PRESENTATIONS:

The Girls Incorporated by Teri Del Rosso
The Girls Incorporated is a teen program that proposes a six-week summer project to encourage girls to redefine beauty through practical and creative workshops in such genres as painting, spoken word, and photography. At the same time as they explore new ways to define beauty, the girls will participate in the Girls Incorporated Media Literacy program, which provides context for the origins of our society’s unattainable ideals. The grant will go toward supplies and a public reception of the girls’ work. 

Art on the Porches by John Lacey, Tom Montague, Charlene Bozzi
The annual Art on the Porches street festival, presented by the Greater Strathmore Neighborhood Association, provides artists the chance to show and sell their work on Ruskin Ave. in Syracuse’s Strathmore neighborhood. The DISHES grant will go toward setting up outdoor video projections around the city that show off the artists’ work and promote the festival.

Syracuse Art Library by Jess Maggi and Sarah Irwin
This project is a system of lending and borrowing original, local artwork to community members for free. The artwork is hung in people's homes for three months. It's a system of trust that builds relationships and shares art between artists and the community. The grant will go toward delivering and picking up artwork, frames, and an opening at the Petit Library.  

Touring Border City Syracuse by Jenna M. Loyd, (4 other names)
This project will provide five tours throughout Syracuse that aim to create new opportunities for dialogue regarding the economic and political institutions responsible for the “boundaries” – both literal and metaphoric – that describe our city. The tours will also be documented on a Website. 

A Military Series: by Sharon Blair
A Parent’s Perspective is an exhibition of artworks inspired by the experiences, and point of view, of a mother whose son is stationed in Afghanistan. The exhibition will also show works by winners of the Veteran Regional Art Award.  The grant will support printing and advertising; 10 percent of work sold during the event will go to the Wounded Warriors project.
 
There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute: Recreating the Cardiff Giant by Ty Marshall
Artists will craft a replica of the so-called Cardiff Giant, the purported ten-foot-tall petrified man found in 1869 in Cardiff, New York, that caused a sensation when exhibited publicly later that same year. The grant will go toward supplies, studio space, shipping, and promotional materials for a month-long exhibition of the “giant.” 

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DISHES Dinner Event #1 
January 23, 2011 



WINNER:

SUBPAR (Syracuse Urban Beautification Public Art Resistance) by Tonja Torgerson and Joel Weissman


“Syracuse Urban Beautification Public Art Resistance” SUBPAR is meant to integrate challenging art into the visual landscape of Syracuse. Dereliction and mass media advertising dominate the physical and mental environment of our city. SUBPAR aims to create street art installations that offer critical perspectives while forcing beauty into the urban surroundings.


As an initial venture, SUBPAR's founding members (Tonja Torgerson and Joel Weissman) are creating hand-made ceramic tiles as a form of unconventional street art. This project involves multiple installations that are spread throughout the city. Due to the hand-made nature of these times we are able to create a huge array of shapes and sizes that are specific to the location. This project also utilizes screen-printed imagery and text on these tiles to draw attention to the current neglect of Syracuse's urban environment.

Syracuse has suffered from a vicious cycle of urban decay. As businesses have failed and buildings have become abandoned, the center of the city becomes more vacant while new, excessive, business complexes are constructed away from the city's hearts. Even more detrimental to the street life of Syracuse is the placement of the interstate system through the city's center. This makes it difficult to traverse and experience the city in any means besides a vehicle. These conditions create an atmosphere that is crippling to the creation of a pedestrian culture and urban vibrancy within Syracuse. SUBPAR intends to counteract this lackluster environment by developing beauty in the urban environment and re-appropriating spaces for art within the public realm.

The creation of site-specific street art installations in only a catalyst for the greater objective. The work created by SUBPAR serve to prompt individuals and collectives to recognize the need for civic improvement.

OTHER PRESENTATIONS:

Library Farm by Thomas Gokey and Meg Backus

The LibaryFarm is an act of constructive action on the Gandhian model, a social sculpture and an extension of the libraries collection (we think of the produce grown in the LibraryFarm as documents in the collection). 1/2 acres of unused public land was turned into a community garden that is based on the principles of the public library (civic participation, sharing knowledge and resources). Members of the public can "check out" a plot of land and farm it for a season. There is also a public section that will be worked collectively with the produce shared among the workers, the library patrons, and local food pantries. The LibraryFarm is located on the site of the failed Cicero "Commons" after the public got swindled by corrupt city officials and developers. Part of this project is an attempt to reclaim the commons and rethink the nature of the common (using the library as the model of a successful commons). In 2011 we hope to expand the amount of land we are actively farming, build a rain barrel irrigation system, with the help of an Eagle Scout project create raised beds and a compost bin. 

Thumbs Upstate Improve Festival By Ken Keech, Joe Blum, Mike Intaglietta, and Vanessa Rose
Improv comedy is relatively new to the Central New York area. The Upstate Improv Festival looks to both introduce local people to a growing performance art trend and help bring together existing upstate improv comedy groups and communities. Every major city currently hosts annual comedy festivals: New York City, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Providence, the list goes on. New York City has always been at the forefront of improv theater, however we see the potential for Syracuse to become a hub for improv in the Upstate region. Hosting an event here would not only support local artists and community groups, but would be yet another reason for young artists to visit and perform in Syracuse. 
 
Syracuse Community Cookbook Series by Daniel Aguilera
In collaboration with the Photography and Literacy (PAL) Project and La Casita Cultural
Center, a new community center, we will document traditional family recipes from community members including any stories attached to them. Teenage students from the PAL Project will be taught techniques in oral historiography to collect recipes from family relatives. The recipes will be compiled, edited, and translated for a hand bound designed book in collaboration with local book artists. During the summer a hand binding workshop will be conducted by a selected book artist. This will take place at La Casita Cultural Center where students and community members can participate in the workshop and take with them a hand bound community cookbook. 

Walking on Water by Nathaniel Sullivan & Jay Muhlin
Walking on Water aims to share the richness of the city with the university community and encourage students to appreciate Syracuse and become more connected to their metropolitan surroundings. Participants are lent iPods and can expect to hear a combination of narrative stories describing the history of Syracuse, along with personal statements of local people who live, work and play here. Individuals are also given a map so that they can note certain areas where audio tracks are available and learn about such landmarks as the 1892 Amos Block and the 1894 Gere Bank Building. During the walk, participants are encouraged to document their experiences and are able to upload texts, videos and sounds to the project’s website. Contributions will be stacked on an online map, and visitors can click on this user-generated content to frame streets and narratives in a new way.

The Storefront for Syracuse by Nilus Klingel, James Conley, and Steve Klimek
The Storefront for Syracuse is a student-run initiative of the American Institute of Architecture Students at Syracuse University (AIAS), a recognized student organization in the SU School of Architecture. Our goal is to exploit the over 1,000,000 square feet of vacant commercial space in Downtown Syracuse, one storefront at a time. Through cleaning, refurbishment, and social/cultural events, we draw attention to these spaces, yielding viable real estate. Poor commercial space is a major hindrance to entrepreneurial and urban development in Syracuse, and through our unique mix of programming objectives, we create active spaces within the Downtown that help “enliven Syracuse!” Using our skills as young, passionate, energetic architecture students, we have quickly developed a portfolio of projects which make a big impact with little investment.

Salt City Art Cart by Sara Mills
The Salt City Art Cart will be a free mobile art program that travels to several public park or plaza spaces in a van/truck/vehicle throughout the city and will bring art supplies and projects to the community. Rather than a one shot affair, this project would be more about the process of engaging the public creatively, activating city public space, and building capacity and a sustainable program that fosters arts throughout the city long term. The project would have to be initially staffed by volunteers and would involve a fair level of coordination with city officials to make it possible to use public spaces in several neighborhoods. The types of projects done at each Art Cart session could be both group and individual oriented. Such as, but not limited to, mask-making, tee-shirt printing, plein-air/ nature drawing, comic illustration, etc. that would allow participants to create individual take-home products, as well as facilitating with each group the summer-long planning and implementation of a group-generated neighborhood-specific public art project such as a mural or installation. Another outcome of a mobile art program that could enliven a neighborhood would be to find 'gallery' spaces where the products of the workshops could be displayed; ie vacant building windows, community meeting spaces, local businesses, etc. In general, the mission of the project being proposed here is really about promoting the experience of making art and thinking creatively, and doing so in such a way that it is accessible to the widest public possible. 

Syracuse Skillshare by Vanessa Marquez and Richard Vallejo
The Syracuse Skillshare believes that everyone is both a teacher and a student, and aims to facilitate free and open spaces for the reciprocal exchange of knowledge, skills and ideas. Quality education doesn't have to come from large expensive universities, opportunities to teach and learn are all around us. When neighbors share knowledge we can expand our creative, productive and intellectual abilities in ways which strengthen our social and community bonds. We seek to build local community networks of individuals and groups for skills trainings, mutual aid, shared resources, solidarity, and collective liberation.

FiboCuse by Brendan Rose, Mark Povinelli and Ken Keech
FiboCuse aims to generate a mathematically ideal, artistic network centered on Syracuse’s near-westside and expanding out into the city, region, and beyond. High school students will be recruited to work with local artists in the creation of a series of markers located to define the beginning of Fibonacci Spiral. The first nine markers will be located within Lipe Art Park and one additional marker of the extended spiral will be placed at the entrance of the MoST. The markers, which would be individually designed through various artistic collaborations, must include their respective sequence number and a graphic representation of the Fibonacci sequence; ie. spiral, pine cone, sunflower. In addition, interactive website will host an overlay map of the expanding spiral on the city. This site will provide a forum for ongoing public participation in producing and placing markers at spiral points that are located in mathematically defined locations such as parking lots and private residences. This crowd sourced artistic movement will expand Syracuse across the planet while simultaneously drawing the planet in to its powerful artistic mathification.


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