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Update
Arts @ The Feed & Grain was proud to sponsor and support the 3rd Annual People’s Market. Olivia Lowe, artist and Arts @ the Feed & Grain historian, curated a beautiful market of handmade and local art on May 21, 2014. The Feed & Grain was not available this year for the market due to construction next door on the Artspace Loveland Lofts, something for which there is growing excitement. So, Olivia partnered with a new local restaurant called Stout Market which kept the crowd for the People’s market well fed with fresh pizza and BBQ. Local musician, Mike Medeiros, from the Loveland Heritage Lutherie played his Hurdy-gurdy along the street to attract passersby.
Our proudest moment to date for Arts @ the Feed & Grain took place June 21 on the Summer Solstice when seven honorees were presented the inaugural Cornerstones Award made possible by ArtPlace America and the NEA’s Our Town. As you all know, every small community is dependent on the vision and the passion of its artists and leaders and on the ways they inspire others to pitch in and create places where the arts can thrive and where an authentic sense of community can flourish.
The biennial Cornerstones Awards will recognize community leaders, visual, literary, and performing artists who have laid the cornerstones for the arts in Loveland and whose work and examples empower other artists and community members to support and advance the arts for all of Loveland.
2014 Inaugural Cornerstones awards went to a broad spectrum of artists and community leaders from sculptors and painters, George Walbye, Fritz White and Solveig Lark, to a prize-winning poet and educator, Veronica Patterson and a writer/arts critic, Phyllis Walbye, to an internationally acclaimed folk singer and community leader, Bryan Sennett and a musical director, Cliff Schultz. All honorees have worn many hats from events volunteers to teachers and mentors to champions of economic vitality.
//www.legacy.artplaceamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2_-140821_Arts [at] theFeedGrain_1-e1411674899847.jpg">//www.legacy.artplaceamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2_-140821_Arts [at] theFeedGrain_1-e1411674899847.jpg" style="height:333px; width:500px" /> The original installation by Abbie R Powers in the Feed & Grain from February 2014 more info about the artist at www.abbierpowers.com (Photo by Alanna Brake)[/caption]
We had a great visit from fellow ArtPlace grantees Pam and Russ RuBert of IdeaXFactory in Springfield. MO. They drove in to see Arts @ The Feed & Grain and to visit Oh Heck Yeah in Denver (another Artplace America Grantee). IdeaXFactory specializes in site-specific installations as well as new media art. http://ideaxfactory.com/
We also had a chance to visit another ArtPlace America project, Oh Heck Yeah, as they debuted their interactive Video Arcade in downtown Denver. It was great fun to watch kids dancing in the streets to make the video games play on the buildings above them!
Challenges
Construction work is well underway at the Artspace Loveland Lofts, next door to the Feed & Grain, which has meant increasingly diminished access to the Feed & Grain. As the dirt flies next door, we face the challenges of carrying on Arts @ the Feed & Grain – without the Feed & Grain! We are working to share the creative placemaking concept with other artists and arts venues around Loveland and in the region. Because the arts campus is closed for construction, the 3rd Annual Sculpture Games will be part of the NoCO Mini Makers’ Faire: http://makerfairenoco.com/
While we continue to encourage community arts events, we have turned our focus to planning for the long-term at the Feed & Grain and are looking forward to beginning the stabilization of the Feed & Grain. We are exploring new ways to keep Arts @ the Feed & Grain in the hearts and minds of artists and the community during construction.
//www.legacy.artplaceamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/3_-140821_Arts [at] theFeedGrain_1-e1411674965326.jpg">//www.legacy.artplaceamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/3_-140821_Arts [at] theFeedGrain_1-e1411674965326.jpg" style="height:753px; width:500px" /> Esme Lowe sells honey at the People's Market (Photo by Megan Tracy)[/caption]
Recent Wins
We are thrilled to have been awarded a $50,000 capital grant from the Boettcher Foundation for the Feed & Grain’s rehabilitation and we continue to work on grant applications to fund more construction for the building.
Arts @ the Feed & Grain was recently acclaimed at the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado’s annual Philanthropy Days. More than 700 guests celebrated a landmark year for the Community Foundation, reflected on our community’s response in the aftermath of the September 2013 floods, and looked to the future of our region with keynote speaker Ed McMahon of the Urban Land Institute. McMahon‘s main point: Successful urban revitalization is seldom about the one big project. More likely, it is about a lot of little projects that work together synergistically to create a place where people want to be.
In other wins, the Loveland City Council recently approved a major City investment to bring a multi-million dollar, mixed use, market-rate project to Downtown Loveland three blocks from the Feed & Grain. Gallery Flats, a brand new 80 unit apartment complex 6 blocks from the Feed & Grain is 90% occupied less than three months since it opened. Seems a lot of people want to live and work in Downtown Loveland these days.
Arts @ the Feed & Grain artists have also made the news. Abbie R Powers was invited to bring her large scale silk installation from our 2014 Love + Light exhibit in February at the Feed & Grain to the University of Northern Colorado's CIAE Institute. You can check out the details from the Institute here: http://arts.unco.edu/ciae/institute/default.html and on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ciae.arts.unco.edu
//www.legacy.artplaceamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/4_-140821_Arts [at] theFeedGrain_1-e1411674992925.jpg">//www.legacy.artplaceamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/4_-140821_Arts [at] theFeedGrain_1-e1411674992925.jpg" style="height:753px; width:500px" /> Local musician, Mike Medeiros, from the Loveland Heritage Lutherie played his Hurdy-gurdy in front of Stout Market (Photo by Megan Tracy)[/caption]
Insights/questions
We got to take a team from Artspace Projects and the City & County of Denver to tour Wunderbound Dance Troupe’s Junction Box Project in Denver. The magic that Garrett Amon and Dawn Fay, and their landlord Amy Harmon, are creating in one of Denver’s toughest neighborhoods is breathtaking -- and so very inspirational. Junction Box is what creative placemaking is all about! Their dance troupe, their performances are exquisite; that alone would mark Wunderbound as exceptional. It is their compassion, and most importantly, their inclusive respect for their neighbors, including the residents of the nearby homeless shelter, that light the way for all of us on the creative place-making path. http://wonderbound.com/
Cornerstones Awards Winner Bios
Bryan Sennett for his long-term commitment to Loveland’s community and its artists. Bryan’s early years as leader and lead singer for the Serendipity Singers were complemented by his innate business skills when he and Gay moved their family back to Loveland. As Chairman of the Loveland Development Fund, Bryan worked tirelessly to bring community focus and support for the arts of Loveland. From his work as a founding member of the Loveland High Plains Arts Council, to his championship of the Rialto Theater revival, Bryan’s vision and powers of persuasion helped capture hearts and cement Loveland’s reputation as a City of the Arts.
Phyllis Walbye for her work illuminating the arts and artists of Loveland. Phyllis’ coverage of the arts of Loveland and beyond was always literate and thoughtful, clear-headed and constructive. After spending her youth watching movies in the Rialto Theater, Phyllis covered the Rialto’s revival from its early beginnings in 1986 through its Grand Re-opening in 1996. Her writings and reviews taught Loveland how to view art and arts performances and gave us an arts vocabulary that moved us from local enjoyment into true art appreciation.
Fritz White for the breadth and diversity of his artistic vision, for his commitment to bringing the arts to Loveland as one of the Founding Five Sculptors of the Sculpture in the Park annual shows. Fritz generously shared his talents with our community and served as artistic mentor to sculptors and artists in Loveland and around the world. As one of the earliest sculptors to move to Loveland in the 1970s for the Art Castings of Colorado Foundry, Fritz and Ina’s roots are sunk deep into our town. Fritz’s sculpture, on the shore of Lake Loveland, Generations, seen by literally millions, embodies both his artistic vision and the soul of a generous artist and community leader.
George Walbye for his work on behalf of artists and the arts of Loveland, as one of the Five Founding Sculptors, but also working behind the scenes to support Sculpture in the Park for more than 30 years, and for his ongoing generosity and mentorship with emerging artists and new arts ventures for Loveland. The list of artists and arts activities to which George has generously given his time and talents is long and much appreciated, including producing commemorative pieces for the opening of the Loveland Civic Center, for art auctions and benefits throughout Northern Colorado;
Solveig Lark for her dedicated commitment to bringing artists to Loveland and to seeing Loveland become a real arts town. As a painter and owner of Gallery East, for nearly 40 years, Solveig’s generosity extended to her customers as well as to the artists she represented. She worked tirelessly to embed the arts in our community, from the McKee Hospital Galas to being a founding member of the Loveland High Plains Arts Council. Informal gatherings in the Gallery were in effect, art salons, where artists and community alike shared ideas and laughter, debated art history and learned much about the power of the arts – and tenacity -- from Solveig.
Veronica Patterson for her prize-winning poetry and for her commitment to teaching and sharing the literary arts with our community. Winner of national awards and fellowships, including the New York University Press Prize for Poetry and the Colorado Book Award for Poetry, Veronica has clearly achieved excellence in her field. While the list of her published works is long, the list of her efforts to ensure that the literary arts are a vital a part of our community’s spirit is equally long, including hosting early literary salons in unlikely and accessible places, organizing Poets in the Park, and teaching writing classes for groups from Pathways Hospice to the University of Northern Colorado to Osher Lifelong Learning.
Cliff Schultz for his dedication to showcasing the musical performers in our community. As Artistic Director of the Loveland Choral Society since 1991, Cliff’s imagination and commitment to musical excellence has given Loveland access to 68 world-class musical productions. Cliff’s commitment to excellence is evidenced by the musicians who return every year to work with “The Maestro.” Cliff’s leadership of the Loveland Choral Society has brought Broadway, Hollywood, and the world to Loveland in imaginative and meaningful ways – sometimes light-hearted, sometimes more serious, always memorable – and always, always sold-out performances.