Tag: Art Gallery

Elevated Denver uses storytelling to address homelessness among older adults

[ad_1]

DENVER — Homelessness among older adults in the Denver metro area is a lingering problem. For the past few years, the nonprofit Elevated Denver has worked to be part of the solution — partnering with those who have lived it — to help get lives back on track.

“Elevated Denver was started to be a part of the solution to homelessness in our community,” said Co-founder and CEO Johnna Flood. “The foundation of it is really based on three principles … looking at homelessness and other challenges from a systems lens; where is the system functioning well, and where is it breaking down, and how do we solve that collaboratively, so not just the nonprofit sector, but also with government, business.”

Denver7

CEO and co-founder of Elevated Denver, Johnna Flood.

The organization’s approach centers on storytelling through podcasts, art exhibits and community events — including a gallery in downtown Denver focused on the voices of those who have experienced homelessness.

“We’re really aiming to open people’s hearts and minds to the fact that we’re all humans having our own human experience,” Flood said. “The most important to our work is, how do we lift up the voices, stories and activate lived expert leaders in our community … and ensure that they’re the primary folks working on the solutions.”

Flood said interviews with dozens of unhoused adults revealed it could take three to six months, on average, to find help beyond immediate food and shelter. In response, the group piloted a Community Resource Connection Hub at the Westwood Community Center, staffed by members of the neighborhood with lived experience navigating homelessness.

“A lot of things can happen in those three to six months,” Flood said. “We wanted to reach people earlier and prevent people from having to experience homelessness, if we could, or make it brief and temporary.”

Their research also highlighted the unique challenges facing older adults without shelter.

“In many cases, mobility is a big problem because they may or may not have health challenges just getting around,” said John Olander, who once experienced homelessness and now has permanent housing. “Absolutely [it’s challenging to ask for help], because in most cases, they’ve done it themselves all their life. And in fact, that was my biggest personal challenge.”

Olander said pride can prevent people from seeking support.

“When you get to be my age, and then all of a sudden, you got to ask somebody to give you a handout … you don’t want to do it,” he said. “It’s pride, and it’s also stupidity.”

Denver7

Flood noted the compounding effects for older adults who often live on fixed incomes in the face of rising costs, health events and personal losses. Many, she said, experience homelessness for the first time later in life.

“These folks just will not give up, and they’re so resilient and persistent and hopeful,” Flood said. “Most of these stories are about resilience and hope, community and connection, and that’s exactly what I want to foster.”

For Olander, sharing personal stories has been part of his recovery and advocacy.

“That experience of talking to others and getting it out helps everyone,” he said. “It’s just a privilege to be a part of the solution.”

Through art, conversation and community spaces, Elevated Denver hopes to turn individual experiences into collective action — and change perceptions about homelessness along the way.

“We just want them to open themselves up to the possibility of seeing life through somebody else’s experience,” Flood said, “and through all of our work … open their hearts and minds.”

Coloradans making a difference | Denver7 featured videos

Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what’s right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.

[ad_2]

Colin Riley

Source link

January 8, 2026
Someday merges culinary and visual arts in Detroit’s North End

[ad_1]

Walking into Someday, a new art gallery and bakehouse in Detroit’s North End, you’ll be embraced like a close friend.

The space merges culinary and visual arts, all seamlessly blended with an essence of “inner child energy.” In March, Someday opened at 2857 E. Grand Blvd., connected to the comic book store Vault of Midnight. MilkyWay, a model and DJ, and Trotter, a photographer and visual artist, launched Someday with a shared vision of introducing local communities to unique creative programming that nourishes all the senses.

click to enlarge

Courtesy of Someday

Someday’s storefront.

The founders began their journeys together at Detroit’s Cass Tech High School and have since worked together and separately in fine art, editorial, and commercial spaces.

After living in New York City for a short period and Los Angeles for around seven years, collaborating with clients such as Nike, Telfar, Rolling Stone, and Google, the couple returned home to Detroit in 2022 with ambitions of strengthening the city’s creative community and cultivating a safe space for “young melanated folk.”

During the same year, Someday received a Motor City Match grant of $40,000, which supported the realization of its brick-and-mortar.

“We honestly hit the ground running,” Trotter says. “We came back to Detroit with the mission, so I want to say within the first few months of us being here, we were looking at different areas, different neighborhoods for Someday to land.”

Initially, they looked at spots on the west side near Rosedale Park close to where Trotter grew up, but ultimately settled on the current space closer to the east side where MilkyWay was raised. The pair’s childhood, time in high school, and surely their time since, all helped to shape the current endeavor.

“I can just pay homage to our past journeys,” Trotter says. “We spent a lot of time in different spaces, not necessarily working or hands-on, but just always observing, and always appreciating the moment and that has helped us quite a bit.”

Someday’s inaugural exhibit is titled Capitalist Society, featuring three Detroit artists, four artists from other U.S. cities, and one artist from Haifa, Palestine. The show demonstrates “the experience of trying to survive in a for-profit regime” through “harrowing and uncomfortable anecdotes.”

The owners believe this show effectively represents Someday’s mission to create an accessible art experience. Plus, the theme of capitalism, even in the art community itself, is not an uncommon one.

click to enlarge

Courtesy of Someday

Trotter and MilkyWay, the founders of Someday.

“I feel like it’s a conversation that is relatable, but it’s also kind of heavy hitting to what Detroit is experiencing as well,” MilkyWay says. “I feel like a lot of people can relate to just that thumb of oppression in different ways.”

Trotter adds, “We’ve had struggles in our own careers matriculating in a number of spaces and so we’re walking forward in trying to create our own… The state of the world, it has a price tag, and that price tag is omitting a lot of individuals.”

Aside from creating impactful art you can see and hear, MilkyWay and Trotter have always had a love for cooking and baking, as well as cultivating community. And, they realized the importance of good food in spaces where creative work is flourishing.

“If you’re making magic you should be putting magic in your belly,” Trotter says. “We had a lot of crazy experiences going on adventures and following our dreams and eventually we came up with this idea, this concept of merging visual and culinary arts to craft a unique form of hospitality.”

The idea for Someday truly ignited in 2020 when the couple was commissioned by Rolling Stone to create a commemorative “moment” following George Floyd’s death.

“We brought the community out to Leimert Park in Los Angeles, which is a really historic Black community there and we talked about police brutality, and we talked about the experience of America and then we also served them homemade donuts, and that kind of burst the experience on collaborating culinary and art,” MilkyWay shares.

Following that, the owners made a root-inspired dinner for a friend in New York’s art exhibit, titled “raíces,” which means “roots” in Spanish, again cohesively connecting the culinary and visual arts.

Now, at Someday, to tie in all aspects of the space, bakery items connect with the visual art on the walls, and the food will continue to change as the art does.

click to enlarge

Courtesy of Someday

“313” cookies, the “twerk,” and the spinach and mushroom quiche.

Someday’s signature sweet treat is called the “twerk,” rebranding the popular dance as a sweet-brioche bun filled with stewed fruit and topped with glaze and pie crumbles. Other menu offerings include a spinach and mushroom quiche, “313” cookies, and more.

“When we started dating, her family was hosting dinner and movies, and in my household, it was a huge theme, at least growing up, that we always heard our house can cook the best and make the best pies,” Trotter says. “I feel like that is a common trend with individuals who come from backgrounds like ours, but there is a barrier in the concept of actually matriculating it and developing that. We feel really blessed… It all stems from childhood.”

click to enlarge

Courtesy of Someday

The interior of Someday.

“We are in touch with our inner child,” MilkyWay adds.

You can see and feel such in the space, which exudes a childlike energy, especially in its design aspects. The bakery counter features toy-like shapes, the table in the center of the room is whimsically carved, and the big rug on the floor is colorful and uniquely textured.

Someday is inviting… and it’s intentional.

“As we make space for ourselves, Someday is very much about making space for others and propelling experience,” Trotter says.

Looking forward, the owners plan to host more events in the space, expand Someday’s team, and ultimately transition into a full restaurant. Additionally, they plan to lean more into being a creative studio.

“We want to get more into creating campaigns and editorials in Detroit,” MilkyWay says. “We haven’t had that experience yet because we’ve been separated [from Detroit], so we really want to rub shoulders with the creative community here and make storytelling moments of both fashion and jewelry. Those are my dreams. Also journalism and documentation.”

The name “Someday,” for both owners, represents endless possibilities for the future, an affirming idea they want to emphasize to anyone who walks through the door.

“I believe everyone has a ‘Someday’ and if you are passionate enough with your life, you will find that you have many ‘Somedays,’” Trotter says.

“I love ‘Someday’ because it lets my dreams evolve,” MilkyWay adds. “It’s just something that you can constantly look forward to, constantly be grateful for, even the present, the past, and the future. It also includes everybody, she really loves community, she’s a Pisces, Aquarius moon, she really wants people in here and I just want to go forward with that, go forward with that energy, being out with the folks, hugging the folks, embracing the community and the culture of Detroit.”

Location Details

Someday

2857 E. Grand Blvd., Detroit

[ad_2]

Layla McMurtrie

Source link

May 1, 2024
A mudslide sent a 149-year-old piano out a window and into the muck. Its journey isn’t over

[ad_1]

It was pouring rain when Kyril Kasimoff unfolded the pages of his just-delivered newspaper. Almost immediately, his heart sank.

There, among the latest dispatches detailing the destructive and deadly deluges that walloped the Southland in early February, was a photograph of a storm-wrecked grand piano — caked in mud, upended by Mother Nature’s fury.

“I kept shaking my head staring at it,” he said of the image on the front page of the Feb. 6 edition of the Los Angeles Times. “What a tragedy.”

The persistent and pouring rain had triggered a mudslide in the Beverly Crest neighborhood of Los Angeles, pushing the piano’s home off its foundation and sending it sliding down a hill. The piano fell out a window, bounced off a carport and landed upside down.

A grand piano lies upside down after a Beverly Crest home was pushed off its foundation by a mudslide on Feb. 5.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Kasimoff, 64, couldn’t stop looking at the image. He inspected the picture, scrutinizing the piano’s wooden legs, its muddied pedals, its frame.

“That’s a Blüthner,” he said to himself.

That’s when he knew he had to save it.

Kasimoff’s entire life has revolved around pianos, their music and their history. And Blüthners have been at the epicenter.

His father, William Kasimoff, was a clarinet player who opened a piano shop in Pasadena with his wife, Helga.

The two imported their first Blüthner piano from Leipzig, Germany, in 1963, making them the oldest Blüthner representatives in the U.S. They’ve been a staple on the Southern California music scene, providing instruments and services to musicians and artists for decades.

But Blüthner pianos, first built in 1853, were the driver of their world.

Kyril Kasimoff shuddered at the thought of the Beverly Crest Blüthner being hauled away like so much debris, as if its elegant frame was just another piece of soddened, shattered wood.

It was clear its sound would never be true again — even hundreds of hours of work and thousands of dollars couldn’t turn back that clock. But Kasimoff was intent on securing it a second life.

Kyril Kasimoff, bottom, and Dirk Braun pose with the storm-battered, 149-year-old Blüthner piano that was recovered from a mudslide and is now on display at Braun’s art gallery in Malibu.

(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times)

“These pianos are treasures, and I couldn’t see it just thrown away,” Kasimoff said.

With the help of a neighbor, Kasimoff got in touch with the piano’s owner and arranged to put it on display. He’s since partnered with Dirk Braun, owner of an art gallery in Malibu, to display the muddied and battered instrument there.

In doing so, they said, they hope the piano’s story might continue.

“It’s survived all this time,” Braun said. “Its final fate is not going to be that it was ejected from this house and salvaged. It’s an irreplaceable work of art.”

Until April, the piano that the two men have dubbed “Storm Blüthner” will be on display at the Dirk Braun Gallery. It sits now on its side, filled with hardened dry mud.

“There’s no need to clean it; it is what it is,” Braun said. “It has its own beauty from what it went through, and it’s still there.”

The keys and strings of the antique piano were intact, but the instrument is no longer playable, and will never be again.

(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times)

Despite being violently ejected from a sliding home, the instrument remained surprisingly intact, Braun said. All the ivory keys remain in place, and none of the strings were broken.

After taking the piano, Kasimoff was able to confirm it had been built in 1875. He and Braun are still working to learn more about its history, but have already confirmed the instrument once belonged to Miliza Korjus, a Polish Estonian opera singer who was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in the 1938 film “The Great Waltz.”

“It’s had such an interesting and exciting life,” Braun said. “This piano was around since before Hollywood was invented.”

Kasimoff’s mother, Helga, still helps run the family piano shop, which has since relocated to Los Angeles. She said she imagines Storm Blüthner in the middle of social gatherings, surrounded by musicians and celebrities singing.

That, she said, was what Blüthner pianos were crafted for.

“Some people think it’s mystical, but it is the best instrument to accompany other instruments, including the voice,” she said. “It never competes. It never wants to be louder. It’s always supportive.”

Gallery owner Dirk Braud, left, and piano enthusiast Kyril Kasimoff hold pieces of “Storm Blüthner,” the piano rescued from a Beverly Crest mudslide.

(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times)

Now the piano’s melodic days are over. But Braun, a 37-year-old photographer and filmmaker, notes there’s beauty even in the wreckage.

Being tossed out a window and covered in debris is now as much a part of its history as the glitz and glamour of long-ago gatherings.

“How it stands right now, it’s an irreplaceable piece of art,” Braun said. “In a way, it seems like it’s a symbol of death but, if it has another chance, it has the chance of a rebirth and a new life.”

He is currently working on a film about the piano.

What will become of it after April is unknown, they said. They’re sill exploring options, including possibly lending it to the L.A. Opera to display.

At 94, Helga Kasimoff is still eager to share a bit of history about pianos, her husband and their shop. She’s excited to see Storm Blüthner get another chance.

When she first saw its picture, she was sure the piano had been damaged beyond use. She remembered a phone conversation she had in 1964 with Rudolf Blüthner-Haessler, who headed the company at the time.

She’d come across one of the first 100 Blüthner pianos ever built, but it had been abandoned and damaged to the point that squirrels were nesting on its strings. She wondered, could it still have value?

“I’ll never forget his answer,” she said. “He said, ‘My dear, this piano — put it to rest. It has done its duty.’”

The inside of the 149-year-old piano at Dirk Braun Gallery in Malibu.

(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times)

She paused.

“I think this piano has done its duty, but now continues in its present condition to fulfill its duty,” she said. “Everything comes to an end. But sometimes, something reminds us of what it had done, what it had been, and the past. It served a great singer, and it probably has made many people happy.”

[ad_2]

Salvador Hernandez

Source link

March 11, 2024
Genos Center Foundation Announces Campaign for Genocide Art Gallery & Gardens

[ad_1]

New Genos Center will use art to raise awareness, promote healing, and offer new perspectives on past and present issues, serving as a voice for marginalized communities.

Press Release
–

Feb 22, 2023

MALIBU, Calif., February 22, 2023 (Newswire.com)
–
The Genos Center Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is proud to announce a capital campaign for the development of a multi-cultural art gallery, non-denominational chapel, and reflective gardens focused on eradicating genocides worldwide by founder and architectural designer Douglas Isaac Busch.

Designed to raise awareness and education for genocides not only of the past but those occurring today in areas such as Myanmar (also known as Burma), China, Ethiopia, Iraq, Syria and South Sudan, Genos Center will serve as a space of remembrance and education. Curated exhibits will rotate on a six-month basis utilizing art as a powerful medium for storytelling. The center will collaborate with artists, scholars, and educators to create meaningful and impactful experiences for audiences of all ages.

Utilizing eco-sustainable architecture, the building will incorporate sustainable design principles and cutting-edge green technologies, making it a model of energy efficiency and environmental responsibility. The non-denominational chapel and reflective gardens extend the open-air feeling of the architecture, allowing for spaces of calm reflection with drought-tolerant landscaping that create an enriching and enduring experience for all.

Upon completion, The Genos Center Foundation will donate the complete project to an institution, foundation, or city at an agreed time along with an endowment that will maintain the building, staff it, cover taxes and other expenses where it can be sited in perpetuity, to maintain evolving exhibitions and offer a public park destination via the gardens. This plan allows the exhibit space to be continually changing and evolving as a destination for the public from around the world to seek out and observe the evolution of art, architecture, and landscaping.

“Art has the unique ability to humanize the victims of genocide and bring their stories to life in a way that mere words cannot. We hope that by using art as a tool for education, we can help people understand the gravity of genocide and inspire them to take action to prevent it,” said Douglas Isaac Busch, founder, and architectural designer of Genos Center.

With an initial commitment of over $1 Million, Douglas Isaac Busch and The Genos Center Foundation understand that every genocide matters. The first phase of the project will require $2M in seed capital of which 50% has been raised with a total of $30M needed for full construction and project completion. Funding opportunities are available at all levels, including capital and endowment. Additional involvement opportunities exist at multiple levels.

Genocide, one of the most heinous crimes against humanity, has been a tragic reality throughout history. The Genos Center Foundation believes that through art and education, we can work towards preventing future genocides and promoting a culture of tolerance and understanding.

“Genos Center will be a place for people to learn about the effects of genocide and its impact on humanity,” said Busch. “Through reflection, I hope that this museum will help to raise awareness and promote understanding and healing.”

With full design plans in place, Genos Center is currently seeking a final location along with initial founding partner support from individuals, organizations, and foundations to help fund its mission.

To learn more about the Genos Center Foundation and how you can get involved, visit www.GenosCenter.org

Source: Genos Center Foundation

[ad_2]

Source link

February 22, 2023