I’m happy to announce in association with Wingard Creative, Black Sheep Restaurant Group (Orsay/Chew), RAP and of course JTA the Riverside Trolley will run until Midnight on Wednesday November 3rd. This will be ArtWalk’s 7th birthday and we’re bringing this awesome present!

This is a trial run and if successful it’s something we could see more of for ArtWalk. Please find a way to ride the trolley on November 3rd. The more people we have, the better, as we’re trying to reach a very modest goal. If you’re unsure how to ride the trolley, this simple instructional video will show you everything you need, compliments of Wingard Creative. Tony Allegretti says so far, so good and this:

The trolley is just $1 each way, and sure, its just a bus that looks like a trolley, BUT, think about how awesome it will be to not have to deal with parking and traffic. Leave the driving to JTA!

The trolley will run at 35 minute intervals and we are working on getting a map with all stops. Come back and get updates!

If that wasn’t enough, the November ArtWalk is also the Movember ArtWalk in honor of beards and men’s health. There will be an art show at the 229 Hogan Street Studio. I (DJ ‘Mo) will be DJing with with DJ Debo on the 1′s and 0′s. So definitely make it out for that.

More about Movember

Movember challenges men to change their appearance and the face of men’s health by growing a moustache. The rules are simple, start Movember 1st clean-shaven and then grow a moustache for the entire month. The moustache becomes the ribbon for men’s health, the means by which awareness and funds are raised for cancers that affect men. Much like the commitment to run or walk for charity, the men of Movember commit to growing a moustache for 30 days.

Sean Collins, JaxBeard founder and facial hair advocate, will be joining us on the live Urban Jacksonville Weekly show Thursday September 30th at Underbelly in 5 Points.

The Mo, slang for moustache, and November come together each year for Movember. Movember challenges men to change their appearance and the face of men’s health by growing a moustache. The rules are simple, start Movember 1st clean-shaven and then grow a moustache for the entire month.

The moustache becomes the ribbon for men’s health, the means by which awareness and funds are raised for cancers that affect men. Much like the commitment to run or walk for charity, the men of Movember commit to growing a moustache for 30 days.

In addition to this appearance there are events planned for the entire month of November. Including a Movember themed ArtWalk and art show at 229 East Hogan.

Here is a full list of Movember events with more coming soon

• Movember Craft Night @ Anomaly – 10/26
• Wild Zero @ 5 Points – 10/29
• Shaving Party @ Dos Gatos – 11/1
• Movember Art Walk – 11/3 (That includes Movember Art Show, Bake Sale at Snyder Church and main information and crafts booth in Hemming Plaza)
• First Fridays – 11/5 (This isn’t actually a Movember event, but we’ll have a couple tables out talking to people.)
• Riverside Wine Festival – 11/20 (We had a table there last year selling cupcakes and did very well.)
• Jacksonville Roller Girls Match – 11/21 (They are doing another charity for that event, but we’ll have a table there as well.)
• Movember Party and Awards Ceremony @ The Loft – 12/4

Transformations Ticket Giveaway

We plan on giving away 10 tickets to Transformations (2 sets of 5) at the live show. If you wanted to chance to go to transformations, here you go!

Always the event of the Summer, AIGA is once again hosting it’s annual poster show and membership drive this Saturday. Dennis Eusebio of Thought & Theory and I will be DJing, taking the songs that inspired the posters and blending them into the night.

Always Summer is a celebration of design excellence and Northeast Florida’s creative community. Artists of all disciplines submit a work created in any medium provided the entry is translated into poster form. The show features inspired creativity, illustration, sound typography and well-executed design within a laid-back atmosphere.

AIGA Jacksonville’s Always Summer 2010 will be the perfect place to enjoy hot design, cold beverages, and good company – a winning summer combination.

WHEN? 9.25.10 @ 7:00pm
WHERE? 111 East Bay Street (Above The Ivy) directions
COST? $10 AIGA Members, $15 Non-member (Save $5 by registering online – Free for designers that submit a poster)

Posters from last years event

Spencer Miller’s poster from last year’s Always Summer event

Blake Coglianese’s poster from last year’s Always Summer event

One of AIGA Jacksonville President Varick Rosete’s posters from last year’s Always Summer event

Levi Ratliff’s poster from last year’s Always Summer event

Karen Kurycki’s poster from last year’s Always Summer Membership Event

Listen and Subscribe

Download audio file (urban-jacksonville-weekly-episode76.mp3)
Subscribe with iTunes | Download MP3 | Watch The Show

Intro

Coffee Sponsor: Bold Bean Coffee Roasters

Special Guest: George Akel of Mesh Magazine

Joey’s infected, crushed and stabbed

Mesh Magazine

online publication
since 2004
UNF photography degree
cover arts scene
“the real deal”
less commercial than Arbus
focus on local, independent artists
create a personal portfolio and expose artists
meshmag.com
Why Mesh? mesh=fusion art, music, dining

Isn’t Print Dead?
kind of, but more in-between
online advertising is a hard sell
TU still does 85% from print

Kickstarter
Donate to Mesh Magazine
minimum donation $2
goal = $1800 for 1000 copies

Coming Soon
new Jags beat writer, Jimmy Sal (former editor of Vibe/Spin), Tom Essex (Skinny Records), Jay (Bold Bean)

Recommendations
Jack: Pet Walk @ Art Walk
Jonathan: dilbert.com/blog
George: Famous Sandwiches, Pulp Juice Bar (San Marco)
Joey: Krung Fu – graphic design battle (Intuition Ale in the place, free cup!) $10 for non-AIGA members
Tony: RAM – free ice cream!

Listen and Subscribe

Download audio file (urban-jacksonville-weekly-episode68.mp3)
Subscribe with iTunes or Download MP3

Special Guest – Ian Chase and Jeffrey Shalev (Null Space)

Show Sponsor – EU Jacksonville
Coffee Sponsor – Bold Bean

while Jack babysits the dishwashing crew from the Fox

Show Notes

6/18/2010 – Ian Chase at Null Space
multimedia
3D
tonal
weird
interactive
through August Art Walk
electricity, movement, audio/video

Working with Bands
more projects this summer
band project with Tom P
video work: National Dairy, C&W. Kevin Lee Newberry
give love to get love
feel the vibe
new century – show love

Art
past painting
self-trained not untrained
building confidence
work hazards

Null Space Gallery
heard about Off the Grid (DVI)
shared vision
diverse shows/area
video room and gallery space
TV in the bathroom!
not stopping anytime soon
when it’s done, find a new space

Sponsor Break – EU Jacksonville
June is Summer Activities issue

Music Video Fest
First Friday in August at 5P Theatre
local music videos
FREE
support it!

Recommendations

Joey – new blog gridsketch.com
Jeffrey – art shows: Madeleine Peck at Underbelly, R. Roberts Gallery
Tony – Yo-Yo master Jack Ringca in the place, WJCT day at RAM
Jonathan – Photos of the “oil stuff” www.boston.com/bigpicture
Ian – Celebrity Deathwatch
Jack - BMX Double Feature at ZOMBIE

Tune in and Watch Live at Urban Jacksonville Weekly with you local visionary artist and restauranteur Ian Chase.

The other night I Krung Fu (which was awesome by the way, you have to come next month) I was talking to my friend Chad about graffiti poppin up over town and could not remember this bad ass graffiti artist I follow on Flickr.

Well I found him, his name is bernie burns. Tracking him down inspired me to share some other favorites, so I put them together in a gallery. Local, freights and just plain rad comprise the set. So here is Freights and Graffiti!

Brain Drain in Jacksonville via the Grid Sketch blog

http://gridsketch.blogspot.com/2010/05/brain-drain-in-jacksonville.html
I found this new blog via a comment left on Urban Jacksonville and it’s a pretty solid sophomore article. He talks about Jacksonville’s brain drain or what economists refer to as creative human capital leaving a vacuum in the arts and sciences. Here are some highlights, but do read it for yourself, it’s thought provoking. Unfortunately I agree 100% with the article and have said as much in the past.

Richard Florida calls these talented people the creative class and like many other urban theorists believes that retaining them requires an understanding of place making. These places foster creative thinking not just paychecks and allow for interaction with other creative types. The office spaces are set up to encourage the spontaneous formations or groups within the company. These great places are adjacent to amenities that refresh their minds and spirits and allow for interactions with new people; places like coffee-shop/bookstores, pocket parks, pubs. When you get artist’s and engineers together you get iPods. A spontaneous meeting of lawyers and architects can yield new ideas for city zoning. But these meeting of creatives don’t happen on a solo commute home to the suburbs. It happens over a glass of beer in a pub or eating a sandwich during lunch in the Hemming Plaza.

I received my Off the Grid Launch Party invite in the mail Thursday. It looks tight. Jacksonville, downtown specifically, is getting a little swagger. Off the Grid is:

a partnership between artists, property owners, Downtown Vision, Inc. and the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville. Off the Grid facilitates introductions between Jacksonville artists and Downtown property owners in an effort to activate vacant spaces in the urban core with artistic energy and provide artists with much needed work and exhibition space.

This movement started here and was formerly called Creative Communities. I like the new name, a big improvement. Listen to Terry Lorince, DVI Pres talk about the program, and other things.

Download audio file (urban-jacksonville-weekly-episode28.mp3)
Subscribe with iTunes to Urban Jacksonville Weekly

I Hope This Makes You Happy

I Hope This Makes You Happy is a new project from Nick at Art Behind the Fridge. It has the potential to keep me walking up and down the streets of 5 Points on Fridays.

The idea involves me creating a 5×5 drawing that I will take and put up somewhere in Jacksonville for whoever to find it. The idea behind it is this, I believe that art makes people “happy”, or at least thats the case for me. I know that when I look at an illustration, a painting, a sculpture, street art, or even a film that I think is “cool”, it makes me “happy”.

At least I’m hoping he leaves one or two in 5 Points for us to find. Keep an eye out for free art today!

Mesh Magazine Looking for ArtWalk Photos and Events

If anyone has ArtWalk photos, send your links to Mesh Magazine so they can post them up on the site with credit for you. You can also send them events you have coming up in the next month.

I Saved the Best for Last

Each year the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville presents their Annual Arts Awards at a luncheon. The event is held on stage at the Times-Union Performing Arts Center. This year’s awards ceremony will be held on April 20th.

A new part of this celebration of the arts in Jacksonville will be using technology to feature the regions artists on a huge screen running across the back of the stage.

The Cultural Council is looking for artists to submit images for this event. If you want to be included please send or deliver up to 10 of your digital images to the address below. Digital Images must be:

• Professionally photographed.
• Full images, as well as, detail shots are welcomed.
• We would like both 2D and 3D work to showcase.
• Images must be at least 300 dpi and SGA 1024 x 768.
• We will need the images no later than March 17th.
• Indicate how you would like your name credited.

Send or drop off your disk of digital images
Martha McManus
(904) 358.3600
Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville
300 W Water St., Jacksonville, FL 32202

Or if you have a Flickr account, place the images in a group called “Cultural Council 2010” and send a link to martha@culturalcouncil.org

The goal is to highlight as many artists as possible. The Cultural Council cannot guarantee that your work will be included and by submitting your images you are agreeing to allow Cultural Council to use your images in the future to help promote the arts in Jacksonville.

I’m Board 4 – Interview with Chad Landenberger from Thought & Theory on Vimeo.

I understand quite a few people have seen this video, so re-posting here is just to close the loop of people who will be interested to see it, but haven’t.

This is part of new interview series for Urban Jacksonville so keep an eye out for more. We’re taking recommendations for who to interview next if you have suggestions.

Dennis Eusebio came to me a couple months ago with an idea to shoot a series of videos for Urban Jacksonville. This aligned perfectly with my assertion that 2010 would be the year Jacksonville moved beyond text and branched out into audio and video.

We moved this trend along with the Urban Jacksonville Weekly podcast so I was excited to have Dennis work on this video interview series.

This piece stands by itself as a testament to everything that is fun and good in the city. I would love to see Downtown Vision or the Jacksonville Convention and Visitors Bureau use this video as a promotional tool for promoting city life.

Please enjoy the hi-res versions on Vimeo or Facebook and share with a friend next time they say Jacksonville is boring, lame, uninteresting, etc.

Filmed and Edited by: Dennis Eusebio and Varick Rosete. Thanks to Chad Landenberger, 229 North Hogan with music by Holy Ghost “Hold On”.

You may have noticed my lack of posts last week and that’s partly due to a new role I’m assuming in the community. If you’ve followed Urban Jacksonville for any significant amount of time this announcement won’t surprise you.

Beginning in March I’ll start serving as a communications co-chair for the Jacksonville chapter of the AIGA. This is my official disclosure of my relationship with the AIGA. It’s not a paying position so anything I mention in regards to the AIGA is based strictly on my perception of value to you the reader.

Recent event The Morning Leak

How I Fit In

My views on graphic design in the city are well documented. My 3 years in the Minneapolis design community and 3 years at nGen Works further solidified my views on how design can advance our community and add value to our businesses.

In my 20 predictions for 2010 I said “graphic design in the city will continue marching forward, elevate the city visually in ways we haven’t experienced.” When asked to explain this I happily obliged:

By having a strong visual community we present a visually unified face to people who may only experience Jacksonville through the media, billboards or logos we create. More…

I have about 15 different responsibilities and they circle back to getting the word out about AIGA’s events, philosophy and good deeds. I relish this position and it figures nicely into my personal and professional goals.

Me and current AIGA president and my homey Varick Rosete. Photo by Daniel Goncalves

AIGA Jacksonville

AIGA Jacksonville was founded in January 1989. At the time, twenty people signed a petition to form a local AIGA chapter called “The North Florida Chapter of AIGA.” Twenty-one years later, AIGA Jacksonville boasts over 200 members – graphics designers, interactive designers, illustrators, copywriters, educators and design students, as well as professionals in related fields such as printing, prepress and photography – with goals of doubling membership within a few years as well as increasing activity and awareness.

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Flickr

AIGA Jacksonville hosts a variety of programs throughout the year which emphasize both professional and educational development. Some events promote excellence in design, but all AIGA events offer both students and professionals a prime opportunity to network. Ultimately, AIGA Jacksonville strives to position Jacksonville as a leader in the field of design.

Upcoming event: I Love Design » House Industries Loves Letters

To find out more about the AIGA attend the upcoming I Love Design: House Industries Loves Letters. Rich Roat, co-founder of House Industries will be speaking.

Get in on the $1 raffle ticket action where you could win House’s Girard Blocks, PLINC Blocks or Neutraface Slab Blocks (pictured below) in our $1 Raffle. Posters and additional merchandise will also be on sale at the event.

2.18.10 @ 6:00pm at Modis Building
Tickets: $20/member, $30/non-member, $5/registered volunteers

More Events
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