Northside

For those seeking an urban environment with a funky blend of Victorian homes, eclectic and traditional businesses, a long tradition of community activism and one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Cincinnati, you can't go wrong with Northside. Home to the legendary 4th of July parade, the Northside Farmer's Market, Shake It Records, the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Cincinnati, popular watering holes like the Comet and Northside Tavern and an active community council, Northside is all about preserving its strong grassroots heritage. One of Cincinnati's most walkable neighborhoods, Northside also features multiple green spaces, including Hoffner Park, the central site of numerous festivals.

Northside artist promotes creative healing with Art Word Bound

By Newsroom

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Arts + Culture

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July 31, 2012

“I’m compulsively creative; I can’t help it.” That’s how ArtWord Bound Creatives founder and sole director Ursula Roma describes herself—and considering the impressive range of artwork featured on her blog, it’s clear she’s not joking. Roma, who’s been involved in art-making and philanthropy in Cincinnati for 25 years—with YWCA, Planned Parenthood, Northside Community Council, Children’s Hospital and others—introduced her newest initiative in spring of 2011. The mission: “To develop, nurture and promote artistic creation and exploration with visual art and words in the form of storytelling through painting, drawing, journaling, bookmaking and more.” ArtWord Bound, a division of the Child Wellness Fund, satisfies what Roma sees as a real need in the community. “A lot of art organizations in town work with middle-class kids—and that’s great,” she says. “But I wanted to work with kids who maybe aren’t as privileged, who might not [otherwise] ever use a paintbrush.” In addition to creatively mentoring children, Roma provides art and word therapy to prisoners, senior citizens, battered women and other frequently overlooked groups. She makes use of public spaces and meets with participants in retirement communities, schools, hospitals and in their homes. She even toys with the possibility of one day having her own traveling art therapy van. She says her desire to help underprivileged people express themselves through art stems from a serious accident she was involved in as a child. “I spent a month in the hospital when I was nine,” Roma says. “My saving grace was to be able to create art from supplies my mom brought to my bedside. It was my escape. I want to offer that same release to people who are struggling with chronic disease or kids that are stuck in bed because of an accident or illness. Plus, family and friends can benefit from their artwork and stories, too.” Much like its philanthropic mission, the revenue-generating side of ArtWord Bound centers on providing access to those less fortunate. Roma relies on her decades of advocacy and art-making experience to provide professional design services, illustration, and publicity—at well-below-market rates—for select organizations that lack the means to promote their own causes. Roma has witnessed the healing effects of creativity firsthand, and while she says it usually comes more naturally to children, people at every age are susceptible. “I can say that through my experience with seniors, children and also prisoners, that everyone eventually becomes completely absorbed in the moment when they are creating, and in the end when they have finished a piece of art, they feel excited,” she says. “They have pride from accomplishment, focus from creating and being in the moment [and an] escape from their current worries.” Do Good: • Read the blog and find out more about Roma's art therapy works. • Make a donation to support the non-profit's work. • Take a look at Roma's art work for sale.. By Hannah Purnell

Chenault ‘Springboards’ into new Northside space, Pallet23

By Newsroom

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General

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July 31, 2012

Entrepreneur Laura Chenault talked with Soapbox about her new and innovative venture, Pallet23, scheduled to open this fall in Northside. How did you start your business? I am in the process of launching. The space is being “white boxed” and should be ready for me to start the kitchen build-out by September. How did you come up the idea for your business? I have been the organizer and chair of the Celebrity Chef & Wine pairing event during Second Sunday on Main for the past five seasons; I’ve been talking with my chef friends for years about opening a dedicated space for food demonstrations, dinner parties and food events for years. It wasn’t until I found the perfect space in Northside that that vision expanded into what it is now. What resources here did you take advantage of and how did they help? A good friend, Barbara Hauser, who works for Procter & Gamble, turned me on to the Springboard program last summer and I signed up right away. Springboard and Sarah Corlett have been instrumental in clarifying my idea by showing me the path and steps I need to tackle to launch. Several Springboard graduates are Pallet23 collaborators in making the space come to life, including Once Blind Studios, Lucius Limited, Such + Such, E13 and Dulcet Designs, to name a few. Also, I am so grateful for the generosity of knowledge and advice from successful businesspeople, such as Todd Meyerrose, Bill Cunningham and Tom Hodges, for example. It has been inspiring. Finally, Carriage House Farm will be creating an edible walkway and landscape, and is donating beautiful wood from their farm for the kitchen build-out and tables. Building Value has generously partnered to fill any supplemental cabinet and countertop needs. What will a typical day in your business look like? In the first phase of the launch, I anticipate the space being rented Friday and Saturday evenings for private parties, art openings, reunions, etc. Sunday days will feature cooking events, while Sunday nights will be set aside for private “supper club” chef dinners. I will still need to keep my day job as a freelance producer! Hopefully, I will start filling the weekdays with meetings, luncheons, video/still shoots, classes etc. and grow the cooking, food component on the weekends. Interview by Robin Donovan

Design Impact raises funds to fight child hunger

By Evan Wallis

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Diversity

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July 24, 2012

When a Northside couple, Ramsey Ford and Kate Hanisian, started Design Impact, they wanted to create a social design company that creates lasting change in low-income communities around the world. As they investigated existing social design companies, Hanisian and Ford learned that most similar non-profits do their work and then leave communities. They spend short periods of time on the ground and often create solutions that don’t take community needs and cultures into account. “If you’re designing the next Pantene bottle, our culture is similar enough that a lot of the assumptions made will be correct,” Hanisian says. “When you’re crossing economic and geographic borders, assumptions can be wrong, and it can alienate the community from the process.” Hanisian and Ford charted a new path for Design Impact. They wouldn’t arrive in a community with a pre-fabricated plan to “fix” it; instead, they would become a part of the community. By living and working with community members, they would find the best ways to help create deep and lasting change. The mission began with the couple spending 16 months in India and then sending six fellows into communities around India. Each community will be served in three phases and after six months, Anisha Shankar, has developed her plan to improve health for malnourished children. The solution is Ladoo, a low-cost snack packed with nutrition. Currently, Design Impact is running a fundraiser on indiegogo.com, a crowd-sourced fundraising website. The goal is to raise $10,000 to assist in phase two of the fellowship program. The next fellow will spend 10 months in Pune, India, creating a business plan to help local women create a sustainable business making the Ladoos, while simultaneously helping solve the problem of malnourishment. The long-term goal is to create a sustainable business model based around the ladoo and expand it exponentially with the goal of helping lower childhood malnourishment not just in Pune, India, but everywhere. Do Good: • Donate to the indiegogo campaign and help Design Impact raise $10,000. • Donate to Design Impact as a whole organization and help fund other programs. • Visit Design Impact's website and learn about the programs and help spread awareness. By Evan Wallis

Desegregating Cincinnati through fashion

By Evan Wallis

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Arts + Culture

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July 24, 2012

A former DAAP fashion design professor and current professor of fashion at Ryerson Univeristy in Toronto, Henry Navarro had an idea to make a public piece of art addressing the segregated nature of Cincinnati. His vision has been transformed into a fashion show that addresses the problems of a separated city by envisioning what it can be in the future. Navarro started thinking about the idea two years ago when he was still a professor at UC. He saw a lot of contrast around the city and began looking at maps and census data. After studying the history of Cincinnati neighborhoods and correlating the information to the most recent census maps, Navarro saw a city that needed to be more integrated. The name of his project is Grey Cincinnati, named after a middle ground between the black and white communities. “The premise is to select a location and, in a month, design, develop and produce a fashion show related to the place,” says Navarro. “Participative public artworks like ‘Grey Cincinnati’ are only possible with the collaboration of the local community.” Navarro chose fashion because after doing similar projects in Spain and Italy, he realized that contemporary art doesn't engage a community as well as fashion does. "When you tell someone you are putting together a fashion show about the people and the city they live in, it creates interest, because it isn't something usual," Navarro says. The fashion show will use "real-people," black and white models from various neighborhoods in Cincinnati. The outfits are designed to correspond to famous neighborhoods, iconic buildings and aerial views of the city. "I want to show people what it can look like if everyone, no matter their background or ethnicity, came together," Navarro says. "We are trying to show what that would feel like through fashion." Navarro says now is a perfect time for an event like this because of all the positive things that are going on around Cincinnati. From redevelopment to new development, Navarro sees the city moving forward, but wanted to return to Cincinnati to show that the future can be even better. Grey Cincinnat will take place July 28 at Prairie Gallery in Northside. Navarro expects to fit an audience of 100 indoors, but will project the fashion show on the outside wall. By Evan Wallis

My Soapbox: Floyd Johnson, OATW

By Maria Seda-Reeder

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General

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July 24, 2012

If you've seen an Ohio Against the World t-shirt, you've seen the work of Cincinnati designer Floyd Johnson. And the DAAP-rejected college drop-out proudly embodies the phrase he appropriated. He tells all, including the scoop on his recent work with Nike and his college brush with Playboy, to Soapbox's Maria Seda-Reeder.

The New Revolutionaries: All Night Party mixes business, pleasure

By Evan Wallis

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General

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July 24, 2012

From specialty pizzas to "HearPlugs," the musicians of The All Night Party know lots more than creative music promotion. With their help, local bands navigate the business of music in fresh, innovative ways.

CoSign pairs Sign Museum, Northside for streetscape makeover

By Newsroom

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Architecture + Design

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July 17, 2012

While you never get a second chance to make a first impression, sometimes you do get a second chance at funding an innovative project that could transform a community, beginning with its storefronts. The CoSign project is just that. What started as a broader grant application to ArtPlace America for several city neighborhoods became more personal for Northsiders after the city-wide application went unfunded. Undaunted, partners in Northside and the American Sign Museum, with funding from the Haile/US Bank Foundation, are moving ahead with the project. What better way to draw shoppers to Northside’s eclectic streetscape than creative, coordinated signage? As part of CoSign, local businesses, visual artists from across Cincinnati and professional sign fabricators will design and install a critical mass of new signage along Hamilton Avenue, with an expected launch date of Nov. 23, this year’s Black Friday. CoSign will fund most of the costs for commissioning, permitting, fabricating and installing the signage. Eric Avner, vice president and senior program manager with the Haile/US Bank Foundation, explains the appeal of supporting business/artist collaborations. “We wanted to do multiple things at once,” Avner says. “Help the sign museum, help local business districts gain vitality; and give the creative sector of Cincinnati more opportunities to make a living.” Northside’s business district and enthusiastic community support made it a logical pilot location. As the primary grant recipient and fiscal sponsor, the American Sign Museum will provide content specialists by staffing two training workshops in August for artists and business owners. The project also pulls from the organizational talents of ArtWorks, which will help coordinate the artists and their work. The museum will also assemble a judging panel to review and decide upon the best signage proposals from business/artist teams. The brand-new sign museum space at 1330 Monmouth Street will house the new signage before it is hung on Hamilton Avenue. Little Things Labs, a social/cultural innovation idea laboratory that problem-solves with municipalities to create better places to live and work, is assisting the Haile Foundation with CoSign’s development. Josh McManus, lead inventor at the lab, sees the Sign Museum as an integral partner. “Our hope is not just 10 signs but a newfound attention to the benefits of great signage,” McManus says. “That’s why the American Sign Museum is such a perfect partner to work with on this project.” CoSign will be documented so other communities can replicate it and broadcast their own creativity and collaborative spirit through signage. Do Good: • Look: For a call for artists to participate in this project; contact ArtWorks for more information. • Visit: The American Sign Museum and enjoy its new space and interactive signage displays. • Like Northside on Facebook to keep up with the project and other activities in the neighborhood. By Becky Johnson

Local cyclists, architects team for bike storage competition

By Newsroom

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Architecture + Design

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July 17, 2012

Queen City Bike, led by Nern Ostendorf, rallies for cycling in the city with regular initiatives like May’s Bike Month celebrations, classes and advocacy forums, a continually updated list of local Bike Friendly Destinations and even nighttime BRIGHT Rides. The most recent dazzled World Choir Games-goers with a parade of bikes decked out in multicolored lights. (More BRITE Rides are in the works. Stay tuned.) Next up on QCB’s to-do list: a bike shelter/storage design competition created by the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The contest, which is free and open to the public, challenges entrants to choose a location in town that is ideal for bike storage and create an affordable, accessible concept that can house at least eight bicycles at one time. For the average city-dweller, the need for increased bike storage might not seem pressing, but for passionate cyclists it could move Cincinnati in the direction of alt-transportation hubs like Portland and Chicago. “Bicyclists [in Cincinnati] often feel like an afterthought when it comes to getting their parking needs met,” Ostendorf says. “Only after the parking lot has been paved do many designers think about maybe squeezing a bike rack into an unused corner (if anything).” That means public bike racks are scarce. “Most of the time bicyclists automatically go for the nearest parking meter or fencepost or whatever they can find (tree, gas meter),” Ostendorf says. She adds that change is happening, albeit slowly. The city responded to at least one public bike storage request, installing a corral on Knowlton Avenue in Northside in front of the Mobo Bicycle Cooperative. Andreas Lange—the AIA representative who contacted QCB about the contest—says there has already been considerable buzz about the design competition. Similar competitions in other cities “are often very complex or restricted to the initiated few,” Lange says. “We wanted this to be short and sweet and at a level that everyone could participate. It's an ideas competition, so everyone can share something.” In addition to potential inclusion in future bike-sharing programs, Lange says designers shouldn’t limit their concepts to downtown and OTR. “We’d love to see some smart proposals for the ‘burbs,” he says. Ostendorf and Lange both hope the competition—and initiatives like it—will help increase community dialog and support for investing in bicycling infrastructure. “The more we make urban bicycling easier and more fun, the advantages of cycling will just keep increasing,” Ostendorf says. Submissions for the design competition will be randomly sorted and reviewed by a small team of architects and cyclists. The winning submission—to be announced Aug, 6—will receive a bike storage system courtesy of the cycling gurus at Saris. Deadline for submissions is 5 pm, Friday, July 27. All submissions should be sent to cincinnatibikeshelter@gmail.com. By Hannah Purnell Follow Hannah on Twitter.

Baker-Gibboney makes most of cool beans

By Newsroom

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Development News

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July 17, 2012

Jill Baker-Gibboney has been making coffee professionally since she was 16. Originally from western Pennsylvania, she moved to Cincinnati with her parents as a teenager. “I spent a lot of time saying that I was going to leave,” she says of her teenage ennui. But after having a child herself and moving over a decade ago to Northside, “I knew I was staying.” Although she no longer lives in Northside proper (she thinks Cincinnati has a lot of “best kept secret” neighborhoods), Baker-Gibboney now slings a wholly different kind of cup of joe at farmers markets and small independent businesses around town. Her current endeavor is bottled iced coffee: Coffee Cold—named for the eponymous song by jazz composer/pianist Galt MacDermot. With the help of her friend of nearly two decades, Chuck Pfahler of La Terza Artisan Roasterie, Baker-Gibboney wants to revolutionize the way Americans—or at least Cincinnatians—drink coffee. The cold-brewing process creates a slightly sweeter cup, Baker-Gibboney says. “My hope is that folks will at least try it first without their normal doctoring of the cup,” she says. “What’s the point in demanding a better product if you’re still going to treat it the same as a bad one?” Her reasoning is valid. Coffee brewing technology has improved by leaps and bounds, and independent roasters like La Terza use responsibly sourced beans that are single origin and locally roasted in small batches, so the coffee is as fresh and customized to taste as possible. The process of cold brewing adds to the intensity. “When you ice a bean, you can taste everything,” says the coffee lover. “There’s no hiding behind temperature—every flavor, good or bad, is present.” So far, the verdict has been sweet. After testing several batches at Hyde Park and Wyoming farmers markets, they’ve sold out of each case nearly every time. A mere week after the launch, the fledgling company was contacted by six different retailers about selling wholesale. Expect to see Coffee Cold on the shelves of area markets like Park + Vine, Picnic & Pantry and Clifton Natural Foods, as well as specialty shops that carry alcohol like the Listing Loon and local pubs like the Comet. Although Coffee Cold is the first and only locally roasted/brewed/bottled iced coffee in the Tri-State, they’ll still have to contend with the hyper-sweet “frappe-latte-smoothies” of their corporate competitors. From the sound of it, Coffee Cold will rely more on the depth of their beans than artificial flavors and sweeteners. “If you start with great beans, and you prepare them carefully, you don’t need anything at all,” Baker-Gibboney says. By Maria Seder-Reeder

Bacon Schnecken: The world’s perfect food

By Newsroom

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Arts + Culture

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July 17, 2012

What arrived this morning that gave me such gyrating heart palpatations? Queen City Cookie's Bacon Schnecken: the world’s perfect food. I discovered this treat in June at the Fancy Food Show in Washington D.C. Since that fortuitious day, I have been dreaming of the moment we (we=me+schnecken) would be reunited. Read the full story here.