>> Download the complete 2011 Grand Ave Festival brochure here!

The Grand Avenue Merchants’ Association will be hosting the free 3rd annual Grand Avenue Festival on October 22nd, from 3 – 11 pm. The festival will be a celebration of the vibrant culture, art, history and adaptive re-use of the Lower Grand Avenue arts and small business district and adjoining neighborhoods.

Small businesses and art spaces along this unique and historic travel corridor will host tours of vintage commercial buildings and interesting adaptive re-use projects; create art exhibits; sponsor performances and music; and provide other special activities that highlight the history of this distinctive area of downtown. The goal of the Festival is to underscore the importance of neighborhood sustainability, encourage creative recycling, and foster reuse of valuable neighborhood resources.

The ReDapt Commercial Building Tours will take place from 3 – 7 pm guided by local history experts (ticket are $10 in advance) which will include a stop at the newly renovated Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery (guitar making). Visitors will also be able to tour the newly renovated 1960’s Oasis Motel on their own at 15th Avenue and Grand.

Musicians will be set up along the street and at various venues throughout the afternoon and evening. One of the much anticipated highlights of the Festival each year is the Recycled Rubbish Fashion Show headed up by local artist Babsomatic. In addition, the Local Boutiques Fashion Show will highlight clothing and jewelry from popular Grand Avenue fashion venues such as Indie ArtHouse, Annie Boomer’s Vintage, Gallery Marsiglia Jewelry, ShopDevious.com, Nostra Style House, and others.

The Hanging Gardens & Woven Fences & Trashy Sculpture Show has also become a Festival mainstay and will feature quirky assemblages and hanging artwork made out of trash and recycled materials along Grand Avenue. Many art studios, galleries and small businesses will be hosting special exhibits and performances throughout the afternoon and evening and arts and crafts vendors and demonstrations will be set up in key locations.

Because the Festival has been moved to late October to avoid September heat, a new addition this year will be the Calaca Cultural Center’s Day of the Dead exhibit at Bragg’s Pie Factory, including the “Dia de los Muertos Exchange Project”, a regional art initiative started by Calaca Cultural Center of Tempe, Arizona and Division 9 Gallery of Riverside, California. In addition, the Grand Avenue Billboard Project will be displaying work that addresses recycling, created by artist Paho Mann in conjunction with the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture’s Public Art Program.

Visitors will also be able to pick up a brochure with a comprehensive listing of festival activities at any participating space on the day of the Festival. And visitors can pick up the pamphlet “Mural Street Love” for a self-guided tour of the many interesting local neighborhood murals. Pedicabs will be available along the street to take visitors to their destinations, but visitors can easily walk or ride bicycles to all Festival activities.

A community fashion show of re.purpose and re.newel of recycled and trashed items re.incarnated and re.worked into wearable art.

Dreamed: Beatrice Moore
Orchestrated: Bobsomatic!
Emceed: Kevin Patterson & Steve Maxwell
Sounded: Community Trash Percussion & Tippa Tappa Typewriter Corps

Of the people, for the people, by the people of My Sweet Phoenix!

Saturday, October 22nd at 5 pm
@Bragg’s Pie Factory
1301 NW Grand Avenue
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Make a donation to participate in the 2011 Un.Trashed: Recycled Rubbish Fashion Show!

For each $10 ticket purchase for this year’s ReDapt Tour, you will receive a Cleanfreak Carwash voucher (an $ 8 value)!

Meet your tour guide on the NE corner of Grand and 10th Avenue 10 minutes prior to tour time. Parking is free along Grand Avenue all day long.

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Don’t miss this year’s fun and interesting ReDapt Tour, part of the 3rd annual Grand Avenue Festival, October 22nd from 3 to 11 pm! Knowledgeable tour guides will take you to historic hidden commercial gems along and in the vicinity of storied Grand Avenue while you learn about the fascinating history of Grand and how it developed.

You will tour a redapted corner market; a mid century warehouse now home to the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery (guitar making); a 1940’s commercial strip; and a 1920’s cast concrete block house that has been converted to art studios and small retail spaces; and more! Tours will be leaving at 3, 4 and 5 pm and last about 2 hours. Tickets are only $10 per person and can be purchased in advance right here. Free parking is available along Grand Avenue all day long! For more information contact Beatrice at 602.391.4016 or purchase your tickets now.

Purchase your 2011 ReDapt Tour Tickets Today!

Please choose a tour start time

3 pm 4 pm 5 pm

2011 ReDapt Tour Stops

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9th & Pierce
This building originally served as a neighborhood corner market/grocery. What makes it really unique is it was originally constructed as a live work space. Instead of a “live-above” scenario it was constructed with a 1 bed, 1 bath unit attached through the kitchen to the market space. The building has been modified to incorporate a restroom and kitchenette in the original market-space floorplan.

The Chocolate Factory
This stuccoed cement block building was typical of the streamlined functional commercial architecture built along Grand Avenue through the 1950’s and 60’s, and the interesting angles of the architecture are a direct result of being built on a diagonal street – and is typical of many of the buildings along Grand Avenue. This has had various uses over the years including a radiator repair shop and currently houses the studio of Hector Ruiz and other art studios. The mural is by neighborhood resident David Quan and El Mac.

Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery
This pre-mid century building, with the large metal overhanging awnings in front, and on the backside, was several things over the years but probably one of the longest running tenants was the Cordova Tire Company. It is one of the few buildings along Grand Avenue that has an upstairs (though small). This building has just undergone a two and a half year renovation and now houses the newly opened Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery, which attracts students from all over the world and is the oldest guitar making school in the country. The School shares space with the Wisdom Tree Institute, an organization that provides education in the art of lutherie, woodworking arts, music and ethnomusicology; curriculum and research topics include ecology and the relationship of humans and trees, renewable musical instrument tone woods, plant evolution, plant genetic studies and other related studies. Visitors will get a tour of the premises including the guitar building workshop, the “Go-Bar Humidity Room”, the wood milling area, and the student, gallery and office space.

Gannaway Buildings/La Melgosa Annex
This set of buildings speak to the layers of construction that took place over the years in the Grand Avenue neighborhood. The historic home on the back of the property, since converted to an artspace, was built pre-1915 out of mold-made imitation stone masonry block. The red brick storefront was added in the 1930’s as a small market and retail space and currently houses art studios. As an indicator of the modernization, and true mixed use of this property, a metal sculptor’s workshop and an artist-designed tile shower, have been added to the yard area. A police supply business occupied the property for about 30 years (before being purchased by the current owners) where bullets and ammunition were fabricated on site.

The Funk Lab
This small commercial building was originally built as a corner grocery in 1928, and by 1929 was operating as both J.B. Johns Grocery and R.L. Mercer Meats. This building has had several incarnations as an artspace and was recently purchased by Edge-Industries who have established the Funk Lab there. Edge Industries collaborates with architects, artists, writers, interior designers and coffee-shop philosophers to create inspirational design. Funk Lab has a commercial espresso machine, arc welder, screen printer, custom studio table and a 1971 Cushman Truckster to run errands.

Don’t miss this year’s fabulous Grandioso Fashion Show, featuring works by Sticker Club Girl, SEEDs for Autism, Shop Devious, Gloria Marsiglia, Runz with Scissors, Wicked Wear, and Indie ArtHouse. Music by DJ Musa.

Saturday, October 22nd, 5 – 8 pm
Bragg’s Pie Factory
1301 W Grand Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85003

Bands on Grand
3rd Annual Grand Avenue Festival
Saturday, October 22nd
3-11pm

Arizona Iron Furniture

1209 W Grand Ave @ Pierce

5-7 pm: Poets Corner: Jeff Falk, Jack Evans, Bill Campana, Shawnte Orion
7-8:30 pm: JC’s Bad Reputation Band

Bragg’s Pie Factory

1301 W Grand Ave @ McKinley

3:30-5 pm: Betsy Ganz
5-7 pm: Subterraneum Jazz
7-8 pm: Tobie Milford
8-9 pm: The Rebel Set
9-11 pm: JJCnV

Edge Industries “Funk Lab”

1007 W Grand Ave @ Taylor

3-5 pm: Bryant Vazquez
5-7 pm: Sunset Electrics
7-8 pm: Shining Soul
8-9 pm: Joelskii

The Oasis on Grand

1501 W Grand Ave @ 15th Ave

3-5 pm: Sombra Trio
6-7 pm: Green Light District
7-8 pm: Treasure Mammal

The Kooky Krafts Shop will once again sponsor the “Trashy Sculpture & Hanging Gardens & Woven Fences, Oh My!” exhibit which will be installed in trees, on tree trunks, on fences, on telephone poles and other random locations along Grand Avenue. Projects this year will be created by local artists, students at Phoenix College, the Boys and Girls Club, and other community members. Join in the fun scavenger hunt to find these quirky projects by picking up a comprehensive map of the installation sites at 1500 Grand Avenue (shop hours from Noon to 11 pm), or at the Festival headquarters at Bragg’s Pie Factory at 1301 Grand Avenue.

Free pedicabs will be available for visitors during the Grand Avenue Festival from 3 – 11 pm on October 22nd – to either take you to your destination or to take you on a fun tour of neighborhood artist murals. The pedicabs are courtesy of the Grand Avenue Merchants’ Association and Arizona Pedal Cabs!

The Lower Grand Avenue Arts and Small Business District is the home to some wonderful murals painted by a variety of local artists. You can take a self-guided tour of these eclectic urban art projects by following this map (click to download a printable map). Discover these little treasures in offbeat and unexpected nooks and crannies, while enjoying the vintage architecture that makes Lower Grand Avenue a distinct and unique place in Phoenix history.

Make a donation to participate in Un.Trashed: Recycled Rubbish Fashion Show!

“When Indie ArtHouse asked mild-mannered Russ Kazmierczak, Jr. to be the Featured Artist in August, he just couldn’t say no!”

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Join Us for our Third Fridays – Featured Artist Series:
Russ Kazmierczak, Jr. with his Amazing Arizona Comics!

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This just in! KARAOKE SUPERHERO Live Sketches by Russ!!

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Live Musical Guests!:

• Serene Dominic
• Robin Graves
• Dakota Slim

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” Find Out What Strange Comics Lure In The Arizona Desert! ”

Third Friday – August 19th
6:00 – 10:00 PM

Indie ArtHouse
1504 NW Grand Avenue
between Bikini Lounge & Trunk Space

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..Refreshments..Live Music..Art..Comics..Handma​de Goods..Vintage..

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