Gloria Marsiglia, a designer with a style of her own, will stage her Art In Jewelry & Fashion Accessories show, Saturday, September 25th at 5:00 in the Soul Invictus Theater, 1022 NW Grand Ave., Phoenix, AZ as part of the 2010 Grand Avenue Festival.

URBAN-centric, Art In Motion, is “ALL ABOUT U”, featuring a collection of jewelry crafted without compromise. An eclectic array of Gloria’s UNIQUE and dramatic designs in sterling silver will embrace a wide range of styles.

Bold and detailed techniques will create, Glorified “Gothic Chic,” Victorian-esque “Ancient Vibrations”, Fashionable Punk, Aesthetic Funk and Carnival d”Arte with the vibrant colors of Mardi Gras. Gallery Marsiglia has an off-the-wall mix of style, metals, gemstones and art glass.

Gallery Marsiglia
1018 NW Grand Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85007
602-573-3933

WITHOUT APOLOGIES: CELEBRATING THE DOWNTOWN PHOENIX FASHION COMMUNITY

Without Apologies is a celebration of the downtown Phoenix fashion community, taking place as part of the 2010 Grand Avenue Festival on Saturday, September 25. This series of three fashion events will be held at Bragg’s Pie Factory starting at 5:00 pm and continuing through the evening. The events will feature local boutiques, designers, and creative artists of Downtown Phoenix for a day without apologies.

Starting at 5:00 pm, the Untrashed recycled rubbish fashion show will feature wearable art made from re-purposed, reclaimed, and recycled trash. Garments will be modeled in the fashion show and then displayed alongside other delicious reclamations in the Trashy Sculpture Show for the following two months. The show will also feature a trash percussion band and typewriter corps and special performances to make the old new again.

At 7:00 pm fashions from a number of independent downtown fashion boutiques will take center stage. This is a chance to see the latest finds and hottest looks from Dragonfly Boutique, Butter Toast Boutique, Phoenicia Association, and Blueberry Deluxe Boutique. The show will be accompanied by sounds from DJ Kris the Fist.

Finishing off the night at 9:00 pm, local designers will show off their latest original fashion designs in a show that’s sure to be standing room only. This year the show will feature the work of Wicked Wear (Cia Underwood), Arte Puro, Wiskc (Kelly Calabrese), MLE Jean (Emily Blanche), and Sticker Club Girl (Lisa Michelle Jacobs) with music by DJ Jared Allen.

All three events are free and open to the public. Free parking is allowed along Grand Avenue during the festival and in the parking lot behind Bragg’s Pie Factory, located at 1301 W Grand Ave.

Without Apologies is being sponsored by Conspire, Honeycomb Organic Hair Studio, Hair Pollution, and Sapna Cafe.

Sweets & Beats will host an evening of performance art during the Grand Avenue Festival on Saturday, September 25.  Showcasing about a dozen amazing performance artists, the theme of the evening will be “Show & Tell” featuring installation pieces, performances both inside Sweets & Beats and outside on the backyard stage. The evening will be hosted by Ashley Naftule who will coordinate a time capsule. Everyone is invited to bring something to store inside the time capsule trunk and it will be put away for one year and opened again at the 2011 Grand Avenue Festival!  The show will last till 8pm and is free!

Sweets & Beats
1504 W Grand Ave
Phoenix, AZ

www.myspace.com/sweetsandbeats

The Devious Indie Fashion Experience brings the fashion show experience to the streets of Grand Avenue as part of the 2010 Grand Avenue Festival, highlighting locally designed creations from aprons to dog clothes all highlighted by accessories by Devious Wigs & Things. There will be live make-up applications starting at noon. Fashion In Motion begins at 2 pm with a rotating fashion show of local creations, Devious Gong, a live stand up comedy, Just Listen Poetry, a live poetry reading, and a shopping expo where attendees can purchase creations from the local designers and creators. Past Devious Indie Fashion Shows have included fashions by Mystic Creations, Runz With Scissors, and Balloons By Marie, as seen at the last Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in NY. Fashion In Motion will begin at 2 pm on Saturday, September 25 and continue every hour with a new set until 6 pm. All events are free and open to the public.

Sponsored by ShopDevious.com Beauty Lounge & Boutique, 1229 NW Grand Ave, Phoenix.

untrashed: recycled rubbish fashion show
part of the 2010 Grand Avenue Festival & the Trashy Sculpture Show

Saturday, September 25th, 2010  @ 5 pm
Bragg’s Pie Factory, 1301 W Grand Ave

The second annual grand avenue festival will once again be featuring a community fashion show of garments created from trash/junk! We will be showing dresses, suits, costumes and accessories made from recovered materials. Think: product packaging, old bike tires, grocery bags, doormats, toothbrushes, wine corks, beer cans, cardboard & all other wasted things repurposed into wearable art. All is redeemed!

Garments will be modeled in the unwasted fashion show festival night and displayed alongside other delicious reclamations in the Trashy Sculpture Show, hosted by Beatrice Moore in the re-purposed Bragg’s Pie Factory, for the following two months. The show will also feature a trash percussion band and typewriter corps. and special performances to make the old new again.

Enter Your Design!

Anyone can enter a piece in the show. Entry deadline is September 10. There is a $10 fee per piece to enter. We’re also looking for models, stylists, and percussionists to participate. Submit your application here.

More information about untrashed at ultraclang.com. The Grand Avenue Festival is a project of the Grand Avenue Merchants’ Association. Untrashed is being orchestrated by babsomatic.

The second annual Re-Dapt Tours will take place during the 2010 Grand Avenue Festival on Saturday, September 25. These special walking tours highlight some of the most interesting adaptive re-use projects on lower Grand Avenue.

Over the last 16 years new uses have been popping up in the Lower Grand Avenue district (from Van Buren to the 1-10 Freeway overpass) with many buildings reverting from industrial uses back to the original small retail and office uses that once lined this important connector to Wickenburg, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and points west. An influential factor in this renaissance has been the many innovative commercial adaptive re-use projects in the neighborhood: new owners have preserved parts of the existing vintage structures while making modern conversions that allow for more practicality in today’s world, including a myriad of hybrid uses.

Adaptive re-use of commercial buildings in older commercial districts is an important factor in creating true neighborhood sustainability. Many small, entrepreneurial businesses are attracted to the character these older structures lend to a neighborhood – and rents are usually more affordable than brand new construction can offer. The Re-Dapt Tours during the Grand Avenue Festival focus on celebrating the unique history of Grand Avenue, as well as the wonderful adaptive re-use projects in the neighborhood.

This year the Re-Dapt Tours will include La Luz Del Mundo Church, the Gonzalez Heating and Cooling buildings, The Oasis Motel and future home of The Oasis Grand multi-use project, the Rodriguez Boxing Gym corner, and the Grandevelt Complex, home to Kooky Krafts Shop, The Bikini Lounge, Sweets & Beats, and The Trunk Space. Each tour will be led by an expert Phoenix historian who will reveal the past uses of these unique buildings and the history of how Grand Avenue developed into a major transportation corridor to points west.

Tours will begin at 8 am, 9 am, and 10 am and last approximately two hours. Tours will start at the Rodriguez Boxing Gym at the corner of Roosevelt and 15th Ave. All tours will include the same five buildings. Tickets are $10 per person and can be purchased in advance at Sapna Cafe, Paisley Violin, Kooky Krafts Shop, and Sweets & Beats, or via PayPal below. Tickets can be purchased the morning of the festival starting at 7:30 am at Kooky Krafts Shop.

Purchase your Re-Dapt Tour Tickets Today!

Please choose a tour start time

8:00 am 9:00 am 10:00 am

The Shaughnessey buildings at 1500-1508 Grand:  This property, which originally encompassed the entire block, started out as an auto camp and tourist court in the early 1920’s.  The small brick retail buildings were constructed starting in the late 1920’s (some of the original tin ceilings are still intact), and were occupied by a pharmacy, grocery, liquor store and cafe over the years.  The Bikini Lounge was established at the 1502 address in 1953 and has operated continually at that site, and is the last authentic tiki bar remaining in the Valley.  The block also now houses Kooky Krafts Shop, Sweets and Beats, and the Trunk Space.  The red brick building around the corner on 15th Avenue was built in 1946 as Thomson Plumbing and Heating.  It now houses an art studio, Weird Garden.

The Oasis Motel/Caravan Inn West at 1501 Grand Avenue:  This Motor Hotel was built in 1960 as the Caravan Inn West, and was one of many exotic, state of the art motor hotels along Grand Avenue and vicinity.  By 1963 it had been appropriated by the gorgeous Bali Hi Motor Hotel which was next door to the north.  In 1968, a group of doctors purchased it with the idea of converting it to the Casa Contenta Care Convalescence Home, which never actually opened.  It became the Oasis Motor Hotel in 1971 and operated under that name though 1995, and was gradually transformed over the years from high class to seedy.  When it was closed down in 1996 it had become a drug infested flop house.  It is now slated for an interesting adaptive re-use project geared towards musicians and artists, by owner Tom Carmody and developers Tim Sprague and Feliciano Vera.

The Four Square Gospel Church (now La Luz del Mundo) at 1206 N. Laurel:  Built in 1939 out of adobe, the four Square congregation occupied the church for 50 years before it was purchased by the La Luz del Mundo (Light of the World Church) in 1991.  The exterior of the church has distinctive buttresses and other defining architectural features.

Piggly Wiggly/Henry Company Market at 1346 – 1350 Grand Avenue:  Built in 1930 and occupied for 5 years as a Piggly Wiggly grocery store, one of 4 in the downtown area at that time, this building has remained a grocery market for much of its 80 years.  It was purchased by Chinaman Henry Akee in the 1940’s and the market still carries his name.  It now also houses Valley Pizza and Rodriguez Boxing Gym (which has been there for 30 years).

Economy De Luxe Auto Top/Gonzales Heating and Cooling at 1543 – 1549 Grand Avenue:  This warehouse building began as the home for the Economy De Luxe Auto Top operation, which also utilized the building next door for their painting facility.  The curved wooden bow truss roof is in spectacularly good condition and now houses Gonzales Heating and Cooling, whose owner is a relative of the original owner of De Luxe.

Photo: Example of a Trash Bag Vertical Garden from www.lushe.com

CALLING ANYONE WITH OR WITHOUT A GREEN THUMB TO CREATE FANTASY GARDENS ALONG GRAND AVENUE FOR SEPTEMBER FESTIVAL

As part of this year’s upcoming 2nd Annual Grand Avenue Festival, slated to take place all day on September 25th, the Kooky Krafts Shop will be hosting a “Hanging Gardens, Woven Fences” project along Lower Grand Avenue. The $15 entry fee will be donated in its entirety to the Grand Avenue Merchants’ Association.

Hanging Gardens:  This component of the project will utilize existing trees along the street for installing temporary “guerilla gardens” which can be real or imagined. In other words, they can consist of actual living garden components or visual gardens created out of non-living materials, or a combination of both. Gardens can be hung from branches or wrapped around trunks in a non-invasive fashion (i.e without damaging the tree).  Participants are encouraged to use recycled or biodegradable materials whenever possible.

Photo: Urban Garden on a Chain Link Fence www.lushe.com

.

Woven Fences:  The woven fence component of this project can be something actually woven through a fence, attached along the top of a fence, or created in advance and attached to a woven, concrete, wooden or wrought iron fence surface. Again, recycled materials are encouraged. Care must be taken not to damage the fence surface being decorated. All materials must be removed by the participant at the festival’s end (within 48 hours) unless the property owner expresses the wish to have it remain.

Artists/fabricators will be paired with property owners who would like to have projects installed on their trees or fences, with an emphasis on those that line Grand Avenue. A map of projects and participants will be provided to festival-goers. Participants are responsible for their own set up and break down at the end of the project.

If you are interested in participating, please email Beatrice Moore at muppetsrealmom@earthlink.net with a basic concept of your project, plus your name (or group name), address, email, and phone number. This information will be used to pair artists with property owners and the proper fence or tree for your particular project. Projects would need to be installed the day before, or early morning, on event day. For more information contact Beatrice Moore at 602.391.4016. Concepts can be mailed or delivered to Kooky Krafts Shop, 1500 Grand Avenue, Phoenix, AZ, 85007.

Photo: Examples of upside down gardening from Oryana Coop

.

ABOUT KOOKY KRAFTS SHOP

The Kooky Krafts Shop was opened in the Fall of 2009 and specializes in “queer, quirky, fun and fabulous” crafts made by local artists and crafters. The shop also carries quirky vintage crafts and interesting, hard-to-find craft supplies. The store is located on the corner of Grand and 15th Avenue, on Grand’s most eclectic corner next to Bikini Lounge, Sweets & Beats, and The Trunk Space and is in the heart of the Lower Grand Avenue arts and small business district.

ABOUT THE GRAND AVENUE FESTIVAL

The annual Grand Avenue Festival celebrates the unusual history of this historic street and the small businesses, arts, and interesting adaptive re-use projects that line this angled corridor to downtown Phoenix. The festival highlights adaptive re-use of commercial buildings, neighborhood sustainability, and recycling – while showcasing the one-of-a-kind small businesses and art venues that populate Grand Avenue and the vicinity. There will be tours of historic and hybrid commercial adaptive re-use projects; art exhibits; performances; installations; fashion shows; music; and merchandise that relate to the festival theme. For more info about the festival contact GrandAvePhoenix@gmail.com.

As a fundraiser for the Grand Avenue Merchants’ Association (GAMA), the Bragg’s Pie Factory, 1301 Grand Avenue, will host the 2nd Annual Trashy Sculpture Show on Saturday, September 25 as part of the quirky 2nd Annual Grand Avenue Festival.  The Trashy Sculpture Show will be one of many events taking place during the all day event along the Lower Grand Avenue Corridor.

All work for the exhibit must be made primarily out of trash or recycled materials, with a limit of 3 pieces per contributor and an entry fee of $ 10 per piece.  Works can be for sale (or not).  The entry fees will go directly to GAMA, and if work is sold, 70% of the proceeds will go to the artist with 30% donated to GAMA.  Children’s projects are welcome; entry fees will be waived for school groups.

The work should reflect a person’s ability to go out in the world in search of trash and discarded materials, fashioning discards into unique and interesting sculpture.  Creative, funky, fun, whimsical and unique are encouraged. The purpose of the show is to highlight the ingenuity and creativity used in finding and adapting trashy, throw-away materials into one-of-a-kind hand crafted sculptures.  Work that aspires to be “fine art” or work that is mass produced for sale elsewhere is discouraged.

The exhibit will be on display at the Pie Factory for the festival as well as during October and November for the First Fridays and 3rd Fridays of the month.  Work must be delivered to the site September 20 from noon to 4 pm.  All work that meets the above criteria will be exhibited.  For more information contact Beatrice Moore at 602.391.4016.

ABOUT THE GRAND AVENUE FESTIVAL AND GAMA
The Grand Avenue Festival celebrates the unusual history of this historic street and the small businesses, arts, and interesting adaptive re-use projects that line this angled corridor to downtown Phoenix. The festival highlights adaptive re-use of commercial buildings, neighborhood sustainability, and recycling – while showcasing the one-of-a-kind small businesses and art venues that populate Grand Avenue and vicinity. There will be tours of historic and hybrid commercial adaptive re-use projects; art exhibits; performances; installations; fashion shows; music; and merchandise that relate to the festival theme.  For more info about the festival contact: GrandAvePhoenix@gmail.com

The Grand Avenue Merchants Association is a group of citizens dedicated to promoting the Lower Grand Avenue corridor and who own property or maintain businesses along, or in the vicinity of, this historic section of Grand Avenue.

Mark your calendar! The 2nd Annual Grand Avenue Festival will be held on Saturday, September 25, 2010! You won’t want to miss this day of art, music, fashion, and more celebrating the vibrant culture of the Lower Grand Avenue arts & small business district. We had a great time last year and this year will be even bigger and better!

If you would like to get involved in the Grand Avenue Festival, please email GrandAvePhoenix@gmail.com.