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Something Exciting!

From marylorenecarter on 08.25.2010

Here’s something.

A few weeks ago Jerry spoke on a panel at a PSFK event. At a pre-event meet-up we were introduced to another speaker for the event named Catie Newell. 

Jerry and I were really impressed and excited by her work, so much so that we asked her if she would create the second art work for the Imagination Station (the first being Marianne Audrey Burrows painting). What’s cooler is that she taken us up on our invite!

So here’s a few examples of the kind of work she’s done, right here, in Detroit!

Exciting? Absolutely.

Making Parties, Making Progress, Making Faire, Making Soup!

From marylorenecarter on 08.02.2010

I feel like I’ve been neglecting my blog… even though it’s quite likely my only readers are Kyle, my Grandma Pat, and my Aunt Ruth. Still I don’t want to keep them in the dark….

About 2 weeks ago (July 17th) was the Big Inch Block Party, and it was an outrageous success! THANK YOU to EVERYONE who came out! Thank you so much to our sponsors: BetaWorks, McClure’s Pickles, Valentine Vodka, and idetroit! Thank you to Cafe D’Mongo’s and the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue for hosting! Thank you to the fantastic volunteering skillz of Jennifer Ruud, Nikki Barr, and our Inchtern Nicole Itkin! And thank you so much to our collaborators Rita J. King, Joshua S. Fouts, and Larry Sheradon for traveling so far to be here, having the whole team together for the first time was in itself a fantastic event!

We’ve also had huge progress at the Imagination Station. Last Thursday a team of about 40 young volunteers come out and totally rocked it!

They got the Roosevelt Hotel boarded up and completely gutted the second floor of the house we’re going to rehab at the Imagination Station. Such a volunteer effort is ridiculous exciting to be part of! 

The Maker Faire was this weekend too! Jerry, Alan, and I had so much fun. There were a ton of super awesome projects there. 

p.s. Yes, this car actually shot Twinkies.

Alan took a mobile version of Lemon Battery out into the faire and was able to document it, which is awesome, and probably the most comprehensive documentation of the event.

The excitement of Maker Faire was exhausting enough, but on top of that Jerry and I had to move Saturday night, and make 2 birthday parties too! 

Back to Maker Faire Sunday and then a very, very exhausted Mary and Jerry made their way to Detroit SOUP. Which is a really fantastic event put on monthly by our friend Kate Daughdrill and Jessica Hernandez. SOUP has a $5 admission which pays for your, well, soup. This admission reimburses the cooks and then the rest of the admission gets put towards a micro-grant. A handful of people present different projects that they work on that would benefit from a small grant, all of the SOUP attendees vote for which project they think would get the most out of the grant …. and you know, the most popular project gets the money. 

Last night a project to clean up Avery Park in Woodbridge got $300 for materials and supplies. Good luck to them! Detroit has a lot of very committed volunteers and I’m sure the park will look beautiful.

A Couple of Somethings.

From marylorenecarter on 07.15.2010

Shwoo! We’ve been so busy that by the time I get anything drafted to post something else has happened and what I just wrote seems obsolete! :p

So real quick I gots a rundown for you of some of the stuffs going on….

Tomorrow Jerry and I are gonna jump into the Funzone and make the drive out to Akron to give a talk at the Arkon Art Museum. Cool? Very.

Then we race back to the D! Friday Josh, Rita, and Larry all get into town! Soooo excited to see them! 

Josh, Rita, Larry I’m calling you out! You ready to have your minds blown!

The occasion for their visit is The Big Inch Block Party that we’re hosting and holding at the Downtown Synagogue and Cafe D’Mongo’s! And now, I’m calling the rest of you out! Get you’re butts to the synagogue Saturday night for the best par-tay of all time evar, srsly. Everyone who attends is a Land owner! Video confessions of your visions for Detroit and LOVELAND will be taken! Lemon Battery will be happening! Marianne will be painting! The Detroit Party Marching Band will mayhaps make an appearance! The Reelers are gonna play! And those sweet kids from Lightning Love are gonna headline! Check the site for details and the Facebook event!

There’s one more day in the Monumental Kitty Kickstarter round! Get in on that! This is your last chance to get inches that build a sphinx in Corktown! 

We’re gonna be launching our next grant too! Stay tuned to find out who it is! (hint: it’s Spaulding Court) :)

AND! We’ve started a brand spankin’ new project! We’ve partnered with Jeff DeBruyn and purchased two houses facing Michigan Central Station (the greatest american ruin eva!). It’s blight and we’re gonna get rid of it! And we’re gonna make cool stuff.

We’ve titled it the Imagination Station, check out the site see what we’re doing and get involved! This is us taking the concepts of storytelling, community engagenent, crowd funding, and creative collaboration and applying it outside of LOVELAND. 

It’s gonna be BIG!

Something Monumental.

From marylorenecarter on 06.16.2010

LOVELAND had it’s Season 2 launch a few months ago, and we’ve been busy updating things and making a few changes. Today we did some big site updates and launched a new round in KICKSTARTER that is dedicated to funding our first grant! 

Monumental Kitty is a sculpture designed by Jerome Ferretti, and the first of 7 grants that LOVELAND is giving out in Season 2. When completed it will sit at the north footprint of the Corktown Pedestrian Overpass. It’s a really amazing work, you can check out more, including a not only informational but super-fun video about it on the Kickstarter Round here.

Every dollar you inchvest in Monumental Kitty gets you inches in the Hello World microhood of LOVELAND… So what’s stopping you? Buy Land, Have Fun, and Make Art Happen In Detroit!

I moved! But not far

From 7billionfriends on 06.16.2010

I’m only a click away. 7billionfriends.com is retired for now. I needed a new sheet of paper and found one at The Great American Pixel. See you there!

CAW!