"Art-In" at Vaux Barn

Join us for another great art-making, preservation awareness event at Vaux Barn. This wooden structure is a bit different from the large brick buildings we've visited so far. The little former stable was designed by Calvert Vaux for the Olmsted Park System. Artists of all skill levels (meaning no experience to very experienced) and all media (painting, photography, drawing, etc) are welcome. We're getting to see some really wonderful approaches to this project thus far. Any questions, please e-mail me at sara@saramzak.com. Here's the mapquest link to the directions... http://mapq.st/k8Ka6V.

Making Neighborhoods Matter

I attended the Making Neighborhoods Matter conference today at Buffalo's Central Terminal and was so impressed by both speakers I choose to see.  During the morning session, I was inspired by Kimberly Ellis, Ph.D., director of Historic Hills Institute in Pittsburgh.  I think Pittsburgh does an amazing job involving their artists in their preservation movement.I am excited at the idea of reaching out to block clubs in Buffalo and going forward with their support.  In the afternoon, I was equally inspired by Harvey Garrett of West Side Community Collaborative.  Between the two talks, I realized how important beauty and art and flowers are to the changing of people's perception about space.  Even though both speakers seemed to have different methods of community preservation, they both seemed to emphasis how the "look" of something can really influence how people feel about that something. We're on the right path with Painting for Preservation; I can't wait to involve more members of the communities that contain the buildings at which we make art!

Looking Ahead

We've had a lot of amazing suggestions for on-site artmaking locations from so many great people interested in Buffalo's architectural, there's no way we'll be able to get to them all before October!  We'll be coming up with a set schedule for P4P this week, and it'll be posted this weekend.  We have something really cool brewing for July, and I can't wait to share. 
But for now I'll share this info....echo: Art Fair will held at the Central Terminal. "This is a new art event in Buffalo that connects experienced collectors and first-time buyers with emerging local, regional and international artists in a centralized and creative environment. echo: Art Fair will be a venue for independent artists and artists with gallery representation to exhibit and sell their work. echo: Art Fair will showcase a broad scope of fine art disciplines, including painting, photography, sculpture, print, works on paper, video and combined-media. "
I noticed a number of the submitted work samples deal with architecture in some form.

Pictures and Participants from St. Vincent's

This post is a bit late in coming, but we had a great "art-in" last Saturday.  There was a variety of media represented, and we welcomed 6 new artists to Painting for Preservation -- Ann Stievater, Sam Sacco, Michael Harmon, Kenn Morgan, Becky Harbison, and Mark Severson (who came out with a magnificent large format camera!) 
Also at this art in were Joan Shaw, Nancy Miess, Meagan Baco, Amanda Maciuba, J. Tim Raymond, and me, Sara M. Zak.

Buffalo Rising contains articles about both the rehabbing of St. Vincent's and Saturday's art-in.

And here's some of the goods -- more images coming!  If you came, and would like your images posted here, please e-mail me!



Sam Sacco






Amanda Maciuba

Ann Stievater

Steve Siegel

Sara M. Zak

J. Tim Raymond





Heading to St. Vincent's Female Orphan Asylum

So this Saturday, May 7th at 9:30 am, we'll be making art at St. Vincent's Female Orphan Asylum.  For the history of this site check out http://buffalo-orphanage-studies.com/StVincents.html and  http://www.buffaloah.com/a/main/1313/landmk.html.  This is a site has just started renovations and will be a charter school when it's finished! 

Successful Art-In at 169 E. Ferry

We had a really great experience Saturday at 169 East Ferry.  Thirteen artists came out to make their own art work using this historic site as their inspiration.  They included: Nancy Miess, Bernie Smith, J. Tim Raymond, Michael Mulley, Joan Shaw, Steve Siegel, Amanda Maciuba, Dana Saylor, Meagan Baco, Kimberly Balicki, Donna Hale, Kath Schifano, and me, Sara M. Zak.   We had a number of interested community members come by and talk with us.  One passer-by said she'd walked by the building hundreds of time, but would now look at it in a whole new way.  The store owners were really wonderful; the man who runs the convenient mart brought bottled water out to everyone!  Here's some of my photos from the event...