NEWS

On Thursday, November 7, 2024, the mural created by Peeta on the portion of the Akron Civic Theatre overlooking Lock 4 was featured in e-flux, a digital platform for distributing visual art announcements to a worldwide audience of art collectors, grant making foundations, and artists. Read the announcement about Urban Mirage here.

The Groundhog Show is popping up in downtown Akron for the first time this weekend.

Akron's Curated Storefront is hosting the free pop-up art exhibition. The fourth annual event, which will celebrate more than 100 Northeast Ohio artists and creators, will run Friday through Sunday at Curated Storefront's Outside the Box shipping containers site at TrueNorth Akron in the Northside District.

Curated Storefront Awarded $100,000 for Art at Lock 3 Park

We are proud to announce that in January 2024, VIA Art Fund, a national funder of contemporary art projects, has awarded Curated Storefront $100,000 towards the commission of a new sculpture by American artist Chakaia Booker to be installed in Lock 3 Park, downtown Akron, once the renovations are complete. Curated Storefront has been assisting with the artist selection process during the construction phase.

Booker is known for abstract sculptures created from recycled tires and stainless steel that explore environmentalism, race, gender, and industrial decline. Her art has been previously exhibited in Akron by Curated Storefront at Quaker Square in partnership with FRONT 2022, as well as the Akron Art Museum.

Read VIA's press release here for more details.

Curated Storefront’s 1st Ever Call for Proposals

For the first time, Curated Storefront is hosting an open call to regional artists or collectives to submit proposals for the creation of a site-specific installation that activates the inside of one of two shipping containers at Outside The Box located at TrueNorth Akron in the Northside District.

A total of four proposals will be selected for two 10-week exhibitions in 2024.

Summer: June 22 - August 24 & Fall: August 26 - November 2.

Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and reside in Northeast Ohio. Submitted proposals will be reviewed by the Curated Storefront team. The online application is open until January 31, 2024, 11:59 EST.

APPLY HERE

Current and past Outside the Box exhibits can be seen here.

Rick Rogers awarded cleveland Arts Prize

Curated Storefront’s Founding Executive Director, Rick Rogers, has been named one of the winners of the 2023 Cleveland Arts Prize. On October 26, at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Rogers will be presented with the Martha Joseph Prize for Distinguished Service to the Arts. Read the official press for more details here.

57th annual NCECA conference

March, 2023 - Curated Storefront is organizing and presenting a collaborative exhibition space at NCECA's 57th Annual Conference, Current, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 15-18, 2023. Titled Western Reserve Currents, work from artists representing the following nine institutions, art centers, and art collections will be featured: Baldwin Wallace University, Cleveland Institute of Art, Curated Storefront: Clayton Bailey’s World of Wonders, Hieronymus, Hope Center for Arts and Technology: Kathy Koop’s Celebration of Life, Kent State University, Northern Ohio Clay, The University of Akron, and Youngstown State University. See the press release here.

Just a few of the works that will be on display:

The Positive Aspects of Negative Thinking

Todd Leach, Northern Ohio Clay Center

Encroachment

Benjamin Lambert, Baldwin Wallace University

Fertility Idol Funko POP!

David Kruk, Kent State University

Stalwart but Perhaps Put Upon

Drew Ippoliti, The University of Akron

Flagellum

Eric Cowan, The University of Akron

What Is It In Between

Eva Polzer, Kent State University

Stack40

Herzak Bauman, Northern Ohio Clay Center

Freedom Fighter

Kimberly Chapman, Northern Ohio Clay Center

Red

Kristen Cliffel, Northern Ohio Clay Center

Sea Change

Molly Johnson, Northern Ohio Clay Center

yellow tower

Peter Christian, Kent State University

Mouse Hunt

Seuil Chung, The University of Akron

new storefronts announced

January, 2023 - Curated Storefront has selected three storefronts on Main Street in downtown Akron for transformation. Stay tuned for more details as we continue working towards filling these vacant windows with work from exciting artists. See the press release here.

Chemstress Courtyard Building
39 South Main Street

Huntington Tower
106 South Main Street

Standard Savings Building
174 South Main Street

Curated Storefront transforms Akron's empty buildings with art

WKSU | By Kabir Bhatia, Jean-Marie Papoi, Published July 29, 2022

Curated Storefront, an organization in Akron that started in 2016, has been revitalizing the downtown area by transforming empty storefronts into art exhibitions. It's also utilizing the vacant Quaker Square buildings to present works as part of this year's FRONT Triennial.

Pop-Up Museum Clayton Bailey’s “World of Wonders” featured in Akron Beacon Journal

Artistic nutcrackers newest additions to downtown Akron holiday displays

Kerry Clawson Akron Beacon Journal

Three 6-foot-tall nutcrackers are now keeping watch over Main Street from Polsky Building storefront windows in downtown Akron.

Each life-size nutcracker has gotten a makeover by artists that Curated Storefront commissioned to spread holiday cheer and add to the city's vintage holiday displays brightening the former O'Neil's store windows across the street.

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Turning Adversity Into Artistic Expression: Curated Storefront’s Exhibit, MASK-R-AID, on view in downtown Akron

The reimagined masks in Curated Storefront’s online exhibit, MASK-R-AID, can now be seen in person in the storefronts of the Polsky Building, at 12 University Avenue in downtown Akron through September 25, 2020. The skillfully transformed masks demonstrate the ingenuity and persistence of these artists, even in the face of a pandemic and economic shutdown.

As the coronavirus crisis developed in March, Akron artist and Barberton art teacher Ron White thought that something was off about people’s reaction.

“Usually people were much calmer when we had a past experience,” White said.

He saw an extreme response that didn’t make sense. People were snatching up groceries and supplies so quickly that stores couldn’t keep some items on the shelves.

On social media, he saw posts about individuals building man caves underground. Society seemed to be overreacting to a situation the populace hadn’t confronted before.

“Where’s this going to go?” White asked himself.

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MASK-R-AID Award Announcements

The MASK-R-AID online exhibition features 38 masks out of the 102 masks that were submitted to Curated Storefront’s Call for Artists. The MASK-R-AID exhibition and awards were juried by Curated Storefront’s Curatorial Committee.

If anybody knows how to put some fun into having to wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic, it looks like Curated Storefront does.

The organization is hosting MASK-R-AID, an online exhibition of artistic yet functional masks that kicks off Friday and runs through Sept. 25. At 6 p.m. Friday, the organization will announce live on its Facebook page its first- through third-place mask design winners, who will receive cash awards of $2,500, $1,000 and $300.

Read More →

Call for Artists: MASK-R-AID

In response to the CDC's recommendation for people to wear masks in public and as COVID-19 continues to impact the arts ecosystem, Curated Storefront announces a call for artists to create functional masks to be put into production, sold online at www.CuratedStorefront.org, and exhibited at a Curated Storefront site.

Curated Storefront’s mission is to support the creative economy by continuing to provide artists with a source of income. Half of the proceeds from sales will go back to artists directly with the remainder benefiting Curated Storefront. This puts great art in the hands and on the faces of the public while helping them to stay safe.

Here are the 2019 Knight Arts Challenge winners:

In another visual art project, the Summit County Probate Court was awarded $50,000 for "Curated Courthouse" to bring a curated series of exhibits of local amateur and professional artists to the Summit County Courthouse. The courthouse, which had mounted art exhibits in the last several years with the Developmental Disabilities Board, Community Support Services and Summit Metro Parks, saw how the artwork brightened people's days.

Take it outdoors: PechaKucha Akron Volume 15 will be the first held outdoors. The brief talks by a variety of folks will be conducted at 7 p.m. Friday at Cascade Plaza in downtown Akron. The speakers include Zposyur, Courtney Cable and Michael Fay. Timecat will perform to start the event.

Radio interview with Yoly Miller & Courtney Cable mentioning Curated Storefront and talking about PechaKucha Volume 15.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced 36 finalists were chosen in the 2019 Knight Arts Challenge Akron.

The arts challenge seeks out ideas that connect people to each other and to place to ultimately strengthen communities. The winners get a share of $1 million to help them bring their ideas to life.

Ryback said his firm conducted an in-house study that confirmed the feasibility of the Akron undertaking.

“We looked at the neighborhood and what Akron needed,” Ryback said. The study concluded a market existed in downtown Akron “for the proposed residential units to be developed as smart and quality apartments.”

The 1911 building at 159 S. Main St. will be stuffed with amenities, according to plans for its renovation. They include a health club, roof garden, demonstration kitchen and Amazon drop-off.

Americans for the Arts honored Curated Storefront’s Reverie by Ian Brill among 50 outstanding public arts projects created in 2018 through the Public Art Network Year in Review program, the only national program that specifically recognizes the most compelling public art.

Today, Akron Community Foundation’s board of directors approved grants totaling $2,911,115 including $625,000 in competitive arts and culture grants chosen by the foundation’s Community Investment Committee.

Curated Storefront awarded $7,500

As in previous years, the Knight Foundation’s mission is to foster informed and engaged communities, using the transformative power of the arts as a means to that end.

Ganuza cited Akron arts challenge winner the Curated Storefront as an example of an Akron project that created a larger impact downtown. Empty storefronts were transformed temporarily into art installation spaces, beautifying the streetscape, encouraging people to come downtown to patronize nearby businesses and casting the storefronts in a different light.

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Illuminating Akron: Curated Storefront

For a city to be considered alive, a certain number of lights must be shining at night. I am sure there is an equation that factors in the size and population and spits out the number of watts necessary to achieve the appropriate lumens required for an “Alive” rating.

Two years ago, Downtown Akron began shifting into that category when recently retired businessman Rick Rogers and his mighty crew founded the project known as Curated Storefront. With the help of designer Courtney Cable and installers Casey Vogt and Steve Levey, Rogers is adding life to Akron’s Downtown.

Read More →

Make it to Main: Boiling House

DAP is excited to launch our "Make it to Main" video series with a spotlight on Boiling House Akron near Main & Exchange.

Tassiello has collected hundreds of items which she has used over the past six years to recreate some of that old holiday magic in the windows of the former O’Neil’s.

Across the street, Curated Storefront -- a group that has created public works of art in unused storefronts throughout downtown Akron – is helping to revive a sense of the old holiday rivalry downtown. They’re creating a multimedia art and lighting installation at the former Polsky’s.

Read More →

Lonely Planet Features Downtown Akron's 'Under the radar' Arts and Culture Scene

You’re never far from a live performance, art gallery or public art installation in Akron, Ohio. Over the past decade, this Great Lakes city – home to artists like Devo and the Black Keys – has transformed from a rundown former industrial town into a vibrant hub for artists of all kinds (and a wallet-friendly tourist paradise).

Take a colorful walking tour

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Gamers find Pokemon and artwork in downtown Akron

On Saturday afternoon, the Akron/Summit Convention & Visitors Bureau hoped to entice at least some of those gamers to experience the public art covering walls and storefronts downtown and perhaps catch a shiny Squirtle or secure a coveted mythical Celebi.

The event, dubbed Good Art Hunting, is one of three planned here over the next few months and is being spearheaded by Roger Riddle, the visitors bureau’s marketing and social media manager, in collaboration with the game’s creator. It came about from a Niantic/Knight Fellowship designed to enhance community programs and is among similar events in cities like Philadelphia; Macon, Ga.; and Charlotte, N.C.

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GAR Foundation awards more than $1.7 million in grants to Akron-area nonprofits

GAR Foundation offered a competitive granting fund to Knight Arts Challenge winners to support 12 projects.

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Art review: Curated Storefront makes downtown windows vibrant

Cities are living organisms that change from day to day and year to year. As time passes, some parts of a city can get left behind. This happens for a variety of reasons, because of lack of money, or because the pressure to make a substantive change is too great, and people just can’t comprehend it.

Akron is no different than countless cities throughout North America. Parts of Akron highlight the robust, diverse and quality community we know it to be and other parts seemingly limp along. While we would all love for them to become more vibrant, and of course we would support that type of growth, how to start that ball rolling might be out of our grasp.

Superchief Gallery and Hieronymus Objects teamed up for a blowout exhibit in Akron, Ohio as an unofficial exhibit for the Front Triennial, a multi-city event that goes on until September 30th, 2018. Hieronymus Objects is a massive collection of artworks that resemble the work of 15th-century Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch, including work from Keith Haring, Salvador Dali, Shepard Fairey, Takashi Murakami, Koak, Bonethrower, and many more.

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Curated Storefront works to attract investment to downtown Akron through public art displays

Curated Storefront is a 2016 $100,000 Knight Arts Challenge winner that aims to showcase buildings that are abandoned, with a few under renovation, through ongoing, curated exhibitions. The current multimedia work ranges from brilliantly lit LED displays to digitally printed, cut and folded paper houses.

The idea is to draw people into downtown and activate the properties, some of which sat empty for years but sold or were rented within months of being highlighted through the project, said Executive Director Rick Rogers.

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ACF funds distribute $2.2 million in quarterly grants, Curated Storefront a recipient

Today, Akron Community Foundation’s board of directors approved grants totaling $2,217,890, including $588,500 in competitive arts and culture grants chosen by the foundation’s Community Investment Committee.

This quarter’s arts and culture funding included a $5,000 grant to The Curated Storefront to bring vibrancy to downtown Akron through window art displays in vacant street-level buildings.

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Western Reserve PBS show, Around Akron with Blue Green, Features Curated Storefront and Other Downtown Family Fun Destinations

This episode of Around Akron with Blue Green is all about family fun, education and culture. Blue Green visits the Curated Storefront project, Akron-Summit County Public Library, Lock 3 Akron and Akron Zoo.

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Spoils of Akron Podcast: Episode 116 Highlights Curated Storefronts and a Unique Vantage Point of Akron's Landscape

This week, we welcome the multi-talented Courtney Cable, Creative Director of the Curated Storefront program, which manages multimedia public art installations in some of downtown Akron's vacant buildings, helping to beautify these spaces as they await development.

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WKSU Reports: Curated Storefront Puts Art at Downtown Akron's Street Level

"Passing through downtown Akron will now be a little more colorful thanks to a project called Curated Storefront. The project puts art installations in buildings at street-level, including vacant spaces, in an effort to make urban areas more welcoming. There are 13 installations in all."

Click the title link to experience the full segment by WKSU Producer, Andrew Atkins.

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Artist Ron White Featured in Western Reserve PBS TV Show Around Akron with Blue Green

Curated Storefront artist Ron White is one of three artists featured in the Western Reserve PBS TV show Around Akron with Blue Green. Click the title to navigate to the 30 minute broadcast and learn about some of the Movers and Shakers that make this city great.

Take look at Black Keys posters

Concert posters aren’t as ubiquitous as they used to be, but some bands still embrace the art form, including Akron’s own Black Keys (many of them designed by Pat Carney’s artist brother, Michael). A selection of posters from the Keys’ travels, collected by Dan Auerbach’s parents Mary and Chuck Auerbach, is on display in the windows of the Polsky Building as part of the Curated Storefront project. Check them out as you wander around downtown Akron for Third Thursday between 5 and 9 p.m., which is themed to Akron’s music history this month.

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Past News Articles

NEWS

Curated Storefront featured on International Arts News Site e-Flux

Curated Storefront Hosts The Groundhog Show at Outside the Box

Akron Beacon Journal | Kerry Clawson | June 13, 2024

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Auction Sponsors

Curated Storefront Awarded $100,000 for Art at Lock 3 Park

Curated Storefront’s 1st Ever Call for Proposals

Rick Rogers awarded cleveland Arts Prize

57th annual NCECA conference

new storefronts announced

Curated Storefront transforms Akron's empty buildings with art

Pop-Up Museum Clayton Bailey’s “World of Wonders” featured in Akron Beacon Journal

Artistic nutcrackers newest additions to downtown Akron holiday displays

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