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Dancing is one of the most effective ways to relieve stress, benefit from physical activity and have fun. As one dance instructor once said, “You can’t dance angry.“ So why is it that if you longed to let loose on the dance floor with a DJ spinning tunes you’d have to until past 11 pm, weekday or weekend. No more.

Enter Granny Boots every Wednesday

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When it comes to industrial design, Milan, Italy is a world capital, leaders in fashion and architecture and home to Alfa Romeo and Fiera Milano, the largest trade fair complex in the world. There is no product
design equivalent in the U.S., but Cleveland, Ohio is poising itself to take on that mantle. What’s the point? For one, design is found to be correlated to economic growth. If you’re wondering how industrial design makes an impact, think of Apple and their influence.

In the heart of

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What do Paris, Toronto, Copenhagen, Madrid, Malta, Montreal, Sao Paulo, Lima, Santa Monica, Chicago, Miami Beach and six cities in the UK have in common? They all host an all night art and cultural festival known as Nuit Blanche (White Night), which lasts from sundown until sunrise on the first Saturday and Sunday in October. While Paris kicked off the Nuit Blanche series in 2002, they were inspired by the ‘Lange Nacht der Museen’ (Long Night of Museums) held in Berlin, Germany since 1997,

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This is an alternative for a growing number of people bored with ‘So what bar are we going to tonight?‘

First of all, a couple of definitions. Mixed-use is a placemaking/real estate development term for combining uses in a building (residential over retail), which also applies to neighborhoods (walkable) and businesses (bookstore coffeehouse bar lounge theater). Mashup refers to the combining of songs, videos, and web application features into a new and distinct product.

Thus, what happens

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In keeping with the spirit of the previous entry, The Dining Room Takes to the Street, here’s how to start your own informal public dining culture with the Permanent Breakfast.

Founded in Austria, the purpose of the Permanent Breakfast is to promote public areas and places via spontaneous gatherings for breakfast. The very first breakfast was held in Vienna on May 1, 1996 among five people, and has since spread throughout the world thanks to its formal program with the basic rule:

One person

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In one of the best NY Times articles ever published as it relates to what this site is all about, writer Penelope Green pens the phenomenon of creatives in New York City spontaneously crafting their own public spaces in The Dining Room Takes to the Streets. The photographs alone that are associated with the article are a must see, and some of the quotes are priceless.

Referred to as ‘invisible theater’, here are some examples of New Yorkers making their own urban gathering places (clockwise

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There are ‘green festivals’, then there’s San Francisco’s second annual Bicycle Music Festival, a one day, 15 band, 7 festival stop, free music festival that uses zero cars, trucks or even electricity. How?

- The bands all carry their equipment via bicycle trailers.
- The audience arrives via bike, skate and foot. They then travel sequentially to each of the seven festival stops in different parts of the city.
- The 600-watt P/A system is pedal-powered, developed by Rock the Bike in Berkeley,

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In the previous entry we looked at Elizabeth Currid’s The Economics of a Good Party and the process by which arts and culture added to the economy. Today, we look at Elizabeth’s answer to the question, “How does the social community (ie the patrons, the attendees, the participants) influence the emergence of arts and culture that then translates to economic impact?“ Her four ways:

1. Access to gatekeepers both formally and informally - Gatekeepers are defined as the purveyors of taste, so if

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How does art and culture translate into economic value? Elizabeth Currid, author of The Warhol Economy presents an invaluable scientific view on an industry regarded as anything but in her article, The Economics of a Good Party: Social Mechanics and the Legitimization of Art/Culture.

Simply speaking, arts and culture establishes economic value the more it’s recognized as a scene, when people pay to share in the experience via goods or events. The real question is, how does it become a scene

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So many emerging artists in one city - how can one possibly see them all? Enter Artomatic, Washington DC’s five-week multimedia experience showcased in a single building that is one of those no-brainers as far as finding something to do on a given evening - this year being from May 9 through June 15 one block west from a subway station. Where else can you experience the work of 1000 local artists in one building over 28 days… for free? Not only that, but there are several events going on

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