Mississippi Avenue Lofts - Blog

Mississippi Avenue Lofts is proud to participate with Laughing Planet Cafe in Cirque du Cycling a Benefit for SEI.

We’re sure you’ll enjoy these photo’s from todays event! Hat’s off to Franz and the team from Laughing Planet Cafe for making such a wonderful contribution to our community!

Come one, come all! The circus is coming to Mississippi Avenue. Cirque du Cycling, presented by Laughing Planet Café, is part circus, part bike street race and a benefit for Self Enhancement, Inc.The whole event kicks off at 4:00 with a free three mile family ride to Peninsula Park. There is also a bike parade (advance registration required) featuring all sorts of wild sculptural bikes: tall bikes, choppers, swing bikes and more.There’s live music all afternoon, plenty of entertainment to watch and an evening criterium street race with a two-way racing right down the middle of Mississippi Avenue.Come relax in the beer garden, bring your bike, settle into your lawn chair, peruse the shops of Mississippi Avenue and numerous exhibitors and be prepared to be awed by spectacular bicycle tricks and riding feats.

CALDERA LAUNCHES HELLO NEIGHBOR PROJECT:
Communities Across Portland and Central Oregon Unite through Student Art!

Caldera is pleased to announce the dates of its series of “Hello Neighbor” project celebration events. “Hello Neighbor” is a student art based community-building project created to inspire neighbors to connect with each other.

Students from ten middle schools in Portland and Central Oregon are participating in Caldera’s “Hello Neighbor” project. With photographer Julie Keefe, the students have begun to identify, interview and photograph diverse neighbors of all ages in their local communities.
From their work, the Caldera students will create photo-and-word portraits which will be printed on large format (7′ X 5′) vinyl banners throughout their communities. The banners will be displayed from May through September, 2008 in Bend, Redmond, Terrebonne, Madras, Sisters and Portland.

“Hello Neighbor” was conceived by Keefe, a photographer based in Portland, who has been involved with Caldera and its programs for 12 years. Keefe’s inspiration for this project came when she moved into a changing North Portland neighborhood and saw the need to begin a dialogue about community between neighbors of all ages. “When I moved into the neighborhood in 1991, with my husband and infant daughter, I was a new neighbor, and as an artist, I wanted to find a way to publicly address the changes I was part of.”

In each school community, there will be a celebration to unveil the banners and to celebrate the students’ work. Students will lead other students, teachers, parents, and members of the community on a walking tour of their neighborhood to visit each site where the banners are displayed. The schedule of events is as follows:

Wieden+Kennedy, June 5 from 6:00pm-9:00pm;
Mississippi Ballroom (SEI Academy) June 6 from 5:00pm-7:00pm.

Hello Neighbor has been made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Local community involvement is essential for Hello Neighbor to succeed. Those interested in learning more or becoming a “Hello Neighbor” sponsor should visit contact Rebecca Groff at rebecca.groff@wk.com or 503-937-7594 or visit www.calderaarts.org.

Founded in 1996 by Dan Wieden, chief creative officer of the Portland, Oregon-based international ad agency Wieden+Kennedy, and his wife, Bonnie, Caldera is a nonprofit organization that provides long-term mentoring through the arts to underserved children, and provides fully subsidized residencies to professional artists. Programs take place in schools and community centers throughout Portland and Central Oregon, and at Caldera’s Blue Lake Arts Center in the Oregon Cascade Mountains.