Block Club Magazine

By Ann Marie Awad
O. P. Frisco, Oil (29″ x 46″) 1998, courtesy sirianniart.com
The upstate New York Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Veteran Integrated Service Network, referred to as VISN 2, services Buffalo, Batavia, Bath, Syracuse and Albany, where main medical treatment facilities are located. Smaller outpatient clinics in Rochester, Ithaca and Binghamton bridge the gaps.
In all of VISN 2’s expanse, there is only one creative art therapy program, with only one creative art therapist by the name of Ralph Sirianni. Ralph works [...]

By Ben Siegel
Image courtesy Art180.org
It is likely that thousands of people drive past the mural recently installed in Richmond, VA’s Southside district, and don’t even realize that lives were changed in the making of it. The high school students who put brush to brick created a 1,800-square foot painting, beautifying a highly visible building in a low-income neighborhood.
They mended the facades of blighted buildings and built bridges between clashed cultures.
“There’s potential for tension,” says Marlene Paul, director of Art180, the [...]

By Ben Siegel
For someone who goes by the nickname “Time,” Marc Gunther is a man who has little need for it.
“I’m a very impatient man. I want things done now,” says Gunther, a model for proactive citizenry in Eugene, OR. He is one of three founders of the Eugene Storefront Art Project, a collection of art-conscious citizens pushing for the installation of public art in the city’s empty storefront windows. He faces opposition from city officials and property owners, but [...]

By Ann Marie Awad
Photo by Steve Soroka
The large unfinished painting on the side of an abandoned building at the corner of Grant and Amherst Streets is a way to tie up a loose end or two. It may not seem so right now, because it’s still in its early rough stages, but Marcus Wise and Marissa Lehner are hoping to plant something that will remind Black Rock residents of their neighborhood’s history.
Wise and Lehner met through Emerging Leaders in the [...]