by Nicole Sankowski | Dec 30, 2020 | Blog
By Kelly Pollock, feature writer for the Buzz Cafe
Ann Viernes recalls loving both science and art from a young age. “I can remember in kindergarten always wanting to paint on the easels, but I don’t think I ever actually did it. I was very, very shy. But all through school my two loves were science and art. The gifts I always got from my parents were things like a microscope or art supplies.”
When it came time to choose a college major, Ann decided that she could best serve humanity working in science while continuing art as her hobby. She chose to study biology at DePaul University and spent more than 30 years working at Rush University Medical Center until retiring in 2013. “I always thought that I would continue to use my Doctor of Health Sciences degree, but after my husband died in 2012, I just felt lost, and I only continued working for another year.”
Ann eventually met her partner Frank Fletcher and later moved to his home in Oak Park. “This summer marked seven years since I retired and I decided to take a sabbatical from my retirement. I went up to my hometown of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, with all my painting supplies and stayed for ten days right by the lake. Then, when I returned, I was walking through the Arts District and I saw this space for lease and I thought, ‘This is it. I’m not in healthcare anymore. I’m an artist now.’”
Ann considered almost 50 names for her new business before making a final decision. “I was going to call it Blue Friday because my favorite color is blue and my last name means Friday in Spanish.” But ultimately, it was Ann’s love of “purple sun glass” that inspired her to choose Purple Sun Arts for her new space at 142 Harrison Street.
Ann has been collecting purple sun glass for 40 years. During the Civil War, the lead that was used in glass manufacturing to make it clear was needed for ammunition so the manufacturers switched to making glass with manganese. What no one realized was that, over time, sunlight would react with the manganese and turn the glass purple. “Much of it is well-used and has nicks and scratches and so it’s not really that valuable,” says Ann. But the fact that glassmakers used manganese for only about 50 years gives purple sun glass a rarity value and charm that has made it a popular collectible.
Ann has been painting since she retired and her work was stacked up in her basement. Now it’s hanging on the walls of her new space. In addition to her paintings, Ann also makes jewelry and greeting cards. She is selling the vintage glassware and jewelry that she has collected for years and she recently added jewelry made by Sandra Dee, one of her former teachers.
Ann is passionate about intentional creativity and plans to host workshops in art journaling once the pandemic has abated. She is in the process of becoming a certified instructor of Cosmic Smash Booking. “You use a composition notebook and start by making a cover and by writing your intention for the book. You then write and write about whatever is on your mind. You have to cross the middle and write across both pages and then you pray over it. You then write ‘help me, teach me, show me’ over everything you wrote. Finally, you cover all the words with white paint and paint images or collage over the page.”
Another important step that Ann describes is that you crumple all the pages to “crush the perfection” out of them. “It’s not about perfecting your art skills,” says Ann. “It’s very tactile. All the senses are in there. It’s just what you feel and what comes out of you. It answers the question, ‘If you could taste the rainbow, what would it taste like?’”
Ann is environmentally conscious and is trying to minimize the impact of her space. “I don’t paint with oils because they are hard to dispose of. I use only water-based paint and I let the solids settle to the bottom of my paint water. The water can then be poured off and the solids can be disposed of in the trash once they’re dry.” She also made sure to use energy-efficient lighting and recycles or composts everything she can.
Ann calls her space “an art gallery, studio, boutique, and creative learning space.” She believes that serendipity led her there and she is excited to share her vision of channeling creativity and beauty with the community. Purple Sun Arts is located at 142 Harrison Street and is open Wednesday through Saturday from 1pm-5pm. The phone number is 708-948-7443 and the website is www.purplesunarts.com.
by Nicole Sankowski | Dec 7, 2020 | Blog
Since its establishment in 2016, l’Institut français d’Oak Park is building and connecting the local French-speaking community while creating a heightened awareness of how speaking French opens the door to a rich variety of cultures around the world.
The arrival of the coronavirus in spring 2020 forced us to switch from in-person classes on Harrison Street and conversation groups at Léa in downtown Oak Park to online meetings via Zoom. As students and teachers adjusted to changes in the world around us, many of us were surprisingly invigorated to continue to see familiar faces every week, to work together to improve language skills, and to escape virtually through French conversations and Francophone ‘travel’ during classes and Conversation Cafés. As one student said: “I’m just really grateful for all of my time at the French Institute, whether it’s been live and in person or online. It’s challenged me; it’s helped me to learn and grow; it’s helped me to connect with people; it’s helped me to learn more about myself and the world.”
L’Institut français d’Oak Park continues to offer an array of online French and Francophone courses, private lessons, and conversation groups via Zoom. Moving online has extended classes well beyond Harrison Street, with learners of French participating from Oak Park, Chicago and other suburbs to New Mexico, Texas, and Montana. Conversation Café on Thursday evenings has attracted visitors from Montreal, Colombia, and France. L’Institut français d’Oak Park looks forward to resuming in-person classes on Harrison Street in the Oak Park Arts District once it is deemed safe to do so, but classes and conversation groups will continue online permanently as we build and connect the French-speaking community both nationally and internationally.
All French classes and conversation groups are led by highly qualified instructors who have significant experience in teaching French. Courses range from beginning French covering specific subjects and areas of grammar to mid-level French conversation, culture and grammar to French literature courses in French and English. There is a class for every level of French learner or experienced speaker!
If you are seeking a different frame of mind or a new challenge, would like to brush up on dormant knowledge of French, or are curious about other cultures and languages, explore the options offered by l’Institut français d’Oak Park. Why not ask a friend or family member to enroll with you to broaden your horizons together while meeting new people? Or, get your loved one a gift card from l’Institut for the holidays.
Registration for the Winter 2021 Session is currently open, and classes will meet from January 18 through March 27. For more information, visit the Institut français d’Oak Park website at www.frenchinstitute.net or contact Stacy Fifer at [email protected]. And, please follow us on Instagram @institut_francais_oak_park or Facebook @institutfrancaisoakpark.
by Nicole Sankowski | Nov 30, 2020 | Blog
By Kelly Pollock, feature writer for The Buzz Cafe
Valdo Leon first started barbering as a child when he cut his uncle’s hair in exchange for being allowed to take over the kitchen on Sundays. It’s been more than thirty years, but he finally realized his dream of having his own shop when Valdo’s Barbershop opened on September 21 at 128 Harrison Street in the Oak Park Arts District.
As a boy growing up in Humboldt Park, Valdo loved to experiment in the kitchen. “My dad’s older brother lived upstairs from us with my grandmother and when she would go off to church on Sundays, he would call me up and let me make my mess in the kitchen as long as I cut his hair in return. I had no experience, but Tío George would guide me, and I soon learned I had a passion for cutting hair.”
When Valdo was twelve, his parents decided to move the family to Puerto Rico. “The early nineties weren’t the best time to be a preteen in Chicago. My whole life changed when we moved. I went from being a city kid to living in a very rural part of the island.” Valdo continued cutting hair in Puerto Rico as a teenager. “I had the tools and I needed lunch money,” he says with a laugh. He started with his friends, his cousins, and his older brother. He would pay attention to the barber’s technique when he got his own hair cut. “I was intrigued because I wanted to get to that point myself, but there were a lot of disastrous haircuts first.”
After graduating high school, Valdo joined the military and spent several years in the National Guard. But through it all he continued to rely on barbering. “If things were tight, I had my clippers. I could make an easy $100 in a day.” Eventually, he made his way back to Chicago where he impressed the owner of the biggest barbershop on the Paseo Boricua—the “Puerto Rican Promenade” on Division Street in Chicago. “The owner loved that I was fully bilingual and that I had very fast hands. It was an assembly line barbershop and I was very efficient.” Valdo worked there for seven years until he left to complete his accredited hours and earn his professional license.
Valdo was happily working as a barber when he got a call from UPS in 2015 in response to an earlier application. He and his wife were newlyweds and the benefits that came with being a driver were a perk that he couldn’t resist. “UPS pulled me away from barbering. I hung up my clippers for 2½ years.” A car accident in 2017 and the resulting lower spine injuries were the end of his UPS career. “I couldn’t do that type of job anymore.”
Back to barbering, Valdo took his clippers to a few different shops until he finally landed on Chicago Avenue in Oak Park just five minutes from his home in Austin. When he first arrived in Chicago from Puerto Rico in 2005, Valdo had told some friends that when he opened his own barbershop someday it was going to be in Oak Park. And when he got behind the chair on Chicago Avenue, he thought, “This is my way in.”
Fixated on opening his own barbershop, Valdo took his wife’s advice and drove down Harrison Street one day after dropping his son off at school. “I started seeing multiple storefronts that were available and checked out each one to see what would best accommodate my needs. I hit 128 and thought, ‘This is it.’” When asked why he opened a barbershop at this time, Valdo answers, “Why not? Yes, we’re in the middle of a global pandemic, but life continues. Life has to continue.”
Although the current Tier 3 mitigations have limited the services that he can provide, Valdo is encouraged that most of his clients have stuck with him since the spring. “We can’t offer hot shaves, beard trims, or facials right now which takes away from the luxury of the experience. The upside is that it has created more space for haircuts.”
Valdo is known for his versatility and can manage anything from a basic gentleman’s cut to the tightest fade and graphics. And while many people tend to forget that esthetics are taught in barber school, Valdo believes that it’s time to highlight those services. “We’re losing that essence in modern barbering. People get caught up in being a chop shop. There are very few barbershops that offer pampering services.”
Although he’s only been established on Harrison Street for a few months, Valdo is overwhelmed by the support that he’s gotten. The classic look of the barbershop has gotten a good response and Valdo gives all the credit for that to his wife Rebecca. “She has really good taste and a keen eye. We’ve been together a long time and she knew what I wanted.”
Looking back at the thirty years he’s been barbering, Valdo says, “Cutting hair was shown to me at a very early age and it’s something that I have always fallen back on. Not only do I enjoy barbering, but I enjoy the interactions with people. This is my purpose. It’s what I was meant to do.”
Valdo’s Barbershop is located at 128 Harrison Street and is open Monday through Friday from 9am-7pm and Saturdays from 8am-5pm. To book an appointment, call the shop at 708-628-3025 or visit www.booksy.com.
by Nicole Sankowski | Nov 2, 2020 | Blog
by Kelly Pollock, feature writer for The Buzz Cafe
Lindsey Danhauser and Allison Durkee became friends in the seventh grade in Iowa City. Although they went in different directions after high school—Lindsey studied art and Allison studied business at separate colleges—they stayed close and recently opened their second Kidcreate Studio franchise together. The new space at 200 Harrison Street in the Oak Park Arts District celebrated its socially-distanced grand opening on September 12.
They decided to become business owners a few years ago when Lindsey and her husband moved from Minnesota to be closer to family. Chicago seemed like a good compromise between western Michigan and eastern Iowa and it was an extra bonus that Allison had already lived here for several years. At the time, Allison was looking for an opportunity to start her own business and opening a Kidcreate Studio franchise together seemed like a natural fit for their complementary skills of corporate finance and arts administration. “I had partnered with the founder of Kidcreate when I worked for the City of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and her curriculum and vision aligned with what I was passionate about. It’s based around art history and art technique but is packaged in a way that’s palatable to everyone,” says Lindsey.
Lindsey and Allison’s first Kidcreate Studio location opened in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago in March 2019 and they were ready to open their second location in Oak Park in March 2020. Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic struck at the same time and they were forced to delay their opening for six months. When Illinois entered Phase 4, they were able to reopen the Lakeview location and after a successful summer camp realized that they could proceed with opening the Oak Park location. “We already had the ball rolling so we had to keep going.” They are careful about their safety protocols: class sizes are small, everyone wears a mask, and hands are washed frequently.
While Allison manages the Lakeview studio, Lindsey is the face of the Oak Park location. She teaches about half the classes herself but has other teachers and assistants on staff. Toddler classes (18 months-6 years) run for 45 minutes and require an adult to attend with the child. Older children (5-12 years) attend after school for two hours and can be dropped off. “One of the reasons that we liked this space was because it was in a parent-friendly area. While fostering creativity in kids is our main mission, we want to support parents too. So while your kids are in class you can grab a coffee or do some shopping nearby,” says Lindsey.
If families don’t want to make a regular commitment, no-school-day classes, holiday workshops, and date nights offer plenty of drop-in opportunities to add some art into their lives. “Date nights are from 5:30-8:30 and cost $37 with a 50 percent discount for each additional child. Parents get a break and kids get a chance to be social and creative which is so important right now while they are spending so much time remote learning.”
While the classes are designed to teach art techniques, every class also has fun creative elements. “During class, the kids practice their active listening skills, but at the end of class we have messy time when they can let it all go. We might do fingerpainting on the tables or make slime. The creativity really has a chance to sink in.”
Lindsey is passionate about the role that creativity should play in kids’ lives. “I believe that if kids don’t practice creativity, then they can’t come up with new ideas. Whether it is dramatic play or music or visual arts, creativity is the job skill of the future. It’s all about problem solving: how do you get something to look the way that you want with the tools that you have?”
In addition to classes, the studio also offers birthday parties, summer camps, mobile classes, and has a small retail section. “I’d like to grow the retail space,” says Lindsey, “I’m looking for more locally-made kid-focused products.”
To kickstart the holiday season, the studio is having a gift card sale in November and December when gift cards are 20 percent off. Kidcreate Studio is located at 200 Harrison Street and can be reached by phone at 708-628-3976 or via their website at www.kidcreate.com/oak-park.
by Nicole Sankowski | Sep 21, 2020 | Blog, Events
Visit the Oak Park Arts District during Harvest on Harrison to Find Yourself Smiling on Harrison Street! Art from the Smiles Project will be displayed in the windows and some interiors of businesses up and down the District beginning Saturday, October 17th. What’s the Smiles Project? Click HERE for a pdf on how to participate or keep reading!
Masked up and on the street, help us document the project on social media using hashtags #smilesonharrison and #harvestonharrison. Follow the same tags for up to date information on special events businesses are planning.
Harvest on Harrison runs from Saturday, October 17th through Sunday, October 25th. During shop hours or whenever you feel like taking a walk!
CALLING ALL ARTISTS
Professional and Amateur, ages 2 – 102
From the Oak Park Arts District
www.oakparkartsdistrict.com
For many years, the Oak Park Arts District celebrated every fall with Art on Harrison, an event highlighting the variety of arts represented along the street. Several years ago, we switched gears and created Harvest on Harrison to celebrate not just the arts but the good fortune of all of our thriving businesses. In early 2020, we were hard at work planning our increasingly popular spring festival What’s Blooming on Harrison when everything changed. As we shut down and sheltered in place, we watched our businesses bloom in ways we’d never imagined just to survive. Most of our businesses were able to reopen because of the amazing support shown by customers, clients and friends. We are even welcoming new businesses to the street! We have a reason this fall to celebrate Harvest on Harrison and we want to do it with you and your art. YEAH, YOUR ART!
You support us in so many ways and right now one of the most crucial ways is by wearing a mask when you frequent Harrison Street. You keep yourself healthy, you keep our staffs healthy, you keep our businesses healthy. But… WE MISS YOUR SMILES. And we want to create a public art project that turns that missing feeling upside down.
Mission: Create a masterpiece depicting your smile. A self portrait but maybe just your grin- with braces, with dentures, eating pie, wearing bright red lipstick, definitely flossed. If you’re on a roll, you can create more than one! Sub-mission: Tell all your artist friends because we want tons of art!
Mediums & Materials: Drawn, painted, photographed, screen printed, collaged, crayons, acrylics, pencils, canvas, markers, construction paper, clay, beads, buttons, wood scraps, oils, found objects, macaroni…. No smaller than a postcard, no bigger than a record album. Able to be displayed with tape, by propping, with string or wire, in rare occurrences by someone on a ladder with a hammer and nails.
Site: The windows and counters of the studios, salons, gyms, shops, restaurants, maybe even the dry cleaners of the Oak Park Arts District.
Application: There isn’t one! Everyone’s accepted!
But: Designs must be original with no advertisements, logos or website information on them. Artists may sign their work. Art will be reviewed for Appropriateness to Public Presentation which sounds serious because it is. The artwork becomes the property of the Oak Park Arts District and may be used in marketing.
Schedule: Well, it’s tight but we have full confidence in you. Please deliver your works by Thursday, October 15th, in person or by mail to: Bead in Hand, 145 Harrison Street, Oak Park, IL 60304. 708.848.1761. www.beadinhand.com
Harvest on Harrison begins on Saturday, October 17th. Follow #harvestonharrison, #smilesonharrison for event details. Questions? Email Laurel Wolff at [email protected]
by Nicole Sankowski | Aug 31, 2020 | Blog
by Kelly Pollock, feature writer for Buzz Cafe
Tamekia Swint is passionate about serving her community. She is the founder and executive director of the only non-profit of its kind, Styles 4 Kidz, that has just relocated to 235 Harrison Street in the Oak Park Arts District. Styles 4 Kidz provides “Hair Care with Heart” through its two-fold social mission: to create hairstyles that boost the self-confidence and self-esteem of children with textured hair and to teach parents the skills they need to manage their children’s natural hair at home.
Tamekia grew up in Chicago and attended the University of Illinois to study community health. “I had always loved hair, but I never considered doing it professionally. That idea wasn’t accepted in my family. I was supposed to go to college and then get a job,” says Tamekia. As a way to support herself while in school, she decided to learn how to do hair, enrolled in a program at Olive-Harvey, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, and spent a year commuting twice a week between Champaign-Urbana and Chicago.
After college, Tamekia worked at a salon, got a job with the State of Illinois as a parole agent, went back to school to earn her MBA at National Louis University, and worked for Allstate Insurance. But it was a mission trip to Poland to teach English for two weeks that changed her life. One of the leaders asked her to teach an elective and so she taught what she knew how to do: hair. “I hadn’t brought any tools with me, but they gathered what they could and I taught everyone how to braid. And I was struck by one girl who told me that she had always dreamed of having these beautiful braids. I came home wondering if maybe there are girls here who dream of having these beautiful hairstyles too.”
So she made up some flyers and started handing them out at beauty supply stores and slowly built a clientele while continuing to have a vision of “hairbraiding missions” in the community. One Sunday at church, Tamekia noticed a woman and her daughter who had beautifully braided hair. She felt an urge to talk to her. “I went right up to her, introduced myself, and handed her my card. I told her that her daughter’s hair was beautiful so I didn’t think she’d ever need my services, but I was here to help just in case. She replied that she didn’t need my help, but she knew somebody who did and she would have her call me on Monday.”
“Mary called me and my life has never been the same.” Mary had adopted two African American girls, was struggling, and needed immediate help. “It was really bad,” says Tamekia, “but it was fixable.” It took a year of working together every two weeks to get the girls’ hair healthy. At the time, “natural hair was not as accepted as it is now and so there was not a lot of information out there about how to care for it.” Word about Tamekia spread and she soon learned that “Oak Park is a tight-knit community where multiculturalism, transracial adoption, and biracial families are all embraced. This became my community.”
Before long, Tamekia resigned from her insurance job and established a non-profit called Styles 4 Girlz in October 2010. “People tried to convince me that you don’t do hair as a non-profit, but that was my vision. It had a social mission.” The name has since been changed to Styles 4 Kidz to better reflect the children they serve. A few years ago, Tamekia realized that they needed a physical location. “It was hard for me to communicate to people what we were doing and to get donors. People didn’t understand the concept without a location.” When she first started looking for a space to rent, Tamekia wanted to be in the Arts District, but there was nothing available in her price range. So it feels serendipitous now that the perfect space on Harrison Street became available just as they were outgrowing their original location on Lake Street.
While the front room of Styles 4 Kidz looks like a salon, “the level of care that we give each child is different than what you would find in a typical salon,” says Tamekia. “Some of the kids who come here have really damaged hair. We work with them to get the hair healthy. We’re all about nurturing that child and that family.” Eighty percent of the families that Styles 4 Kidz serves are transracial adoptive parents, transracial foster parents, or biracial families. Through workshops and one-on-one coaching, these families are learning skills and building a community. “The kids get a cultural connection in the salon. They see other kids who look like them and other families that look like theirs,” says Tamekia.
Kelly Biggs is thrilled to have found Styles 4 Kidz for her 8-year-old daughter Harper. “We had been to other salons and it was nothing but tears. Coming here is a fun experience and there is a nice community feel. I appreciate everything they do to serve transracial adoptive and biracial families.” In fact, Harper was so happy with her experience that she recently raised $50 from a lemonade stand that she donated to the organization.
“Our budget for this year is $300,000, but COVID-19 has presented a challenge for us,” says Tamekia. Their fiscal year ends on October 31 and while they are close to reaching their goal of serving 600 children, they are only about 60 percent funded. While half their budget is from donations, the other half is from the below-market fees that they charge for services and workshops. “Being shut down for over two months in the spring was hard.” Despite this setback, Tamekia is still hopeful and is looking forward to November 2021 when they will be able to celebrate the delayed 10th anniversary of Styles 4 Kidz.
Tamekia Swint and Styles 4 Kidz can be reached at 708-434-5680. To learn more about scheduling an appointment, attending a workshop, or making a donation, visit their website at www.styles4kidz.org.
