Chroma Zone Midsummer Happening in July, Tree Sponsorships, More!

Green the CEZ, Sponsor a Tree

The trees are in!

Literally, our first-ever set of bareroot trees — made possible through a generous donation from Bailey Nurseries — are nestled into their new gravel tree beds where they will spend the summer stretching out new roots for easy harvesting and planting in the fall.

Constructed with jersey barriers and the help of dedicated volunteers and community partners, each bed contains 30+ trees that are actively and passively watered on location at Spot Weld (2290 Wycliff St.), Bang Brewing (2320 Capp Rd.), and Landbridge Ecological (670 Vandalia St.). Gravel beds save money on trees (by using inexpensive and under-developed trees) and improve plant survival.

The trees — once successfully planted in the ground and established — will not only beautify the neighborhood, but also improve air and water quality, reduce the urban heat island effect, and improve public health in the surrounding area. Go trees!

Want to see more green in the CEZ? Consider underwriting this effort by sponsoring a tree.

For a $50 tax-deductible donation, we’ll put your name, or the name of someone you care about, on a custom tree tag that will follow the tree from a gravel bed to its future home in a CEZ neighborhood boulevard. Sponsor a tree by using the DONATE button on the 100 Trees Initiative webpage at creativeenterprisezone.org/trees.

The 100 Trees Initiative is the CEZ’s grassroots community effort to expand the urban tree canopy of South Saint Anthony Park, the home of the Creative Enterprise Zone, with up to 100 trees in 2021.

Want to be part of the 100 Trees maintenance crew this summer? Contact Ben Shardlow at benshardlow@gmail.com.

MANY THANKS to our project partners and in-kind donors:

CEZ Kicks Off Chroma Zone with a BANG!

The CEZ kicked off a summer of mural-making on May 22 with an outdoor celebration featuring live art and music, hands-on activities, food and more. The temperature and mood were high as over 1,200 people stopped by for a safe and socially distanced afternoon of wonder, anticipation and joy. It was great to see old faces and new, and people coming together after so long apart.

Better yet, the CEZ has added five new public murals at the corner of Capp Rd. and Hersey St., and another two-story mural on the south wall of The Wycliff — all on the north end of the Creative Enterprise Zone.

The artistry of Focus Smith, Tom Jay, Daren Hill and Nu-One can be seen on the four walls of a pole barn at Bang Brewing, while Jordan M. Hamilton’s mural is right next door on a semi-trailer at Urban Growler Brewing. All were created as part of the CEZ’s first-ever BANG IT! Mural Meet, a four-day live painting event curated by creative partner Peyton Scott Russell of House of Daskarone and SPRAYFINGER.

Designed to spotlight early-career artists with backgrounds in street and graffiti art as they transition to muralism, this 2021 program was made possible with a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC.)

Couldn’t make it to our kick-off celebration? Don’t worry! Mark your calendar for the Chroma Zone Midsummer Happening on July 24.

Any time is a good time to take a self-guided tour of the 28 and counting murals of the CEZ. Just download our handy CEZ mural map and go!

Chroma Zone Murals Begin

Also debuting in May was the first of 10 murals being produced this summer as part of the CEZ‘s second annual Chroma Zone Mural & Art Festival, a celebration of artistry and community that leverages the power of public art to promote, connect and engage the people, places and creative economy of our city-recognized district.

Titled Spirit of Misi-zibi, the new work by local muralist Rock “Cyfi” Martinez and located on the south wall of The Wycliff, 2327 Wycliff Street, is a symbolic portrait of the fight for Indigenous water rights in the United States. The artist writes, “The central figure is a female water protector; from her hands the veins of Misi-zibi (Mississippi River) flow out and around her. She is depicted as floating within a blue orb, which represents planet earth. The Misi-zibi can be thought of as the central nervous system of North America and its health is inextricably connected to the health and well-being of all living beings. This work seeks to engage the community in discussion and reflection on the power of water in our lives and the urgent need to protect this precious resource.”

Martinez is a visual artist and muralist born in Tucson, Arizona, now living in Minneapolis. As a self-taught artist, he developed his craft by learning alongside other graffiti writers in his community. This grassroots education and the trials that come from working in a street-culture medium outside of the traditional scope of fine art influenced his understanding of public places and spaces — namely who they are for, and by extension, who was not welcome. Throughout his body of work he explores this tension and seeks to amplify the voices and narratives of those who have been disenfranchised and marginalized throughout history. He draws on his Mexican American and Indigenous heritage to comment on the social, cultural, and natural history of site-specific surfaces, often using allegory, abstraction and pop art devices to layer meaning.

To learn more about Rock Martinez's work at cyfiart.com and Instagram @cyfione
To learn more about the Chroma Zone events, murals, locations and artists, go to chromazone.net.

A Big Shout Out to Our 2021 CEZ Partners and Festival Sponsors!

SPECIAL THANKS to Theresa Sweetland of Forecast Public Arts, our Creative Consultant for the 2021 Chroma Zone Mural & Art Festival, for her thoughtful curation and on-going guidance as we work to bring more public art to the CEZ. We are grateful!

SPECIAL THANKS to curator and creative partner Peyton Scott Russell, House of Daskarone and SPRAYFINGER (also a 2021 Chroma Zone muralist), and Staci Horwitz of SPRAYFINGER for their creation and oversight of the BANG IT! Mural Meet. You are awesome!

A BIG THANKS to our amazing funders, sponsors and community partners with whom we create, connect, and collaborate to #MakeItHere in the CEZ.
We couldn’t do this without you!

SK Coffee - While not a new tenant at Vandalia Tower, the roasters behind the SK Coffee brand have a new first-floor location and coffee bar to showcase their single-origin, micro-lot coffee and teas. It’s nitro brew season, people! Drop in and belly up to the bar to learn more and take in the modern spaces of the CEZ’s historic King Koil Mattress factory.

Eight Moon - Megan Junius, owner of the award-winning Eight Moon, a creative agency and marketing firm, has earned WBE Certification from the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and relocated from Minneapolis’s North Loop to Saint Paul’s Creative Enterprise Zone with new offices at Vandalia Tower. The firm has attracted prestigious national brands and accelerated business growth. In their announcement of the award, the team at Eight Moon shared these interesting facts:

Grinkie Girls Photography - While you never know what kind of energy will show up at each Grinkie Girls photo session, you can count on the infectious personality of pin-up and boudoir photographer Christi Williams. Follow her @grinkiegirls and grinkiegirls.com to discover the Top Ten Reasons to have a Grinkie Girls Photo Shoot, now booking in studio at Vandalia Tower.

CEZ businesses are hiring!

While the list is too long to tell you about every CEZ business that's hiring, we are pleased to see that many of our own makers and entrepreneurs are looking to expand their workforces. From schools to studios, potters to printers, and graphic designers to general managers, there are even more opportunities to work, live AND play in the Creative Enterprise Zone.

We hope to see you here soon!

#CEZmsp #MakeItHere

At Raymond and University Aves. in St. Paul, Minneapolis-based Kraus-Anderson Development Company is constructing 222 units of market-rate apartments at the old U.S. Bank site, across from Key’s Cafe. Photo from Wednesday, June 2, 2021. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)

It’s been a year of building in the CEZ with new multi-family apartment buildings leading the way along Saint Paul’s Green Line, seven years after the light rail was extended through the capital city. Read more in St. Paul construction strong in 2020 with new rentals, Green Line development by Fred Melo, which ran on June 5 in the Pioneer Press.

Your investment in the Creative Enterprise Zone — the district and the 501(c)3 organization — supports community-driven programs, investments, and public initiatives that attract and support creative people and businesses to #MakeItHere.

June in the Zone June 22, 2021 Chroma Zone Midsummer Happening - July 24 | Green the CEZ, Sponsor a Tree New Stage Is a STAR |CEZ Kicks Off Summer of Murals with a BANG! Around the CEZ | In the News

June in the Zone
June 22, 2021
Chroma Zone Midsummer Happening - July 24 | Green the CEZ, Sponsor a Tree
New Stage Is a STAR |CEZ Kicks Off Summer of Murals with a BANG!
Around the CEZ | In the News