Out & About

The Yellow Springs Experience is an immersion in arts and cultural workshops and performances in Yellow Springs, July 9-18. A Launch Party will kick off the ten days on Friday, July 9, from 4 to 7 pm with live bands, arts exhibits and demos, kids performances, food, beverages, and more! Start your Experience.

More than 80 events are planned for The Experience, which brings together the Yellow Springs Arts Council and dozens of other partners, including area colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, artists and cultural presenters, to welcome one and all to sample, stay and play for the week as a part of the community.

Wellness classes, arts workshops, readings, women’s retreat, sustainable building and farm tour, street carnival, skate music concert, youth and adult theater and dance are just some of the diverse tastes to enjoy.

The Experience is Yellow Springs’ most expansive invitation to the region and beyond with activities for all ages. Designed to support local artists and cultural practitioners of every stripe, the event represents 13 areas including visual arts, literature, theater, dance, music, environment, culinary, media, 3-dimensional, wellness, crafts, innovation and design. Popular summertime events such as the Antioch Writers’ Workshop, YS Kids Playhouse performances and Glen Helen EcoCamps are included in the Experience schedule.

Events will be held at locations throughout the village, including artist studios, educational sites and community centers. Tickets will be available for purchase online. Advance purchase is highly recommended.

Register at the Yellow Springs Experience.

You’re invited! Bing Design is pleased to play a role in a few upcoming events in Yellow Springs that will make it your destination.

This Saturday, June 12th, don’t miss the bi-annual Yellow Springs Street Fair. Starting with a 5K run at 9:00, the 2010 Street Fair promises a day of great activity! Over 200 booths selling fine arts and crafts, clothing, jewelry, and an abundance of unique gifts, this all-day festival will have live entertainment from a variety of musicians and street performances throughout the day. The event is free, open to the public, and handicapped accessible, so come out, should be a gorgeous day!

Just a stone’s throw away from the Street Fair that same afternoon, take in the Inauguration Celebration of Antioch University McGregor’s second president, Michael Fishbein, Ph.D., at 1:00pm on their campus. As a proud supporter of the inauguration, there is limited seating, so check the website for availability.

If you are thinking it’s difficult to take in Yellow Springs in one day. The Yellow Springs Arts Council has the “experience” just for you.

The Yellow Springs Experience that is! Ten days – July 9-18 – that will feature workshops and events in a range of categories including performing arts, visual arts, tours, nature, and wellness. Events are for all ages and performances include a street carnivale. Events will be held at locations throughout the village and tickets will be available for purchase online on their website.

Yellow Springs is an eclectic village known for recreational attractions, unique shops, gourmet restaurants, lively arts and healthful living. If you aren’t able to make it out to any of these events, be sure to check out our best of Yellow Springs map!

Genuine Laughter

This is the time of year where client requests are always fast and furious. As we work steadily, we also take this time of year to get in the holiday spirit, where we unwind for the holiday season. Our annual holiday party brings us together outside of the office setting, where we partake in a fun gift exchange and an elegant dining experience.

Our gift exchange typically turns into an eventful showing of gag gifts and alcohol, but for all those tech lovers out there, Time magazine has the Buyer’s Guide for you. But perhaps you aren’t looking for the typical, tangible gift but more of a getaway.

Yellow Springs is a place like no other, and we at Bing are proud of our village! Approached by the Chamber of Commerce, we were pleased to design and produce an electronic GetawaYS Guide to spotlight the rich and rare collection of unusual shops and galleries where one-of-a-kind gifts abound. Highlighting for others what we see daily, brought new appreciation for the art galleries and unique boutiques, bookstores, wine stores, eateries, a gourmet grocer and the most unusual and creative toy store anywhere!

Produced in just days, it’s a beautiful guide to accompany a walk-through visit of the village of Yellow Springs and all it has to offer! Shop, Eat, Play and Stay in the Springs.

Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio will host the 2009 “Global Table” Greek dinner. This is a free public event at Wittenberg’s Shouvlin Center starting at 6:30pm on Thursday, July 9.

This year, Linardo’s Villa restaurant on East Main Street located in Springfield, OH will be providing food, allowing participants a chance to sample Greek food.

For more information, you can refer to the Springfield News Sun’s webpage, or call 324-7696.

For the past few weeks, I have been getting updates and invitations about a grass-roots movement called Dayton’s Innovation Collaborative.

This past Thursday I was able to attend their meeting at c}space in  downtown Dayton, OH.

The goal of the group is to help Dayton attract and foster more creative thinkers and doers, to help build and create new ideas and products here in Dayton. For many years with NCR, Lexis-Nexis, Reynolds & Reynolds, Wright Patterson AFB, and many more, Dayton was a hot-spot for new ideas and products that attracted new business and the cycle perpetuated itself.

Since so many companies have merged with others, or simply left for the coasts, Dayton has been somewhat forgotten. However, it is the group’s belief that there is still plenty of creativity and innovation in Dayton that just needs a place to be fostered. This is where the Innovation Collaborative comes in.

From engineers to artists to advertising creatives, the Innovation Collaborative gathers these individuals to tackle some of the designs and products that do not exist… yet.

The group is small and working to mature, but there are some cool things already going on … And the c}space location downtown on North Jefferson Street is very cool! That location has murals and paintings on almost every wall and is intended to be a hot-spot of creative ideas and growth in Dayton.

Some of the inventors and representatives at the meeting last week included:

• Dayton Patented – Of all the displays, Dayton Patented was the nicest. I spoke to Dayton Patented’s representative who worked for the City of Dayton. Like the Innovation Collaborative, Dayton Patented is focused on the area’s skills and innovation, specifically to create things and patent them! I kept thinking of Charles Kettering, who the city of Kettering is named for. He built the first starter for internal combustion engines here in Dayton. He and John Patterson of NCR and many others were ‘firsts’ in many industries, and were all from our Dayton. Dayton Patented has more information on their site at http://www.cityofdayton.org/departments/pa/Pages/brandcampaign.aspx
• Building Economic Empowerment – This program works with inner-city and third-world countries to use local resources (especially youth) to design, plan, and build modern energy-efficient homes in their local communities. Michael Manuel was the representative I spoke to at the meeting, and they are currently completing a new high-efficiency home here in Dayton. More information for Building Economic Empowerment can be found at http://www.doitwalls.org/
• Grass Armor Grass Guard – This company has created and patented a product that is attached to the bottom of fencelines to stop weeds from growing. Dale Syx is the president and inventor of the Grass Guard, which is a track that is mounted to the bottom of the fence. A plastic enclosure is snapped into the track extending out from the fence just a few inches outwardly, and up just a few inches as well. Their product brochure states that using Grass Guard will eliminate the need to trim and will do away with the need to use harsh chemicals to kill the weeds that grow along fences. More information about Grass Guard can be found at http://www.grassarmor.com/.
• Dayton Diode – A couple of younger entrepreneurs had a robot that was on display. They were working to help establish a “Hackerspace” in Dayton. No, not the scary hackers you worry about on the computer, but a hacker of creativity and fabrication. Ron Love was the gentleman I spoke to, and he is working to find a space in Dayton where engineers of robotic systems on a small scale can work as members to have a space to build, share, create and develop robotic systems here in Dayton. More on Dayton Diode can be found at http://www.daytondiode.com/
• Outrageous River Derby – River Scape and Five Rivers Metro Park are partners with the Innovation Collaborative. They were getting folks to sign up for the Outrageous River Derby coming up in August. This event is free to enter, but only a small number of participants will be allowed to compete (sign up fast). The event challenges contestants to build a device that will float and move across water, that is NOT a boat or made from boat parts. You can learn more about the Metro Parks at http://www.metroparks.org/
• Sleepy Bird – Food, snacks and refreshments were provided by the IC and the band Sleepy Bird was on-hand to provide good live music. The band had a cellist and lead guitarist (who sounded like the Edge from U2), and some good vocals and accompaniment.