It is a simple house. Not that much to it – your basic Rust Belt city neighborhood house.

Don’t be fooled, though. It is about to become the hub of extraordinary activity.

It is about to become my home and studio, and also a place to inspire creativity in others.

For two years, I have been working with the Community Building Partnership of Stark County, Inc., creating projects for their Art in Neighborhoods program. The program is designed to revitalize neighborhoods by encouraging community and involvement through the arts.

The program has been so successful, they are taking it to a new level with an Artist Residency program. Artists will receive a stipend enabling them to live in designated neighborhoods in exchange for monthly art programming with residents designed to create “image-building end-use art projects”.

Today they announced that I will be their first Resident Artist! I am thrilled!

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be moving from my apartment in the Canton Arts District into a house in the northeast Canton Boulevards neighborhood.

It is the same neighborhood in which I have been working for the last two years on public art projects.

I moved to the Canton Arts District 7 years ago with a similar mission – to help revitalize the downtown area through the arts. There is still much to be accomplished with that mission, but it seems like a good time for me to move on to something new and exciting.

I plan to develop a studio space in my new home where I can invite neighbors in to create and learn and enjoy each others’ company as we find ways to make our neighborhood a wonderful place to live. It is already a great neighborhood with people who care about their homes and look out for each other. I look forward to working with my new neighbors to make it the envy of other Canton neighborhoods!

I hope that you will follow along with me as my cats and I embark on this new adventure. Stay tuned for many fun stories ahead!