*SPARKcon showcases local creative talent in the NC Triangle. For four days, Raleigh’s Fayetteville St, public spaces, clubs and stages will be filled with art, music, dance, film, fashion, design, proposals, and more. Celebrating local cultural richness and empowering action through an open-source approach to collaboration and cross-pollination, SPARKcon is not a funded city program or an economic development stunt. It’s completely grassroots and by the people for the people! Join us as we explore the creative spirit of the Triangle!

fashionSPARK photo by NewRaleigh.com

WOW! NewRaleigh.com has fantastic and thorough documentation of SPARKcon’s fashionSPARK runway show September 19, 2008. If you didn’t get to the show, or couldn’t see it cause somebody’s big head was in your way, check it here!

SPARKcon 08 featured some of the best graffiti artists I’ve seen at graffitiSPARK…AND they just happen to be local! 8 local artists showed all sorts of painting and stencil techniques, designing 8′x8′ walls, all to the DJ beats of Joe Giampino.

Victor Knight, III, graffitSPARK 08

Ben Tuttle, graffitiSPARK 08

Garrett Scales, graffitSPARK 08

Derek Toomes, graffitiSPARK 08

Matt Scofield, graffitiSPARK 08

Matthew Curran, graffiitiSPARK 08

Joseph Giampino, graffitiSPARK 08

Sean Kernick, graffitiSPARK 08

First, a primer: SPARKcon is a festival celebrating and nurturing the local creativity of Raleigh and the Triangle region of NC. It’s 100% volunteer… everyone involved runs entirely on enthusiasm, passion and talent, with a bit of support from some wonderful sponsors! This past weekend was the third year for SPARKcon, and it showcased all sorts of talent communities, including breakdancers, yogis, craftspeople, spoken word artists, hoola hoopers, music of all kinds, art, film, fashion and more.

FashionSPARK is an outdoor runway show which featured 13 local fashion designers’ work, as well as fabulous hair and makeup by local stylists. The show was beautifully directed by Allison Beale.

fabulous hair by Jesse and Carla of Marigold Parlour, makeup also by Marigold, fashion by Domino

woodland nymph fashion by Domino

doggy designs by Montage

fashion by Lllavender, hair by Salon Blu

fashion by Metallic Spiral, styled by Marigold Parlour

fashion by Marie Cordella, styled by Atomic Salon

The SPARKcon website is in a constant state of being updated. Check it for more pictures, designer info and links.

Organized by CEOs for Cities and NOLA YURP (The New Orleans Young Urban Rebuilding Professionals Initiative). The Urban Next Summit was a gathering of emerging urban leaders along with established leaders to discuss a number of questions around cities including: “What creates a culture of opportunity? How do you draw ambitious people to a city? And how do you engage them on the issues that matter most?”

Leading a discussion with Carol Coletta and Diana Lind, Aly Khalifa of Gamil presented the theoretical and technical basis for SparkCon as a catalyst for energizing local talent within a city. A great discussion ensued with leaders from around the country including Portland, OR, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and New Orleans.

More impressive was to hear the first hand experiences of New Orleans leaders Nolan Marshall III of Common Good and Young Leadership Council, Robbie Vitrano of Trumpet, Vera Triplett of UNO and Capital One Charter Schools, and Mai Tang of Mary Queen of VietNam Church CDC. These four community leaders presented the struggles of post Katrina NOLA, but were all optimistic of the future. In particular they seemed to say that Katrina did make long-established “cultural silos” disappear, and that the new cooperaion across these cultural divides has made the improvement of New Orleans much more doable. Vitrano called these opportunities “gems within the tragedy” and thought these lessons could apply to other cities as well.

Here is an article on that discussion.

Similar to the SparkCon concept in Raleigh, this event in Charleston looks like it, too, combines the fringe scenes of art to redefine creative culture. This was created by local artist Scott Debus, Gustavo Serrano of B’Zar, Olivia Pool of ART Magazine, and Ambergre Sloan of Charleston’s Most Unique. Very inspirational. Check out the video. It’s so cross-pollenatin’ … Thanks to graffiti artist Bart Cusick for the heads up.

 Kulture Klash

As some of you may know, Gamil puts a lot of resources into creating SparkCon. It’s a conference and showcase of local talent, and one of our biggest distractions! The conference goes out of its way to help let the world know the wide variety of artists, musicians, technologists, and thinkers in the Triangle area. One of the special parts of SparkCon is the FashionSpark component, which has jeans designers share the runway with piercing artists and doggy couture. 

Now you can see these videos on Youtube in the SparkCon group. Each video clip is split for each design group, so you can skip to your favorite design studio, and even embed them in your own page. Above is a clip of AHPeele’s show, a favorite local fashion screenprinter. This footage is courtesy of Alex Mengle and NufacesNC. 

Peder points to three obvious signs of the community embracing its creative talent in Raleigh:
1. First Friday Art Walk (with which Designbox participates)
2. Raleigh Quarterly (which is working with SparkCon to create StorySpark)
3. SparkCon (which Designbox helped to found)

The first general meeting of SPARKcon got underway this week. This will be the third installment of working with a wide variety of people throughout the Triangle who want to help ignite the “Creative Hub of the South” with showcases and workshops. The focus is on local creative talent getting showcased through various venues (like a fashion show and breakdancing) and also giving people a chance to talk about community issues that converge for artists, technologists, independent business and those that focus on inclusivity.

With all the hoopla around the growing events, it was nice to look back at the original SPARKcon Comment on what’s important in developing a thriving creative scene. Put lots of creative people together in one room, give them a common mission, and the ideas fly fast and furiously. All told, the four workshops held in September of 2006 filled 60 big pages of flipchart paper. But in the end, some core ideas and common themes emerged as essential for the Triangle to earn the distinction “Creative Hub of the South.” This is some sort of a Triangle Manifesto. Here are the top 10 recommendations from our community on how to get there:

1. Foster a vibrant urban core featuring a diverse mix of interests, ethnicity, and ages
2. Increase focus on green spaces that allows people to enjoy the environment
3. Develop safer pedestrian and bicycle activity to encourage people to explore
4. Create dynamic public spaces where arts and technology can intermingle
5. Support collectives as incubators of creativity
6. Develop an information hub to publicly promote all creative activities from new patents to gallery shows
7. Encourage programs to foster emerging talent of all types—from small shops and restaurants to artists and inventors
8. Regularly exhibit and celebrate home grown talent of all kinds in public projects
9. Improve public transit infrastructure to bring people to public squares, urban cores, and green spaces
10. Promote tolerance and gain insight from our many different backgrounds

See more detailed workshop recommendation from our community on:

How do you make a thriving Art Scene?

How do you make a thriving Technology Scene?

How do you make a thriving scene of Inclusivity?

How do you make a scene that thrives with Independent Businesses?

or download the PDF of the SPARKcon Comment 2006 (3.5MB) as published in the Independent Weekly. More info at SPARKcon’s website.