March Madness #1

© Nina Katchadourian work installed on dirt lot

It's March Madness in Phoenix, the month of out-of-town visitors (New York, Milwaukee and Los Angeles), art, baseball and performances. This weekend was jam-packed with things to do and see along Roosevelt Street (modified arts, eye lounge, MADE) and Grand Avenue (Bragg's Pie Factory, The Chocolate Factory) et al. The scrappy, grassroots activists of this city have given dirt lot-riven central Phoenix a sense of place (work by Nina Katchadourian is part of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art's exhibition "Seriously Funny"--Scottsdale yearns for the Phoenix audience). Now we need the big institutions in town to reconcile themselves to the new economy, and embrace the role local entrepreneurs (Local First) have in making us a great 21st century city.