Tag Archives: Division

ArtRat owners Nancy Tobin and Matthew Rothenberg. (WKTV/Jodi Miesen)

Local gallery looks to share the hidden gem of Heartside

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By Jodi Miesen
WKTV Contributor

Sounds of music, song, and poetry rang out for close to three hours in the cozy, art-filled space known as ArtRat.

The event, known as “Saturday Musicians Co-op,” showcased local artists, giving them a chance to practice their craft in front of a live audience and on this fall day, about two dozen people came out to watch singers, musicians and poets all take their turn at the mic.

It is only a sample of the array of activities that has been taking place at Division Avenue’s newest tenant, all of which are designed to highlight just what a hidden gem the Heartside District is.

Heartside’s Renaissance

The Heartside neighborhood has gone through a transformation in recent years. Prices for retail space is very reasonable making it attractive for unique specialty shops and eateries that now dot the landscape of the Division corridor. Once such place is ArtRat.

ArtRat owners Nancy Tobin and Matthew Rothenberg. (WKTV/Jodi Miesen)
ArtRat owners Nancy Tobin and Matthew Rothenberg. (WKTV/Jodi Miesen)

Owned by Matthew Rothenberg and his wife, Nancy Tobin, ArtRat, 46 Division Ave., opened up to the public a little over a year ago. Rothenberg said Tobin, a painter, had already been using the space when the couple saw its potential to build community.

 

“So Nancy first started using this as her studio in 2018,” Rothernberg said. “And then we realized what a beautiful space this would be to have a gallery. So last year, we renovated the space and opened just before ArtPrize 2021.”

Tobin is a Grand Rapids native and graduated from Ferris State University’s Kendall College of Art and Design in 1981. She eventually made her way out West, where she met Rothenberg. Years later, the couple moved back to be closer to Tobin’s family.

 

Having spent several years living in bigger cities, like New York and San Francisco, Rothenberg said Grand Rapids has its own unique vibe. One he digs.

“It’s got the kind of intensity and vibrancy that we look for in cities,” Rothenberg said. “Nancy and I are city people. Our kids are too. This feels like that.” 

Building the Community

But it’s not just art and artists’ performances taking center stage at ArtRat. To get people more engaged in the community, ArtRat is hosting more civic minded events. The gallery held a voter registration event in the fall and partnered up with PROACTIVE Project to try to get more citizens registered for the recent midterm election.

ArtRat audience enjoys an evening of music and poetry during the Saturday Musicians Co-op. (WKTV/Jodi Miesen)

ArtRat was also one of four sites picked to host a voting event for Participatory Budgeting GR. Participatory Budgeting GR was an initiative that allowed citizens to vote on proposals created by residents in order to spend the $2 million that the City was allocated to get because of the American Rescue Plan Act. Residents were asked to come up with ideas on how to spend the federal funds and then they got to vote on their favorites.

ArtRat has also been mixing art with song, music, poetry, and other live performances in an effort to bring in patrons and local artists alike. They’ve hosted ‘The Hai-Cuu Experience’ at the gallery about once a month. The Hip-Hop poetry experience is a collaboration with Cuu JoSama and Kenneth Cortez Productions.

It’s just the cool place to be

Starting in November, a new monthly event, ‘Americana Sundays’ will showcase individual singer-songwriters and bands performing in American roots music styles.

 

Rothenberg said he hopes events like this will help make people aware that this hip, cool scene is happening in the Heartside neighborhood. A vibrant and diverse area that’s starting to attract younger artists and people who enjoy the arts. Rothenberg said he’s confident once people see the potential this neighborhood has, they’ll be back.

“People may not be aware that it has a thriving retail scene with lots of unique things for people to do,” said Rothenberg. “There’s plenty of parking, cool businesses, cool people. Just a cool community to be a part of.”

Building a community through the Arts

Madyson Visscher, a local artist, works for the gallery as its social media manager. The 22-year-old moved to the neighborhood a year ago and like the owners she works for, she fell in love with the area and what it has to offer. She said Heartside has seen an explosion in the art scene, making the gallery a perfect hub for the community and herself.

ArtRat is located at 46 S. Division Ave. in the hear to the Heartside District. (WKTV/Jodi Miesen)

“I feel at home here for sure,” said Visscher. “There’s even this strip now. With all of the new retail and like resources that are here. Whether it’s a little space, so someone like me, an artist, I can go work in there. It’s a co-working space, plenty of cafés. We got the new vintage stores that are up and I’ve been spending way too much money in those.”

Visscher has been writing features on behalf of the ArtRat gallery showcasing some of the businesses in the area. The stories are published via email once or twice a week. She’s also been talking and getting feedback from residents in the neighborhood. Visscher said the gallery hopes it can break the stereotype that it only caters to people of a certain status.

 

“I think some art galleries can be a little uppity or sophisticated,” said Visscher. “But we’re definitely trying to change that narrative and be a space not only for artists, but just for the community too.”

Open Mic Night a Success 

Rothenberg, a musician, said he wanted to give artists a place to hone their skills thus that is how the “Saturday Musicians Co-op” came to be.

Eli Winkelman, on drums, was excited to showcase his talent during a recent SaturdayMusicians Co-op. (WKTV/Jodi Miesen)

That opportunity to showcase his craft is why 18-year-old drummer Eli Winkelman came. The recent high school graduate of Grand Rapids has played a few times in front of people but mainly for school related events. He said the owners are a friend of his dad’s. He said he was happy for the opportunity to jam.

“It was actually really fun,” Winkelman said. “Because like, we actually got like, a lot of people, and it was pretty cool. Made me feel good.”

Some more seasoned performers took part as well. Journeé Evans, 23, is no stranger to performing. Evans is an artist and poet. The audience sat in silence, drinking in the words falling from her lips. She was met with the roar of applause afterwards. Evans said she was happy to be a part of the experiment.

“I feel like it is very unique”, Evans said. “And it’s very innovative, bringing in two genres that aren’t usually together, and then making an experience that everybody can enjoy. I feel like that’s a very balanced and awesome way of bringing attraction to any place.”

Journeé Evans, receives around of applause after her poetry reading. (WKTV/Jodi Miesen)

And that for Rothenberg was the whole point.

 

“Something I can do is create opportunities for people to come here”, Rothenberg said. “And perform here and interact here. You know, just get them down here and they can see the opportunities for themselves.”

For more information about ArtRat’s events, you can follow them on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/artrat.us

Community involvement needed to help spur Division Avenue growth

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In the Division United plan, it is proposed to dedicate the current bus lanes 24/7 to only bus traffic and to paint the lanes to bring more awareness to them. The drawing also shows what three-story buildings would look like at the intersection of Clyde Park and Division Avenue.

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

From taking a bike ride or walk to creating a cohort of small developers, there are a number of opportunities for residents and local organizations to help spur growth along Division Avenue.

These were some recommendations, along with some specific items for The Rapid and the cities of Wyoming, Kentwood, and Grand Rapids, that were released in the Division United town hall meetings on April 22.

“A lot of the recommendations that we are going to be talking about might seem substantial and quite frankly they are,” said Steven Duong, who is with Los Angeles-based consulting firm AECOM, which oversaw the Division United plan. “In many cases, they have to be lead by the entity of the cities such as City of Wyoming or the City of Kentwood, and some have to be lead by private business partners, land owners or business owners in the corridor, but we also want to make sure that we acknowledge that there are things that community groups or citizens can do to make some of the strategies a reality.”

The recommendations are broken down into five categories, referred as “toolkits”: Connectivity and Mobility, Economic Development, Incremental Development, Equity, and Placemaking. Many of the recommendations are for the cities to consider when looking at zoning or infrastructure. 

In October, Division United hosted the Better Blocks event to show how Division could look with an outdoor market and crosswalks. (WKTV)

For example, Connectivity and Mobility addresses how to make the area friendly for people and cars by painting the bus lane and dedicating the lane for the entire day to help increase public transit speeds to creating better crossings and making the bus stations hub stations with other transit options such as bikes and electric scooters.

While those are most of those recommendations have to be done at the city level through zoning, residents can take a walk or bike through the corridor to see the disconnect between the current transit and offer ideas on where to place crosswalks and other needs to increase mobility, said AECOM Transportation Planner Jeromie Winsor.

Residents can also start to form a cohort of small developers who can network, making connections with bank officials and others in development to start discussions on redeveloping small properties such as suggested in the Incremental Development toolkit.

A Community Connector and local business owner Synia Jordan said another project is creating art murals at the stations which would involve community members and local artists, which falls under the Placemaking toolkit.

The entire Division United proposal is available online with Duong recommending that people start with the executive summary, which is an introduction to the overall plan, and then proceed into the five toolkits.

By following that direction, the different concepts become a roadmap to how the Division Avenue corridor can become a more transit supportive environment, which Duong noted is the reason why the study was initiated.

A transit supportive environment is the utilization of effective and predictable transit that encourages surrounding development, which, in turn, supports transit. It was the goal of The Rapid that by launching the Silver Line in 2014 it would spur economic development along the Division corridor, according to The Rapid Planning Manager Nick Monoyios.

While The Rapid has seen a 40 percent growth in ridership from Division Avenue during the past six years, the economic growth has not come, Monoyios said.

So after six years of operations, The Rapid officials decided it needed to be more intentional on how to instigate the benefits for the corridor, he said, adding that a decision was made to seek a Federal Transportation Administration grant designed to help corridors like Division Avenue. The three cities, Wyoming, Kentwood and Grand Rapids, all of which have portions of Division within their boundaries, each dedicated $25,000 to the study. The student focused on Division from Wealthy Street to 60th Street.
 

After more than a year of gathering public input, meeting with business leaders and residents, and hosting special events to demonstrate the possibilities, The Rapid released the Division United recommendations during two town hall meetings on April 22.

To view the entire Division United project and other items, such as the recorded April 22 town hall meetings, visit divisionunited.org. 

Area residents get first look at proposed Division Avenue improvements

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After almost a year of collecting information, The Rapid will release the final report of the Division United project. (WKTV)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

It has been months of work but this Thursday, the proposed transportation and development improvements for the Division Avenue corridor will be released to the public.

The Rapid, in partnership with the cities of Grand Rapids, Kentwood, and Wyoming, will host two Virtual Town Hall meetings Thursday, one at 11 a.m. and the second at 6 p.m., to provide residents with an update on the final phase of the Division United project.

“This has been a very unique and an incredible example of the great work our communities can do together with the right partnerships and approach,” said Nick Monoyious, planning manager at The Rapids. “These virtual town hall meetings will provide an informative summary of plans for Division Avenue and will give anyone interested a chance to ask questions and provide feedback.”

In 2014, The Rapid launched the Silver Line, which was looked at as a catalyst for potential economic ground development leading into the downtown area. The Silver Line runs along Division Avenue from 60th Street in Cutlerville to the Medical Mile/Grand Rapids Community college loop.

However, the economic investment did not come, noted Bill Kirk, a business affairs specialist for The Rapid. The Rapid sought and received a Federal Transportation Administration grant that was about $900,000. The cities of Grand Rapids, Kentwood, and Wyoming, all of which have parts of Division Avenue within their boundaries, contributed about $25,000 each with the grant monies and contributions used to fund a study to find ways to improve affordable housing options, business opportunities, and neighborhood conditions in the corridor without losing much of the diversity that is part of the Division Avenue, Kirk said.

For more than a year, the project has focused on gathering input from community members, business owners, and city officials along with reviewing current building ordinances for the area, and hosting events that showcased possible public improvements.

There are lot of different elements to the final project, said City of Kentwood Economic Development Coordinator Lisa Golder. There are several key elements to the proposal such as incremental improvements, stabilizing the area so those who live and work there benefit from the redevelopment, maintaining the diversity of Division Avenue and providing public improvements to create a more walkable community.

“This is not something that is going to happen over night,” said City of Kentwood Community Development Director Terry Schweitzer.

Golder added that there will be a lot for the cities to review in regards to recommendations to code changes. The cities of Wyoming and Kentwood worked together to create a form-based code for the portion of Division Avenue in the two cities. The code is designed to allow a variety of development from large projects such as the CityLine Apartments project near 52nd Street and Division Avenue to the redevelopment of the property at 4253 S. Division, which will be the home of the new coffeehouse, The Stray Cafe.

“We are excited to welcome The Stray Café to Wyoming and are looking forward to their grand opening this summer,” said Wyoming Director of Planning and Economic Development Nicole Hofert. “Their investment in the corridor exemplifies the type of development we are striving to attract. Business owners and investors will have an easy-to-use set of tools and strategies provided in the Division United Plan as they invest in our community.”

In fact, The Stray Cafe is an example of incremental developments, where one or two lots are redeveloped versus several lots, Schweitzer said. He added that the City of Kentwood has had success with several developers who specialize in redevelopment of small lots and interest is growing for projects along Division Avenue.

“During the process, we have definitely seen more interest on what could be done along the corridor,” Schweitzer said.

It is the hope that Thursday’s virtual meetings will help to spur on that interest by presenting highlights of the improvement plan, which focuses on the section of Division from Wealthy Street to 60th Street. Each session will be live translated into Spanish and Vietnamese. 

In addition to the town hall meetings, draft plans, how-to-videos and a comment form are available on the project at divisionunited.org.

The Virtual Town Hall session will be available via Zoom and The Rapid’s Facebook page.

For the Zoom 11 a.m. meeting, click here.

For the Zoom 6 p.m. meeting, click here.