echo: Art Fair, a new juried contemporary art event that aims to connect art collectors and admirers of art with emerging and established fine artists, announces the selected artists and galleries for the inaugural event today.  

"The response to echo: Art Fair's Call for Submissions was impressive," said founder Frits Abell.  "We had in excess of 100 artists and galleries that submitted artwork. While most artists were from the WNY region, we had entries that came in from Toronto, New York, Boston, Paris, and Moscow. It was

By Amanda Kilmer:

Diversity [dih-vur-si-tee]: noun
1.    The state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness
2.    Variety; multiformity
3.    A point of difference

By definition, Buffalo is diverse. We have everything from the original [and beloved] chicken wing to sushi to some of the best chicken souvlaki you have ever tasted. Throw in some empanadas, curry, and stews and you have made it around the world in 180 taste buds.

With the summer festival season upon us, kick it off by mixing

There's a new LaSalle Park playground that has virtually sprung up overnight. It's situated directly in front of Centennial Pool, and creates an interesting visual for anyone who might be passing by. At first we weren't exactly sure what we were looking at when a group of us pulled into the park this past Monday. As we walked up to the herd of buffalo we realized that they were meant to be climbed on since there were platform stones stationed by each figure. The buffalo were part of the playground. How cool!

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Work on a larger Buffalo Transportation Pierce-Arrow Museum in downtown Buffalo is moving along. Steel framing is up and the brick entryway is beginning to take shape at the Michigan Avenue and Seneca Street complex. The project, spearheaded by museum founder James T. Sandoro, is a $6.3 million expansion of the existing building.

The museum celebrates the Pierce-Arrow, the Thomas Flyer and several other Buffalo-manufactured automobiles, as well as locally produced trucks, bicycles, and auto accessories. At one time, the Pierce-Arrow

The Queen City Water Ferry began regular service last Friday. It runs seven days a week from noon until 8:00 p.m., with stops at the Commercial Slip, the Erie Basin Marina and the Small Boat Harbor. Additional stops are expected to be announced in the near future.  See the schedule after the jump.

MEETING SUMMARY for MAY 31, 2011

Upon the request of the City of Buffalo Department of Community Services and Recreational Programming, the Council:

Authorized the Department of Community Services and Recreational Programming to fund $100,000 to the Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau Foundation ("CVB") for the purpose of funding a portion of the Buffalo Niagara Film Commission's ("BFNC") 2010-2011 mission to facilitate and expand film, television and video production in the City of Buffalo.
 
The Council adopted a resolution sponsored

With 352 Facebook shares and 11 Tweets, comprised of some haters and some lovers, The Street (digital financial media company) sent Buffalo some props last week, stating that although this city's population may not be rebounding (yet), there are plenty of reasons for residents to be happy. It was of special interest to me that the short article focused partially on quality of life for young Buffalonians, because over the weekend I ran into a bunch of enterprising youth in the Fargo Estates neighborhood

Igor Zutic, a researcher at UB, has been pondering the usefulness of magnets and how they could transform the world of computing. He believes that magnets could aid with high capacity and low energy memory, data storage and data transfer devices.

In the most recent issue of Science, Zutic and UB physicist John Cerne talked about Japanese scientists who demonstrated a materials ability to turn its magnetism on and off at room temperature. All materials have electrons and those electrons have something called "spin". The spin can be either up or down and when the electrons within

By Green Options Buffalo:

In our series, 30 Days of Bicycle Benefits, you will be introduced to 30 new businesses that will offer you great discounts for riding your bike and wearing your helmet. Thirty businesses that want to say, "Thank you," for choosing not to drive your car.

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra - 1/2 off or Buy One Get One Admission

There is icing on this cake. Bicycle Benefits gives you one more day and one more magnificent example of a community coming together to support sustainability.

There are few institutions quite

By Thea Hassan:

Portions of the parks within the Buffalo Olmsted Conservancy are getting a sustainable makeover. The park management group aims to convert at least 20 percent of each park to maintained meadow areas. These areas will contain native plants only, and mowed once or twice per year.

"Managing and maintaining a man made landscape, which all public parks are, is anything but natural," wrote Steven Nagowski, of the Buffalo Olmsted Conservancy, in an email. "We have to cut the lawns, fertilize the trees, water the plants and occasionally spray for diseases

Seneca Nation President Robert Odawi Porter and Seneca Gaming Corp. Chair Karen Karsten today announced allocation of $1 million to boost infrastructure, landscaping, lighting and other amenities in neighborhoods around downtown's Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino.

The funding,

By Rebecca Bratek:
 
The Buffalo Renaissance Foundation, a non-profit, businessmen's organization founded in 1981 that is committed to bettering the City of Buffalo, has announced its newest project--a Sculptural Art Initiative entitled the "Spirit of Buffalo." This initiative will bring five outdoor art pieces to various locations across the city and surrounding areas over the next five years.
           
"The Renaissance Foundation wanted to do something in the area of the arts," said Jake Schneider, president

Michael Vick.  For some people his name is equated with an awesome football player.  For many others, however, it conjures up images of illegal dog fights with innocent dogs used as live bait.  The latter scenario does not paint a pretty picture for the lives of countless pit bulls and "bully" breeds.
           
One such little soul bears the name Zelda.  Zelda is a stocky pit bull mix who was used for breeding.  When her breeding years were over she was used as live bait in the fighting ring right here

By Green Options Buffalo:

In our series, 30 Days of Bicycle Benefits, you will be introduced to 30 new businesses that will offer you great discounts for riding your bike and wearing your helmet. Thirty businesses that want to say, "Thank you," for choosing not to drive your car.

The Burchfield Penney - 1/2 off or Buy One Get One Admission

There is a painting of Charles Burchfield's entitled "For the Beauty of the Earth" where the trees burst forth as if they grew simultaneously with the rising sun. Everything is charged with the light of morning as

Reposted from BRO on Memorial Day 2005. I'm back from Forest Lawn with an updated photo, which I will do each Memorial Day:

While driving down Main Street earlier today, a couple of I couldn't help but notice the thousands of little American flags adorning the grave markers at Forest Lawn Cemetery. I remembered that when I was younger a friend of mine's job was to plant all of those little flags. I never thought too much about it other than they were an awesome sight to behold.

Today was different. There was a beautiful light shining on the motionless flags. And Main

by Kevin Powers

I recently had the opportunity to represent Groundwork Buffalo at the 2011 Brownfields Conference sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency.  Experts in brownfield remediation, vacant property rehabilitation, and community revitalization presented on topics ranging from community and schoolyard gardening and urban agriculture to land banking, soil decontamination, economic revitalization, and ways to attract green collar jobs to aging industrial communities.

While I was there I heard truly inspiring

The Painting for Preservation crew will be on the east side Saturday morning, June 4, 'capturing' the Vaux Barn.  The wooden structure is located on Mills Street, just south of Genesee Street.  It was designed by Calvert Vaux, Frederick Law Olmsted's partner.  Vaux prepared the designs for the park system's buildings.  The barn is believed to have been used in some capacity by the nearby The Park, originally called The Parade and now named Martin Luther

It's refreshing to read articles touting Buffalo as a leader when it comes to gardening. With the advent of Buffalo in Bloom, the Garden Walk, and the National Garden Festival, other cities are coming to Buffalo and taking home more than a few gardening tips. The Wall Street Journal (AP) has a great article on garden tourism, where Buffalo is featured as a forerunner when it comes to flowery attractions. The article reminds us that these types of grassroots initiatives not only bring visitors to our city, they also bring much needed outside dollars. From the

By Green Options Buffalo:

In our series, 30 Days of Bicycle Benefits, you will be introduced to 30 new businesses that will offer you great discounts for riding your bike and wearing your helmet. Thirty businesses that want to say, "Thank you," for choosing not to drive your car.

The Buffalo Chamber Music Society - Buy One Get One or 1/2 off tickets

Bicycle Benefits gets even better with the addition of some of the finest cultural institutions in the country, including the second oldest chamber music society in the world: The Buffalo Chamber Music

I always wondered why this large parking lot in Allentown at the corner of Arlington and Wadsworth was always empty. Especially since it's so hard to find a parking spot in Allentown. Not that I'm a big fan of frontage parking lots to begin with, but if they exist already then they should be used. Even the mini marts in Allentown charge for parking.

Apparently Mark Goldman, owner of Allentown Hardware, had the same idea - he and three other businesses are renting the lot in order to alleviate parking in the neighborhood. "We're going to stripe it this week... we're going to keep it