Buffalo Rising Online

Jun 4th, 1:28pm By Doug Sitler

The Essex Arts Center’s AMP Party, this coming Saturday, June 7 adds to the excitement to the blossoming Essex and Rhode Island Street neighborhood. Event organizers are hoping many people attend the festivities while simultaneously discovering the tremendous changes in the West Side neighborhood.

“We have been fighting the good fight over on Essex Street since 1969, and it is exciting to see the major transformation of the surrounding neighborhood” said Mark Griffis, Executive Director of the complex, “One of the reasons why we wanted to host this event was to get more people down to see our facility and become more familiar of the neighborhood.”

Essex will feature a slew of bands, dancers, drummers, artists, poets for an event titled The AMP Party. Cost is $10 and will benefit the center and its arts and education programming. Headlining the band stage will be Buffalo’s rock ska legends The Great Train Robbery. Other music acts and performers are, Juxtaposse, A Potter’s Field, The Bogarts, and Essex Arts Center’s own, The Heavenly Chillbillies. Gahu Drum Ensemble, Bella Dea tribal fusion dancers and Roberto Valenza & Company. There will be art displays from Buffalo artists, including Larry Griffis III, and Tammy Wetzel. Attendees can participate is tours of the complex, as well as visit Big Orbit Gallery. And what a party be without a beer and wine bar?

“The event is what the Essex Arts Center is all about,” said Griffis. “A bunch of creative people coming together and celebrating the outstanding artistic talent that resides in our region. It’s going to be a fun night.”

Situated on cozy Essex Street, the Essex Arts Center has been an artist living and studio complex since Larry Griffis, Jr. established the facility in 1969. Hallwall’s first home was in subsidized space at Essex Arts Center, as were the early homes of numerous other arts organization. Big Orbit Gallery lives tucked away in the compound, which features mind-bending abstract artwork since 1991. The gallery has consistently been rated as one of Buffalo’s top small art spaces.

Over the past few years, many major changes have happened in the Essex and Rhode Island neighborhood, including a bunch of new homeowners, many who spiffed up some properties with capital improvements and landscaping projects. Urban Roots, the excellent garden co-op store on Rhode Island Street, has quickly joined Left Bank and Prime 490 restaurants, as well as the hipster hangout, Essex Street Pub, as foundations of the neighborhood.

Essex Arts Center Saturday, June 7 4 to 10 PM $10

Pictured: The Great Train Robbery