St. Savior
A former Catholic church unites the Mansion neighborhood as an arts center

By DANIELLE FURFARO, Staff writer
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First published: Sunday, April 13, 2008

ALBANY - Eileen Cheong thinks the Mansion neighborhood has found its patron saint.

"Who is the guardian of this community?" said Cheong, a neighborhood resident and artist. "Who does the community look to for support?"

For Cheong, that patron saint bears the name of Saint Anthony, which is the name of the old, abandoned church that is now home to Grand Street Community Arts.

Many of the residents of the Mansion neighborhood, the area east and south of the Executive Mansion, see Grand Street Community Arts and its ongoing transformation of the dilapidated St. Anthony's Church into an arts and cultural center as a savior of the neighborhood.

Grand Street Community Arts' new "Boarded Up" project is the most public display of that transformation thus far.

"It's a good idea of what to do with something so dismal," said artist Alisa Sikelianos, who contributed one of this month's window paintings. "They are taking boarded up windows and turning them into art."

First published: Friday, March 28, 2008
From The Albany Times Union

2008 has been a big year for singer-songwriter Kimya Dawson, whose offbeat music supplies the bulk of the soundtrack for the hit Oscar-nominated film "Juno." The soundtrack CD was released in January and shot up to the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Top 200 album chart.

Now she's rolling into the Capital Region for a concert at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 9, but unlike so many other pop stars with No. 1 albums, you won't find Dawson onstage at the Times Union Center, the Palace Theatre or any of the other big concert venues around town.

Instead, Dawson will be performing at the Grand Street Community ArtSpace (formerly St. Anthony's Church) at Madison Avenue and Grand Street in Albany -- and her concert will be a benefit for the Albany Free School.

"Kimya Dawson's music is often described as anti-folk, so it's fitting that Dawson play a benefit for something of an anti-school school," explains Jeff Root of Grand Street Community Arts. "Just as Dawson achieved a wider audience for her fringe music, the Free School may find a wider audience for its little-known educational methods."

Seating is limited, and tickets go on sale at the Capital Region Federation of Ideas (383.5 Madison Ave., Albany) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are priced at $20, and ticket purchases are cash only. For more info, go to http://www.grandarts.org.