Bringing life to downtown Akron with a series of ongoing exhibitions that will activate unused storefronts with multimedia art installations.

An initiative of Richard Rogers of the Rogers Family Foundation with a grant funded by the Knight Foundation along with a multitude of other foundations and private dollars, the Curated Storefront will “engage and enrich the city through the arts.”

“Art can help define and lift the soul, helping to create a sense of place and binding us to each other and to our community,” said Alberto Ibargüen, president of Knight Foundation.

“Here in Akron, where Knight Foundation was founded, our hope is that the arts will continue to build community, in neighborhoods all across the city.”

Downtown Akron was once full of life and energy. Today, much of Akron, Ohio’s street-level infrastructure is vacant. This project will engage audiences through the physical transformation of the city’s neglected and underutilized urban spaces. It will facilitate opportunities for unexpected and exciting encounters with the city and its buildings.

“Streets and their sidewalks, the main public places of a city, are its most vital organs. Think of a city and what comes to mind? Its streets. If a city’s streets look interesting, the city looks interesting; if they look dull, the city looks dull.”

– Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities