#popUPdallas: Every Damn Day Just Do It

A beautiful woman recently told me that artists from Texas needed to get back to their roots: wearing beards and blowing things up.

Although nostalgia wears rose colored glasses, we all yearn for times when life seemed so simple.

A time when a person had an idea – and they did it.

A time when a party consisted of your friends, cold beer, and music.

A time when men wore beards and blew things up.

In honor of this time; Green Bandana Group presents #popUPdallas, a three week series of pop up events across Dallas.  

Green Bandana is a do-ocracy.  

We do things. We have an idea on Monday and make it happen by Friday.

We want to prove that it doesn’t always take a year, three months, or even three weeks to make something happen.

#popUPdallas is a state of mind.

It is a collection of people who are interested in having fun, in exploration, and in new experiences.

#popUPdallas is a declaration of faith in the city of Dallas – the belief that we are ready for spontaneous fun, and that we will support edgy concepts.

We will have dinners, fashion shows, gallery shows, concerts, games, and whatever else we think of.

Events will be posted a few days before hand, and will depend on word of mouth, Facebook sharing, tweeting, and text messages to reach people.

We aren’t turning our backs on traditional event planning – we know there is value in planning some things for months, sometimes years; and we are currently working on projects of that nature.

Yet there is a joy in micro-parties.

You. Your friends. Cold beer. Cocktails. Food. Music.

The kick-off of #popUPdallas will take place this Friday at theSPACE from 9 p.m. – 3 a.m.

In honor of the Olympics we will host a beer pong tournament. $25 per team, cash prize to the winner (email Vincent@greenbandanagroup.com to register a team).

Paramecium will play a concert. Genova and Killtron from Hot Flash will DJ. And we will have a jam session open to any musician who wants to play.

Chef Richard Pratt will make carnival food, think snow cones, mini corn dogs, cotton candy, etc. $5 cover. Cash bar.

We hope you will join with us.

We are growing out our beards.

One day we may even blow things up.

Green Bandana's YOLO Summer

Timing can be everything.

When I started Green Bandana Group in 2009 the timing was mixed.

The art scene had not started to recover from being decimated by the Great Recession. Deep Ellum was at the very start of its recovery. The Arts District was eerily empty. Even the Design District was just starting to boom.

Dallas was a clean slate, and there wasn’t much momentum then – just a heartbreakingly urgent need for someone to do something to help the scene.

Three years later, there is momentum – a sense of purpose, dare I say even swagger when you look at the Dallas arts scene.

Deep Ellum recovered (although poor public policy decisions might soon ruin that), there are signs of life in the Arts District, and the Design District might be at the height of its bubble.

Galleries are popping up all over the place. People are trying to create new things. Everyone is tuned in.

This summer Green Bandana hopes to raise the level of arts, culture, and entertainment.

As always it starts with people. We have hired several development partners to help us out this summer. They are accomplished, passionate, and ready to make a difference. I look forward to introducing them shortly.

This Thursday, May 24^th, we have put together a panel discussion at UTD Centraltrak called 1.2 Million Stories: State of the Emerging Arts. The panel will consist of talented people who are making a huge difference in our arts scene such as Danielle Georgiou, Kevin Rubens Jacob, Jerod Alexander Davies, and Bryan Embry. Yours truly will be moderating this discussion and there will be a lengthy Q&A at the end. This is a great opportunity to contribute to the conversation about our arts community and learn about what is going on.

Over the next few weeks, in a series of essays, we will lay out our philosophy and opinions about the visual art commerce complex. I am confident many people will disagree and perhaps be upset by what we suggest. It is completely against the status quo.

Yet, we are not simply going to complain about how things are done in the arts world.

We are going to try to fix it.

June 1^st we have the Grand Opening of our newest space – theSpace @Florence St. It is our 6200 sq ft laboratory nestled between the Arts District and Deep Ellum. We will build community here, we will provide amazing experiences, and we will be innovative with creating value for ourselves and our partners.

In July we will launch #PopupDallas. We will have 10 pop-up events across the city, ranging from dinners, to galleries, to boutique stores, concerts, and fashion shows. They will be fun, whimsical, and well-executed. We believe that you cannot always wait for them to come to you. Sometimes you have to go to them.

We will also have a series of pool and penthouse parties tentatively called “Parties In The Sky”. Mainly because its summer and we can. We might even throw a party on a boat.

By the end of the summer we might launch Art Stats, our ambitious project to look at what is objective about visual art.

Lastly we will continue to work and support our existing clients and partners, such as Blaqout Dallas and reTREEt America.

It will certainly be a busy summer, and hopefully a very productive one.

I couldn’t be more excited about our team, our new hires, our partners, our clients, our projects, and our city.

In the words of Hillel the Elder, “If not now, then when?”

See you in the sky.