Project(s) 11: Pig Slop Studios and Eleanor Balson

Pig Slop says:

"We are currently constructing a space within Pig Slop devoted to exhibiting artwork: 48 linear feet of white wall space. The money will specifically go toward building materials (lumber, drywall, hardware), track lighting/clamp lighting, and materials to prepare the floors. This exhibition space will provide artists within the community an accessible venue for dispaying work. Any remaining money would go toward purchasing a PA for events that require amplification"

Eleanor says:

"Now that its winter and all the bees are huddled together, trying to keep from freezing, and there
is nothing I can do as apiary inspector until March, I am going to Brazil for 10 weeks to work with
Brazilian Honey Bees and Beekeepers! I leave on December 29th and wont come back until after
Carnaval, in mid March.

While I'm in Brazil, I'll be volunteering my assistance on two radical farms. First, I'll visit the MST
just outside of Teresina in Maranhao. The MST is a collective of rebel farmers who are reclaiming
deforested land. By organizing, they've been able to get the government to create “The Landless
Peasant Act”. This official recognition grants them the power to move onto ruined jungle lands and
be productive in raising a huge array of crops. I'll be working with a beekeeper who is extraordinary
because he keeps 4 different species of honey bees, and one species in particular makes a uniquely
delicious honey. The reason why this is extraordinary is because in Brazil, since an experiment with
breeding honey bees in the late 1950s went haywire, and 20 some odd very aggressive queens got
loose from a laboratory, all the honey bees now are “Africanized” - these are the killer bees that are
slowly moving their way up through our country, rumored to chase people and murder poodles. There
are many misconceptions about these aggressive bees from south of the border. One is that different
species of Africanized bees can't be maintained because they're too hard to control. This is a myth that I
will be able to speak about when I return in the spring. This experience will help me educate the public
about beekeeping through the many presentations I give as Apiary Inspector.

I have a good bee-suit, I have all the equipment I need. I have my plane tickets, my visa, my passport
– I'm totally ready to roll! But when I get there, I will have a very limited amount of spending money
for my 10 weeks. I want to pad my bank account a little better, because there will be busses to ride
and things to see down there that without some extra cash, I wont be able to afford to travel to. Also,
I started a raw food diet – which I'm really enjoying. I want to be able to buy some miso and tahini,
maybe some sea vegetables, and then do some fancy food making for my hosts and hostesses. If I get
this grant, it will make my trip a lot better by giving me a chance to get out and explore a little more."

$205 will go to each endeavor, thanks to all sloupers new and old.

The mushroom and barley was kick ass. Thanks Bridge Tap Room and Wine Bar!!

And squeezing together at Paperboat Studios was the best ever seriously. Thanks, Amy! She told us all to come visit any time. We should. We will.

Oh, and Rob, thanks for enchanting us with your new accordion while we did our thing. It's a beauty and so are you.

Next Sloup: January 30th from 2-4 pm at the Contemporary Art Museum, soup by Local Harvest.

Soup #11: Bridge @ Paper Boat

This month's soup will be made and donated by Bridge Tap House & Wine Bar! Snuggle up to a bowlful at Paper Boat Studios @ 2308 and 1/3 Cherokee Street, Sunday the 19th at 6 p.m.

Bring your friends, and email us your proposal by midnight the night before Sloup. That's right. You can apply right up until the witching hour.

And don't miss Googolplexia's new accordion debut. The "violet menace" will be in the house.

Sloup #10 The Archive & the Cherokee Peach

***Here’s a thing I want really badly: A shiny golden (or maybe shiny purple? Or shiny green? Heck, help me decide! If you vote

Googolplexia, write a color next to your vote!) ACCORDION upon which to wail so verily like you’ve never even

heard or understood.

I can basically guarantee I’ll be back to sing

songs and play the accordion at a SLOUP event in the future, assuming they’d have me do so, and provided

you guys help me get this dang ol’ accordion!***

$270 SLOUP dollars go to Googolplexia

Thanks the Archive and Cherokee Peach for hosting and making the most excellent Curried Green Tomato Soup and Heirloom Squash Apple Soup

So save the date for Sloup 11, Sunday December 19th at Paper Boat Studios

Sloup #10: The Archive

the Archive, "St Louis' newest literary adventure and reading room" is not only hosting Sloup #10,

(wow - 10!) but is also providing November's soup!

Soup by Amanda Jerauld, Executive Chef, The Cherokee Peach.
Currently of kitchen staff at Eclipse Restaurant.

So exciting, so exciting.

So save the date kids: November 21st 6-8 pm 3215 Cherokee Street, 63118

Attend

Apply

Repeat

Sloup #9: Lyndsey Scott

***This December, I'm riding my red bicycle in a red sparkly dress in Texas for The Long Haul of Justice! This is when adult human beings get together in their superhero characters and homemade costumes and ride on bicycles from town to town, meeting people and offering to help out. Founded in 2000, hundreds of superheroes have taken part in these annual 1-2 month rides that combine spontaneous service, sustainability, and silliness. This summer I fell in love with the SuperHero "HQ" which is an 80-acre homestead in NE MO called The Possibility Alliance. This electricity-and-petroleum-free experiment in radical simplicity is my new favorite place to learn. During the "Clowning for Social Change" workshop intensive there in August, we got to concoct and try-on our characters for the local Amish kids, at the nursing home, and Truman State Campus. I am The SerendipiTease: I celebrate being in the right place at the right time with a smile that beams your brightness right back at you. With acroyoga, dancey pants, and NVC, I welcome us to into feeling good and free***

Wow! This Sloup was superfantastic!! Thank you Pig Slop Studios for hosting and thank you Mary and Araceli from Rue Lafayette for making the most delicious soup! Thank you everyone that attended/applied/contributed - Sloup couldn't do it without you! We made our largest grant yet: $380!

Stay tuned for more about next month's Sloup on November 21st at the Archive on Cherokee Street. Save the date!

Sloup #9: RIGHT NOW

Hey all! As we speak Mary at Rue Lafayette is cooking up a fresh batch of her cream of mushroom and leak soup and we'll be putting out the bowls and proposals before the sun drops. Head on over to Pig Slop Studios @ 2700 Cherokee and bring a flagon for you and your friends!

Sloup #9: Rue Lafayette @ Pig Slop Studios

Pig Slop Studios is hosting the ninth sloup on October 24th at 6 pm. Keep up with what they're up to on the facebook....it is good.

And Rue Lafayette will be cooking up and donating a Cream of Mushroom & Leek Soup with white Truffle oil!

And we are now on the facebook and Twitter! Find us!

Project #8, Tie #2: Saturday School & Free Halloween Pictures at Cherokee Photobooth

***"This grant would support Saturday School programming materials. Saturday School uses art education ideas as a vehicle for realizing civic empowerment. Kids at Holy Trinity school will learn how to articulate and enact their desires for their community through small local architectural re-use acts and imaginative building projects. This grant would support the material budget, as we are a self-funded initiative and in need of funds that can support the visions of the youth, we’re talking real simple, nails, screws, paper, markers, you know."

***"On October 30th and 31st, we will offer free Halloween pictures at our studio in Cherokee Street to anyone who comes. We will take pictures for everyone in front of a huge chalkboard background designed by local artist Ryan Frank, and print 4 x 6 pictures for free. Each picture is delivered in a photo folder that also acts as a frame. There will be lots of Halloween themed props and there will be candy. The event will last for about 7 hours each day. We estimate to be able to print at least 250 pictures each day. At 2 to 4 people per picture, we should be able to serve 500 to 1000 people in the two days of the event. We will have one photographer, one make up assistant, one person doing registration, one person printing and one person delivering the pictures. We also plan to provide some entertainment outside since people may have to wait for an hour or so. Later this year, we plan to have an art exhibit in one of the local galleries inviting everyone who came and got their picture taken on Halloween and Easter, as well as the general public. We will promote the event trough flyers in local stores (barber shops, Family Dollar, etc), radio advertisement (KDHX, 104.1, 104.7, 107.7) and press releases in the local and regional papers (STL Today, RFT, Globe Democrat, St Louis Beacon, etc). This is a community sponsored event. Novation Church, KDHX, Fort Gondo, JAD productions, Jackson Pianos, Cherokee Kuts, Foam and others have already committed to sponsor part of the event, and we are working in securing sponsorship from other individuals, groups and institutions in the neighborhood. We want the Halloween pictures to be an opportunity for businesses, individuals and groups on Cherokee Street to give back to the neighbors that make the street what it is. We also want this event to be an opportunity for people in the neighborhood to interact with the artistic community. This is why we are reaching to local sponsors and this is why it is very important for us to get a grant from Sloup. We want to make sure this is a gift from the different forces changing Cherokee Street, to the neighborhood we are changing."

Thanks to Alissa and Eric, our first house-sloup was all the cozy we had dreamed of and more. And thanks to all who came out and glowed under the trees of light at their 3210 Cherokee home, each project will receive a $150 grant!

NEXT SLOUP: October 24th
THINGS WE'LL NEED: a big pot of soup, your proposals, costume ideas

And hey check out the new Sloup Archive, where we've started caching every proposal ever submitted to Sloup as examples for future applicants and to simply be an all-out inspiring trove of artistic intention.

Sloup #8: ALL DAY

YOU-GAME: Apply to win this month's grant! Due at midnight!

PRE-GAME: 3317 Demenil Place. Make soup with us starting at noon. BYO beer snacks albums moxy.

PARADE-GAME: We walk the soup up Cherokee in a little red wagon.

GAME-GAME: 3210 Cherokee Street, Alissa and Eric's House, we do sloup for real. Bring a new pal.

Soup #8: Bean Wagon

So check it out: Alissa and Eric, solidest of sloup patrons, are hosting this month on the 26th in their home, so let's make it a house party all day long.

At noon, at 3317 Demenil Place we will start the broth for our everybean soup and we'll also turn up the music and start drinking beer. Come help or just hang out! BYO drinks and records and snacks. Seriously. Come and be with us all day.

THEN! At 5:30, we'll put the pot in the wagon, yeah a little red one, and roll it down the street together to Compton and Cherokee and have Sloup proper. It will be as much a parade as we make it.

Alright. Now, APPLY.

Project #7: Jenny Murphy

"Imagine an amazing toolbox that can be hitched to a bike, pedaled to your door, and then opened to reveal the simple tools you will need for any basic furniture-fix-up project (this scenario also includes a cyclist ready to offer design and build advice!)

If awarded a Sloup Grant, I would use the funds to purchase the supplies to build a small portable workshop bike trailer for Perennial, a new non-profit in St. Louis that serves as an educational and supply resource for creative reuse. While I will salvage most of the materials to build the trailer, I would use the Sloup Grant to purchase a new set of tools and supplies to travel in the workshop."

Thanks to everyone who came out last night, making this our largest grant yet: $350!!

Urban Studio Cafe: you're fantastic. Your outdoor tables are so inviting, your counter tops are so versatile, and your four walls held our soup talk brightly.

Newstead Tower Public House: thank you for your garlic, your tomato, your basil, for blending them sweetly into chilled perfection. We feasted all night!

Thank you Grace Woodard for telling us all about Urban Studio Cafe's amazing happenings and ambitions. We know many Sloupers were visiting Urban for the first time and plan to come back.

Next Sloup: September 26th!

Soup #7: drumroll........

chilled roasted garlic, Claverach Farm tomato and basil!

let's fade out summer together. yum.

Soup #7: Newstead Tower Public House

Sloup's in session this Sunday at 6 at Urban Studio Cafe (our first ever winner!) and Grace Woodard will be there to share what's been goin on with that way cool YUDU Personal Screen Printer. Here's what else:

-The soup will be donated by the Newstead Pub, courtesy of chef Anthony Devoti. It promises to be divine, and is yet to be revealed! Come find out with us.

-Sloup got some seriously flattering love this week. Gosh gosh gosh! Let's toast together.

-Lastly, we are waiting on your application. Please fill our inbox with a back to school rush of things you want to make and do. [Deadline: midnite saturday!] [Goal: so much goodness it's hard to vote!]

Fabulous. We'll see you there!

Project[S] #6: Jordan Hicks & Adrian Aquilino

We are proud to announce SLOUP'S FIRST TIE! We love it. Each project will receive an $80 boost:

Jordan: "I worked with two photographers to create a set of 19 postcards about St. Louis' urban landscape - specifically, how it is impacted by the city's precipitous 59% drop in population from 1950 – 2000. There are cards about the urban wilderness on the former Pruitt-Igoe Public Housing complex site; the reuse of materials from demolished buildings; abandoned schools; urban agriculture, and more. I selected 19 sites, the photographers shot at the sites, and I wrote text for the back of each card. We printed a small run of cards. Instead of selling the cards in shops, we gave a few sets to friends, and left a few sets out in public places, to be picked up, discussed, and shared. I left sets of cards at the arch grounds, the downtown public library, and City Garden. With the Sloup Grant, I would print more sets of these cards (and $10 could print about 1 and 1/4 sets at Kinko's, the least expensive option) and leave them, free for the taking, in more public places. I would like to leave them at markets, parks, and institutional buildings (places with a lot of foot traffic), but I am open to / looking for more suggestions. Also (though I would still need to coordinate with the photographers) I would like to add a few cards to the set – maybe one about squatting, one about urban wildlife, one about brownfield reclamation, and one about that old core of a building on the north side that fireman use for training."

Adrian: "The St. Louis Artists’ Guild, in collaboration with ArtDimensions, the Indonesian Consulate General in Chicago and the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Washington, D.C. are organizing a study abroad program sending St. Louis artists and community activists to Indonesia for a two-week period. While in Indonesia, the artists will be immersing themselves in the country’s rich culture to create work inspired by Indonesian art and design, culminating in an art exhibition in one of Jakarta’s top galleries. A group of artists planning on participating in the study abroad program are trying to raise money independently to finance the program’s artists’ journey. The fundraising committee would like to raise enough money to subsidize artists who would usually not be able to afford to travel abroad. Our goal is to have enough funds to pay for all the artists’ airfare, accommodations, local travel, and one meal a day. A Sloup grant alone would not cover all this, but every little bit helps! If the Indonesian Study Abroad Program Fundraising Committee were to win a Sloup grant, all of the money would go towards funding the artists who would like to participate in the program in Indonesia."

Lots of fabulous first-time Sloupers ventured out last night and were rewarded with the finest brightest corn soup we've ever met (thank you, Danny! it was genius!), enough relief from the summer heat to really enjoy it, the chance to make a button with Studio STL's rad new button maker (courtesy of Emma O'brien! Studio STL clearly has it going on, check out their website), and great conversation that mingled with the packing peanuts of BJ Vogt's volcanic sculpture named "We are better volcanoes than volcanoes," which we all orbited around until the sun fell.

Next Sloup: Urban Arts Cafe, August 29th

Apply. Be there. Peace.

Sloup #6 Fresh Corn & Basil

Sloup 6 has a great line-up:

St Louisan and fellow foodie Danny Aloush helped round out this month's menu with
a great summer soup recipe.

We're being hosted by Open Lot

Emma O'Brien from Studio STL will talk about the Sloup Grant they received and share some more awesome information about Studio STL

AND

you'll be there, and that's the best part!


See you at Open Lot 1310 S. 18th St.
St. Louis, MO 63104 this Sunday at 6 p.m.

Project #5: Pancake Productions...

will "continue recording, producing, releasing, and distributing fine artistic material in a wide range of media and disciplines, including (but certainly never limited to) music, film, video, photography, art, and beyond." All local, check it out.

$170! 95 degrees, thank you Sloup warriors. The kale was hot but light on the tongue.

Thank you to our neighbor The Stable for our primary distraction from the heat: Amalgamated Hefeweizen and Amalgamated Rye IPA and Amalgamated Rum... sooo delicious! Please thank them by taking some home or drinking some in house.

It was a beautiful night at Slow Rocket Urban Farm as the sun set on the second longest day of the year.... fireflies, territorial kittens, friendly chickens... and kale and kale and kale and kale and beets and turnips oh my.

Next Month's Sloup: Open Lot, 6 pm, July 25th. Let's sweat it out together.

Soup #5: Slow Rocket Urban Farm

This month, Sloup is collaborating with Slow Rocket, our host, to reinvent kale soup for summer. Don't be afraid. We can do it. This ain't your mama's kale.

We're excited about going mobile--showing up places with a pile of bowls and some awesome applications from you artists out there.

Not For Your iPhone

Check out our new app! Application process that is. Still short and simple. Still brave and fun. Give it a go. June's is due by midnight on June 19th.

See you at Slow Rocket Urban Farm, 1944 Cherokee Street, at 6 p.m. on the 2oth--after you call your dad.

Project #4: CAMP Bike Shop

"The CAMP (Community, Arts, and Movement Project) Bike Shop is a place where neighborhood kids (and grown-ups!) can come get their bikes fixed, earn a bike, and learn how to work on bikes. Sloup funds will be used to restock the bike shop for the coming summer with basic tools and supplies such as: bike tubes, patch kits, brake pads, spokes, wrenches, grease and chain lube, and if funds allow, a wheel-truing stand."

$240!! Thanks, everyone! See you next month?

And! Thank you Mangia Italiano for donating the most delicious fire roasted tomato soup we've ever tasted! It was sort of ridiculous. People were sputtering infomercials about it.

And! Amanda Goldblatt gifted us popsicles. Bomb Pops to be precise. Anyone who didn't eat 3 was a wuss.

And! We had the most proposals yet this month-plans for beautiful projects that should happen! Bring it on, brave ones.... apply frequently and wildly!

We're spinning with new ideas about Sloup going mobile and getting stronger, so please check back for another post soon. And send thoughts!

Sloup #5 will be at Slow Rocket Urban Farm on June 20th! Yeah, that's Father's Day! Bring your dad. We'll father your art project. Dads.

Soup #4: Mangia Italiano!!

Late breaking news Sloupers! Mangia is donating this month's soup - Fire-Roasted Tomato!

We are excited.

Are you excited?!

plus--Claire Wolff (our first Sloup grant recipient) comes back to talk about Urban Arts Cafe's merch-makin' magic and we brainstorm together about Sloup going mobile! Don't miss it!

oh oh and applications aren't due 'til tomorrow at midnight, pumpkins.

Project #3: Slow Rocket Urban Farm

"Although our primary day-to-day focus is growing veggies for you (and for us), we see our new little farm as having a large focus on events including acoustic music shows, readings, and video screenings (maybe your videos) on our big wall. While we’re set for all things acoustic, we do not own a video projector or a sound system. With the generous help of Sloup-goers, we would like to acquire these items and then invite you to hang out at the farm to watch films of all sorts while our chickens eat mosquitoes. We are particularly interested in including more imaginative films about food and farming, as opposed to the wonderful -- yet polemic -- documentaries that people often use to promote local and sustainable agriculture."

Thanks to an awesome friendly hungry crowd, the Sloup grant totalled $280 this month!

Special thanks to Heather Overby, who made the most amazing coconut curry a rainy night has ever beheld, and to Kimmy Wardenburg (with her mom, Mary!) for sharing her Fresh Bread project--this month's edible donations were especially beautiful, on top of tasty.

Next Sloup: May 23rd

Please email us your wildest project proposals--and ideas for soups and breads you'd like to give to Sloup!

xo.

Zero's Not My Hero: 5 Days Left to Apply for Sloup Grant #3

Hey. Sloup it to us. Quick and dirty. Give the easy application a shot and send it. By Saturday night. We're waiting.

Don't worry about who gets the kitty! Just put what you want to do out there. It'll feel way more possible after some soup and conversation.

Or consider the application an end unto itself, a statement of artistic desire. You've got a soup-eating audience.


And check it:

Kimmy Wardenburg prints promises on bread, and she's doing it live at Sloup! Then we eat it.

Project #2: StudioSTL

"We have an afterschool program (in addition to our workshops, in-school programs, annual regional literary magazine and newspaper summer camp) where kids are here at our writing studio doing creative writing twice a week, and they would love to be creating products for us to have and sell as part of our social enterprise. We would love to get a coil binding machine so that our young writers can be binding their own publications here in our studio."

The Sloup Grant totaled $210 thanks to everyone who came out and to The Mud House for donating this month's soup--a hearty chickpea minestrone!

Next Sloup: April 25th (it'll sneak up on us - send in your feedback and your proposals as you dream them!)

Soup #2: The Mud House

This month our neighbor The Mud House is donating our second soup! If you've never eaten at The Mud House, come learn about their awesomeness. And if you have, you know this soup can't be missed.

Also, bring a bowl! Last month, our bowls were on loan, but it's time to put together a permanent collection for Sloup. Bring that bowl you don't ever use and give it a new purpose in life.

Lamb or Lion?

Does your spring art project need a boost?
Send in your applications for March's Sloup Grant!

Project #1: Urban Studio Café

"The Urban Studio Café will purchase a YUDU Personal Screen printer to use in evening art screen-printing workshops for teens in the community. Additionally, teens will create Urban Studio Café apparel (totes, shirts, scarves) that will not only promote the café but will be unique, creative, pieces of art. Apparel will be sold at the cafe and profits will be reinvested in Urban Studio community programs."

The Sloup Grant totaled $240 thanks to everyone who came and voted and ate soup! Success!

Sloup is a work in progress. What works? How could it work better? Please send feedback, ideas...and proposals!

Next Sloup: March 28th

Sloup In The News

Thanks St Louis Beacon and David Weinberg!

Stick Around After Sloup

Half Gay and The Large Man Tips Over a School Bus will host a dance party in Sloup's honor at 8:30 p.m.!

Soup #1: Made In House

Carrot
Leek
Red Pepper

(and friends make beer breads)

Launching 02.21.10

Sloup's first soup is happening on Sunday February 21, at 6 p.m. Please apply, please come and learn more about Sloup! We're going to eat, and we're going to talk about Sloup's origins. Then we're going to vote on our FIRST EVER Sloup Grant and we will probably have to dance, it's so very exciting!!!