Thu 3/23 @ 4PM
A new venue is opening in Akron called the Creative Arts Collaborative Center that “will have all types of arts events that will bring students, professionals, and community members together to experience the creative process of the arts with educational elements and performance elements,” according to the project’s executive director, jazz sax player and Kent State University Director of Jazz Studies Bobby Selvaggio.
Selvaggio says that he and Akron developer Tony Troppe are the driving forces behind the project which is located inside a former synagogue, now called the Highland Square Universal Gathering Space, located at 133 Merriman Road in the Highland Square neighborhood.
“We are looking to compliment other art ventures in Akron with a unique space, a unique mission, that will support the local arts scene as well as national/ international artists,” he says. “All art forms; performance, visual, movement/dance, theater, and technology arts. We will be building upon this concept over our first couple years.”
Selvaggio is also the booker at Akron jazz club BLU Jazz+, another Troppe project. In explaining the connection between the two venues, Selvaggio say “We are both under the umbrella of the BluJazz Masterclass Foundation, a 501c3 organization. BLU Jazz+ focuses more on gigs where we focus more on educational/performance events.”
The Creative Arts Collaborative Center will launch this week with its first event, a show featuring a quartet with New York-based jazz vocalist/songwriter/ educator/bandleader Michelle Lordi, pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Matthew Parrish and drummer James Johnson.
Lordi will host a free master class at 4pm; followed by a ticketed concert at 7. Get tickets here.