• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • Event Calendar
    • Submit Event
  • About Us
    • Our Contributors
    • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Arts & Entertainment
    • Comedy
    • On Screen Dayton
    • On Screen Dayton Reviews
    • Road Trippin’
      • Cincinnati
      • Columbus
      • Indianapolis
    • Spectator Sports
    • Street-Level Art
    • Visual Arts
  • Dayton Dining
    • DMM’s Brunch Guide
    • Restaurants with Private Dining Rooms
    • Dayton Food Trucks
    • Quest
    • Ten Questions
  • Dayton Music
    • Music Calendar
  • On Stage Dayton
    • On Stage Dayton Reviews
  • Active Living
    • Canoeing/Kayaking
    • Cycling
    • Hiking/Backpacking
    • Runners
  • How to Support Dayton Businesses, Nonprofits During COVID-19

Dayton Most Metro

Things to do in Dayton | Restaurants, Theatre, Music and More

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

This is Dayton celebrates Creatives

September 9, 2009 By Lisa Grigsby 20 Comments

THIS IS DAYTON small1One local grassroots group, “This is Dayton” is trying to change the perception of Dayton – for those that live and those that visit here.  One of the five DaytonCREATE initiatives, they plan to start by plastering downtown with large, vibrant posters of cool people that already do cool things in Dayton in time for Friday’s Urban Nights.  This first series of posters Celebrate Daytonians, with a focus on the “Creative Class & Urban Adventurers.”

For the past year or so, this group has been trying to determine the best way to show what makes Dayton so special.  What they realized is that it is the people and the connections formed within the community.  Then in August, there was a blog post on www.Esrati.com about a creative professional who had lost hope in Dayton and was relocating to Austin, Texas.   Carli Dixon and Theresa Gasper were sitting around Dixon’s dining room table in historic South Park one evening talking about the thread and decided to celebrate the ones who stay rather than mourn the ones who leave.

A week before, Gasper was enjoying the back patio at Café Boulevard with her husband, David, on a quiet Monday evening.  According to Gasper, a group of three young professionals told the waitress they were in town for two weeks and asked what there was to do when they weren’t working.  She rattled off various museums and they said they were looking for more nightlife and a little less culture.  She told them about all the places in the Oregon District and you could see the look on their eyes as they looked around and realized there were only five people on the patio, and realize they were silently asking “is every place this crowded?”   Says Gasper, “I can’t tell you what Dave and I talked about after that; I was so preoccupied with thinking about how to answer their question.”

It was then the vision of the posters came into focus – highlight cool people doing cool things in Dayton.  So you will see photos of people rock climbing at Urban Krag, boxing at Drake’s gym, kayaking on the river, mountain bike riding, playing bike polo, etc.   “These are activities many of the locals aren’t even aware of, so the posters will serve the dual purpose of informing locals and out-of-towners of activities they might not otherwise think of” said Gasper.  The people in the posters are real, not models.

Carli Dixon adds “Dayton is teeming with creativity, and provocative people and happenings, but we lack a “marketing department” that effectively tells the region and the nation about our successes. Further, our downtown already has infrastructure (galleries, bars, athletic venues), but we need more people filling those venues before we can convince new venues (restaurants, shops) to return to downtown.

“This is Dayton” is a grassroots effort to market the region.  The posters were designed by the committee along with Tommy Cooper, a graphic designer employed at Dixon’s company Freeze Frame It.   The vinyl for the first run was donated by Digital Fringe.  The Gasper’s are picking up the cost for the ink.  Others have stepped forward to assist with future print runs.   The posters also carry a modified version of the City of Dayton’s “Dayton Patented” logo that says “Proud to be a Dayton Original”.    No taxpayer dollars were used to support this effort.

For a sneak preview, visit www.DaytonCREATE.org.

Filed Under: Community

About Lisa Grigsby

Lisa Grigsby is a Special Events Director with over thirty years experience in promotions, event coordination and public relations.

Owning Jokers Comedy Cafe for 20 years taught Lisa to maintain a sense of humor under pressure. She credits Leadership Dayton for exposing her to the amazing assets of the region and Clothes That Work for being her reason she stayed in Dayton. Her proudest accomplishment as a past president of the Miami Valley Restaurant Association was creating Restaurant Week, a twice a year tradition that continues to grow and benefit local charities as well. As a foodie, it's only natural that she continues to promote local restaurateurs with DaytonDining.

As a Dayton Catalyst, her desire to have ONE community calendar and advocate for the amazing assets of the region helped create the vision for the relaunch of DaytonMostMetro.

Reader Interactions


Comments

Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Featured Events

  • Sun
    11
  • Mon
    12
  • Tue
    13
  • Wed
    14
  • Thu
    15
  • Fri
    16
  • Sat
    17

Paris Flea Market

6:00 am | Dixie Twin Drive-In

Out on 5th in the Oregon District

12:00 pm | Oregon District

Christopher Salyer Live Music in the Loft

3:00 pm | Moeller Brew Barn

Sunday Comics

7:15 pm | Wiley’s Comedy Club

25% Off Pizza Monday

11:30 am | Oregon Express

Open Auditions for The Roommate

7:00 pm | Dayton Theatre Guild

$6 Movie Day

| The Neon

Butterfly Walk

3:00 pm | Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm

Spaghetti Dinner

5:00 pm | Trolley Stop

Live Trivia- In Person or Virtually

7:00 pm | Star City Brewing Company

Open Mic

7:00 pm | Applebee’s – Sugarcreek

Music Bingo

7:00 pm | Wings Sports Bar & Grille Beavercreek

Open Auditions for The Roommate

7:00 pm | Dayton Theatre Guild

Premiere of The FonDana Show

8:00 pm | Top of the Market Banquet Center

One Day, One Dayton

| University of Dayton

Fairborn Food Truck Rally

3:00 pm | Main Street Commons

ALL YOU CAN EAT!

5:00 pm | Bullwinkle’s Top Hat Bistro

Trivia w/ DagaTrivia

6:00 pm | Eudora Brewing Company

Trivia Night

6:30 pm | Troll Pub at the Wheelhouse

Live Music with The Reatles

7:00 pm | Little York Tavern

Eudora Run Club

5:30 pm | Eudora Brewing Company

World Tour Wine Dinner

6:00 pm | Salar

The Adventure Color Gap: Diversity in the Great Outdoors

7:00 pm | Virtual Event

Bingo

8:00 pm | Trolley Stop

Xenia Food Truck Rallies

4:00 pm | Xenia Station

Taste of the Jewish Cultural Festival – Purim Edition

4:00 pm | Temple Israel

Destihl Tap Takeover

5:00 pm | Bunkers Bar & Grill

Reception for Art by Greg Alan Jankowski

7:00 pm | Virtual Event

Route 88

9:00 pm | Wings Sports Bar and Grille- Dixie

Tantric with Special Guests The Weekend Effect

8:00 am | Wings Sports Bar and Grille- Dixie

2nd Street Market – Outdoor Market Only

9:00 am | 2nd Street Market

Tree Seedling Giveaway

9:00 am | 2nd Street Market

Shred Day

10:00 am | Routsong Funeral Home, Inc.

Introducing…Mike Ousley and Egg Tempera

10:00 am | The 48 High Street Gallery

Spring Foraging Workshop

10:00 am | Agraria: Arthur Morgan Institute’s Center for Regenerative Agriculture

Market @ Mother’s

12:00 pm | Mother Stewart’s Brewing Co

ArBeer Day

2:00 pm | Devil Wind Brewing

Main Street Lebanon Chocolate Walk

4:00 pm | Downtown Lebanon

See How They Run

7:30 pm | Sorg Opera House

More Events…

DMM E-Newsletter


Give us your email address and we'll send you our DMM E-Newsletters
Email:  
For Email Marketing you can trust
Back to Top

Copyright © 2021 Dayton Most Metro · Terms & Conditions · Log in