{"id":49,"date":"2010-03-03T16:29:12","date_gmt":"2010-03-03T16:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighdla\/\/?p=49"},"modified":"2018-04-27T15:15:33","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T19:15:33","slug":"faces-of-downtown-raleigh-meet-kalesia-kuenzel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighdla\/artmusicentertainment\/faces-of-downtown-raleigh-meet-kalesia-kuenzel","title":{"rendered":"Faces of Downtown Raleigh:  Meet Kalesia Kuenzel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span>What&rsquo;s situated between the Joel Lane House and Bloomsbury Estates, nearly a hundred years old, yet new this month?&nbsp; It&rsquo;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.arthouse4kids.com\/\"><span>ARTHOUSE<\/span><\/a>, the first of many creative projects housed in architects, Chris and Nasim Kuenzel&rsquo;s newly renovated 1920&rsquo;s&nbsp; home, they call&nbsp; &ldquo;Post Suburbia Project&rdquo;.&nbsp; Curious?&nbsp; So were my wife and I as Kalesia Kuenzel, the daughter of Chris and Nasim and director of ARTHOUSE, greeted us this week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span class=\"full-image-float-left ssNonEditable\"><span><img style=\"width: 250px;\" src=\"\/storage\/ArtHouse.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1267633975124\" alt=\"\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The old and new theme continues&#8230;&nbsp; &ldquo;Post Suburbia Project&rdquo; is a reference to the movement back Downtown after the massive migration to the suburbs starting back in the 1950s.&nbsp; Kalesia shares her parents&rsquo; dedication to Downtown life, which until now has focused in Fayetteville where the family supports the arts through projects like the ten year old art theater, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cameoarthouse.com\/index.html\"><span>Cameo<\/span><\/a>.&nbsp; Yet with ties to Raleigh through Kalesia and Nasim&rsquo;s graduate degrees at NC State, their presence in Raleigh is a natural.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Walking through the front door at 716 W. Hargett, we find their vision evident.&nbsp; The perfect blending of old (highly polished original floors, doors and fireplaces restored in a way that reveals their history), and new (streamlined modern track lighting and cabinetry, fresh white walls), functions as the perfect backdrop for creativity.&nbsp; ARTHOUSE, the art studio where Kalesia works with children (ages 4 &#8211; 12), offers a bright, inviting, spacious environment, where kids may not at first notice the details of scented candles and specially selected music, but find themselves approaching art through all their senses.&nbsp; For Kalesia, this is a celebration of the way she herself was raised, with creativity always at the center of her experience.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"full-image-float-right ssNonEditable\"><span><img style=\"width: 250px;\" src=\"\/storage\/ArtHouseKalesia.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1267634212688\" alt=\"\" \/><\/span><span class=\"thumbnail-caption\" style=\"width: 250px;\">Kalesia Kuenzel and Jim Belt<\/span><\/span>Why Hargett St., we ask?&nbsp; Kalesia beams talking about the sliver of neighborhood which is home to gathering spots like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boylanbridge.com\/\"><span>Boylan Bridge Brewpub<\/span><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moonlightpizza.com\/\"><span>Moonlight Pizza Company<\/span><\/a>, the history of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.joellane.org\/\"><span>Joel Lane House<\/span><\/a>, the promise of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomsburyestates.com\/\"><span>Bloomsbury Estates<\/span><\/a>; and neighbor to the well organized, eclectic, artsy and activist Boylan Heights.&nbsp; To this, she adds the &ldquo;unique mixture of living and working&rdquo; that all add up to a buzz that&rsquo;s bound to spread even further, with the arrival of the proposed new transportation or multimodal center in the nearby Warehouse District.<\/p>\n<p>Drop in and meet Kalesia.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ll be inspired by her, the setting and the view of Raleigh&rsquo;s skyline.&nbsp; You may want to schedule art lessons, or like my wife, you may dream of moving in!&nbsp; With apartment units available for rent, this could be arranged.<\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span>What&rsquo;s situated between the Joel Lane House and Bloomsbury Estates, nearly a hundred years old, yet new this month?&nbsp; It&rsquo;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.arthouse4kids.com\/\"><span>ARTHOUSE<\/span><\/a>, the first of many creative projects housed in architects, Chris and Nasim Kuenzel&rsquo;s newly renovated 1920&rsquo;s&nbsp; home, they call&nbsp; &ldquo;Post Suburbia Project&rdquo;.&nbsp; Curious?&nbsp; So were my wife and I as Kalesia Kuenzel, the daughter of Chris and Nasim and director of ARTHOUSE, greeted us this week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighdla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighdla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighdla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighdla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighdla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighdla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2888,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighdla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/2888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighdla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighdla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighdla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}