CAN Journal Volume 1 Issue 1 2012 - Zygote Press
CAN Journal Volume 1 Issue 1 2012 - Zygote Press
CAN Journal Volume 1 Issue 1 2012 - Zygote Press
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the north east ohio collective arts network<br />
BECAUSE WE cAN!<br />
can journal<br />
let’s make art work
Shaping Ohio’s Communities<br />
Through the Arts Culturally,<br />
Educationally and Economically.<br />
The only site you need for arts<br />
and cultural events in Ohio.<br />
Visit ArtsinOhio.com to search for thousands<br />
of performances, events, festivals and<br />
exhibitions that are sure to move you.<br />
Ohio Arts Council<br />
Rhodes State Office Tower<br />
30 E. Broad St., 33rd Floor<br />
Columbus, OH 43215-3414<br />
Phone: 614/466-2613<br />
Fax: 614/466-4494<br />
www.oac.ohio.gov<br />
ArtsinOhio.com is a<br />
collaboration between<br />
• Experience Columbus<br />
• Positively Cleveland<br />
• Cincinnati USA RTN<br />
• Ohio Arts Council<br />
CUYAHOGA ARTS & CULTURE IS PROUD TO SUPPORT<br />
ARTS COLLINWOOD • ART HOUSE • ART THERAPY STUDIOS • BAYARTS • CLEVELAND ARTISTS FOUNDATION •<br />
CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART • LANDSTUDIO • HEIGHTS ARTS • ORANGE ART CENTER • THE SCULPTURE<br />
CENTER • SPACES • ZYGOTE PRESS<br />
WWW.CACGRANTS.ORG 216 515 8303<br />
THANK YOU<br />
Collective Arts Network <strong>Journal</strong> is published by <strong>Zygote</strong> <strong>Press</strong> and the members of the Collective Arts Network, whose participation makes <strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong> possible.<br />
<strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong> was conceived and launched by Liz Maugans, Executive Director of <strong>Zygote</strong> <strong>Press</strong> in the interest of mutual and cooperative self-support for the region’s<br />
many visual arts organizations. Thanks to the Ohio Arts Council for start-up funds. Thanks also to Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman, whose assistance<br />
was invaluable. The first issue is published in an edition of 10,000. Copies are available at member organizations.<br />
1POINT618 GALLERY<br />
ARTS COLLINWOOD<br />
ART HOUSE<br />
ARTSPACE CLEVELAND<br />
ART THERAPY STUDIO<br />
BAY ARTS<br />
BRANDT GALLERY<br />
CITY ARTISTS AT WORK<br />
CLEVELAND ARTISTS<br />
FOUNDATION<br />
CLEVELAND ARTS PRIzE<br />
CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART<br />
VISITING ARTIST PROGRAM<br />
<strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong> • 1410 East 30th Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44114 • 216.621.2900<br />
CLEVELAND PUBLIC ART<br />
CONVIVIUM 33<br />
HEIGHTS ARTS<br />
KOKOON ARTS GALLERY<br />
KENNETH PAUL LESKO GALLERY<br />
SCREW FACTORY ARTISTS<br />
MORGAN ART OF<br />
PAPERMAKING<br />
CONSERVATORY<br />
ORANGE ART CENTER<br />
PRINT CLUB OF CLEVELAND<br />
PROxIMITY<br />
RED DOT PROJECT<br />
RIVER GALLERY<br />
THE SCULPTURE CENTER<br />
SPACES<br />
WILLIAM BUSTA GALLERY<br />
zYGOTE PRESS<br />
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::<br />
Publisher<br />
Liz Maugans<br />
Editor<br />
Michael Gill<br />
Designer<br />
JoAnn Dickey<br />
TABLE OF CONTENTS<br />
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::<br />
Welcome to <strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4<br />
by Michael Gill<br />
1point618 Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5<br />
The Golden Rule in Gordon Square, by Mary Kay DeGrandis<br />
Arts Collinwood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6<br />
Putting the Arts in Collinwood, by Ann Albano<br />
Art House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7<br />
Key Neighborhood Asset, by Deborah Pinter<br />
ArtSpace Cleveland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8<br />
ArtSpace: The Evolving Frontier, by Michael Gill<br />
Art Therapy Studios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9<br />
The Healing Process, by Cheryl Carter<br />
Bay Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10<br />
Busy in Bay, by Christy Gray<br />
Brandt Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11<br />
Going Solo, by Christopher Lynn<br />
City Artists at Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12<br />
At Work in the City, by Vince Reddy<br />
Cleveland Artists Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13<br />
For the Record, by Hilary Aurand<br />
Cleveland Arts Prize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14<br />
Honoring the Past, Informing the Future, by Michael Gill<br />
Cleveland Institute of Art Visiting Artist Program . . . . . . . . . 15<br />
by William Busta<br />
Convivium33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16<br />
Feast Your Eyes, by Gina DeSantis<br />
Heights Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17<br />
A Village in the Heights, by Michael Gill<br />
Kenneth Paul Lesko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18<br />
The Road Show Comes Home, by Susan Kelly<br />
Kokoon Arts Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19<br />
Out of the Kokoon, by Michael Gill<br />
LAND Studio / Cleveland Public Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20<br />
The Art of Public Spaces, by Harriet Gould<br />
Legation, A Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21<br />
A Marriage of Art and Music, by Jean Brandt<br />
Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22<br />
Morgan Conservatory Occupies Cleveland, by Lane Cooper<br />
Orange Art Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23<br />
Nestled (and Growing) in the Woods, by Amy Craft<br />
The Print Club of Cleveland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24<br />
Intimate Contact, by Beth Whalley<br />
Proximity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25<br />
Cleveland is in Proximity, by Robert Maschke<br />
Red Dot Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26<br />
Playing the Part of Theo, by Peggy Spaeth<br />
River Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27<br />
A Compelling Combination, by Mark Yasenchack<br />
Screw Factory Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28<br />
Not Screwing Around, by Ross Lesko<br />
Sculpture Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29<br />
Site Specific, by Liz Maugans<br />
SPACES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30<br />
It’s About the Ride, by Nancy Heaton<br />
William Busta Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31<br />
More of the Same, by Alenka Banko<br />
<strong>Zygote</strong> <strong>Press</strong> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32<br />
<strong>Press</strong>ed into Action, by Karen Peterson<br />
Something Is Happening Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34<br />
by Douglas Max Utter<br />
Mapping <strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong> Galleries and Organizations . . . . 39
WELCOmE<br />
Working together, Northeast Ohio Arts<br />
Organizations Make Their Voices Heard<br />
By Michael Gill<br />
We the top of their lungs to try to get anyone—besides the<br />
are here, we are here we are here!<br />
that’s what Theodor Seuss Geisel’s “Whos” shouted at<br />
benevolent elephant Horton—to recognize their existence atop<br />
a tiny speck of dust. Indeed, they were shouting for their lives<br />
because apart from Horton, the other animals in the jungle of Nool<br />
were rallying to seize the dust speck and boil it –along with the<br />
entire Who population—in a vat of beezlenut oil.<br />
<strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong> feels a little bit like that.<br />
It’s not that there’s a band of jungle animals waiting to boil the<br />
small visual arts organizations and independent galleries in any<br />
kind of oil—unless that’s how you think of the economy. On the<br />
contrary, in some ways Cleveland has rarely been such a friendly<br />
place for local artists to make and sell their wares. Indeed, the<br />
Community Partnership for the Arts and Culture’s years of<br />
research and persuasive argument have led to much more than a<br />
cigarette tax pumping millions annually into the arts economy. The<br />
public discussion that went along with it has certainly contributed<br />
to the success artists have had in revitalizing their neighborhoods<br />
and even building small businesses.<br />
And they have had plenty of success. All those exhibit spaces and all<br />
those working artists have produced a constant stream of shows that<br />
range from high concept to high craft. Rarely has the Northeast<br />
Ohio art audience had so much wonderful stuff to look at.<br />
Their success extends beyond the work itself. Whether by the<br />
sweat equity of individual artists in Tremont, or by organized and<br />
cooperative institutional investment in Gordon Square, or by small,<br />
arts-oriented small businesses rocking and rolling their synergy<br />
along Waterloo, artists and arts organizations have certainly had<br />
their impact on neighborhoods. These hives of activity exist all over<br />
PHOTO: AL FUCHS<br />
town. Especially in this long downtrodden economy, artists are<br />
working hard. All that, in addition to their work itself, has earned<br />
them some well-deserved respect.<br />
But in order for this ecosystem to be sustainable, artists depend on<br />
public discussion. They need to find new audiences, new customers,<br />
new influences, and new ideas. And therein lies a significant irony.<br />
Because just as the promise of all that artistic sweat equity and<br />
The first meeting of <strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong> participants at BAYarts.<br />
investment is proving worthwhile—just as Cuyahoga County voters<br />
decided the arts are worthy of public support, just as individual<br />
artists have filled empty storefronts and factories at unprecedented<br />
rates—arts journalism around the region took a precipitous dive.<br />
What was once a lively public discussion met with the one-two<br />
continued on page 38<br />
1pOiNT618 gALLEry<br />
THE GOLDEN RULE IN GORDON SQUARE By Mary Kay DeGrandis<br />
architect robert maschke combines art and architecture in 1point618<br />
The rather enigmatic name of the gallery “1point618” might resound with anyone familiar with a basic architectural<br />
principle: it’s the Golden Rule—the proportion of height to width that is most pleasing to the eye .<br />
A sense of the “divine proportion” infuses the ethereally minimalist<br />
main gallery for single-artist exhibitions that also unobtrusively<br />
serves as the conference room for Robert Maschke Architects, as<br />
retractable blinds magically descend to surround the large table and<br />
chairs. The architectural studio and library occupy the second floor<br />
that opens to the gallery space below and the lower floor is a salon<br />
style gallery that exhibits 12 to 15 artists simultaneously.<br />
As managing director of 1point 618, with his architectural staff<br />
assisting in curatorial capacities, Mr. Maschke acknowledges that<br />
this fusion of an active architectural firm and a public gallery<br />
is unique in the region. It was born of the fact that he has been<br />
sourcing art to his clients for over 20 years. 1point618 is consistently<br />
patronized by architectural clients, but the inception of the gallery<br />
itself was geared towards the non-architectural clientele.<br />
A visionary, innovative architect, Robert Maschke carries the<br />
same sensibilities into his gallery. The clear, progressive aesthetic<br />
that fuels Mr. Maschke’s architectural designs—evident in the<br />
award-winning Brunswick University Center, the C-House, the<br />
Gordon Square Bus Shelters (to mention only a few)—affirms<br />
that he is above all an artist. His affinity for the beautiful and the<br />
iconoclastic led him to design, build, and manage an expansive<br />
gallery space at the headquarters of his architectural firm in<br />
the burgeoning Gordon Square Arts District. Mr. Maschke<br />
acknowledges that he is singular in this endeavor, combining<br />
his architectural practice with a gallery that features regional,<br />
national, international artists, open to the public.<br />
The intent has been met as since opening in 2005, 1point618 draws<br />
from not only the active Cleveland arts community but increasingly<br />
attracts national and international buyers. Mr. Maschke emphasizes<br />
that the design of the space allows the studio and the gallery to be<br />
one, but the gallery is its own entity.<br />
A true “urban pioneer” Maschke ventured into the Gordon Square<br />
area in 2000, well before its designation as an arts district. He<br />
presciently saw the commercial potential of the Detroit Shoreway<br />
neighborhood surrounding the Cleveland Public Theatre. He was<br />
one of the first to commit to the neighborhood, by acquiring a<br />
gutted, fire-damaged restaurant at Detroit and West 65th, and<br />
completely renovating it. The location has proven fortuitous,<br />
adjacent not only to Cleveland Public Theater, but too accessible to<br />
downtown, and to Cleveland Hopkins Airport. In turn, 1point618<br />
has enhanced Gordon Square as a true “arts” district.<br />
Mr. Maschke readily admits that he exhibits artists whose work he<br />
likes, pure and simple. He seems to favor the edgy but never the<br />
outrageous, and always goes for artists of technical virtuosity.<br />
1point618’s inaugural exhibition was devoted to the artist Christos<br />
Koutsouras. As part of a business trip, Mr. Maschke and his wife<br />
Xiao Yan met and befriended the artist on his native Greek island<br />
of Samos. The couple’s admiration for Mr. Koutsouras’ evocative<br />
figural paintings grew into a business partnership. More than 450<br />
enthusiastic art aficionados attended the opening reception.<br />
Location Gordon Square Arts District,<br />
6421 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44102<br />
Phone 216.281.1618<br />
Web 1 www.point618gallery.com<br />
Email robert@1point618gallery.com<br />
Facebook 1point618<br />
BUSINESS HOURS<br />
Tuesday through Friday 11am to 4pm<br />
All other times by appointment only<br />
MISSION<br />
Located within the Gordon Square Arts district of Cleveland,<br />
Ohio’s historic Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, 1point618<br />
emphasizes the display and representation of fine art that is<br />
superior in quality, and produced by artists of extraordinary<br />
talent .<br />
1point618 has shown numerous artists of regional, national,<br />
and international acclaim . These artists’s work has taken<br />
the form of a variety of mediums including painting,<br />
sculpture, and video . 1point618 is proud to represent<br />
established and emerging artists alike, and continually<br />
seeks out individuals who create compelling and original<br />
work . Additionally, 1point618 has expanded its offerings<br />
beyond the visual arts into design disciplines, with<br />
exhibitions that include designers of international repute<br />
in the fields’ architecture, furniture, and industrial design .<br />
1point618’s initial venture with an international artist was not its<br />
last. Maschke states that during the past six years, he has represented<br />
approximately one-third international, one-third national, and onethird<br />
regional artists. One who crosses such designations is Oberlin’s<br />
iconic John Pearson, whose Op Art works have been presented at the<br />
gallery in three major exhibitions.<br />
A look at another year’s exhibitions shows Maschke’s commitment to<br />
the best of Northeast Ohio artists. The sardonically representational<br />
canvases of the Cuban-born Augusto Bordelois populated the<br />
walls of 1point618 in August of 2006, as did Judith Brandon’s<br />
lyrically apocalyptic visual riffs on natural phenomena. The same<br />
year, Douglas Max Utter’s compelling landscapes and Giancarlo<br />
Calicchia’s sensuous wood-carved and bronze cast figures all graced<br />
the interior of 1point618.<br />
1point618 has become an established Gordon Square arts<br />
institution. And Mr. Maschke continues to be unfettered in his<br />
selection of artists, planning exhibitions well into the coming<br />
years. Indeed, boldly pushing—if not breaking—any prescriptive<br />
envelope, Maschke will hold an exhibition of custom motorcycles in<br />
June <strong>2012</strong>. The divine proportion will meet the roar of the engine—<br />
and the Cleveland arts community thrives because of it.<br />
Mary Kay DeGrandis is president of the Print Club of Cleveland.<br />
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
1point618 opened in 2005 with its inaugural exhibition<br />
featuring the work of internationally renowned painter<br />
Christos Koutsouras . Since that time 1point618 has<br />
maintained an aggressive schedule which typically<br />
includes 5-7 shows per year . 1point618 individual artists’<br />
exhibitions are featured in a 3500 square foot first floor<br />
space . The gallery also features a lower gallery which<br />
houses a rotating collection of artists previously featured<br />
in the main gallery .<br />
UPCOMING SHOWS<br />
February 24 – March 26: Amber Kempthorn<br />
March 30 - April 29: Jenniffer Omaitz<br />
May 4 - June 3: Antonia Reiner<br />
June 8 & 9: Cleveland Moto Works<br />
June 22 - July 22: Royden Watson<br />
August (dates to be determined) - Barry Underwood<br />
September (dates TBD) - Kathleen Loe<br />
November (dates TBD) - Audra Skoudas<br />
1point618 interior space.<br />
page four ::: north east ohio collective arts network journal north east ohio collective arts network journal : : : page five<br />
PHOTO: 1POINT618 GALLERY
ArTS COLLiNWOOD<br />
PUTTING THE ARTS IN COLLINWOOD By Ann Albano<br />
Cleveland’s easternmost destination for the arts is the gritty, “rust-belt-and-we-like-it-that-way” Waterloo Arts District,<br />
in North Collinwood . The district has been cobbled together and pushed forward by its own stakeholders, including<br />
resident artists, the Beachland Ballroom, and Arts Collinwood .<br />
The neighborhood nonprofit Northeast Shores Development<br />
Corporation energetically promotes the Waterloo Arts District.<br />
Cooperating with the Community Partnership for the Arts and<br />
Culture, and with a $500,000 grant from the Kresge Foundation,<br />
the group encourages the sale of houses to artists—thereby helping<br />
those artists actually make a living right where they live.<br />
From the synergy of Arts Collinwood and the highly-respected live<br />
music venue, the Beachland Ballroom, businesses keep popping<br />
up along Waterloo Road. You’ll find a Rock and Roll culture of<br />
tattoos, vintage clothing, vintage records, and vintage toys and other<br />
unexpected, temporary pop ups of all sorts that keeps going late into<br />
the night and on Sundays. Waterloo will meet your quota of “arts<br />
in the raw.”<br />
Urban culture tourists and music lovers from all over the country<br />
have heard about the remarkable revitalization of this neighborhood<br />
and are coming to experience it for themselves. Once a Slovenian<br />
enclave North Collinwood is now home to many African<br />
Americans and recently (or not) transplanted artists of all races<br />
and socioeconomic backgrounds. To get there from downtown<br />
Cleveland, you just take a leisurely drive along the lake: Take<br />
Lakeshore Boulevard through the magnificent neighborhood of<br />
Bratenahl, or hop on Route 90 West and get off at East 152nd St.<br />
The Waterloo Arts District’s promoters say, “It’s just 10 minutes<br />
from anywhere.”<br />
Arts Collinwood was founded in 2002 by Nan and Miles Kennedy<br />
and their daughter Sarah Gyorki. It’s current executive director is<br />
Cheryl Carter, an artist with a long history of nonprofit experience<br />
who was a co-founder of Art House. Everyone involved with<br />
Arts Collinwood lives the belief that the arts can revitalize a<br />
neighborhood and be an economic engine for change.<br />
Arts Collinwood makes pluralism an art form in itself. With its<br />
Art Gallery, Café and Art Center, and by organizing arts-centered<br />
neighborhood events, the organization serves as the district’s<br />
informal welcome center and hub for all who are interested<br />
in the arts. Especially serving artists who want to settle in the<br />
neighborhood, it provides access to a wide variety of media, from<br />
poetry, to visual arts, music and film.<br />
Visitors can grab a bite and a beer, linger over a newspaper, and<br />
meet the regulars at Arts Collinwood’s unique Café. The Café<br />
was purchased by Arts Collinwood in 2010 to help fund their<br />
arts programs, provide a gathering place for art enthusiasts, and<br />
encourage neighborhood involvement. Exhibitions are curated<br />
by a group of well-known local artists and educators, from<br />
work submitted largely by Northeast Ohio artists. All artists,<br />
from anywhere, however, are welcome to apply to be included<br />
in exhibits. You can find the procedure on their website. The<br />
Gallery shows traditional media—painting, print making, and<br />
photography—as well as highly experimental, 3-D installations,<br />
and sculptures. The gallery’s goal is to exhibit work that is<br />
engaging and thought-provoking.<br />
On an evening visit to the Café and Gallery, you are likely to be able<br />
to listen to a poetry reading, an artist or writer’s talk, or music that<br />
ranges anywhere from classical chamber to blues. You might watch a<br />
seasonally themed movie, or just enjoy a glass of wine. In the spring<br />
and summer, there’ll be al fresco dining with entertainment on a<br />
new patio. And of course, there’s art. The patio will be enlivened by<br />
colorful decorative tiles designed by local ceramic artist Angelica<br />
Pozo, along with Collinwood neighborhood kids and seniors.<br />
Special events abound year-round at Arts Collinwood. In the pring<br />
the Arts Collinwood Gallery hosts the National Public Art Show,<br />
featuring works by Cleveland artists of all ages and skill levels.<br />
On the last Saturday of June, don’t miss the Waterloo Arts Fest, a<br />
surging street fair with 20 bands, 40 art vendors, and an interactive<br />
kids’ area. In the fall, the Ohio Independent Film Festival packs an<br />
old bank building up the street with a pop-up show of more than<br />
20 independent artists’ video screenings. Finally, in December, Arts<br />
Collinwood turns itself into a boutique of craft and art for its annual<br />
Holiday Art Sale.<br />
In addition to providing arts programs and events, Arts Collinwood<br />
partners with the City of Cleveland and the neighborhood schools<br />
to bring the arts to residents, including children. There are After<br />
School and Teen Programs, and a summer drama camp. Arts<br />
Collinwood also has eight artists’ studios for rent on the second floor<br />
of its multi-use building. For your special events, you can rent space<br />
in the café, the Gallery, and or the Nan and Miles Kennedy Art<br />
Center. All that together makes Arts Collinwood one of the most<br />
versatile centers in Cleveland.<br />
Ann Albano is Executive Director and Chief Curator at the<br />
Sculpture Center<br />
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::<br />
Location 15605 Waterloo Road, Cleveland<br />
Phone 216.692.9500<br />
Web www.artscollinwood.org<br />
Email info@artscollinwood.org<br />
Facebook Arts Collinwood<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
Thursday through Saturday, 11 a .m . – 11 p .m .<br />
MISSION<br />
Arts Collinwood believes that a flourishing arts<br />
community enriches a neighborhood’s quality of life,<br />
both economically and culturally . By partnering with<br />
local merchants, neighborhood associations, schools<br />
and artists, we encourage more artists to live and work in<br />
North Collinwood, and offer residents more opportunities<br />
to engage in the arts . Our goal is to support a stimulating<br />
arts environment and to encourage continuing<br />
education in the arts by offering a wide variety of cultural<br />
activities for residents of all ages .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
Founded in 2002, Arts Collinwood strives to develop,<br />
support, and promote arts activities in the Collinwood<br />
neighborhood of Cleveland by providing arts education<br />
programs, exhibits, performance opportunities and<br />
facilities . We are committed to building a thriving arts<br />
community that nurtures individuals’ creative sensibilities<br />
and talents, insures access to a broad range of art forms,<br />
and enhances the overall quality of life in our community .<br />
Thanks in part to our efforts, Collinwood has become<br />
one of the city’s most important arts districts, attracting<br />
artists, musicians, and arts enthusiasts to live, work, learn,<br />
and play in the neighborhood .<br />
Arts Collinwood was founded on the interest and need<br />
for a strong visual arts organization in the neighborhood .<br />
Many of the region’s most accomplished painters<br />
and other artists have exhibited there, including Dan<br />
Tranberg, Randall Tiedeman, Douglas Max Utter, Tim<br />
Callaghan, Mark Keffer, and Harvey Pekar’s American<br />
Splendor collaborators, Laura and Gary Dumm . In its<br />
shows, Arts Collinwood emphasizes craftsmanship, and<br />
work that challenges the viewer to see the world in a<br />
new and original way .<br />
UPCOMING SHOWS<br />
January 12-26, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Designs for The United Way and the Rock and Roll Hall<br />
of Fame’s Guitar Mania.<br />
Open to the public starting January 13th .<br />
February Black History Month show<br />
Van Monroe, local artist whose portrait of Barack Obama<br />
on sneakers is in the Smithsonian Institution .<br />
PHOTO: ARTS COLLINWOOD<br />
ArT hOUSE<br />
KEY NEIGHBORHOOD ASSET By Deborah Pinter<br />
art house builds community and creativity in brooklyn center<br />
Art House is a grassroots art center founded by local residents and artists who believed the arts and culture improve<br />
communities . They joined forces and established the organization in 1999, incorporated as a non-profit organization<br />
the following year, and in November 2001, the physical facility now known as Art House—a 3,000 square-foot Quonset<br />
building in the historic Brooklyn Centre neighborhood on the west side of Cleveland—was born .<br />
I sat down with Art House’s executive director, Amy Craft, to<br />
discuss their current programs, partnerships, audiences, and what is<br />
in the future for this twelve year old grassroots organization.<br />
True to the motives that launched the organization, Art House is all<br />
about the neighborhood. Programs are designed to serve the people<br />
who live there—especially the children. And when you walk into the<br />
building, you can see the evidence all around you.<br />
We began our discussion by talking about the Urban Bright Arts-in-<br />
Education Program. This award-winning artist-in-residency program<br />
began at nearby Denison Elementary, but has grown to serve other<br />
CMSD schools. The focus of the residencies is to provide students,<br />
grades 4-12, with meaningful, hands-on arts opportunities and<br />
exposure to local artists, methods, and materials. This grant-funded<br />
program allows students the opportunity to work as a team in an<br />
artistic environment. The experience cumulates with a year-end<br />
exhibition in late spring.<br />
Next, she told me about StudioGo, a fee-based program offering<br />
offsite classes and workshops to groups, organizations and schools in<br />
a range of media. Popular classes have included clay, printmaking,<br />
mixed media, murals, and enameling. StudioGo also provides<br />
activities for festivals and special thematic art events. The Art<br />
House staff is working with a corporate client, Willoughby-based<br />
Neundorfer Inc., to develop a team-building component to the<br />
StudioGo program.<br />
Then we discussed their newest program, Sippin’ in the Studio,<br />
which is designed for the adult interested in sitting back, relaxing<br />
and letting their creative juices flow while enjoying time with fellow<br />
art makers. Offered once a month, this program combines art<br />
making with a little wine tasting. Recognized Cleveland artists teach<br />
these workshops in a variety of media. A continuing list of adults<br />
classes offered throughout the year compliment this program and<br />
include ceramics on the wheel, painting, mixed media, printmaking,<br />
and enameling.<br />
To keep such beneficial, neighborhood-oriented programs going,<br />
Art House depends on a network of partnerships and funders.<br />
Councilwoman, Merle Gordon, secured the initial capital funding.<br />
The Cleveland Foundation, The George Gund Foundation, and the<br />
Ohio Arts Council were also key players in the beginning.<br />
Amy and the staff have continued to nurture many of these<br />
partnerships while adding a number of new and interesting<br />
collaborations to their directory. For instance, Old Brooklyn<br />
Community Development annually sponsors a number of events<br />
involving Art House, including Falloween, a favorite of children<br />
of all ages. Art House has also partnered with the Boys and Girls<br />
Club, Arts and Science Preparatory Academy, and Bellaire-Puritas<br />
Community Development to establishe three successful afterschool<br />
outreach programs. The Boys and Girls Club and the Arts and<br />
Science Preparatory Academy have been ongoing partnerships for<br />
three years. Their most recent partnership, initiated last August, is<br />
Location 3119 Denison Avenue, Cleveland<br />
Phone 216.398.8556<br />
Web www.arthouseinc.org<br />
Email acraft@arthouseinc.org<br />
Facebook Art House<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
Office hours: Tuesday – Friday 10:00 a .m . – 4 p .m .<br />
MISSION<br />
Our mission is to nurture involvement in arts and culture,<br />
providing opportunities for people to create, learn and<br />
communicate ideas while encouraging self-expression,<br />
thereby strengthening the community . Our purpose is<br />
to provide high quality visual and creative arts classes<br />
for people of all ages and skill levels . Our goal is to<br />
enrich the lives of those who live in our community, to<br />
encourage and strengthen the careers of local artists<br />
and to promote learning through the arts .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
Art House Inc . was founded in 1999 by a group of local<br />
artists and residents dedicated to the belief that the arts<br />
enrich lives and create better communities . As a catalyst<br />
for neighborhood development, the organization<br />
was supported by councilwoman Merle Gordon who<br />
provided the funds to renovate its permanent home, a<br />
with the Brooklyn Center Naturalist (BCN). The BCN is facilitating<br />
the creation of a community dye garden on the Art House property.<br />
Art House will use the garden to teach students how to naturally<br />
create color from nature.<br />
We finished our discussion by talking about what is on the horizon<br />
for the organization and how these supporters will be kept informed<br />
of Art House’s dynamic activities. Introduction of a new website in<br />
October 2011 will continue to be the organization’s main focus for<br />
on-line marketing and communication. Art House staff will also<br />
continue, like most of us, to work on keeping their house in order.<br />
The primary focus in the coming year is to develop new partnerships<br />
for StudioGo and new programs for adults, especially patrons, who<br />
visit from as far away as Mantua and Willoughby. Art House staff<br />
will continue to offer art education programming for students of<br />
the Cleveland city schools, as well as outreach to the community.<br />
With the help of the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission, capital<br />
improvements—such as a new floor and roof—will be a priority.<br />
Like all Executive Directors, Amy Craft’s work is never done. It<br />
seems there are always ten more tasks she could complete before<br />
walking out the door. She and her staff work tirelessly to keep Art<br />
House fun, creative and energetic. If you have never been to Art<br />
House you are missing out on a wonderful opportunity to experience<br />
a creative and vibrant neighborhood arts organization in the heart of<br />
Brooklyn Centre.<br />
Deborah Pinter is executive director of the Orange Art Center.<br />
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::<br />
1948 Quonset Hut . Art House’s founding director, Sheryl<br />
Hoffman and founding board of director’s established<br />
the mission which remains the organization’s guide . Best<br />
known for its quality art education programs and classes,<br />
particularly in clay, Art House serves its neighborhood by<br />
offering free programs and events, fee-based programs,<br />
teaching opportunities for artist, and community<br />
outreach throughout Cleveland .<br />
UPCOMING EVENTS<br />
Urban Bright Year End Exhibition<br />
Thursday, May 17 through Friday, June 1, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Sippin’ in the Studio<br />
4th Thursday of each month<br />
Family Open Studio<br />
3rd Saturday of each month<br />
Free<br />
Arts Collinwood gallery.<br />
The kids in the neighborhood.<br />
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PHOTO: ART HOUSE
ArT SpACE CLEvELAND<br />
ARTSPACE: THE EVOLVING FRONTIER By Michael Gill<br />
connecting artists to live-work space across the decades<br />
With the recent attention paid to arts districts, it’s easy to forget that the dynamic of artists moving into inexpensive<br />
space and revitalizing it has been going on for a long time .<br />
Bill Gould and Harriet Gould, co-founders of ArtSpace Cleveland,<br />
can give some perspective. Just over a decade ago, Bill Gould—an<br />
architect and planner—worked with councilman Joe Cimperman<br />
to do something that sounds boring, but which has deep impact on<br />
Cleveland’s appeal to artists—especially those who would like to<br />
tap into the rust belt’s famous industrial-scale space. In 2001, the<br />
Goulds and the councilman created the “Live-Work overlay” to the<br />
city’s zoning code. The legislation allows artists to live and work<br />
within specified boundaries in the industrial buildings on the<br />
near-east side.<br />
The zoning code generally prohibits living in buildings zoned for<br />
industrial use. Thanks to that legislation, however, artists have been<br />
allowed to live and work in the former factories and warehouses<br />
along certain defined corridors. The area includes St. Clair, Superior,<br />
and Payne avenues between East 18th east and E. 64th streets, plus<br />
East 30th, 40th, 49th, and 55th Streets.<br />
Bill Gould’s efforts to connect artists to appropriate space goes<br />
back much farther than that. In 1963 he was retained by the<br />
Musical Arts Association to find a bucolic, bowl-shaped natural<br />
setting for the construction of a summer home for the Cleveland<br />
Orchestra: The result: the Cuyahoga Falls location that became<br />
Blossom Music Center.<br />
But in the seventies, it was the urban landscape that held his<br />
attention. As Bill Gould describes, buildings in Cleveland’s<br />
Warehouse District were being burnt down, or torn down then, to<br />
be replace by parking lots. The loss of architectural history was a<br />
major blow to the city’s infrastructure. The Warehouse District is the<br />
oldest part of the city.<br />
As Harriet Gould says, “the destruction was stopped” when<br />
Gould and Associates was hired by the City with funding from<br />
the National Endowment for the Arts to encourage artists to find<br />
housing there. They succeeded, attracting the likes of Stephen B.<br />
Smith, Laszlo Gyorki, and Ken Nevadomi, among others. SPACES<br />
Gallery was there at the time.<br />
But the live-work zoning had not yet been written, which meant,<br />
as Gould says, that the artists were living there illegally. “This<br />
was discovered, so they were kicked out.” Developers then began<br />
converting the warehouse space to residential apartments, which<br />
were too expensive for most artists. As Gould observes, it was the<br />
same story in New York’s SOHO, and in San Francisco, and other<br />
cities around the country.<br />
Harriet Gould says her husband “ruminated about this,” and in<br />
2001 he approached the Greater Cleveland Partnership (then called<br />
the Growth Association) with a proposal to help revitalize a different<br />
neighborhood—the industrial corridors of the near east side. The<br />
plan was to make live-work space legal in a neighborhood with<br />
buildings that had large spaces and other qualities –vestiges of their<br />
industrial past—that appeal to artists. That year, the GCP became<br />
the fiscal agent and a partner with ArtSpace Cleveland in the effort<br />
to connect artists to affordable, live work space in specific industrial<br />
neighborhoods of the city.<br />
They work with what they call “sympathetic landlords”—a<br />
collection of building owners who are interested in filling their space<br />
by leasing it to artists at an affordable rate. Gould says they field<br />
about a dozen inquiries per month from people looking for space.<br />
Gould says they help artists find the kind of industrial space that’s<br />
unavailable in the region’s other, more residential and retail-oriented<br />
arts districts. In 2008, ArtSpace-Cleveland expanded its mission<br />
to include an Artist Ownership Initiative. The yearly activities they<br />
pursue are a newsletter and an annual tour of the spaces.<br />
The Goulds exemplify the lifestyle they promote. They live and work<br />
in a 6000 square foot space in a four story mixed use building that<br />
houses artists and businesses, including Tastebuds and <strong>Zygote</strong> <strong>Press</strong>.<br />
Michael Gill is editor of <strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>.<br />
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Location 1400 East 30th Street, 4th Floor, Cleveland<br />
Phone 216.241.4355<br />
Fax 216.241.5052<br />
Web www.artspacecleveland.com<br />
Email gouldloft@sbcglobal.net<br />
Facebook ArtSpace-Cleveland<br />
MISSION<br />
ArtSpace-Cleveland helps artists find spaces to live<br />
and work . Toward that end, the organization publishes<br />
a quarterly newsletter; meets monthly with artists, nonprofit<br />
organizations, and building owners; researches<br />
zoning and building codes to facilitate affordable space<br />
development; maintains a database and website;<br />
provides building owners with information on the needs<br />
of artists; and conducts an annual trolley tour of artist<br />
live-work studios .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
Founded in 2001 with the support of the Greater<br />
Cleveland Partnership, ArtSpace-Cleveland founders<br />
Bill Gould and Harriet Gould played a key role in the<br />
creation of a Live-Work zoning overlay for industrial<br />
corridors on Cleveland’s near east side . Long committed<br />
to connecting artists to live-work space, in 2008 they<br />
launched an Artist Ownership initiative, whith the goal<br />
of helping artists build equity and develop long-term,<br />
stable presence in their neighborhoods .<br />
ArtSpace-Cleveland works in partnership with The<br />
Greater Cleveland Partnership, the St . Clair Superior<br />
Community Development Corporation, Dominion<br />
East Ohio, the Cuyahoga Community Land Trust, the<br />
Council of Small Enterprises (COSE) Arts Network, and<br />
the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture . Funding<br />
comes from block grants and corporate contributions .<br />
Sponsors include the City of Cleveland, Forest City<br />
Enterprises and the Ohio Arts Council . ArtSpace<br />
Cleveland welcomes new members .<br />
PHOTO: MICHAEL GILL<br />
ArT ThErApy STUDiO<br />
THE HEALING PROCESS By Cheryl Carter<br />
art therapy studio provides support, enables expression<br />
The founders of Art Therapy Studio came to the same place from different directions . One was a doctor . One was<br />
an artist . What they both knew was that the practice of making art could provide a therapeutic outlet for patients<br />
with a need to express themselves, to cope, or simply to relax .<br />
Art Therapy Studio was founded in 1967 by George Streeter, M.D.<br />
(a doctor with Tuberculosis) and Mickie McGraw (an art therapist<br />
with polio). They wanted to help others to cope with their serious<br />
illnesses in a creative and therapeutic manner. So Art Therapy<br />
Studio was born. Since then, the organization has grown to include<br />
programs led by Art Therapy professionals both at four studio<br />
locations, and out in the community. The clients are encouraged<br />
to feel free to choose their artistic path and enjoy a relaxing<br />
environment either in a group setting or individually.<br />
Serving individuals with a variety of special needs, Art Therapy<br />
Studio in Cleveland provides unique opportunities through artistic<br />
expression. Executive director Karen B. Peterson, MA, gave me a<br />
guided tour of the facility housed in the Fairhill Partners Building.<br />
Beautiful paintings, drawings and pottery lined the gallery on the<br />
way to the adjoining studios and offices. Each work of art had a<br />
story that gave the viewer insight into the work Art Therapy Studio<br />
does and the unique challenges faced by the artist who created it.<br />
Art Therapy Studio provides a way for people of all ages to come to<br />
terms with their various disabilities, emotional struggles and serious<br />
illnesses. All of those situations come with a need for courage many<br />
of us may never know.<br />
Art Therapy Studio offers a place of understanding, professional<br />
expertise in both art and therapeutic counseling as well as a “home<br />
away from home” where the clients can express themselves through<br />
artistic medium including painting, drawing, collage and pottery.<br />
The statement on Art Therapy Studio’s website sums it up: “Over<br />
the years, we have identified ways that art uniquely answers people’s<br />
needs. In a creative, supportive, activity-based environment, art<br />
provides an alternative outlet for feelings and ideas. The process and<br />
images speak for us when words are not enough.”<br />
Art Therapy Studio serves approximately 1,800 people annually<br />
and holds special event fundraisers such as the Dessert Competition<br />
Location 12200 Fairhill Road, Cleveland<br />
Phone 216.791.9303<br />
Web www.arttherapystudio.org<br />
Email info@arttherapystudio.org<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
Fairhill Studio: 10 a .m .–5 p .m . Monday–Friday<br />
MISSION<br />
Art Therapy Studio is a non-profit organization that<br />
provides therapeutic art programs for individuals<br />
and agencies throughout the greater Cleveland . Our<br />
programs are designed to improve and enhance the<br />
physical, mental, and emotional well-being of individuals<br />
and are based on the philosophy that art making is<br />
central to growth, healing, and wellness . Credentialed<br />
art therapists trained in counseling as well as fine art<br />
invite, guide, and encourage individuals to rediscover<br />
themselves through the art-making process . The<br />
emphasis is on the process of creating art, and control<br />
is left in the hands of the artist . Individuals with physical,<br />
emotional, or cognitive special needs often find art<br />
therapy to be a very rewarding avenue of expression .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
Founded in 1967, Art Therapy Studio was established in<br />
collaboration with Highland View Rehabilitation Hospital,<br />
now MetroHealth Medical Center, as a creative arts<br />
program to help patients and their families cope with the<br />
life-changing effects of trauma, chronic illness, medical<br />
treatment, and permanent disability . The studio was<br />
a place to congregate, relax, and be involved in the<br />
creative process . In 1977 Art Therapy Studio’s mission<br />
to be held in the fall of <strong>2012</strong>. Sponsors and individuals are able to<br />
taste and judge a variety of delectable creations all while financially<br />
supporting the work of the studio.<br />
In addition to programs and classes, Art Therapy Studio also<br />
offers professional development workshops and employee wellness<br />
programs. Enhancing the lives of both children and adults who must<br />
face the struggles that accompany special needs, Art Therapy Studio<br />
uses art as a valuable, life changing tool unlike many art centers.<br />
They are a valuable resource for the Cleveland-area community.<br />
Cheryl Carter is executive director of Arts Collinwood<br />
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::<br />
expanded to include community programming to serve<br />
patients after their release from the hospital, recognizing<br />
that people need a touchstone after release—a place to<br />
continue to have social interaction and learn new skills .<br />
Today Art Therapy Studio offers weekly “Discover the<br />
Artist Within You” classes at four community studios—<br />
two on the east side, two on the west side—for anyone<br />
who has special needs, is seeking wellness, or is simply<br />
interested in learning about art in a supportive setting .<br />
The organization also provides inpatient hospital services,<br />
on-site programs for community agencies, professional<br />
education workshops, and employee wellness programs .<br />
UPCOMING EVENTS<br />
Art Therapy Studio Staff Art Show<br />
Fairhill Studio (12200 Fairhill Road, Cleveland, OH 44120)<br />
January - April <strong>2012</strong><br />
Opening Reception – Wednesday, January 25, 5-7 pm<br />
Ursuline “Discover the Artist Within You” Art Show<br />
Ursuline ArtSpace Studio (Ursuline College, 2600 Lander<br />
Road, Pepper Pike, OH 44124)<br />
February - April <strong>2012</strong><br />
Opening Reception – Sunday, February 12, 1-3 pm<br />
Summer Client Art Show<br />
Fairhill Studio (12200 Fairhill Road, Cleveland, OH 44120)<br />
May – August <strong>2012</strong><br />
Fall Client Art Show<br />
Fairhill Studio (12200 Fairhill Road, Cleveland, OH 44120)<br />
September - December <strong>2012</strong><br />
1400 East 30th Street, Cleveland.<br />
The power of expression.<br />
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PHOTO: ART THERAPY STUDIO
BAy ArTS<br />
BUSY IN BAY By Christy Gray<br />
bay arts growing and evolving<br />
BAYarts lore includes the caboose of a railroad train, and an old house floated along the Lake Erie shore on a barge .<br />
But the arts center is much more than a collection of structures or bits of history . It’s part gallery, classroom, concert<br />
venue, store, coffee shop and meeting place . It is a place to look at art, learn about art, listen to live music, meet<br />
friends or enjoy a bit of solitude in the creative gardens . BAYarts is all these things and much, much more .<br />
Located in Cleveland Metroparks with views of Lake Erie,<br />
BAYarts is a community arts center, an informal meeting place for<br />
professional and aspiring artists and art appreciators alike. Located<br />
in the city of Bay Village, this is certainly a Westside destination.<br />
But it’s not exclusively about one community, or even the entire west<br />
side. The organization reaches an audience throughout Northeast<br />
Ohio, including all ages to all types of artists.<br />
Arriving at BAYarts, you encounter the historic Huntington House;<br />
the renovated Irene Lawrence Fuller House with welcoming wraparound<br />
porch (the one moved on the barge), the Station House, and<br />
a the aforementioned red caboose. Surrounded by the ever-changing<br />
trees and the beautiful gardens, you will find yourself physically<br />
relaxing as the staff welcomes you in the inviting space without an<br />
ounce of intimidation.<br />
There are two gallery spaces, each with a distinctive role. The Diane<br />
Boldman Education Gallery features the work of students and<br />
faculty that participate and teach the classes. The Sullivan Family<br />
Gallery represents the talents of artists throughout Northeast Ohio.<br />
Hosting two juried art shows and an emerging artist show each year,<br />
the monthly gallery openings are a mix of high quality work from<br />
artists of this region.<br />
The education gallery is also a working classroom. BAYarts prides<br />
itself on its diverse mix of classes ranging from ceramics and<br />
painting to jewelry making and photography, with offerings for<br />
children and adults. The classes fill every room and keep the place<br />
hopping six days a week. Innovative summer camps, Girl Scout<br />
programs and home school curriculum are popular with families.<br />
The ceramics studio program is thriving. Currently, the studio is<br />
located in an inherited space in the basement of the Huntington<br />
House. It is a functioning studio with a dedicated group of ceramic<br />
artists that participate in classes and curate an annual advanced<br />
ceramics show each year. Through private funding, BAYarts will<br />
upgrade the ceramics studio beginning in <strong>2012</strong>. This opportunity<br />
gives the staff and faculty a chance to create a pottery studio with<br />
careful consideration of how it should be built to best serve the artists.<br />
As a collaborative organization, BAYarts welcomes other groups for<br />
meeting space. <strong>Zygote</strong> <strong>Press</strong> and Kendal at Oberlin have had gallery<br />
shows here in the past. Upcoming shows include one of works by the<br />
Ohio Watercolor Society.<br />
Located on Cleveland Metroparks property, BAYarts is an affiliate<br />
of the Metroparks. Rich in history, the BAYarts campus consists<br />
of three buildings. The John Huntington House is the home of the<br />
consignment shop, classrooms, The Diane Boldman Gallery, and<br />
administrative offices. The Red Caboose is a community landmark,<br />
restored by a local scout troop. The Irene Lawrence Fuller House—<br />
floated westward on Lake Erie in 1984, and renovated in 2010—is<br />
home to the Sullivan Family Gallery, Mojo’s coffee, classrooms and<br />
meeting spaces available to rent for weddings or parties. The Station<br />
House is home to Vento, a casual dining restaurant with a great<br />
patio to catch the summer concerts. Huntington Playhouse and<br />
Lake Erie Nature and Science Center—fellow Cleveland Metroparks<br />
affiliates—are within walking distance.<br />
Free summer concerts showcase a variety of regional musicians;<br />
using the lawn and porch, musicians perform for an audience<br />
arranged in folding chairs and picnic blankets with children chasing<br />
bubbles. You are just as likely to run into a neighbor as you are an<br />
artist or friend from Chagrin Falls or Cleveland Heights. An annual<br />
Art and Music Festival provides an affordable alternative for artists<br />
to sell their work; and the annual fall Moondance benefit has been<br />
labeled the west side’s “Party of the Year,” attracting hundreds of<br />
supporters for a great time under the stars.<br />
BAYarts is part gallery, classroom, concert venue, store, coffee shop<br />
and meeting place. A comfortable place to see, learn or discover<br />
something new and fresh.<br />
Christy Gray is project director for the Red Dot Project.<br />
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Location 28795 Lake Road Bay Village<br />
Phone 440.871.6543<br />
Web www.bayarts.net<br />
Email info@bayarts.net<br />
Facebook BAYarts<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
September – May: 9 a .m . to 5 p .m .<br />
Monday – Saturday; closed Sunday<br />
June – August: 9 a .m . – 5 p .m .<br />
Monday – Saturday; noon – 5 Sundays<br />
Closed major holidays; Open for Special<br />
programs on School Holidays<br />
MISSION<br />
The mission of BAYarts is to provide a<br />
welcoming lakeside environment to<br />
stimulate, encourage and support<br />
professional and aspiring artists of all<br />
ages through collaboration, education<br />
and exhibition<br />
HISTORY<br />
BAYarts was founded in 1948 as<br />
Baycrafters, by a network of creative<br />
homemakers who wanted to work on<br />
their art in a community of other artists .<br />
Orginally located in the basement of<br />
founders, the organization moved to<br />
Huntington Reservation in Cleveland<br />
Metroparks . The John Huntington<br />
House was donated to the Cleveland<br />
Metroparks when they purchased<br />
the land in Bay Village . The house<br />
became—and remains—Baycrafters<br />
home . The organization took the name<br />
BAYarts in 2007 to reflect a revitalization<br />
that had begun at the time . The Station<br />
House and Caboose were donated to<br />
the organization and relocated to the<br />
current site . In 1984 The Irene Lawrence<br />
Fuller House (circa 1892) was donated<br />
and made international news as it was<br />
floated on a barge along Lake Erie to its<br />
current site . Renovation began in 2009,<br />
and the house opened in 2010 .<br />
<strong>2012</strong> HIGHLIGHTS<br />
February<br />
Emerging Artists Show<br />
March<br />
<strong>2012</strong> Spring Juried Show and<br />
BAYarts Faculty Show<br />
May<br />
Annual Ceramics Show<br />
Annual Education Fundraiser<br />
June – August<br />
Summer Outdoor Concert Series<br />
Musician inquiries: concerts@bayarts .net<br />
Artistic by Nature Art and Music Festival<br />
June 16<br />
Artists inquiries: eileen@bayarts .net<br />
September<br />
Moondance Annual Fall Benefit<br />
September 15<br />
October<br />
50th Annual Juried Show<br />
November – December<br />
Holiday Consignment Shop<br />
Artist inquiries: Karen@bayarts .net<br />
More information on these and other<br />
events: www .bayarts .net<br />
PHOTO: BAY CRAFTERS<br />
BrANDT gALLEry<br />
GOING SOLO By Christopher Lynn<br />
Brandt Gallery focuses on individual artists, one at a time<br />
Artists spread like water—covering surfaces and seeking nooks to fill with their volume . As venues come and go,<br />
artists continue to spread to find new locations to fill .<br />
In 1990, Jean Brandt relocated her legal practice from the Leader<br />
building downtown to an office space on Kenilworth in Tremont.<br />
When faced with the dilemma of interior decorating, it was<br />
suggested to her that it may be easier and cheaper to just rotate<br />
artwork through her office rather than purchasing work outright.<br />
Little did she know how rewardingly wrong that advice was and the<br />
impending flood that was coming.<br />
At the time, Jean saw the Cleveland art scene as insular and closed—<br />
with artists in competition for exhibition platforms. She realized<br />
that if people were that defensive about space, there was probably a<br />
lack of space. She mustered up her energy and buckled down to the<br />
idea of using her office as a gallery.<br />
When she deliberated about which artist to show first in her new<br />
office, Jean recalled the intriguing work of Terry Durst she saw one<br />
year prior in an exhibition at SPACES, which at the time was located<br />
in the warehouse district. So, on September 28, 1990, Durst’s Olde<br />
Stuff became the Brandt Gallery’s first solo show. Since then, Jean’s<br />
space has been filled with over 200 exhibitions and performances by<br />
artists who are drawn to her and her gallery.<br />
Jean’s focus has always been on solo shows. Her 400 square-foot<br />
office is aptly sized for single-artist exhibitions, and she is able<br />
to fill a niche in the art landscape that was so focused on group<br />
exhibitions. A solo venue gives artists ample opportunity to see<br />
an idea to its end and display it for the public; group shows, in<br />
contrast, function more as samplers of the artists’ work, or they<br />
play more toward a curatorial concept. Brandt also wants to give<br />
an opportunity for younger artists to “cut their teeth” or more<br />
established artists the chance to execute an idea that would work<br />
well in her type of space.<br />
Since Brandt Gallery is not a non-profit nor is art sales her<br />
focus (unlike a commercial gallery), her office provides a unique<br />
platform to highlight work that would get overlooked by nonprofits<br />
and commercial venues. Brandt is guided not by aesthetics,<br />
but by ethos—it’s about ideas and work by regional artists, not a<br />
particular style. Although she does show work from artists outside<br />
of the region, they often have ties to Northeast Ohio. The nature<br />
of the work in the Brandt Gallery varies widely from traditional<br />
photography to performance art and poetry.<br />
Brandt recalls fondly a performance by Nancy Prudic in August of<br />
2004, during which the artist’s piece was interrupted by four figures<br />
in hazmat suits who tied her up and hauled her out of the gallery<br />
space. The audience sat dumbfounded and kept looking to Brandt<br />
Location 1028 Kenilworth, Cleveland<br />
Phone 216.621.1610<br />
Web www.brandtgallery.org<br />
Email jeanmbrandt@gmail.com<br />
Facebook Brandt-Gallery<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
Saturday: Noon – 6 p .m . (during exhibitions)<br />
other times by appointment<br />
During the Tremont Artwalk: 6 – 10 p .m .<br />
(the second Friday of the month)<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
Started by Jean Brandt in 1990 as a way to surround her<br />
400 square foot law office in art, the Brandt Gallery was<br />
an early participant in the Tremont Artwalks and the<br />
neighborhood’s revitalization . After twenty-one years,<br />
the gallery is now one of Tremont’s longest-running art<br />
venues .<br />
Among the artists exhibiting there are Laila Voss, Peter<br />
Dell, Kathy Ireland Smith, Bruce Edwards, Daiv Whaley,<br />
Judith Brandon, Scott Pickering, Dana Depew, Dan<br />
Tranberg, Anastasia Pantsios, and Steven Mastroianni .<br />
In September, 2011, Steven Mastroianni and Dana Depew<br />
coordinated a 21-year retrospective that spanned both<br />
for a reaction and guidance. After a while, Prudic returned to the<br />
gallery and informed the audience that her friend Steve Kurtz, a<br />
Buffalo-based artist and member of the Critical Art Ensemble, was<br />
similarly hauled away by the authorities on slim-to-no-evidence for<br />
simply making his art. The figures in the hazmat suits were all part<br />
of the performance. Prudic wanted people to know what the rising<br />
paranoia in the United States had lead to, and she wanted to bring it<br />
closer to home.<br />
By day, Jean Brandt is a mild-mannered (not really) lawyer, but<br />
at night she teams with other heroes: artists who are part of our<br />
community here in Cleveland, who are our neighbors, who are<br />
building our social structure—to remind us of our humanity and<br />
goodness.<br />
Christopher Lynn is executive director of SPACES.<br />
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Brandt’s and Mastroianni’s galleries and included more<br />
than 50 artists . In its history, Brandt Gallery has featured<br />
more than 200 exhibitions .<br />
In addition to art exhibitions, the gallery also hosts<br />
poetry readings at 3 p .m . on the second Saturday of<br />
each month . The readings are held by Cleveland poet<br />
Russel Vidrick .<br />
UPCOMING SHOWS<br />
January<br />
Cleveland School artists from the collection of the Thal<br />
Trust<br />
February<br />
Paintings by Craig Martin, drawings by Jeff Curtis<br />
March<br />
New work by Daiv Whaley<br />
Bay crafters grounds.<br />
Jean Brandt with works by Dana Depew.<br />
page ten : : : north east ohio collective arts network journal north east ohio collective arts network journal : : : page eleven<br />
PHOTO: STEVEN MASTROIANNI
CiTy ArTiSTS AT WOrk<br />
AT WORK IN THE CITY By Vince Reddy<br />
city artists at work highlights artists’ presence in the neighborhood<br />
For most of its history, City Artists At Work has presented a signature annual event—a weekend-long opening of artists’<br />
studios to the public . The sessions differ from art walks or gallery hops in that, rather than only seeing collections of<br />
finished works of art, visitors see the places where art-making takes place, and sometimes get to see art-making in<br />
progress . The organization—which is unincorporated, and runs without a formal governing board—is unusual in both<br />
the grassroots, collective nature of its composition and its focus on artists working in a particular part of the city .<br />
Now in its 14th year, City Artists at Work serves artists based in<br />
Cleveland’s Art Quarter, a district bounded approximately by Lake<br />
Erie to the north, Prospect Avenue to the south, and East 18th<br />
and East 40th Streets to the east and west. The neighborhood is<br />
attractive to artists looking for studios due to the inexpensive space<br />
afforded by its collection of older loft buildings—many of which<br />
have roots in Cleveland’s once-immense garment industry.<br />
According to artist Bill Jean, one of the CAAW’s founding<br />
members, the organization emerged around the time that the<br />
regional art and architecture-oriented New Organization for the<br />
Visual Arts (NOVA) was nearing the end of its run. Open-studio<br />
events were also among NOVA’s offerings, but the events had<br />
become scattered geographically. By limiting its scope to artists<br />
working in the relatively compact arts district that was emerging<br />
east of downtown, City Artists At Work was able to offer a more<br />
navigable tour for visitors and a steadier flow of traffic for the artists<br />
who’d opened their studios.<br />
The first CAAW open-studio weekend took place in October 1997,<br />
with 27 artists participating. In that first year, all of the participating<br />
studios were in one of three buildings—the Heller, Artcraft, and<br />
Shovelworks. The number of artists has grown over time, but not to<br />
an unmanageable degree. Neither have the CAAW events outgrown<br />
their original neighborhood. Still, the artists made adjustments over<br />
the years to prevent the annual tradition from becoming stale—<br />
including the addition of a spring event one year, and switching<br />
from a schedule that included Friday nights and Saturdays during<br />
the day to a Saturday-Sunday, daytime format.<br />
Mindy Tousley, another of CAAW’s founders, notes that, over the<br />
years, the group has drawn upon the talents of its members (which<br />
usually include 50 or so artists) to produce brochures and posters,<br />
as well as unique keepsake items that visitors were able to collect as<br />
they moved from studio to studio.<br />
In October 2011, CAAW took a new approach. Instead of opening<br />
their studios to visitors, 32 artists participated in a show at the<br />
Convivium 33 Gallery on East 33rd Street. Members’ works were<br />
selected by Cleveland Museum of Art associate curator of American<br />
painting and sculpture, Mark Cole. More than 600 people attended<br />
the opening on a Friday evening, and the weekend continued with<br />
similarly well-attended workshops on acrylic painting, maskmaking,<br />
printmaking, and creative card design.<br />
CAAW’s neighborhood, which covers parts of many contiguous<br />
and overlapping districts (including Midtown, the Campus District,<br />
St. Clair-Superior, and Asiatown), is in the part of town that many<br />
associate with Cleveland’s still-nascent live-work movement. Most of<br />
the artist-members, however, have studio space in the neighborhood<br />
and maintain their living quarters elsewhere. Still, the revival of<br />
the Tower <strong>Press</strong> Building several years ago has brought a number<br />
of live-work units into the area, and Artspace Cleveland—which<br />
works to create opportunities for artists wanting live-work space<br />
in Cleveland—is one of City Artists at Work’s many partner<br />
organizations.<br />
The studio tours conducted by CAAW are not to be confused<br />
with those offered through the Downtown Cleveland Alliance’s<br />
geographically more extensive Sparx City Hop, though its activities<br />
are often scheduled to coincide with the Sparx events.<br />
By keeping its mission uncomplicated, CAAW has been effective<br />
and remains viable today. But the organization doesn’t only call<br />
attention to a community of artists that is not obviously apparent to<br />
passersby. By bringing to light some of the ways artists contribute<br />
to city life, and by entertaining questions about artists’ roles in<br />
revitalization and gentrification of city neighborhoods, City Artists<br />
at Work also sheds light on how Cleveland works as a city.<br />
Vince Reddy, AICP, is a project manager at Cleveland Public Art.<br />
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Location 2218 Superior Avenue, Cleveland<br />
Phone 440.238.5674<br />
Web www.cityartistsatwork.com<br />
Email wmjean@aol.com<br />
Facebook City Artists at Work<br />
MISSION<br />
City Artists at Work is a grassroots organization of artists<br />
whose mission is to educate the public by exposing them<br />
to what artists do, and where and how they do it . The<br />
public, in turn, provides the artists with critical analysis<br />
and in some cases unusual insight . . The vehicle to<br />
accomplish this has been Open Studio Tours, wherein the<br />
artists interact with the public one-on-one and receive<br />
immediate feedback on work in progress . City Artists At<br />
Work’s secondary mission is economic: we bring people<br />
from the suburbs (and most of our visitors are from outside<br />
the city of Cleveland), and in some cases from outside of<br />
Ohio into the city where they buy art, dine and generally<br />
leave with the impression that the city is not so scary after<br />
all . Our third priority is political: we are a community, and<br />
as such can band together to accomplish things, such<br />
as the branding of the Art Quarter .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
City Artists at Work is a grassroots organization, founded<br />
by painter William Martin Jean in 1997 . Jean and other<br />
artists, including his co-chair Mindy Tousley, were<br />
responding to both the closure of another organization<br />
representing the interests of the region’s visual arts<br />
(NOVA, the New Organization for the Visual Arts), and<br />
also to the number of artists who were at the time moving<br />
into the neighborhood now known as the Campus<br />
District .<br />
The organization now represents more than 60 individual<br />
artists and organizations whose studios or live/work<br />
spaces are located in that neighborhood . In addition<br />
to its open studio weekend events, the group presents<br />
annual exhibits of work by member artists in the nearby<br />
offices of the Plain Dealer.<br />
PHOTO: CITY ARTISTS AT WORK<br />
CLEvELAND ArTiSTS FOUNDATiON<br />
FOR THE RECORD By Hilary Aurand<br />
Cleveland Artists Foundation collects, documents, and shows NEO art of the 20th Century<br />
The Cleveland Artists Foundation (CAF) was founded in 1984 by Cleveland-based artists, patrons, and collectors . The<br />
first location was in University Circle, on Bellflower . The organization moved to the Beck Center for the Arts on the near<br />
west side in Lakewood in the late 1990s . The Cleveland Artists Foundation is dedicated solely to examining regional art<br />
and architecture, and is supported by regional art patrons, collectors and the families of the artists . It is a collecting<br />
institution that rotates four major exhibitions a year . The organization is supported through cash and in-kind contributions<br />
of many individuals, foundations, corporations, and through state funding, memberships, and fundraisers .<br />
The Cleveland Artists Foundation develops all shows with a<br />
balance between old and new, including artists both living and<br />
who have passed on. CAF has had a number of significant shows,<br />
with major retrospectives on Cleveland artists such as painter Paul<br />
Travis, painter Carl Gaertner, and glass sculptor Edris Eckhardt.<br />
Although the core of the CAF collection dates from the early<br />
twentieth-century, and is focused around the Cleveland School<br />
artists, executive director Lauren Hansgen and her programming<br />
committee lately have been focusing on artists whose careers have<br />
spanned the 20th century. A retrospective on Joseph O’Sickey<br />
was shown in 2007 and most recently “The Way of All Flesh”, an<br />
exhibition on the works of Shirley Aley Campbell.<br />
In 2011, CAF presented its first ever members’ show, “Cleveland<br />
Creates”, which featured work created by more than 60 member<br />
artists. Works included paintings, prints, drawings, photographs,<br />
sculpture, and ceramics. The gallery begins the new year with “August<br />
Biehle in Zoar,” an exhibit of works the artist completed in Ohio,<br />
which were influenced by the Germanic traditions he developed while<br />
studying in Munich. It’s open through March 9, <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
As a collecting institution, the Cleveland Artists Foundation<br />
publishes catalogues that coordinate with each exhibit. Research<br />
for these catalogues is collaborative, involving regional scholars and<br />
other educational institutions. Often these catalogues are the most<br />
thorough documents published on the artists being shown. The<br />
exhibited artists were well known in their day on a regional context,<br />
and CAF respects that and has given much of their work<br />
a permanent home.<br />
As Lauren Hansgen says, “the organization is inspired by the<br />
personal nature of the art that we exhibit. It is fundamental that the<br />
local public can connect with the history of this region. Many of the<br />
CAF board members and visitors are regional collectors, so there is a<br />
vested interest in what’s on the walls at CAF.”<br />
Regional art work is important in that it is unique to its specific area.<br />
CAF has a mission to raise the profile of regional art and continue<br />
archiving, because so many of the resources are quickly disappearing.<br />
For instance, Lauren referred to a box full of cassette tapes that<br />
need to be digitized. These cassettes, recorded in the 1970s, contain<br />
interviews with regional artists –oral histories of their works and<br />
processes. Some of them are all that is left of the artist’s personal<br />
message. This is just one of the many projects Lauren is working on<br />
Location 17801 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood<br />
Phone 216.227.9507<br />
Web www.clevelandartists.org<br />
Email laurenhansgen@clevelandartists.org<br />
Facebook Cleveland Artists Foundation<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
1 p .m .–5 p .m . Tuesday through Saturday<br />
1 p .m .–8 p .m . Fridays and Saturdays when Beck Center<br />
for the Arts has performances on stage<br />
MISSION<br />
The Cleveland Artists Foundation preserves, researches,<br />
collects, exhibits, documents, and promotes the<br />
significant visual art and architecture of the Northeast<br />
Ohio region .<br />
HISTORY<br />
The Cleveland Artists Foundation was founded in 1984<br />
by Cleveland-based artists, patrons, and collectors . It<br />
has become the premier center for the art of Northeast<br />
Ohio—owing both to its significant collecting initiative,<br />
and to its commitment to creative exhibition planning<br />
and educational outreach .<br />
Initially, the Cleveland Artists Foundation’s mission<br />
focused primarily on a group of artists known as the<br />
“Cleveland School” who were active from 1900 to 1950 .<br />
so that the Foundation becomes not only a resource for regional art,<br />
but also for important records, profiles, documents and photographs.<br />
Lauren joined the Foundation in the summer of 2007 as part of her<br />
internship through Case Western Reserve University, where she was<br />
earning her Masters in Museum Studies and Art History. She began<br />
working as the gallery director in 2008, and has since become the<br />
director extraordinaire.<br />
The Cleveland Artists Foundation is taking ambitious steps to keep<br />
the record and work of significant northeast Ohio accessible and<br />
alive. Steps include photographing and digitally cataloguing the<br />
entire collection so that it can be viewed on the website. Catalogs<br />
printed for CAF’s past shows will be visible on the website as well,<br />
and the content will all be updated. In the next year goals also<br />
include a re-branding project that will better describe the mission<br />
of the organization, as Cleveland Artists Foundation continues to<br />
promote the significant visual art and architecture of Northeast Ohio.<br />
Hilary Aurand is co-director of legation, a gallery<br />
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In recent years, CAF has broadened its historical scope<br />
to integrate the contributions of artists who were active<br />
before and since the Cleveland School . In particular,<br />
CAF now devotes attention to the achievements of the<br />
most significant artists in Northeast Ohio whose period of<br />
productivity has encompassed all or part of the last 50<br />
years . By broadening its earlier scope, CAF has created a<br />
forum that encourages a more comprehensive discussion<br />
of artistic traditions and innovations in Cleveland .<br />
UPCOMING EVENTS<br />
August F. Biehle, Jr. in Zoar<br />
January 13 – March 9, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Artists of Cowan Pottery Studios<br />
March 23 - May 5, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Mieczkowski in Black and White<br />
(MA student thesis exhibition)<br />
May 18 – July 28, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Tom Balbo Retrospective<br />
and exhibitions sponsored by Octavofest <strong>2012</strong><br />
September 7 – November 17, <strong>2012</strong><br />
The Kisvardai Collection<br />
December 7, <strong>2012</strong> – February 16, 2013<br />
Open studios.<br />
John Hay High School students view work of architect Don Hisaka.<br />
page twelve : : : north east ohio collective arts network journal north east ohio collective arts network journal : : : page thirteen<br />
PHOTO: CLEVELAND ARTISTS FOUNDATION
CLEvELAND ArTS prizE<br />
HONORING THE PAST, INFORMING THE FUTURE<br />
the cleveland arts prize takes up the challenge<br />
For Cleveland, that catalytic moment came in 1960—just over half<br />
a century ago—when the late Klaus Roy was presenting a lecture to<br />
the Woman’s City Club. Recruited to Cleveland by the legendary<br />
conductor George Szell to serve as the Cleveland Orchestra’s<br />
program annotator, the Vienna-born writer and composer<br />
challenged the women in his audience to create a way for Cleveland<br />
to acknowledge and honor its artists—just as European cities do.<br />
It would take a pillar of the Cleveland arts community to marshal<br />
the effort. Martha Joseph—a native Clevelander educated at the<br />
Sorbonne and the University of Dijon, and the wife of longtime<br />
Musical Arts Association president Frank Joseph—was just the<br />
person. For some perspective on her persona, look no further than<br />
the fact that the French government would eventually award her<br />
the title Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et Lettres, for founding<br />
another local arts institution—the Cleveland International<br />
Piano Competition.<br />
Martha Joseph championed the Cleveland Arts Prize as a program<br />
of the Woman’s City Club for its first 30 years, and led a drive to<br />
establish an endowment to fund it. Under the tenure of Mary Louise<br />
Hahn, who chaired the organization from 1990 to 2000, CAP<br />
commissioned an Arts Prize medal, launched a scholarship program,<br />
and established the tradition of holding an annual awards event in<br />
cultural venues throughout the city. The organization codified and<br />
published its selection criteria and became an independent nonprofit<br />
organization under the leadership of Diana Tittle, who was a prize<br />
recipient for writing in 1997 and led the organization from 2000 to<br />
2004. Former Tri-C Jazz Festival director Terri Pontremoli led the<br />
By Michael Gill<br />
Honoring the artistic past sounds like something worth doing, but for that to be anything more than a platitude<br />
takes a catalytic moment . And if the honor is to weave its thread through history, creating a record of what fine<br />
work our people have done, it takes dedicated effort, sustained across the years .<br />
organization in 2005, and then in 2006 turned over the reigns to its<br />
current executive director, Marcie Bergman.<br />
Now the oldest award of its kind in the United States, the Cleveland<br />
Arts Prize is a testament to the standard of excellence and quality<br />
of artists in Northeast Ohio. In addition to artists, the Arts<br />
Prize honors individuals who have expanded the community’s<br />
participation in the arts and helped make the region more hospitable<br />
to creative artistic expression.<br />
It’s a project launched under Bergman’s leadership that brings<br />
the prize into the digital media age. Ms. Bergman is particularly<br />
excited about the Documentary Shorts Video Series, a collaboration<br />
with film maker Ted Sikora, designed to promote and archive<br />
the incredibly talented recipients of the CAP and document their<br />
work. In stunning videos, Sikora has captured CAP recipients in<br />
frank discussions on their art and in surprisingly intimate moments<br />
creating their work. Some of the artists are interviewed while at<br />
work in their studios, which allows for revealing and unpretentious<br />
discussion of their work and background. Accessible by the click of a<br />
mouse through the CAP website and through CAP’s Vimeo channel<br />
(http://vimeo.com/channels/artsprize), the videos have attracted<br />
many national and international viewers.<br />
A brief promotional video featuring snippets of artists recognized<br />
in the Award series’ first fifty years gives a peek into the native<br />
Cleveland talent that would inspire such far-ranging interest: Jazz<br />
singer Jimmy Scott, the “famously dyspeptic” writer Harvey Pekar,<br />
the “boldacious” choreographer Dianne McIntyre, painter Joseph<br />
O’Sickey, and designer Victor Schreckengost all talk about their<br />
work, inspiration, and key moments in their careers.<br />
Bergman says new videos are being uploaded to the site as they are<br />
completed. The goal is to release approximately 50 videos by 2013.<br />
CAP is also seeking sponsorship of videos. Information on how to<br />
become a sponsor is available on the CAP website.<br />
Another new program also stirs Bergman’s enthusiasm. This year<br />
will see CAP commission art for the first time. Each piece, to<br />
be created by a CAP visual art recipient, will be unique, made<br />
in a limited series and offered for sale through the CAP. Again,<br />
the project is inspired by the goal of promoting and recognizing<br />
Cleveland artists.<br />
In addition to honoring the past, the Cleveland Arts Prize enables<br />
the artists of the future with four scholarships available to students<br />
pursuing arts disciplines at Cleveland institutions.<br />
The John Paul Miller Scholarship is awarded annually to a student<br />
at the Cleveland Institute of Art; the Klaus Roy Scholarship<br />
is awarded to an orchestral student at the Cleveland School of<br />
the Arts; the Literature Scholarship is awarded to a student at<br />
Cleveland State University; and the Kathryn Karipides Dance<br />
Scholarship is awarded to a graduate student in dance at Case<br />
Western Reserve University.<br />
Michael Gill is editor of <strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>.<br />
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Location P.O. Box 21126, Cleveland<br />
Phone 440-523-9889<br />
Email info@clevelandartsprize.org<br />
Web clevelandartsprize.org<br />
Facebook Cleveland Arts Prize<br />
MISSION<br />
The Cleveland Arts Prize mission is two-fold: First, to identify,<br />
reward, publicly honor and promote those creative artists whose<br />
original work has made Northeast Ohio a more exciting place<br />
to live, and whose accomplishments have set a standard of<br />
excellence to which other artists can aspire .<br />
And second, because artists are essential to a healthy<br />
community, and because the arts need a supportive<br />
environment and an engaged public, it is also the mission of The<br />
Cleveland Arts Prize to recognize the contributions of individuals<br />
and organizations that have expanded the community’s<br />
participation in the arts and helped make the region more<br />
hospitable to creative artistic expression .<br />
Artists, art professionals and the general public are encouraged<br />
to nominate artists for the prize . Nominations can be made<br />
on-line at the CAP website . The nominations deadline for <strong>2012</strong><br />
Awards is February 29th, <strong>2012</strong> . Winners will be announced around<br />
May 1st and will be honored at the 52nd Annual Awards Event,<br />
June 30, <strong>2012</strong> at the Cleveland Museum of Art .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
In 1960, Martha Joseph took up a challenge issued by visiting<br />
composer Klaus Roy to acknowledge and honor Cleveland’s<br />
artists . For 30 years, Joseph guided the Cleveland Arts Prize as a<br />
program of the Club, and led a drive to establish an endowment .<br />
Marcie Bergman became executive director of the Cleveland<br />
Arts Prize in 2006, and under her leadership the organization has<br />
not only managed the nomination of artists and performers, but<br />
has also created companion programs, scholarships, and events .<br />
Among the organization’s programs are a series of documentary<br />
short videos (vimeo .com/channels/artsprize), and in <strong>2012</strong>, for the<br />
first time ever, an annual commission for a work by a CAP visual<br />
artist which will be available for sale in a limited edition .<br />
The Cleveland Arts Prize supports four scholarships for students:<br />
The John Paul Miller Scholarship<br />
annually to a student at the Cleveland Institute of Art<br />
The Klaus Roy Scholarship<br />
to an orchestral student at the Cleveland School of the Arts<br />
The Literature Scholarship<br />
to a student at Cleveland State University<br />
The Kathryn Karipides Dance Scholarship<br />
to a graduate student in dance at Case Western<br />
Reserve University .<br />
PHOTO COURTESY OF BILL JOSEPH<br />
CiA viSiTiNg ArTiST prOgrAm<br />
MODELING ACCESS AND BALANCE By William Busta<br />
the cleveland institute of art visiting artist program opens doors<br />
Every Friday during the school year at the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Lunch on Fridays program offers formal and<br />
informal presentations and conversations with artists engaged with active careers .<br />
The program brings together many of the artists who visit CIA each<br />
year for all lengths of time. Some have been invited for a day by a<br />
particular department, while others are in residence for an entire<br />
semester as part of a major institutional initiative. The Artist in<br />
Residence Programs is supported in part by the George P. Bickford<br />
Fund for visiting artists, which was established in 1968 with the<br />
charge of bringing artists of note to CIA for the students and for the<br />
community at large.<br />
Lane Cooper, visiting artist coordinator, describes Lunch on<br />
Fridays as an opportunity for students to get an idea of the<br />
possibilities of different models of professional activity, to get an<br />
idea of how they might develop their own careers. “It is a way to see<br />
something different, to see art as something beyond the classroom,<br />
and it gives the students an opportunity to ask the questions that<br />
they want to ask.” Those questions include “how the artists balance<br />
studio practice with the practical parts of their profession, such<br />
as sending out proposals or teaching, or what fuels their creative<br />
engines—what the artists think about and how they maintain<br />
excitement in their work.”<br />
The public is also invited to Lunch on Fridays. It is a way that<br />
CIA provides to make artists and art accessible and part of<br />
the community.<br />
While the direct experience of a work of art might be the best way<br />
to understand it, sometimes it is not enough—especially if new<br />
or unusual or from an unfamiliar cultural context. Museums and<br />
art centers try to make up the difference by “educating” the public<br />
about art—which often consists of talking to rather than talking<br />
with. Sometimes this works. But for many—perhaps most—people,<br />
having some sense of personal familiarity with the artist tells as<br />
much. There can be much more of a window to understanding when<br />
the viewer is able to hear how an artist talks about their work. Just<br />
by knowing the artist a little, the art makes sense—it is intelligible<br />
and even transcendent, in its dialogue with who the artist has been<br />
in their formative years, with who the artist is in an illuminating<br />
present, and what the artist’s potential might be.<br />
Among the artists who will be featured in Lunch on Fridays this<br />
year will be artists in residence from the Cuba Project, which<br />
is bringing five noted Cuban artists to live, teach and create in<br />
Location 11141 East Boulevard, Cleveland<br />
Phone 216.421.7000<br />
Web cia.edu/visiting_artists<br />
Email lcooper@cia.edu<br />
Facebook The Cleveland Institute of Art<br />
MISSION<br />
The Cleveland Institute of Art strives to nurture the<br />
intellectual, artistic, and professional development of<br />
students and community members through rigorous<br />
visual arts and design education, and in so doing to<br />
advance culture, community, and global quality of<br />
life . Our success is derived from a pursuit of excellence,<br />
the fostering of community, a holistic approach to<br />
education, a culture of accountability, and freedom<br />
of inquiry .<br />
CIA’s Visiting Artist Program serves this mission by making<br />
accessible artists and scholars of local, regional, national<br />
and international significance to the Institute’s internal<br />
community and the greater Cleveland community of<br />
which we are a part . Lunch on Friday’s, a regular venue<br />
for presenting artists and scholars is one means by which<br />
the Institute achieves this . It takes place in CIA’s Gund<br />
Building on every Friday at lunchtime, 12:15 pm, of the<br />
regular semester and is free and open to the public .<br />
RECENT HISTORY<br />
A few of the artists who were featured as part of Lunch<br />
on Fridays last year included: Sculptor and public artist<br />
Brinsley Tyrrell, whose sculpture livens several Cleveland<br />
Cleveland—two during the past fall, and three in <strong>2012</strong>. CIA<br />
describes the project as “seeing the culture of a nation weave through<br />
generations as emerging and established Cuban Artists Share their<br />
talent and vision. This year’s artists include Alex Hernandes, painter<br />
and video artist; Jose Angel Toirac, painter and installation artists;<br />
and Meira Marrero, art historian.<br />
The lunch on Fridays programs is also a way of encouraging<br />
interaction between students and the interested arts community<br />
of Cleveland. The events are free to both students and the public.<br />
And—not to forget the lunch—CIA provides beverages and pizza.<br />
Lunch on Fridays happens Fridays at 12:15 in CIA’s Gund Building.<br />
Most take place in Ohio Bell Auditorium. The series is jointly<br />
sponsored by the Liberal Arts and Foundation Environments with<br />
additional support coming from other Cleveland Institute of Art<br />
Environments.<br />
William Busta is director of William Busta Gallery.<br />
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neighborhoods, and whose enamel landscapes were<br />
recently exhibited at William Busta Gallery; Joe Kelly and<br />
Jay Crocker, who have created real-time animations<br />
to real-time music using home made instruments and<br />
sound making devices from found objects, including<br />
discarded toys; and, as part of the ongoing Cuba<br />
Project, Alejandro Aguilera (who works through sculpture<br />
installation, drawing, and improvisational mechanisms to<br />
explore his relationship to art and history as they relate<br />
to him as an immigrant) and Osmievy Ortega, whose<br />
work revitalizes the print medium to represent scenes of<br />
subcultures, social margins and identity .<br />
COMING EVENTS<br />
The Bickford Visiting Artist Series lectures are free and<br />
open to the public, and take place in CIA’s Aitken<br />
Auditorium of the Gund Building at 11141 East Boulevard .<br />
Feb 15, 7pm – Nick Cave<br />
on fashion and sound<br />
Strategies of Performa: Scene and Unseen<br />
Reception in Gund lobby before lecture<br />
Mar 15, 7pm – Clarence Morgan<br />
on painting and abstraction<br />
Inspiration from a Painter’s Notebook<br />
Apr 6, 7pm – Marek Cecula<br />
on ceramic art<br />
Industrial Interventions<br />
Cleveland Arts Prize founder Martha Joseph.<br />
Cuba Project visiting artist Alejandro Aguilera.<br />
page fourteen : : : north east ohio collective arts network journal north east ohio collective arts network journal : : : page fifteen<br />
PHOTO: ROBERT MULLER/CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART
CONviviUm 33<br />
FEAST YOUR EYES By Gina DeSantis<br />
convivium33 revives church building as place to “celebrate and feast”<br />
Throughout Cleveland old factories, lofts and other buildings have been converted in artist studio spaces and<br />
galleries . Convivium33 Gallery has something in common with that trend, but is rare in that it reuses not an industrial<br />
space, but the former St . Josaphat Roman Catholic Church .<br />
The church was originally built in 1915. However, due to economic<br />
hardships it was forced to close its doors in 1998. The community<br />
was unable to support necessary renovations to the building. It<br />
was de-sanctified by the Catholic Diocese, and religious artifacts<br />
were removed. Then, in 2001, Alenka Banco bought the building<br />
and began renovations. Alenka’s passion for buildings is evident<br />
in her background which includes working for a local non-profit<br />
in commercial development, managing an arts building and<br />
opening a small gallery in Tremont (Eddie Moved) which she also<br />
renovated . Alenka is currently pursuing her Masters degree in<br />
Historic Preservation. She opened the stately edifice 2005, with<br />
Convivium33 Gallery located in the former church’s nave.<br />
Alenka greets me as I enter Josaphat Art Hall. She makes sure to<br />
speak with everyone who visits, offering insight into the history<br />
of the space and its current exhibition. A retrospective show by<br />
Shirley Aley Campbell hangs on the walls. Her five foot by seven<br />
foot portraits fit comfortably throughout the nave—not the least<br />
bit overwhelmed by the architecture. Alenka’s goal is to create a<br />
professional and unique experience for each visitor. Her appreciation<br />
for this space, along with Cleveland and its artists is apparent<br />
through her approach and the exhibitions she presents throughout<br />
the year. Alenka feels the artists who live and work in Cleveland are<br />
the city’s greatest asset.<br />
Location 1433 East 33rd Street, Cleveland<br />
Phone 216.881.7828<br />
Web www. http://josaphatartshall.com<br />
Email convivium33@josaphatartshall.com<br />
Facebook Convivium33 Gallery at Josaphat Arts Hall<br />
MISSION<br />
It is the personal relationship between art, space and<br />
self that is the foundation for Convivium33 Gallery, which<br />
is located in the nave of the former church . Proprietor<br />
Alenka Banco asks, “So, what are four walls anyway?<br />
They are . . . .what they contain .” Josaphat Arts Hall is<br />
unique and special in many ways . The sacred structure<br />
which will house the new Convivium33 Gallery will also<br />
be the new location for several art business studios .<br />
The economic benefits which enrich communities<br />
through the arts are recognized . A visit to the building<br />
can introduce a guest to the arts through interactive art<br />
opportunities . Private classes, workshops and lectures<br />
are now being offered in the individual studio businesses .<br />
Included are stained glass, painting, web design, glass<br />
fusion and slumping .<br />
Interested artists are encouraged to visit studio residents,<br />
or e-mail properties@josaphatartshall .com for more<br />
information .<br />
She named Convivium33 for a Latin term that means “to celebrate<br />
and feast.” The gallery continues to act as a community gathering<br />
space and celebrates the work of talented regional artists. Only<br />
three to four exhibitions are hosted throughout the year, including<br />
both solo and group shows. Alenka feels the large space is best<br />
suited to accommodate an entire portfolio or retrospective. This<br />
gives seasoned artists the opportunity to show close to home. The<br />
gallery launched with the work of painter Thomas Frontini. Other<br />
significant solo exhibitions include photographer and mixed-media<br />
artist Christopher Pekoc, photographer Michael Levy, printmaker<br />
Phyllis Seltzer, sculptor -painter Clarence Van Duzer and Outsider<br />
artist Reverend Albert Wagner.<br />
Alenka also has a tradition of shows assembled by guest curators,<br />
including the painter and critic Douglas Max Utter (whose essay<br />
appears in this issue of <strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>), and Cleveland Museum of<br />
Art associate curator Mark Cole. This year, the noted Cleveland<br />
photographer Herb Ascherman will curate an exhibit which will<br />
make its way to Paris Photo <strong>2012</strong>. Also this year, Convivium33 will<br />
present a show of the late Cleveland artist and CIA graduate Scott<br />
Miller. On the occasion of his death, Miller was described by curator<br />
William Busta in a Plain Dealer story as “certainly one of the<br />
most important artists in Cleveland in the late 20th century.” The<br />
painter exhibited his work around the world, including galleries in<br />
New York, Los Angeles, Key West, Fla., Toronto, Paris, Tokyo and<br />
Amsterdam. He passed away in 2008.<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
Facing declines in its congregation and revenue, St .<br />
Josaphat Roman Catholic parish closed its doors in<br />
1998 . After running a gallery called “Eddie Moved” in<br />
what had been the former home of a Tremont crack<br />
dealer, Alenka Banco came upon the space that was<br />
to become Convivium33 just as movers were removing<br />
its furniture . The former St . Josaphat Church was up for<br />
sale, and she immediately saw its potential as a gallery .<br />
It wasn’t until years later, in 2001, that she bought the<br />
de-sanctified church from the Catholic Diocese of<br />
Cleveland . After two full years of almost continuous<br />
renovation, including the installation of a new roof and<br />
heating system, she opened Convivium33 .<br />
UPCOMING SHOWS<br />
Scott Miller (1955-2008), curated by Alenka Banco<br />
May 25-June 29, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Paris Photo<strong>2012</strong> CLEVELAND, curated by Herb Asherman<br />
September 12-September 16<br />
Pulp Imaging, curated by Lynn Sures<br />
October 17-October 21, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Thomas Frontini, curated by Alenka Banco<br />
December 7-January 11<br />
Josaphat Arts Hall refers not only to Convivium33, which occupies<br />
the church’s nave, but to the entire building – which includes office<br />
space, a basement, and other quarters. In addition to the gallery,<br />
the Hall houses several artist studios. Working within its walls are<br />
glass artists, furniture makers and painters. The working artists<br />
occasionally open their studios during the gallery events. The gallery<br />
hosts events in addition to the exhibitions. Alenka also donates the<br />
space to non-profits for fundraisers.<br />
Alenka’s preservation and transformation of St. Josaphat Roman<br />
Catholic Church has given the community a new place to gather.<br />
It separates itself from other venues with its architecture, which<br />
merges seamlessly with art that hangs on its walls. Thanks to<br />
the renovations, Convivium33 Gallery has received awards from<br />
both the AIA Cleveland, American Institute of Architects and<br />
the Cleveland Restoration Society. Originally built as a gathering<br />
space, Convivium33 Gallery carries on the building’s history and<br />
mission with great success and one of Cleveland’s most foremost<br />
exhibition spaces.<br />
Gina DeSantis is a ceramic artist and coordinator of the Screw<br />
Factory Artists.<br />
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PHOTO: CONVIVIUM 33<br />
hEighTS ArTS<br />
A VILLAGE IN THE HEIGHTS<br />
heights arts focuses on the community<br />
If ever the stars have aligned for a group of people that wanted to do a good thing for their community, it was for<br />
the people who launched Heights Arts .<br />
It was the year 2000. A group of Cleveland Heights residents<br />
including Peggy Spaeth, Greg Donley, David Budin, Cathy Culp,<br />
and Steve <strong>Press</strong>er invited Community Partnership for the Arts and<br />
Culture CEO Tom Schorgl to meet with them in Spaeth’s family<br />
room. Their purpose was to talk about how a new organization<br />
in town might support the many artists and performers who<br />
live in Cleveland Heights, and simultaneously help the city’s<br />
neighborhoods stay strong.<br />
Simultaneous with that discussion, the City had embarked upon<br />
a visioning process to plan for the future. And through CPAC,<br />
Schorgl had begun building an argument for public funding to<br />
support the arts in Cuyahoga County. A keystone in that argument<br />
was how the arts could play a key role for communities—supporting<br />
both quality of life and neighborhood economies.<br />
“We had about a dozen people, and came up with a laundry list of<br />
ideas,” said Spaeth, who is now executive director of Heights Arts.<br />
The list included a gallery—because, for as many high quality visual<br />
arts who call Cleveland Heights home, there was at the time no<br />
year-round art gallery in the city. They wanted music programming.<br />
They wanted to support poets. And they wanted to use public art to<br />
improve the streetscape.<br />
All that energy resulted in Heights Arts, which quickly established<br />
itself as a major force for artists and neighborhoods in the region.<br />
In 2002 space became available in a storefront adjacent to a popular<br />
independent movie theater on Lee Road. They organized a “pop-up”<br />
holiday store that proved so successful that they signed a lease for a<br />
full-time gallery. In 2010 the small gallery expanded into an adjacent<br />
storefront and now includes a space for classes and workshops.<br />
It’s a small amount of physical space, which serves the organization<br />
well by keeping expenses down.<br />
Indeed, Heights Arts focuses on four program areas, only one of<br />
which depends on committed physical space. That’s the art gallery<br />
itself, which presents six exhibitions each year.<br />
In addition to the gallery, Heights Arts collaborates with the City<br />
of Cleveland Heights on its poet laureate program. Supported<br />
by Cleveland Orchestra violinist and Heights Arts trustee Isabel<br />
Trautwein, a chamber music series presents four house concerts a<br />
year, which consistently sell out.<br />
But the organization’s biggest visual impact probably comes from<br />
its public art installations, and collaborations with neighborhood<br />
groups on the design of public space.<br />
“We facilitated public art projects, both permanent and temporary,<br />
for several business districts—Cedar-Fairmount, Coventry, Cedar<br />
Lee, Larchmere, and Cedar Center,” Spaeth said. “Those projects<br />
have included signage, murals, benches, the iron fences on Coventry,<br />
“Fencepiration,” and “Knitscape”—the temporary installation of<br />
colorful, form-fitting, knitted covers for parking meters, trees, and<br />
other features of the streetscape in selected neighborhoods.<br />
Spaeth believes in grass-roots, community level activity, which<br />
is what Heights Arts is all about. “There’s an awful lot to be said<br />
for the ‘village’ concept,” she says. “We have wonderful large<br />
cultural institutions, but we also need smaller organizations in the<br />
community that deliver art on a daily basis. The arts should not be<br />
apart from life, but a part of life.”<br />
Michael Gill is editor of <strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>.<br />
Convivium 33 on opening night.<br />
Heights Arts’ “Knitscape” public art installation.<br />
page sixteen : : : north east ohio collective arts network journal north east ohio collective arts network journal : : : page seventeen<br />
By Michael Gill<br />
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PHOTO: HEIGHTS ARTS<br />
Location 2175 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights<br />
Phone 216.371.3457<br />
Web http://www.heightsarts.org/<br />
Email heightsarts@heightsarts.org<br />
Facebook Heights Arts<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 10-5<br />
Thursday, Friday 10-9:30<br />
Saturday 1:30-9:30<br />
Closed Sunday<br />
MISSION<br />
Heights Arts is a nonprofit community arts organization in<br />
Cleveland Heights, Ohio . Heights Arts cultivates a strong,<br />
diverse, and collaborative arts community by inspiring<br />
people of all ages to engage in the arts; supporting<br />
the arts through education; providing exhibition and<br />
performance opportunities; and fostering public<br />
appreciation for the arts .<br />
Heights Arts Gallery’s mission is to present significant<br />
art to the community; emphasize regional artists, with<br />
special attention to Heights artists; collaborate and<br />
foster collaboration among area artists and institutions;<br />
advance the arts and artists; and stimulate wider art<br />
appreciation .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
Heights Arts was founded in 2000, as a result of grassroots<br />
leadership in collaboration with the city . Since<br />
then Heights Arts has created a place rich with artists,<br />
performers, art educators, administrators and others<br />
who make their livelihood in the performing or visual<br />
arts . We contribute to the region’s artistic vitality<br />
by showing regional artists at Heights Arts Gallery,<br />
facilitating public art and design projects, presenting<br />
chamber music and other concerts in intimate settings,<br />
nominating and supporting the Cleveland Heights Poet<br />
Laureate, and having classes and workshops in the<br />
arts . As a multidisciplinary arts organization, we tap<br />
into the potential of our creative residents to enrich<br />
community life .
kENNETh pAUL LESkO<br />
THE ROAD SHOW COMES HOME By Susan Kelley<br />
the historic and the contemporary mingle at kenneth paul lesko gallery<br />
Standing outside the Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery on the second floor of 78th Street Studios you are immediately<br />
taken by the mix of clean, industrial style metal and glass fixtures with the warmth of the wood detailing—beginning<br />
with the most intriguing, oversize Italian art glass door handles you’ve ever seen in your life .<br />
The gallery itself invites exploration, exuding a sense of strength and<br />
elegance: minimal furniture and fixtures (apart from those glass<br />
door handles) maximizes the art on display. The art is the star of the<br />
show, and the Leskos have done everything possible to make that the<br />
focus of your experience.<br />
Owners Kenneth Paul Lesko (Executive Director) and his son Ross<br />
Lesko (Gallery Director) work hard to achieve quality with every<br />
exhibition. Between the two of them, they have more than 60<br />
years of experience in the art world. Ross literally grew up in the<br />
business of dealing in significant art at shows and auctions around<br />
the country. For decades, most of their business was done on the<br />
road. Originally dealing in historical Modernist artwork (painting,<br />
sculpture, decorative arts, etc.) and vintage Italian art glass (1870-<br />
1970), their shared passion has lately expanded into a combination<br />
of historical and contemporary artwork.<br />
With an international reputation for dealing in high quality art, they<br />
could have settled anywhere and been successful. But, being from<br />
the Cleveland area, they felt that the quality of arts and culture here<br />
could match any other major city. So when they decided in 2003 to<br />
open a gallery as permanent exhibit space, Cleveland was the only<br />
choice. They have been at 78th Street Studios longer than any other<br />
gallery in the building.<br />
Since opening the gallery, they have added “Cleveland School”<br />
Artists (early to mid-20th century artists connected to Cleveland) to<br />
their historical collection and have launched six Cleveland School<br />
exhibitions. They have also added contemporary Cleveland artists to<br />
their collection and exhibition schedule, including Cleveland artists<br />
in solo, two-person, and group exhibitions.<br />
What the Leskos bring to Cleveland is a unique glimpse of Modern<br />
historical and contemporary art from around the world, matched<br />
whenever possible with the work of local artists. This also affords<br />
out-of-town visitors to see the quality of work being produced in<br />
Cleveland. A good example of this is their annual Cinema Exhibition<br />
(designed around the idea of cinema as a translated medium). Of the<br />
18 artists (from eight cities and two countries) featured in Cinema<br />
01, eight were from Northeast Ohio. The following year, in an exhibit<br />
that featured 17 artists from 12 cities and four countries, four of the<br />
artists were contemporary Clevelanders.<br />
The galley is open Wednesday through Saturday and well worth<br />
the visit. If you visit their website kennethpaullesko.com, a click on<br />
“Previous Exhibitions” will give you an idea of the high quality and<br />
varied range of art work available at the Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery.<br />
Susan Kelley is office manager at the Morgan Conservatory.<br />
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Location 1305 West 80th Street, Cleveland<br />
Phone 216.631.6719<br />
Web www. kennethpaullesko.com<br />
Email gallery@kennethpaullesko.com<br />
Facebook Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
Wednesday-Saturday, 12:00pm-5:00pm<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery opened in 2003, after<br />
exhibiting at Modernist venues around the country for<br />
more than 20 years . Executive director Kenneth Paul<br />
Lesko and his son, gallery director Ross Lesko have lived<br />
in the Cleveland area for most of their lives, and decided<br />
to open the gallery in Cleveland as an experiment . In the<br />
intervening years, they have had significant exhibitions of<br />
historical and contemporary paintings and sculpture, by<br />
both Cleveland artists and artists from around the world .<br />
Other exhibitions include Vintage and Contemporary<br />
Photography, Tribal Art, American Studio Pottery and<br />
Contemporary Glass, as well as their annual international<br />
exhibitions of Cinema Inspired Artwork .<br />
UPCOMING SHOWS<br />
(subject to change)<br />
Judith Brandon [Cleveland, OH]: Solo Exhibition<br />
Director’s Choice <strong>2012</strong>: Historical & Contemporary<br />
Gregory Lowell Smith [Banner Elk, NC]: Solo Exhibition<br />
Jane Millican [London, UK]: Solo Exhibition<br />
Troy Gua [Seattle, WA]: Solo Exhibition<br />
Cinema 03: International Group Exhibition<br />
Kasumi [Cleveland, OH]: Solo Exhibition<br />
PHOTO: ROSS LESKO<br />
kOkOON ArTS gALLEry<br />
OUT OF THE KOKOON By Michael Gill<br />
in the past, present, and future: exhibiting the drive to break free<br />
Kokoon Arts Gallery got its name from old Cleveland lore . The original Kokoon Arts Club—founded by early 20th<br />
century Cleveland artists & lithographers Carl Moellmann and William Sommer—was active from 1911 to the 1940s .<br />
According to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, the group became known not only for seeking new forms<br />
of expression (as alternatives to the conformity of academic art), but also for “extravagant parties that featured<br />
unconventional costumes, exotic dances, opening processions, enormous props and clashing decorations, and<br />
unpredictable ‘stunts’ throughout .”<br />
The old Kokoon Arts Club has had a bit of attention recently, thanks<br />
to Henry Adams and Lawrence Waldman’s book, Out of the Kokoon,<br />
published in 2011 in conjunction with an exhibit at the Cleveland<br />
Public Library.<br />
If that makes William Scheele’s Kokoon Arts Gallery sound like it<br />
emphasizes the past, that’s only partly true. In fact, Scheele’s gallery<br />
is equally informed by the Kokoon Arts Club’s drive to press onward<br />
into a future of ever expanding creative possibilities.<br />
Scheele is certainly grounded in twentieth century art from<br />
Cleveland. In 1984 he founded and directed the Cleveland Artists<br />
Foundation, which initially focused on early twentieth-century<br />
artists of the Cleveland School. Scheele’s father—a painter of<br />
imagined scenes from the natural history world (who became<br />
Director of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in 1949) was<br />
a strong influence.<br />
But the other nonprofit organization Scheele founded—the New<br />
Center for Art and Technology, or NewCAT—looked toward the<br />
future. The organization’s 2002 inaugural exhibition brought an<br />
international collection of computer graphic art called The Digital<br />
Hall of Fame to Cleveland. It was the first time the work had ever<br />
been exhibited in the United States. Over the next four years,<br />
NewCAT presented work from the annual Macworld Digital Art<br />
Gallery; produced a forum and exhibition on Creative Industries at<br />
CASE University; and participated in the first Ingenuity Festivals.<br />
“One of the interesting things that happened at NewCAT is that<br />
many people came to our exhibitions out of curiosity for the<br />
newness,” Scheele said. “People were aware of digital art, but didn’t<br />
know how it was done. It was like when the camera was new. People<br />
had to realize that technology doesn’t just make art. That requires<br />
an understanding of the machine. Making art requires human<br />
intervention.”<br />
Both currents have a strong presence at Kokoon Arts Gallery. “What<br />
interests me is work that spans the ages—looking at how historic<br />
artists may treat a subject matter, and how contemporary artists are<br />
dealing with it,” he adds.<br />
Location 1305 West 80th Street, Cleveland<br />
78th Street Studios<br />
Phone 216-832-8212<br />
Web www.kokoonarts.com<br />
Email williamscheele@gmail.com<br />
Facebook Kokoon Arts Gallery<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
Friday & Saturday 11 am to 4 pm<br />
or by Appointment<br />
MISSION<br />
The gallery shows historic and contemporary local<br />
artists, along with artists from around the country and<br />
world . Areas of artistic exploration include natural<br />
history, spirituality & mysticism, local Kokoon Arts Club<br />
& Cleveland School history, photography & computer<br />
graphics . In that Spirit, Kokoon Arts Gallery presents<br />
quality artwork from Traditional to Digital Media .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
William Scheele established Kokoon Arts Gallery in<br />
October 2007 in the 78th Street Studios facility . The gallery<br />
continues the tradition established in 1911 by the Kokoon<br />
Arts Club to promote a more modernist approach to<br />
producing art, believing that artistic creativity should not<br />
be limited by any conventional ideas or laws . Artists must<br />
Scheele has run galleries exhibiting traditional and digital media<br />
steadily since 1988, beginning in Cleveland Heights. His current<br />
gallery is located in the 78th Street Studios.<br />
By showing digital media in the same venue as historic Cleveland<br />
School artists and illustrators of the natural world, Scheele draws a<br />
broad cross section of art aficionados, and commonly exposes people<br />
to work that stretches the limits of their appreciation.<br />
“Sometimes I do see skepticism of new media,” he says. “There are<br />
still people who are very stodgy. This is why I deal with everything<br />
from traditional art techniques to computer graphics and video. To<br />
me it is all intriguing. To me it is the human creative spirit that is<br />
really interesting, and I love to show different ways to see the world.<br />
That is why I remain in the business. I work from a passionate<br />
standpoint. If I were in this for the money, I wouldn’t be here. This<br />
is a labor of love.”<br />
Michael Gill is editor of <strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>.<br />
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always be free to explore new concepts, techniques and<br />
creative tools . Therefore Kokoon Arts Gallery will always<br />
revere and honor historic traditional media, but believes<br />
the evolution of artistic creativity is never ending . .<br />
<strong>2012</strong> EXHIBITIONS<br />
Nature Revealed: Wildlife & Environments<br />
January 20 through April 14, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Michael Nekic: Altered City<br />
Michael Prunty: Recent Watercolors<br />
Gary Spinosa: Temple of the Spirits<br />
Randall Tiedman: InScapes<br />
Andrea LeBlond & Donna Webb: Ceramics<br />
Ernie Horvath, Susan Squires, Karen Kunc & Darren<br />
Waterston: In Search of the Miraculous<br />
Kenneth Paul Lesko gallery.<br />
Kokoon Arts gallery.<br />
page eighteen : : : north east ohio collective arts network journal north east ohio collective arts network journal : : : page nineteen<br />
PHOTO: WILLIAM S . SCHEELE
LAND STUDiO/CLEvELAND pUBLiC ArT<br />
THE ART OF PUBLIC SPACES By Harriet Gould<br />
cleveland public art and parkworks join forces as land studio<br />
The organization formerly known as Cleveland Public Art begins a new chapter in the new year, as it joins forces<br />
with ParkWorks to create a single entity called LAND Studio, (LAND being an acronym for the combined entity’s<br />
areas of focus Landscape – Art – Neighborhoods – Development) . The new organization will continue the work of its<br />
parent organizations–creating places and connecting people through public art, sustainable building and design,<br />
collaborative and dynamic programming .<br />
The merger makes a good occasion to look back at the work<br />
Cleveland Public Art has done to improve public spaces in the<br />
city. By creating specific works and collaborating with other<br />
organizations on their plans, Cleveland Public Art shaped the<br />
experience of being in public places around Cleveland.<br />
Founded in 1985, Cleveland Public Art completed many significant<br />
projects that enhance public buildings, improve streetscape design,<br />
and have bring new life to vacant lots, parks, hiking/biking trails,<br />
and neighborhood centers.<br />
The group always has—and will continue to—emphasize<br />
collaboration. Community leaders in the city’s diverse<br />
neighborhoods contact them for help identifying and creating<br />
projects that will enhance their community’s vacant land,<br />
playgrounds, and other features. Each project reflects the<br />
neighborhood where it is located, resulting in artwork that is part of<br />
each community’s identity. To ensure that all interested artists have<br />
the opportunity to collaborate, the organization maintains a registry<br />
of artists interested in working in the public realm. When projects<br />
come together, all artists on the list are invited to submit proposals.<br />
Many of Cleveland’s most delightful and iconic public spaces were<br />
created or enhanced in collaboration with Cleveland Public Art.<br />
The Eastman Reading Garden at the Cleveland Public Library is<br />
one of Cleveland Public Arts most notable projects. The Garden is<br />
a remarkable open urban space located between the Louis Stokes<br />
wing and the original main library building. In the summer months<br />
people flock there to meet friends, read a book and enjoy their lunch<br />
in the beautiful outdoor space. Playful bronze figures by sculptor<br />
Tom Otterness are scattered around the garden. They mischievously<br />
rearrange and steal letters from its bronze gate. Continuing the theme<br />
of words and meanings, sculptor Maya Lin created an L-shaped<br />
fountain and reflecting pool. The title, “Reading a Garden,” can only<br />
be read correctly if seen as a reflection in the water.<br />
The organization’s reach extends into Cleveland’s neighborhoods.<br />
The trailhead to Slavic Village’s Morgana Run trail is visible from<br />
a distance thanks to Rotoflora, a 35-foot flower sculpture made<br />
from steel, including recycled bicycle wheels, and illuminated with<br />
energy-efficient LEDs.<br />
Cleveland Public Art and ParkWorks were already collaborating in<br />
2002, when they created the Orchard Park School playground, in<br />
Ohio City. The project included 560 linear feet of fencing created<br />
by sculptor Brinsley Tyrrell. Each 10-foot long, hand-forged<br />
section of the fence depicts groups and individuals in motionrunning,<br />
dancing, and wheeling their way around the playground.<br />
After the installation, a multiple-vehicle accident damaged the<br />
fence. The artist incorporated the crash into one of its scenes. The<br />
artwork has become a community asset, adding vibrancy and<br />
interest to the neighborhood.<br />
In conjunction with the City of Cleveland’s recently launched Food<br />
Cart Initiative, Cleveland Public Art has begun a program that pairs<br />
the food cart operators with local artists to visually enhance the food<br />
carts and boldly express each vendor’s offerings. . Making the food<br />
carts into mobile works of public art is an immediate way to create a<br />
brand for each new business.<br />
Cleveland Public Art also provided consulting services to many of<br />
the city’s civic investments, including RTA’s Euclid Corridor, the<br />
Gateway Sports complex, the Cleveland Public Library’s downtown<br />
expansion and the Medical Mart Downtown Mall project.<br />
The non-profit frequently gives lectures, serve on panels, make<br />
referrals from the artist database, and coordinates artist-selection<br />
processes for organizations. Cleveland Public Art includes many<br />
people and groups into the planning process to create a public<br />
partnership project. They create synergies and relationships with<br />
community development corporations, artists, foundations, other<br />
non-profits and organizations to integrate art into the community.<br />
The merger of Cleveland Public Art with ParkWorks to create<br />
LAND Studio ensures that their efforts to beautify and improve<br />
public spaces in the city will continue.<br />
Harriet Gould is co-director of ArtSpace-Cleveland<br />
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Location 1939 W 25th St, Ste 200, Cleveland, OH 44113<br />
Phone pending the new organization’s number<br />
Web www.land-studio.org<br />
Email gpeckham@land-studio.org<br />
MISSION<br />
LAND studio’s mission is to create places and connect<br />
people through public art, sustainable building<br />
and design, collaborative planning, and dynamic<br />
programming .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
LAND studio was formed in 2011 through the merger<br />
of Cleveland Public Art (CPA) and ParkWorks, two of<br />
Cleveland’s leading non-profit organizations focused<br />
on enhancing public spaces .<br />
Historically, CPA had accomplished this through<br />
stimulating public art and ParkWorks through the<br />
creation and care of inviting greenspaces . But each<br />
organization evolved over time to embrace larger<br />
roles in the envisioning, planning, designing, building,<br />
and programming of Cleveland’s public spaces .<br />
And this evolution was a collaborative one, with both<br />
organizations working together more frequently on<br />
multiple projects citywide .<br />
Eventually, the two parent organizations came to the<br />
conclusion that by becoming more than occasional<br />
partners, they could accomplish even greater work<br />
for Cleveland . Thus, after a thoughtful merger process,<br />
LAND studio was born .<br />
PHOTO: CLEVELAND PUBLIC ART<br />
LEgATiON, A gALLEry<br />
A MARRIAGE OF ART AND MUSIC<br />
legation, a gallery combines two loves<br />
Legation a gallery opened in 2009, with “Anatomy of the Barnstorm: black and white photography by Daniel Mainzer,”<br />
an exhibit of Mainzer’s Joe Walsh album art, candid and audience shots, as well as his documentation of the Akron<br />
Firestone Plant . Thus began this union of art and music, the vision of wife and husband Hilary and John Aurand .<br />
The name legation once was a diplomatic term, referring to someone<br />
other than an ambassador. The Aurands define it as “the sending<br />
forth of one person to act for another.” A gallery, or an agent, for<br />
example, might act as a legation for an artist.<br />
John says his resolve to make the gallery a reality comes from “not<br />
wanting to regret the things you don’t do.” The Aurands decided to<br />
open the gallery when circumstances aligned: They were looking for<br />
a place to live, and at the same time, Hilary needed studio space.<br />
So rather than buy a house in a tough economy, they moved into<br />
the 78th Street Studios –specifically, into a space that once housed<br />
American Greetings Creative Studios.<br />
John, once a financial planner, turned to planning events, from live<br />
music performances to gallery exhibits. Instead of investing money,<br />
he was investing sweat equity in the renovation of the space, and the<br />
programming therein. What began as three empty rooms is now one<br />
open space full of activity.<br />
They chose space in the 78th Street Studios in part due to its<br />
proximity to Gordon Square Arts District. (eliminate this and<br />
particularly its Theaters: Cleveland Public Theater, and Capitol<br />
Cinemas.) Since moving there, the two have become active leaders,<br />
and a primary force in the promotion and success of the 78th Street<br />
Studios third Friday openings, which now draw hundreds of visitors<br />
each month. While legation’s exhibits run the continuum from<br />
traditional to conceptual, the Aurands say what is most important<br />
is that the audience is comfortable. Creating an ambience of a very<br />
open and relaxed space is key. An artist herself, Hilary is particularly<br />
sensitive to difficulties artists can have approaching galleries for a<br />
show. She found that Cleveland can be just as intimidating as larger<br />
cities in this regard. She wants legation to help artists network with<br />
the market and to provide greater opportunity for emerging and<br />
established artists. Hence, the name.<br />
In addition to being a resource to local artists, the gallery also gives<br />
back to a community in Kenya, East Africa, with 10% of proceeds<br />
from art sales donated by legation to the Victory Gospel Church.<br />
John brings similar passion to the presentation of music. He likes<br />
the intimate setting their 3,000 square feet can provide. Bands are a<br />
part of the opening night events at Legation. The gallery and living<br />
space also present occasional house concerts. The flexibility of the<br />
relationship between the visual and musical components of legation<br />
has also helped the Aurands book special events.<br />
Jean Brandt is director of Brandt Gallery.<br />
“Rotoflora” sculpture at the Morgana Run trailhead in Slavic Village.<br />
Legation, A Gallery.<br />
page twenty : : : north east ohio collective arts network journal north east ohio collective arts network journal : : : page twenty one<br />
By Jean Brandt<br />
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PHOTO: HILARY ARNOLD<br />
Location 1300 West 78th Street<br />
Phone 216.650.4201<br />
Web www.legationagallery.com<br />
Email legation1300@gmail.com<br />
Facebook legation, a gallery<br />
MISSION<br />
Our mission is to engage artists, designers and<br />
musicians in a professional networking environment in<br />
Cleveland’s largest art center, the 78th Street Studios .<br />
Our 3,000-square-foot space can host art exhibtions,<br />
musical performances and can be rented for other<br />
events such as business or networking meetings, fashion<br />
shows and wedding ceremonies or receptions . A portion<br />
of all donations and proceeds go to Victory Gospel<br />
Church in Kenya, East Africa to benefit a mission for<br />
orphans and widows . For more details or to set up a<br />
show, please call Hilary Aurand at 216 .650 .4201or email<br />
legation1300@gmail .com .<br />
UPCOMING EVENTS<br />
Derek Gelvin & Jim Leach, sculpture and installation<br />
January 20 – February 25<br />
Hilary Aurand & Dawn Tekler/ paintings and photography<br />
March 16 – April 20<br />
Dott Schneider “The Missing Piece”, interactive installation<br />
April 20 – May 5<br />
Jason Byer, new paintings<br />
May 18 – June 2<br />
Meghann Snow, new performance paintings<br />
June 15 – July 7<br />
Additional W . 78th Street Studios 3rd Fridays:<br />
August 17<br />
September 21<br />
Sarah Curry & Hadley Conner, paintings & photography<br />
October 19<br />
November 16<br />
December 21
mOrgAN ArT OF pApErmAkiNg CONSErvATOry<br />
MORGAN CONSERVATORY OCCUPIES CLEVELAND<br />
making paper by hand in midtown is the opposite of greed<br />
If Occupy Wall Street’s goals are to challenge the paradigms of greed and self-involvement, then the Morgan Art<br />
of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation has something in common with the political movement .<br />
Its mission and practice are an antidote to those corporate vices . But the Morgan came first .<br />
Conceived by artist and papermaker Tom Balbo in 2006, the<br />
nonprofit organization is dedicated to handmade papermaking<br />
and the arts that extend from paper such as printmaking and<br />
book arts as well as hosting exhibitions celebrating these forms.<br />
The Conservatory provides remarkable resources that introduce<br />
the broader community to the unique and beautiful qualities of<br />
handmade paper while providing artists with the facilities to explore<br />
this form to a depth and degree few other institutions can match.<br />
Adding to this commitment to the art of paper is a commitment to<br />
green practices and community enrichment. The Morgan stands<br />
as one of Cleveland’s truly important creative engines bringing the<br />
aesthetics of the handmade paper to a reality of Urban renewal.<br />
The Conservatory even maintains a small grove of “giving trees” in a<br />
tenderly cared-for garden. The Kozo trees were planted from cuttings<br />
brought from the University of Iowa the year after the organization<br />
was founded. They thrive behind the former machine shop the<br />
Morgan calls home. Beginning in 2006,the industrial building was<br />
slowly transformed through the sweat equity of many local artists<br />
Location 1754 East 47th Street, Cleveland, OH 44103<br />
Phone 216.361.9255<br />
Web www.morganconservatory.org<br />
Email program@morganconservatory.org<br />
Facebook Morgan Conservatory<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a .m . – 4 p .m .<br />
MISSION<br />
The Morgan is a non-profit art center dedicated to the<br />
preservation of hand papermaking paper arts and the<br />
art of the book . The Morgan pursues its educational and<br />
charitable purposes by serving the greater community<br />
locally, nationally, and internationally with sustainable<br />
practices in an innovative green environment .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
Tom Balbo and many other local and national paper,<br />
book and print artists and educators saw the need to<br />
preserve these art forms as they were disappearing<br />
from art schools and colleges . Beginning operations<br />
in October, 2008 in a repurposed 15,000+ sf machine<br />
shop the Morgan offers workshops in handmade<br />
papermaking, paper and book arts, and offers 5 to 6<br />
national/international exhibitions each year in its 1,540<br />
expandable gallery space . Among those have been the<br />
“”War as Art / Art As War Combat Paper exhibit, which<br />
presented works made on paper created by soldiers from<br />
and volunteers bringing Balbo’s remarkable vision to fruition, and<br />
fulfilling the mission of the trust established by a gift from the late<br />
Charles Morgan.<br />
Every year running from May to September, the Morgan provides<br />
workshops on a variety of paper and bookmaking topics. In<br />
2011 these included sessions such as “Animated Pop-Ups,” Paper<br />
Casting, “ Books on Brass Boards” and “Big Ass Papermaking.”<br />
The Conservatory is also a destination for area school fieldtrips and<br />
often provides instructors for in-school workshops. The Morgan has<br />
facilities capable of producing paper made following Eastern and<br />
Western practices. The organization itself exists as an inviting hub<br />
of creative energy attracting people from diverse backgrounds to this<br />
urban neighborhood.<br />
Further extending this outreach will be the <strong>2012</strong> International<br />
Association of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists/Friends of<br />
Dard Hunter Conference, running October 17 – 22, the event<br />
will be hosted by the Morgan. The conference will bring an<br />
estimated 300 to 350 paper artists from around the world to<br />
their old uniforms; “Bad Boys, Magic Ladies, and Timeless<br />
Masters” which featured contemporary American block<br />
printers – at least one of which used a steamroller as a<br />
tool for the transfer of ink; and the annual Abecedaria<br />
show, organized by Artist Books Cleveland .<br />
UPCOMING<br />
CIA Steamroller Prints<br />
Winter, 2011<br />
John Adams/Clare Murray-Adams (Drawing/Mix Media/<br />
Encaustic)<br />
March, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Rebecca Cross (Shibori on Handmade Paper)<br />
May, 20112<br />
Don Lisy (Drawing)/Qian Li (Drawing)<br />
July, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Snail Mail/Paper Trail (Art Auction – invited artists create<br />
paper on Morgan Paper)<br />
September, <strong>2012</strong><br />
“Colossal, Vast, Enormous” and Members Exhibition<br />
(Watermarks <strong>2012</strong> Conference exhibition)<br />
Friends of Dard Hunter and International Association of<br />
Hand Papermakers & Artists<br />
October, <strong>2012</strong><br />
By Lane Cooper<br />
Cleveland. Founded in 1986 in Düren, Germany, the IAPMA is an<br />
international organization and has been a leader in promoting paper<br />
as an art medium. Partnering in the conference is The Friends of<br />
Dard Hunter a group which is committed to education and social<br />
connection in the field of papermaking and which promotes interest<br />
in the Dard Hunter Collection which is housed in the Robert C.<br />
Williams Paper Museum in Atalanta, GA. Nine Cleveland area<br />
galleries will work with the Morgan to host supporting exhibitions<br />
and workshops. The Dard Hunter/IAPMA Conference represents<br />
a notable event for the Morgan firmly situating the Conservatory<br />
within a growing international papermaking community.<br />
Lane Cooper is assistant professor, head of the Painting program, and<br />
Visiting Artist program coordinator at the Cleveland Institute of Art.<br />
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PHOTO: MORGAN CONSERVATORY<br />
OrANgE ArT CENTEr<br />
NESTLED (AND GROWING) IN THE WOODS<br />
orange art center makes a place for the arts in Pepper Pike<br />
Nestled in a tranquil, wooded setting, the Orange Art Center is the center of creativity for Pepper Pike and the<br />
surrounding areas . Making its home in a century-old house adjacent to the Cuyahoga County Library’s Orange<br />
Branch, the Center offers a perfect environment for making art . Its outdoor environment sets the stage for its indoor<br />
activity by offering a feeling of calm and contemplative thought .<br />
The Orange Art Center traces its roots to 1968, when a group of<br />
dedicated community members established the Orange Community<br />
Arts Council as a way to promote cultural events in their<br />
community. The next year, 800 people attended the first Barefoot in<br />
the Parlor House Tour and Garden Fare. This confirmed the support<br />
of cultural programs for the community, and by 1980 the council<br />
provided the funds to establish the Orange Art Center. Throughout<br />
its history, OAC has expanded with the addition of gallery space,<br />
instructional space, and a state of the arts ceramic studio, thereby<br />
doubling in size.<br />
Today OAC thrives, offering extensive visual arts classes yearround<br />
to adults, teens, and children. Additional programs include:<br />
community partnerships, exhibits and events, and financial<br />
assistance and programs to students in the Orange School District.<br />
The Center’s dedicated staff of two, Executive Director, Deborah<br />
Pinter and Executive Assistant, Gina DeSantis receives support in all<br />
its programs from its impressive list of faculty.<br />
Orange Art Center’s class listing can readily be found online. OAC’s<br />
class offerings focus on painting, jewelry, ceramics, mixed media<br />
and crafts. By no means, however, are these the only classes offered.<br />
A visit to their website whets the appetite. Orange faculty include<br />
well know professional artists who exhibit regularly throughout the<br />
region and are also included in local collections. Four class sessions<br />
are planned annually, encouraging participants to learn something<br />
new or continue expanding in their area of interest. While the<br />
OAC audience encompasses the greater Cleveland area and Eastern<br />
Pennsylvania, its primary audience is local retired adults.<br />
Director Deborah Pinter remarked during our interview “Orange<br />
Art Center has a unique spirit of family. It has dedicated patrons<br />
and supporters, some going back thirty years, who remain involved<br />
with the organization. These patrons have given of their time by<br />
volunteering or remaining active in classes. Through this long<br />
standing connection of repeat customers, a wonderful commitment<br />
to the OAC has been established.”<br />
This family environment is evident through the other programs<br />
offered by the center. Core to its mission, OAC is committed to<br />
helping students further their artistic development, nurturing<br />
artistic expression in all its participants, and delivering high quality<br />
cultural entertainment to the community. For example, the Orange<br />
Art Center mentors two to four high school seniors annually,<br />
offering them the opportunity to complete their senior project at the<br />
Center. Through this program, students can take as many classes<br />
and workshops as they like during the month of May at no cost. The<br />
$500 Orange Art Center/Charlene Power’s Award is awarded to an<br />
Orange High School junior each year. Younger students in grades<br />
K-5 can participate in after school classes, selecting from pottery,<br />
drawing, and painting.<br />
Through an ongoing partnership with New Directions, a treatment<br />
facility for chemically dependent teens, the Orange Art Center<br />
provides a nurturing environment whereby clients can experience<br />
pottery classes once a week throughout the year.<br />
Location 31500 Chagrin Boulevard<br />
Pepper Pike<br />
Phone 216.831.5130<br />
Web www.orangeartcenter.org<br />
Email dpinter@orangeartcenter.org,<br />
gdesantis@orangeartcenter.org<br />
Facebook Orange Art Center<br />
OFFICE HOURS<br />
Monday-Friday 9:30am-4:00pm<br />
MISSION<br />
The mission of the Orange Art Center is<br />
to offer educational opportunities, which<br />
encourage the practice and appreciation<br />
of the fine arts among people living in the<br />
Orange School district and surrounding<br />
areas by: Operating classes for children<br />
and adults that develop and nurture<br />
artistic expression; Providing educational<br />
and social programs, which inform and<br />
entertain; Providing financial assistance<br />
and programming in the Orange School<br />
District; Sponsoring art exhibits and fine<br />
art performances for the community;<br />
and collaborating with other community<br />
organizations .<br />
The Orange Art Center has three exhibitions a year. The spring<br />
faculty exhibition highlights the amazing accomplishments of<br />
OAC’s very talented artists and teachers. Each June, for more<br />
than 25 years, the annual Student Show has presented the work of<br />
class participants and offers juried prizes. OAC’s annual Animals<br />
in Art Exhibition, known by many in the local arts circles,<br />
is a collaboration that supports artists, a local animal rescue<br />
organization, and the Orange Art Center. This unique collaboration,<br />
created by OAC’s director Deb Pinter, is an exhibition and art sale<br />
that showcases 30-40 local artists. For one week the exhibition<br />
spotlights works of art with an animal based theme. The OAC’s<br />
director, a practicing artist herself, feels it is important the event<br />
gives back sixty percent of the proceeds to the participating artists,<br />
with the remaining proceeds being split between, this year’s partner<br />
(the spay-and-neuter clinic PetFix of Northeast Ohio) and the<br />
Orange Art Center.<br />
The Orange Art Center exceeds its goal of successfully encouraging<br />
the practice and appreciation of the fine arts among people living in<br />
the Orange School District by serving it community and the local<br />
Cleveland area through quality programs. Their small and talented<br />
staff continues moving the organization forward as they reach out to<br />
the community, continue to have a presence at community events,<br />
and maintain their welcoming family environment within the center.<br />
Amy Craft is executive director of Art House<br />
Bookmaking at the Morgan.<br />
Live figure painting.<br />
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By Amy Craft<br />
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PHOTO: ORANGE ART CENTER<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
The Orange Community Arts Council<br />
(OCAC) was incorporated January 17,<br />
1968 as a community group who visualized<br />
creating a Summer Campus of the Arts for<br />
the Orange Community . In March of 1969,<br />
800 community members attended the<br />
first Barefoot in the Parlor House Tour and<br />
Garden Faire .<br />
The OCAC worked on their goals in three<br />
Phases, Phase I (1967-1970), Performing Arts,<br />
Phase II (1970-1979), The Interim Periods of<br />
Classes and Scholarship; and Phase III<br />
(1979-currently), the Visual Arts/Art Center .<br />
In 1980, OCAC established the Orange Art<br />
Center in an 83-year-old house nestled in<br />
the woods near the Cuyahoga County<br />
Public Library-Orange Branch . Capital<br />
campaigns over the years have more than<br />
doubled the size of the original building<br />
by enhancing the instructional spaces,<br />
expanding exhibit areas and building a<br />
state-of-the-art ceramics studio . Over<br />
the years the purpose of the Orange Art<br />
Center and the type of programming have<br />
shifted its focus primarily to Phase III, the<br />
Visual Arts component . With the continuing<br />
support of the board, staff and community,<br />
the Center has become one of the area’s<br />
most prestigious community art centers in<br />
its area .<br />
UPCOMING EVENTS<br />
Faculty Exhibition: March 16-30, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Opening and Patron Party: March 16, <strong>2012</strong><br />
from 6-9pm<br />
Student Exhibition: June 4-June 8, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Opening: June 3 from 3-5pm<br />
Adult Classes and Workshops<br />
Winter Session: January 15-March 9, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Spring Session: April 2- May 25, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Summer Session: June 25-August 3, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Fall Session: September 10-November 16,<br />
<strong>2012</strong><br />
Children’s Classes<br />
Winter Session: January 23-March 9, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Spring Session: April 8- May 25, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Summer Camps: Weekly, June 11 – Aug . 17<br />
Fall Session: October 1-November 16, <strong>2012</strong>
ThE priNT CLUB OF CLEvELAND<br />
INTIMATE CONTACT By Beth Whalley<br />
the print club of cleveland helps members get in touch with fine art<br />
As artmakers, gallerists and art enthusiasts, many of us are accustomed to seeing art hung on walls, with plenty<br />
of white space surrounding it to provide optimal viewing free from “distraction” by things like doors, light switches,<br />
and other artwork . It’s not that way at the Print Club of Cleveland’s Fine Print Fair, an annual event I attended last<br />
year at Tri-C’s Corporate College East .<br />
The Fine Print Fair is by far the largest and most popular event<br />
organized by the Print Club of Cleveland. Attended by college<br />
students, seasoned collectors and everyone in between, it was<br />
encouraging and interesting to see such diversity in the room.<br />
Prints were literally everywhere – on the tables, hung on moveable<br />
walls, in racks on the floor, and leaned up against the wall. The<br />
sheer number of prints and the ability to handle the work breeds<br />
a familiarity with and appreciation of the prints that just can’t be<br />
achieved in a gallery setting. Walking around the fair, I saw people<br />
discussing the prints and processes. The room had a buzz of energy<br />
as members, attendees, students, dealers, friends and curators<br />
expressed their shared love of the medium.<br />
There is a definite intimacy involved in handling prints and, though<br />
they were all matted to protect the image on the paper, the viewer<br />
has a significant responsibility handling the work.<br />
And with fourteen vendors from around the country, there was a<br />
great diversity of artwork in the room as well. From 18th century<br />
European to 19th century American to contemporary Mexican or<br />
Japanese prints, the breadth of time and geography represented at the<br />
fair made it really enjoyable to move from dealer to dealer. With just<br />
as large a range in prices, this event makes art collecting accessible to<br />
anyone who wants to start or build a collection of their own.<br />
The Print Club of Cleveland is an established organization with 91<br />
years behind it, only six years younger than The Cleveland Museum<br />
of Art. In fact, the Print Club is an affiliate of CMA, and roughly<br />
one-third (or 18,000 works!) of CMA’s print collection have been<br />
gifts from the club and its members. The individual members<br />
share a love of print collecting and an appreciation for the varied<br />
printmaking processes. When considering the illustrious history of<br />
this organization you might make the assumption that the group<br />
is traditional rather than progressively eclectic, but you would be<br />
completely mistaken.<br />
Print Club President, Mary Kay DeGrandis very clearly loves<br />
her position and is a fountain of knowledge about not only the<br />
organization but the art of printmaking, the dealers at the fair, and<br />
the art museum. Mary Kay first became involved in the group when<br />
she attended a Fine Print Fair in 1988. She became a member in the<br />
year 2000.<br />
One of her favorite things about the club is its educational<br />
programming. This educational pursuit was evident at the Fine Print<br />
Fair, where <strong>Zygote</strong> <strong>Press</strong> and the Morgan Conservatory presented<br />
printmaking and papermaking demonstrations in the atrium.<br />
Lectures by CMA leaders were also scheduled for each day. One of<br />
the lecturers, Dr. Jane Glaubinger, Curator of Prints at the Museum,<br />
is very involved in the group. Indeed, one of the many benefits of<br />
membership in this organization is having the opportunity to get to<br />
know the diverse membership that includes artists, collectors, and<br />
CMA leadership and staff. The group sponsors lectures throughout<br />
the year. There are other activities, too, including visits to members’<br />
homes to view their print collections.<br />
As the club continues its evolution, one of Mary Kay’s endeavors<br />
is to increase its junior membership and attract more members<br />
in their 30s, 40s and under. Moving into the 21st century, the<br />
club has a website, and Facebook page. They’ll continue to make<br />
select educational programs open to the general public, allowing<br />
nonmembers to participate, and perhaps to become members<br />
themselves. The Print Club of Cleveland is very unique in that it’s<br />
not defined by a physical space so much as it’s defined by the people<br />
who belong to it. As long as young people keep discovering this great<br />
organization and its active community, the club will continue its<br />
history and still be around in 3016!<br />
Beth Whalley is director of Proximity Gallery.<br />
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Location 11150 East Blvd, Cleveland<br />
Phone 216-707-2579<br />
Web http://www.printclubcleveland.org/<br />
Email printclub@clevelandart.org<br />
Facebook The Print Club of Cleveland<br />
MISSION<br />
The Print Club of Cleveland’s purpose is to stimulate<br />
interest in an appreciation of old and contemporary<br />
prints, to augment (by purchases and gifts) the print<br />
collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art and to<br />
encourage private collecting of prints . The club<br />
annually distributes to its members a print which has<br />
been commissioned by the club .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
The Print Club of Cleveland was founded in 1919 by<br />
collectors of fine art prints and has continually been a<br />
source for print collectors in the Western Reserve since its<br />
inception . It is the oldest affiliate group of the Cleveland<br />
Museum of Art . The Print Club has hosted the annual<br />
Fine Print Fair since 1984 . The Fair invites 14 dealers from<br />
across the country, hand-picked by Cleveland Museum<br />
of Art curator of prints Jane Glaubinger . Each year a<br />
different dealer is invited for the 3 day fair . The dealers<br />
not only sell art but educate the fair visitor . Educational<br />
activities including, talks by curators, museum directors<br />
and print dealers continue throughout the weekend .<br />
Printmakers and paper conservationists from zygote<br />
<strong>Press</strong>, Morgan Conservatory, and the Intermuseum<br />
Conservation Association offer demonstrations . Almost<br />
1,000 people attend .<br />
Other Print Club events include gallery talks at the<br />
Cleveland Museum of Art, house tours of members’<br />
homes to view their collections, special lectures by<br />
curators, artists and printmakers and curator led trips to<br />
various museums and private art collections throughout<br />
the United States .<br />
Preparations for celebration of the club’s 100th<br />
anniversary are underway, including plans to partner<br />
with various galleries and printmakers throughout<br />
the city .<br />
UPCOMING EVENTS<br />
Fine Print Fair<br />
September 28, 29 and 30, <strong>2012</strong><br />
PHOTO: PRINT CLUB OF CLEVELAND<br />
prOximiTy<br />
CLEVELAND IS IN PROxIMITY By Robert Maschke, AIA<br />
beth whalley and alex kelly provide great art in proximity gallery<br />
With a vision to create a place where there is a level of comfortability amongst artists, patrons, and visitors when<br />
they stop by, artists Beth Whalley and Alex Kelly look to welcome you to Proximity gallery, the front room of their<br />
home located at 1667 East 40th Street in Cleveland’s St . Clair/Superior neighborhood .<br />
The gallery not only acts as an extension of Whalley and Kelly’s<br />
studio/residence, but of their personalities as well. Housed in the<br />
newly renovated Loftworks Building—a pleasantly repurposed livework<br />
warehouse building now home to residents and businesses—<br />
Proximity Gallery occupies a first floor storefront facing East 40th<br />
Street. It’s easily accessible, with surface and street parking to<br />
accommodate. The space is deliberately raw and sparse, but sets up<br />
well for displaying a diverse range of artists’ paintings, sculpture,<br />
installations, and talks.<br />
Whalley, a fiber artist and Kelly, a fine artist met as students at the<br />
Cleveland Institute of Art and looked to pursue an opportunity to<br />
establish an art gallery. Poised to relocate from Cleveland to new<br />
challenges and opportunities in Portland, Oregon, a serendipitous<br />
opportunity to occupy their current gallery and home space kept<br />
them from moving.<br />
Proximity opened in July 2010. Whalley and Kelly wanted to create<br />
a focus of emerging artists with the blending of more established<br />
ones (such as Royden Watson and Michael Levy, both of whom<br />
have exhibited during the inaugural year). The mix has quickly<br />
established Proximity as a capable destination gallery.<br />
Open to the public, Proximity shows four to five exhibitions per<br />
year with art openings on Fridays from 6:00PM to 10:00PM<br />
with regular hours Saturday and Sunday from Noon to 4:00PM<br />
or by appointment while the shows are being presented. During<br />
openings, beer and wine are provided within the gallery, and the<br />
vibrant Cleveland food trucks mobilize out front to offer a variety<br />
of dining choices.<br />
The current schedule of <strong>2012</strong> exhibitions has not been finalized, but<br />
is available at the gallery’s website. Cash, check and major credit<br />
cards are accepted for payment.<br />
Proximity emphasizes that there is not an established agenda for<br />
the gallery, just a passion to display and sell high quality work<br />
that Whalley and Kelly enjoy while expanding their reach. They<br />
Location 1667 E 40th Street, Suite 1A, Cleveland<br />
Phone 216.262.8903<br />
Web www.proximitycleveland.com<br />
Email info@proximitycleveland.com<br />
Facebook Proximity Cleveland<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
Saturday & Sunday: 12-4pm (during exhibition dates)<br />
Additional hours by appointment<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
Proximity opened in July 2010, launched by artists Alex<br />
Kelly and Beth Whalley . In early 2010 they were looking<br />
to find a new apartment and learned that the storefront<br />
and adjacent living space in the Loftworks building<br />
was available . After a few years toying with the idea of<br />
opening an art gallery they decided that this was more<br />
than mere coincidence, so they acquired the space<br />
and started the gallery . Their most significant shows so far<br />
have been solo exhibitions of two established Cleveland<br />
artists: Mere Witness: Photographs by Michael Levy in<br />
June 2011 and So – Recent Works by Royden Watson<br />
in September 2011 . The gallery has shown a variety of<br />
mediums: drawing, painting, photography, printmaking,<br />
textiles, and sculpture .<br />
plan to continue showing more established artists blended with<br />
their consistent display of local, talented emerging artists. With<br />
this approach, the gallery looks to become another established arts<br />
anchor in the evolving St Clair/Superior neighborhood.<br />
Robert Maschke, AIA is managing director of 1point618 and principal<br />
of Robert Maschke Architects<br />
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MISSION<br />
Proximity is a “gallery without an agenda” that aims to<br />
show significant works of art in all mediums by both upand-coming<br />
and established artists .<br />
UPCOMING SHOWS<br />
<strong>2012</strong> shows to be announced<br />
check www .proximitycleveland .com in early <strong>2012</strong> for<br />
a schedule .<br />
Examining prints at the Fine Print Fair.<br />
Proximity gallery.<br />
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PHOTO: BETH WHALLEY
ED DOT prOjECT<br />
PLAYING THE PART OF THEO By Peggy Spaeth<br />
in the interior design marketplace, red dot project represents artists<br />
One of the complexities of being an artist is that you have to do it all: make the art, photograph it, market it, and<br />
try to sell it . Who has time for all of that?<br />
It’s not a rhetorical or flippant question. For all its cultural import,<br />
art is essentially a consumer product. In the case of nearly all other<br />
consumer goods, the making and the selling are viewed as different<br />
occupations, delegated and sub-delegated to paid professionals. But<br />
individual artists rarely have this luxury. Few of them have brothers<br />
like Theo Van Gogh, who promoted and sold Vincent’s work.<br />
So there is a missing link between the artist and the consumer that<br />
a gallery can fill, but because art is by nature a highly individualized<br />
product, each gallery tends to carry specific genre or families of art.<br />
In Northeast Ohio Red Dot Project has stepped in to fill the crucial<br />
need to match art and consumers with a highly personal service.<br />
Founded in 2005 by long-time art gallery owner and entrepreneur<br />
Joan Perch, Red Dot Project was inspired by Pierogi Flat Files in<br />
New York. The intent was to make original artwork available by<br />
storing a wide variety of media in flat files, and eventually online.<br />
Red Dot Project represents more than 100 Northeast Ohio artists<br />
in a wide variety of media, reflecting its mission to create economic<br />
opportunities for artists. Any artist may apply to be included in<br />
the collection. Artists the Red Dot Project represents are selected<br />
by a peer review process. Criteria for selection include the artist’s<br />
command of the material, and the overall quality of the art.<br />
Project Director Christy Gray—whose experience is both as an artist<br />
and an interior designer—provides a link between the artist and the<br />
client, typically a small or medium-sized business looking for art<br />
because they are moving or renovating. The client does not pay a fee.<br />
Like a commercial gallery, Red Dot earns a percentage of the sale<br />
price of the art.<br />
Even if art is viewed as a consumer product, selling it is unlike the<br />
sale of commodities, or impulse products. Selling art is a process.<br />
At RDP, the process begins when Gray meets with the client and<br />
assesses their needs. Factors under consideration are individual taste,<br />
space, and budget. Red Dot Project uses a searchable database that<br />
makes the art selection process easier and faster. Because Gray is<br />
familiar with a wide range of artists, sometimes she will suggest a<br />
commissioned piece customized to the client.<br />
In the summer of 2011, Red Dot Project provided the art for The<br />
Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Smart Home, a passive<br />
energy model home. The selected art was based on the fundamentals<br />
of sustainability. The pieces were made from natural or reclaimed<br />
materials, created in a studio where environmental processes were<br />
in place and/or reflected in content or theme views of our world and<br />
environment.<br />
Red Dot Project provides a very personal and crucial connection<br />
between the creative community and clients in Northeast Ohio.<br />
Peggy Spaeth is executive director of Heights Arts<br />
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Location 1900 Superior Avenue, Suite 117, Cleveland<br />
Phone 216.664.9600<br />
Web http://updates.reddotproject.org/<br />
Email Christy@reddotproject.org<br />
Facebook Red Dot Project<br />
Twitter REDDOTProject<br />
MISSION<br />
RED DOT Project puts the work of Northeast Ohio artists<br />
together with clients who want to enliven their work and<br />
home environments . As a non-profit organization, we do<br />
more than just sell art . We build community relationships<br />
and develop new markets for artists as entrepreneurs .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
Founded in 2005 by artist, gallery owner and arts<br />
entrepreneur Joan Perch, RED DOT Project maintains<br />
artists work in flat files and digital images, rather than<br />
space-intensive gallery displays . The flat and digital<br />
files can be easily viewed by clients who wish to take<br />
advantage of the region’s thriving creative class .<br />
Previously, Perch was owner of ArtMetro Gallery, and<br />
creator of the ARTcade—a collection of galleries that<br />
brought life to the otherwise mostly vacant Colonial<br />
Arcade in Downtown Cleveland . Christy Gray, now<br />
project director of RED DOT Project, has been involved<br />
with the organization since its inception . Gray’s textile art<br />
can be found in private collections throughout Northeast<br />
Ohio . Since its inception in 2005, RED DOT Project has<br />
provided real sales opportunities for visual artists and<br />
arts businesses totaling more than $500,000 .<br />
PHOTO: KEITH BERR<br />
rivEr gALLEry<br />
A COMPELLING COMBINATION<br />
river gallery has a passion for group shows<br />
River Gallery is a white wall gallery, representing emerging and established artists from the Cleveland area . The<br />
gallery is located on Old Detroit Road in Rocky River, a charming shopping area that was recently revitalized with<br />
a streetscape make over . The pedestrian friendly neighborhood is packed with restaurants and galleries . River<br />
Gallery and its neighbors Devout Home and Mitchell Sotka Ltd ., are the longstanding arts businesses in the Old<br />
River Shopping area .<br />
River Gallery’s current exhibit, Cleveland Craft Masters, features<br />
the work of David and Roberta Williamson, Pamela Argentieri,<br />
Matthew Hollern, William Brouillard, Judith Salomon and Brent<br />
Young. It’s the kind of exhibit, collectors can expect from the gallery.<br />
G. Ara Hamamjian, the gallery owner, is incredibly proud of the<br />
current exhibit, “This exhibit is a compelling combination of artists<br />
who have a long-time relationship with the gallery, plus two artists<br />
new to River Gallery,” he says. “All of them have impressive local<br />
reputations and all are nationally recognized.”<br />
A real labor of love, it is obvious that Hamamjian and gallery<br />
manager, Mark Yasenchack have a passion for curating group<br />
exhibits and providing established and emerging local artists with<br />
a finely tailored and professional presentation. “The relationships<br />
I have made with artists have been inspiring and incredibly<br />
rewarding.” Hamamjian adds.<br />
By Mark Yasenchack<br />
Founded in 1970 by his parents George and Sara Hamamjian,<br />
Ara grew up surrounded by art. After graduating from Ohio State<br />
University, Ara enrolled in the Picture Framing Academy in San<br />
Francisco, honing his skills and developing a love for the craft. An<br />
artist in his own right, Hamamjian dresses flyfishing flies. Both<br />
functional and decorative, they are ornaments of hook, fur and<br />
feather. He instructs fly-tying workshops at the Cleveland Museum<br />
of Natural History. Developed from his love of flyfishing he is also a<br />
guide on the Rocky River for other enthusiastic fly-fishers.<br />
In 1994 Hamamjian purchased the gallery from his parents and<br />
pursued a different course by focusing on independent studio artists,<br />
as well as establishing collaborative relationships with professors and<br />
alumni of the Cleveland Institute of Art, Kent State University, and<br />
Baldwin-Wallace College.<br />
The support and enthusiasm of River Gallery patrons is clearly<br />
evident in the success of the annual Ceramics Invitational Exhibit<br />
Location 19046 Old Detroit Road<br />
Rocky River<br />
Phone 440.331.8406<br />
Web www.rivergalleryarts.com<br />
Email rivergalleryarts@yahoo.com<br />
Facebook River Gallery<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
11 a .m . to 6 p .m . Tuesday through Friday<br />
11 a .m . to 5 p .m . Saturday<br />
Closed Sunday and Monday<br />
Or by appointment<br />
MISSION<br />
Exhibiting nationally recognized and emerging artists<br />
from the Cleveland area .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
River Gallery was founded in 1970 by George and Sara<br />
Hamamjian, . Their son Ara, the gallery’s current owner,<br />
therefore grew up surrounded by art . After graduating<br />
from Ohio State University, Ara enrolled in the Picture<br />
Framing Academy in San Francisco, honing his skills and<br />
developing a love for the craft . An artist in his own right,<br />
Hamamjian dresses flyfishing flies . Both functional and<br />
decorative, they are ornaments of hook, fur and feather .<br />
every April. Since 2005, this exhibit has grown to feature the work<br />
of over 30 ceramicists. The <strong>2012</strong> exhibit will open Saturday April<br />
28th, <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
The first exhibit of the <strong>2012</strong> season, will be the annual photography<br />
exhibit. This will feature new works by Mark Inglis, Jessica Maloney,<br />
Chad Gordon and Dan Morgan. These photographers have<br />
developed unique and inventive methods of creating compelling<br />
contemporary photography. This exhibit opens Saturday, February<br />
4th, <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
Both Ara and Mark enjoy the discovery of exciting new work by<br />
talented artists of the Cleveland area, and sharing that dynamic with<br />
River Gallery patrons.<br />
River Gallery seeks artists year-round.<br />
Mark Yasenchack is gallery manager of River Gallery<br />
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He instructs fly-tying workshops at the Cleveland Museum<br />
of Natural History . Developed from his love of flyfishing he<br />
is also a guide on the Rocky River for other enthusiastic<br />
fly-fishers .<br />
In 1994 Hamamjian purchased the gallery from his<br />
parents and pursued a different course by focusing<br />
on independent studio artists, as well as establishing<br />
collaborative relationships with professors and alumni<br />
of the Cleveland Institute of Art, Kent State University,<br />
and Baldwin-Wallace College .<br />
UPCOMING EXHIBITS<br />
Mark Inglis, Jessica Maloney, Chad Gordon, Dan Morgan<br />
Opening February 4, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Animal-Themed Art Exhibit<br />
Opening March 17, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Interested artists, please contact the gallery<br />
Annual Ceramics Invitational<br />
Opening April 28, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Interested artists, please contact the gallery<br />
Susan Danko, Dissolution, Nordson Corporation installation.<br />
River Gallery.<br />
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PHOTO: MARK YASENCHACK
SCrEW FACTOry ArTiSTS<br />
NOT SCREWING AROUND By Ross Lesko<br />
lakewood industrial space has become a haven for artists<br />
In recent years, an industrial space in the southeast corner of Lakewood has grown into a busy community of artists<br />
and craftspeople who cooperatively coordinate open houses and sales . Gallerist Ross Lesko spoke with ceramic<br />
artist and Screw Factory organizer Gina DeSantis .<br />
Ross Lesko: The Screw Factory is an expansive complex. Can you<br />
tell me how many artists currently have studios in the building?<br />
Gina DeSantis: There are currently more than 30 artists, working<br />
in a wide variety of media. But there are more studios being built to<br />
accommodate the demand.<br />
RL: What type of artwork would a visitor to the Screw Factory find?<br />
GD: We have painters, sculptors, and printmakers, but we also have<br />
artists working in ceramic, wood, metal, glass and textiles. There are<br />
also furniture makers and jewelry designers.<br />
RL: What goes on in The Screw Factory? Is it a place where<br />
“anything could happen” either on the walls or in the space?<br />
GD: Any artist in the building can propose and organize an event<br />
or exhibition, and individual artists sometimes have open houses,<br />
classes and demonstrations. But I think we’re best known for our<br />
quarterly events. We have Open Studios during the first Saturday<br />
of May and November. Artists open their studios to the public, and<br />
visitors have a chance to meet and interact with the artists. I think<br />
it gives visitors a context and a deeper appreciation for the artwork.<br />
There is also the Cleveland Handmade Last Minute Market, which<br />
is the last Saturday before Christmas.<br />
RL: Is the Last Minute Market an Open Studio event as well?<br />
GD: The Last Minute Market is organized in conjunction with<br />
Cleveland Handmade. It’s a combination of vendors and open<br />
studios. The event is in its third year. The first year, three thousand<br />
people attended—the second year, attendance grew to four thousand.<br />
RL: What role does the Screw Factory play in the Cleveland<br />
Arts scene?<br />
GD: We have a diverse bunch of artists here, from recent college<br />
graduates to artists who are retired from teaching. We have artists at<br />
every stage of their careers, working in every type of media.<br />
RL: What does the Screw Factory do that no one else does?<br />
GD: It’s an interesting balance of open studio events and classes—<br />
several artists in the building teach classes in their studios. Also, we<br />
are in a suburban location. We appeal to art-minded shoppers who<br />
wouldn’t necessarily go downtown, but still want to buy local art.<br />
There is a comfort level here that people might not experience in a<br />
gallery; it’s less intimidating. They can walk into a studio and see<br />
how things are made. They can walk into a ceramic studio, see the<br />
wheel and the kilns. They can meet the artists, see the process and<br />
ask questions. There are kilns in this building that are large enough<br />
to fit several people inside. Visitors enjoy seeing that. They get a<br />
sense of the process rather than just the final result.<br />
RL: Why would someone from out of state be interested in visiting<br />
the Screw Factory?<br />
GD: There’s an interesting history to this building. It was formerly<br />
the Templar auto plant, and in that regard, something has always<br />
been made here. I think an out of state visitor would be interested<br />
in seeing how our industrial spaces are converted and repurposed.<br />
I think that’s something Cleveland is known for; reusing these old<br />
buildings, often using them for the arts. We also have such a diverse<br />
group of artists and art, there’s really something for everyone.<br />
RL: What would you tell an out of state visitor about Cleveland?<br />
GD: Cleveland has a very diverse population, and that’s reflected in<br />
the art and artists as well. I think that’s one of the things that make<br />
Cleveland so great. There are so many people from so many different<br />
backgrounds, cultures and histories. We have every walk of life<br />
here—every demographic is represented. The affordability of studio<br />
space and the existence of a place like the Screw Factory shows that<br />
the Cleveland area supports the arts and artists and wants to keep<br />
creative people here.<br />
RL: By contrast, what would a local Clevelander get out of a visit to<br />
the Screw Factory?<br />
GD: Many of the artists who have studios at the screw factory have<br />
artwork at various galleries or shops around town, but visitors to<br />
those venues rarely get a chance to see the artists at work. At the<br />
Screw Factory, visitors get to meet the artists in person, and see the<br />
studios where the work is created.<br />
It’s nice to touch base with customers and meet people who are<br />
buying your artwork. That face to face relationship is really nice.<br />
There’s a personal aspect where everyone who walks through the<br />
door is going to meet a local artist and learn a little bit about their<br />
story, it’s little more than just artwork—it’s an experience.<br />
Ross Lesko is Gallery Director at Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery.<br />
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Location The Lake Erie Building,<br />
13000 Athens Ave, Lakewood<br />
Phone 216.521.0088 (Omni Management)<br />
Website www.screwfactoryartists.com<br />
Email screwfactoryartists@gmail.com<br />
Facebook Screw Factory Artists (group page)<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
By appointment along with four open studio events<br />
each year .<br />
MISSION<br />
The Screw Factory Artists is an artist-run collaborative that<br />
organizes events and otherwise enables resident artists<br />
to make, show, and sell their work . Quarterly Open Studio<br />
events and annual sales attract thousands of visitors,<br />
which enables Cleveland area artists to earn income<br />
and recognition from their work .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
Initially built as the Templar Auto Factory, the massive<br />
industrial complex at 13000 Athens Avenue, in the<br />
Southeast corner of Lakewood, was the longtime<br />
manufacturing headquarters of the Lake Erie Screw<br />
Corporation . After LESC moved its headquarters out<br />
of the state, leaving the building largely empty, artists<br />
began to move in . The Screw Factory is now home to<br />
more than 30 working artists, producing works in glass,<br />
ceramic, wood, fiber, and other materials .<br />
UPCOMING SHOWS<br />
Open Studios<br />
10 a .m . – 6 p .m . Saturday, May 5th<br />
10 a .m . – 6 p .m . Saturday, November 3rd<br />
10 a .m . – 6 p .m . Saturday, December 15th (in conjunction<br />
with the Cleveland Handmade Last Minute Market)<br />
Visit our website for additional events .<br />
PHOTO: MARTIN O’CONNOR<br />
SCULpTUrE CENTEr<br />
SITE SPECIFIC By Liz Maugans<br />
the sculpture center carves out a space for the continual evolution of 3-d art<br />
The busy Euclid corridor rattles with the excitement of new cultural propositions among the historic fixtures that<br />
anchor University Circle . This is the Sculpture Center’s neighborhood . Situated at the eastern edge of the Circle,<br />
among interconnecting, multi-purposed buildings, The Sculpture Center evolved through the vision of its founder,<br />
the noted sculptor David E . Davis .<br />
The Sculpture Center is one of the few venues in the country—<br />
and the only one in the Midwest—to exhibit only sculpture and<br />
installation work. The organization is also unique in its ongoing<br />
series of exhibitions focusing on sculpture by early career artists of<br />
the region. These shows provide a window to the concerns of upand-coming<br />
artists: the names of tomorrow.<br />
Indeed, the centerpiece of the Center’s exhibition schedule is the<br />
W2S (Window to Sculpture) Emerging Artist series. The series<br />
annually presents six solo exhibitions by early career artists who<br />
have Ohio roots. Four curated exhibitions and a thoughtfully juried<br />
group exhibition round out a year’s offering.<br />
Unlike venues that look retrospectively at artists’ past work, the<br />
Sculpture Center usually exhibits works made specifically for the<br />
venue. Because of this, the occasion of a Sculpture Center solo show<br />
often provides a new direction for the artist. The galleries may one<br />
season be filled with the metal sculptures of Richard Hunt that<br />
have never been seen outside his studio, and the next season with<br />
a startling array of mixed media pieces that are concerned with<br />
the darker side of consumerism, environmental damage, genetic<br />
engineering, and industrialization.<br />
Executive director Ann Albano and her bright, involved staff<br />
frequently guide visitors through the exhibitions and chime-in<br />
about the interpretive levels of the sometimes challenging work on<br />
view. Additional wall text and brochures are available and reveal<br />
more insights. The artists speak informally at every opening and are<br />
always impressed by the level of dialogue and connection people<br />
have to their work.<br />
The Sculpture Center advocates a philosophy of promoting fluid,<br />
open-ended programming with other collaborators to allow the<br />
greatest freedom of expression. For example, a series of concert<br />
performances by the FiveOne Experimental Orchestra (a group of<br />
sixteen composers and musicians with a ‘no-boundaries’ approach<br />
to music) offers music composed in response to works on exhibit,<br />
adding a new dimension to their visual output. Likewise, artists<br />
with solo exhibitions in the Euclid Avenue Gallery are encouraged<br />
to invite another artist to exhibit in an adjacent space (known as The<br />
Platform), which enables the audience to make connections with the<br />
artists interests and influences farther afield.<br />
The boom of new construction in University Circle, and the<br />
anticipated increase in tourism promise a great future for the<br />
organization. To complement that growth, the Sculpture Center<br />
is focused on expanding its presence in the region. They anticipate<br />
more collaboration with the Cleveland Institute of Art, MOCA<br />
Cleveland, and universities across Ohio.<br />
Beyond its own exhibits, the Sculpture Center aims to educate the<br />
public—and students, in particular—about art and sculpture in<br />
general, and Ohio sculpture in particular. For example, ceramic<br />
artist Elizabeth Emery facilitates 3D art making classes for after<br />
school programs at elementary schools in the Cleveland Municipal<br />
Schools District, Cleveland serving kids who otherwise have little<br />
access to the arts.<br />
Location 1834 East 123rd Street, Cleveland<br />
Phone 216.229.6527<br />
Web www.sculpturecenter.org<br />
Email info@sculpturecenter.org<br />
Facebook The Sculpture Center<br />
HOURS<br />
Wednesday through Friday: 10 a .m . to 4 p .m .<br />
Saturday: noon to 4 p .m .<br />
Other weekday times by appointment .<br />
MISSION<br />
The Sculpture Center is a not-for-profit arts institution dedicated to the<br />
advancement of the careers of emerging Ohio sculptors, and to the<br />
preservation of Ohio outdoor sculpture as a means to provide support<br />
for artists and to effect the enrichment, education, enjoyment, and<br />
visual enhancement of the Cleveland community and greater region .<br />
HISTORY<br />
The Cleveland artist David E . Davis and his wife Bernice Saperstein<br />
Davis founded The Sculpture Center in 1989 . The two wanted to make<br />
a meaningful contribution to the cultural life of Cleveland and to<br />
help young Ohio sculptors stay in the state by giving support at the<br />
difficult time in their careers when they were starting to make a name<br />
for themselves . The Sculpture Center’s exhibitions now encompass<br />
sculpture, installation, and multi-media work by artists of the greater<br />
region of Ohio, contiguous states, and Ontario, Canada . The Sculpture<br />
Center has conserved, restored, and maintained 36 outdoor public<br />
The Sculpture Center’s website is another informative gem. Its<br />
content is well designed, and constantly updated with rich material<br />
about artist opportunities, event links, and on-line resources.<br />
Key among its reference features is the Ohio Outdoor Sculpture<br />
Initiative, an online registry of more than 1,000 sculptures around<br />
the state. The OOSI inventories sculpture in the large urban<br />
areas of Ohio with photos, as well as bibliographic details and<br />
documentation of their condition. An ongoing partnership with<br />
the CSU Michael Schwartz Library has made the database more<br />
accessible. Future plans include posting OOSI information on<br />
a Yahoo Flickr page to use crowd sourcing as a way to fill in the<br />
blanks, update images, and encourage information exchange. This<br />
WIKI-history will benefit scholars, teachers, librarians, and anyone<br />
curious about their community. With its strong emphasis upon<br />
preservation, OOSI supports the belief that public art adds to a<br />
community and gives us all a level of pride.<br />
The Sculpture Center is rare in its mission to showcase sculpture and<br />
installation art, which are not the easiest art forms to make, ship,<br />
install, exhibit, sell, and maintain. The organization continues to<br />
celebrate new, innovative, renegade works by our region’s emerging<br />
sculptors and installation artists while, at the same time, dedicating<br />
themselves to the great monuments and landmarks that are symbols<br />
of this town’s resilience and strength.<br />
Liz Maugans is executive director of <strong>Zygote</strong> <strong>Press</strong>.<br />
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sculptures in Cuyahoga County . It continues to offer the web-based<br />
Ohio Outdoor Sculpture Inventory (OOSI) and occasional symposia<br />
on preservation as a public resource .<br />
COMING EVENTS<br />
<strong>2012</strong> W2S SERIES (Jan – May)<br />
Linda Ding: New Work<br />
Scott Stibich | Lauren Yeager: Familiar Machines<br />
January 20 – February 18, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Cozette Phillips: in-between<br />
Elizabeth Emery: New Work<br />
March 9 – April 6, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Sarah Paul: Little Miss Cleveland & the Flaming Sunset<br />
Lauren Herzak- Bauman: Passages<br />
Sarah Ann Baker<br />
April 27 – May 26, <strong>2012</strong><br />
“Ambassador Lanes,” oil on canvas, by Screw Factory artist Martin O’Connor.<br />
Euclid Avenue storefront.<br />
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PHOTO: THE SCULPTURE CENTER<br />
Summer Exhibition<br />
June 8 – July 14<br />
Johnny Coleman: Procession: Song of the Underground Railroad<br />
September 8 – October 20<br />
Mario Kujawski: A life in Art<br />
November 2 – December 21
SpACES<br />
IT’S ABOUT THE RIDE By Nancy Heaton<br />
spaces takes artists and audiences on a journey<br />
SPACES was conceived as an alternative to the Cleveland’s traditional galleries, a place where artists could exhibit<br />
experimental work that might otherwise not be accessible .<br />
Founded in Playhouse Square in 1978, and moving to the<br />
Warehouse District in the 80s—at a time when the neighborhood<br />
was largely vacant, and buildings were being demolished to make<br />
parking lots, the gallery has always been a center of intriguing, even<br />
aesthetically challenging activity for its neighborhood. SPACES<br />
was known as the place in town to find the kind of art objects<br />
that fell outside the limits of traditional galleries. Installation art<br />
was a primary focus, complemented by exhibits of photographs,<br />
sculptures, drawings and works in other traditional media, often<br />
with a theme.<br />
The venue moved across the river in 1990, when it bought a building<br />
on Ohio City’s Superior Viaduct. The SPACES experience has<br />
shifted in recent years, but it continues to transform lives and the<br />
way people look at art.<br />
Today, as the way we experience art globally and personally has<br />
shifted, the making of art has become an interdisciplinary practice<br />
which overlaps into a wide range of other areas. SPACES embraces<br />
this expanding outlook by focusing on experiments which explore<br />
new directions with ideas through various media and disciplines.<br />
When you come to an opening, expect on- the-spot inventions<br />
and collaborations, with hands on and eyes open. As the audience<br />
you will be more engaged, the artist is given more freedom and the<br />
possibilities become endless and unknown.<br />
In other words, SPACES does not curate ART, but ARTISTS and<br />
the creative experience of experimentation. Being unrestricted by<br />
the traditional gallery structure allows artists a whole new range<br />
of artistic expression, with support that is often unheard of in<br />
traditional settings. There are still things on the gallery walls, but<br />
now artists working at SPACES have complete freedom and support<br />
to do more, to challenge themselves and the audience. The audience<br />
becomes involved in the process, leaving doors open to interpret,<br />
challenge and chime in, exciting the senses!<br />
A look at SPACES’ programs gives an idea how this all plays out.<br />
The R&D (Research & Development) program invites artists,<br />
curators and other cultural producers to articulate their research and<br />
development of ideas and objects through a supported exhibition<br />
or project. These exhibitions and projects may be group, solo, or<br />
collaborative endeavors.<br />
The Vault—a converted, walk-in safe that came with the<br />
building—functions as a digital media flat file: there audiences<br />
can experience a variety of video and audio art. Work is added on<br />
a rolling basis, and remains on view for approximately six months.<br />
Viewers have the remote control in their hands to select the work<br />
they would like to view.<br />
SPACES World Artists Program (SWAP) is a residency initiative that<br />
invites local, national and international artists to spend significant<br />
periods of time in Cleveland neighborhoods to create experimental<br />
work. SPACES provides SWAP artists with support for the creation,<br />
exhibition and discussion.<br />
What about artists who still use traditional media to make things?<br />
While the gallery’s programming is intended to mark a deliberate<br />
break from traditional galleries, as long as the artist’s focus is<br />
experimental and as long as it’s about pushing boundaries, there is<br />
space at SPACES: in the words of Executive Director Chris Lynn:<br />
“It’s about the ride, not the destination.”<br />
Nancy Heaton is executive director of BAYarts.<br />
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Location 2220 Superior Viaduct, Cleveland<br />
Phone 216.621.2314<br />
Web http://www.spacesgallery.org<br />
Email Contact@spacesgallery.org<br />
Facebook SPACES<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
Noon to 5 p .m . Tuesday through Sunday<br />
Thursdays until 8 p .m .<br />
Closed Monday<br />
MISSION<br />
SPACES is the resource and public forum for artists who<br />
explore and experiment .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
SPACES was founded in 1978 by a group of artists looking<br />
to found “an interdisciplinary arena for the visual and<br />
performing arts with an interest in creating and presenting<br />
new art including individual and collaborative works .”<br />
Since then, SPACES has gone on to feature the work of<br />
over 9000 artists in varied formats .<br />
UPCOMING EVENTS<br />
Margaret Cogswell<br />
Christi Birchfield<br />
Marty Weishaar<br />
February 3 – March 30, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Cleveland Convention & Visitors Bureau<br />
featuring the work of Cleveland SGS, the Cleveland<br />
Urban Design Collaborative, Temporary Travel Office,<br />
and The Think Tank That Has Yet to Be Named.<br />
May 11 – July 13, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Please check www .SPACESgallery .org for the most upto-date<br />
information .<br />
PHOTO: SPACES<br />
WiLLiAm BUSTA gALLEry<br />
MORE OF THE SAME By Alenka Banco<br />
william busta gallery offers continuity for both artists and audiences<br />
William Busta says the gallery that bears his name is more about Cleveland than it is about art . William Busta Gallery<br />
is based on his conviction that art is one of the ways that we enter into dialogue with the past and in which we<br />
contribute to the future .<br />
The owner-operated gallery has called Cleveland home since it<br />
first opened in Cleveland’s Murry Hill neighborhood, back in<br />
1989. Having been located for a time in the Detroit Shoreway<br />
neighborhood, it’s now on Prospect Avenue in Cleveland’s Art<br />
Quarter. The gallery represents contemporary artists who live and<br />
work in Northeast Ohio, with one-person exhibitions. Busta then<br />
continues to represent each artist on an ongoing basis.<br />
Busta jokes, “If I look backwards, I am going to guess that I put up<br />
more works of art than anybody else…..except an elementary school<br />
teacher.” He estimates that he has installed more than 250 shows.<br />
Busta decided to open his first galley because he realized when<br />
he was Director of NOVA (the New Organization for the Visual<br />
Arts, a service organization for the visual arts) that there was a<br />
significant void in Cleveland galleries—a need to show works by a<br />
roster of individual artists with some frequency over time. It is that<br />
consistency that is the strength of his gallery.<br />
Busta believes this programming means the gallery is constantly<br />
developing with the artist: when an artist is only focused on one<br />
show, they gear up for that show and then take a sigh of relief. When<br />
an artist closes a show and has their next show scheduled, they<br />
bring a different attitude back to their studio. He believes that is<br />
essential in the creation of better art and better bodies of work. This<br />
relationship between artist and gallery gives an artist the time to<br />
develop an audience and then provides the audience the place to find<br />
the work on an ongoing basis.<br />
The key to Bill’s success is his complete devotion to the process of<br />
discovering the artist and of course the artists work. Busta says,<br />
“When a publisher lands Danielle Steel, all that they can say is that<br />
they have a deep pocket book. The real skill is in finding the next<br />
Danielle Steel.”<br />
He believes that the sense of discovery is in part what people<br />
come to the gallery for. He quickly adds that the discovery for the<br />
audience is only possible after the curator does his homework. The<br />
internet has made the research process much easier, but Busta feels<br />
that going to shows is an important part of the discovery.<br />
Fundamentally for Busta it comes down to choices. All sorts of<br />
reasons other than the work itself determine who he shows. He<br />
considers the artist as a whole career, rather than just individual<br />
things. “I curate the artist rather than individual pieces or individual<br />
bodies of work,” he says. Salability is never an issue for a first show.<br />
The beginning is always about the quality. Among the artists who<br />
have had their first shows at WBG are Hildur Jonsson, Derik Hess<br />
and Laurence Channing.<br />
Busta admits that he does not know exactly why people buy art, but<br />
he believes it deals with immortality. Art is a way that we speak. It<br />
Location 2731 Prospect Ave., Cleveland<br />
Phone 216.298-9071<br />
Web www.williambustagallery.com<br />
Email bustagallery@gmail.com<br />
Facebook William Busta Gallery<br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
11 a .m . to 5:30 p .m . Tuesday through Saturday<br />
or by appointment<br />
MISSION<br />
William Busta Gallery represents contemporary artists<br />
who live and work in Northeast Ohio . Mostly, the gallery<br />
presents one-person exhibitions, and then continues to<br />
represent the artist .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
William Busta Gallery originally opened on Murray Hill in<br />
Little Italy in January, 1989 . In all, it has operated in five<br />
locations, including on Detroit Avenue and its current<br />
location on Prospect .<br />
is a form of immortality, to have a voice through time. So whether<br />
it is the immortality of the person who is making a piece or possibly<br />
the person buying it, many devote their lives to the expressive object.<br />
The real audience for art is people who are engaged in the lives of<br />
new ideas. He feels that it is directly related to the relationship they<br />
build with the artist over time.<br />
All the galleries in the regional scene create a kind of Cleveland<br />
synergy. To have a gallery that shows specific artists’ work<br />
consistently gives the greater Cleveland audience the foundation to<br />
indelibly understand the art. Of all the exhibition places in greater<br />
Cleveland, there is a very complementary function in which we see<br />
the individual pieces, and in which people see the work in context.<br />
Busta points out that in the end, having buyers is also a necessary<br />
part of that synergy.<br />
So what is in the horizon for WBG? “More of the same” Bill<br />
continues. “My formulas and methodologies are down pat, and once<br />
you are sixty you pretty much don’t need to change anything. You<br />
are who you are.”<br />
Alenka Banco is director of Convivium33 Gallery.<br />
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UPCOMING SHOWS<br />
Michael Loderstedt, Menagerie<br />
Dimensional: Printed Works by Current and Former<br />
Students from Kent State<br />
January 6 to February 4<br />
Christi Birchfield<br />
Julie Weitz<br />
February 10 to March 10<br />
Derf, My Friend Dahmer<br />
March 2 to April 14<br />
Spaces exterior, Big Bang opening.<br />
Opening night, as seen from the sidewalk.<br />
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PHOTO: WILLIAM BUSTA GALLERY<br />
Christian Wulffen<br />
March 9 to April 14<br />
NOADA Art Expo<br />
(Northern Ohio Art Dealers Association)<br />
April 19 to 22<br />
Don Harvey<br />
Lane Cooper<br />
April 27 to June 2<br />
Susan Umbenhour<br />
Barbara Polster<br />
June 8 to July 31
zygOTE prESS<br />
PRESSED INTO ACTION By Karen Peterson<br />
zygote press creates opportunity and takes it to the streets<br />
In a funky factory space on E . 30th Street, zygote <strong>Press</strong> reflects the best of Cleveland with a hip international flair .<br />
“I love that this building stored artillery during World War II, then dinette sets in the 50s”, explains Liz Maugans, co-<br />
founder in 1995 and Managing Director since 2006 .<br />
Liz and the other three co-founders formed <strong>Zygote</strong> at a time when<br />
universities happened to be getting rid of their old presses. The<br />
founders jumped on this great opportunity to not only preserve<br />
historical presses, but also with an eye on sustainability, keeping<br />
these large iron pieces of equipment out of landfills.<br />
<strong>Zygote</strong> (a single cell that divides and multiplies) got its name from<br />
twin facts: first, two of the organization’s founders are twins. And<br />
second, printmakers by nature are drawn to the power of multiples<br />
and multiplying creativity.<br />
After ringing the doorbell, you enter the enchanted gallery and print<br />
shop that Liz fondly refers to as a “weird runaway train” of worthy<br />
programs and classes. There is a real fluidity of participants between<br />
the programs offered at <strong>Zygote</strong>. Someone may start by participating<br />
in a class or renting one of the (very) reasonably priced studio or<br />
locker spaces, then they continue to grow and try other <strong>Zygote</strong><br />
offerings, becoming part of the fabric.<br />
Print shops by nature have a dynamic atmosphere. Liz personifies<br />
that, and has a true nature of getting other people excited about<br />
<strong>Zygote</strong>. “I believe that energy comes with neighborhood growth and<br />
development. I am a huge fan of Cleveland. I continue to explore<br />
how the arts can be an economic engine to Cleveland and how I can<br />
foster the unexpected spontaneous connections and creativities in<br />
our region.”<br />
The traditional presses and drawers (and drawers and drawers) of<br />
page thirty two : : : north east ohio collective arts network journal<br />
print-type are mixed with innovative and visionary concepts of<br />
printing. <strong>Zygote</strong> is proud to have a portable press in their collection<br />
that can run off a generator in a field (POW, the <strong>Press</strong> On Wheels);<br />
and they are in the process of designing and fabricating a bike press<br />
– allowing an artist to ride this specially designed bike anywhere,<br />
drop the kickstand, unfold a press, and get to work!<br />
Recent grads and mid-career artists with a passion for print-making<br />
find their way to <strong>Zygote</strong>. Empty nesters are also attracted since now<br />
they have the time to revisit their former artistic love. But the staff at<br />
<strong>Zygote</strong> have also provided programs to retirement age people, as well<br />
as diversified their programs to younger kids. They have developed<br />
a handy set of “Show-N-Tell Suitcases” equipped with tools of the<br />
trade, archives of created works, technical information, curriculum<br />
ideas for teachers, and more.<br />
Creating community, true collaborative relationships, and a viable live/<br />
work space for artists is extremely important to Liz. Through <strong>Zygote</strong>,<br />
Liz has taken on a leadership role in creating the Collective Arts<br />
Network, responsible for the informative journal you are now reading.<br />
Liz has the infectious energy to implement and see ideas to fruition,<br />
like the Print Pony Gallop, a unique outreach machine fabricated<br />
from a toy rocking horse mounted to a pressure printing rocker: as a<br />
child rocks on the horse, they create prints!<br />
<strong>Zygote</strong>’s international flavor is provided by German artists involved<br />
in the 15 year old Dresden-Cleveland Residency Exchange Program.<br />
These artists, among others throughout the year, live in the ZPASS<br />
(<strong>Zygote</strong> <strong>Press</strong> Artist Space Share), a 1,500 square foot urban loft<br />
space just above <strong>Zygote</strong>’s print shop.<br />
Liz Maugans is a native of Lakewood, Ohio, and received her<br />
Bachelors of Fine Arts from Kent State University. She received her<br />
Masters of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Cranbrook Academy of<br />
Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She continued to develop her<br />
leadership skills as a participant in the highly desirable National Arts<br />
Media and Culture Leadership Program in Portland sponsored by<br />
The Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.<br />
She and her collaborators have created multiple points of access to<br />
<strong>Zygote</strong>: You can find them spreading the word about old school<br />
printmaking at area festivals, visit an exhibition in their galleries,<br />
take a class, or rent studio space. Come appreciate the history of<br />
the building and rich tradition of the presses; stay for the fresh<br />
friendliness, endorphin buzz, and the excited anticipation to see<br />
what vision will come to life next.<br />
Steve Jobs once said, “People with passion can change the world<br />
for the better.” I asked Liz if she was interested in politics,<br />
and she replied that many people have suggested she become a<br />
Councilwoman. I would vote for her!<br />
Karen Peterson is executive director of Art Therapy Studio.<br />
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Location 1410 East 30th Street,<br />
Cleveland<br />
Phone 216.621.2900<br />
Web www.zygotepress.com<br />
Email info@zygotepress.com<br />
Facebook <strong>Zygote</strong> <strong>Press</strong><br />
GALLERY HOURS<br />
Wednesday and Saturday: noon-4pm<br />
Other days: by appointment<br />
MISSION<br />
The mission of zygote is to enable<br />
artists to produce fine art prints within<br />
an atmosphere<br />
of collective exchange by providing<br />
them with affordable workspace and<br />
exhibition opportunities . zygote is a<br />
resource dedicated to increasing<br />
awareness<br />
about contemporary printmaking<br />
by creating active communication<br />
among<br />
artist-printmakers and the broader<br />
community .<br />
A BRIEF HISTORY<br />
Four printmakers—Liz Maugans, Joe<br />
Sroka, Bellamy Printz, Kelly Novak—<br />
founded zygote <strong>Press</strong> in 1996 . They<br />
were motivated by a common need<br />
among fine art printmakers—large<br />
presses and other equipment, and<br />
the space to house them . Those<br />
facilities are commonly available in<br />
university art departments, but once<br />
printmakers are on their own, the cost<br />
of such equipment and space can be<br />
prohibitive . So they coordinated their<br />
efforts and set up shop in a building<br />
on St . Clair at East 72nd Street . zygote<br />
<strong>Press</strong> moved to its current location in<br />
2006 . zygote <strong>Press</strong> gallery shows are<br />
commonly built on relationships with<br />
other organizations, and ongoing<br />
zygoge programs, including its Artist<br />
In Residence (AIR) Program, In-Turn<br />
(curated by interns from area arts<br />
organizations), its Foreign Affairs artist<br />
exchange with the Grafikwerkstatt in<br />
Dresden, Germany, and 4U, which<br />
features works from students and<br />
faculty from four universities around<br />
Northeast Ohio .<br />
UPCOMING SHOWS<br />
<strong>Zygote</strong> Members Collect<br />
January 20 - February . 18<br />
Fellow Travelers: Prints by Noel Reifel<br />
and his students<br />
February 24 - March 30th<br />
100x100 Tax Relief Benefit Party<br />
April 13<br />
We Love Letterpress–Color My World<br />
Exhibition<br />
April 20–thru May 19th<br />
ArtsQuarter Block Party Social<br />
6-9pm June 1<br />
Juried Exhibition<br />
June 1–July 7<br />
IN-TURN (Summer Show)<br />
July 13–August 10<br />
Artist-in-Residence Johnny Coleman<br />
Opening September 7<br />
Dresden Exchange Program - Ohio<br />
Artists in Dresden<br />
September 24th to October 27th<br />
International Assoc. of Hand<br />
Papermakers and Paper Artists<br />
October 17-21<br />
Holiday Off-the-Wall Exhibition<br />
December 1 – 2<br />
PHOTO: LIz MAUGANS<br />
Screen prints by Jason Lehrer, drying at <strong>Zygote</strong> <strong>Press</strong>.<br />
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SOmeTHiNg’S HAppeNiNg Here<br />
North coastal sangfroid notwithstanding, it’s<br />
hard to deny that this is an exciting time to be<br />
an artist in northern Ohio, and especially in<br />
Cuyahoga County.<br />
After decades of uneven growth in what is<br />
sometimes referred to as the arts sector, activity is<br />
finally reaching critical mass. Much of this must<br />
be due to the $65 million in tobacco tax money<br />
distributed to County arts organizations and<br />
individuals since 2007. Cuyahoga Arts and Culture<br />
(CAC) reportedly has generated a whopping $280<br />
million in economic activity through the local<br />
organizations it supports, and their five thousand<br />
employees – all of this in a county whose population<br />
is 1.28 million.<br />
In 2011 alone, CAC working through the<br />
Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC)<br />
distributed twenty Creative Workforce Fellowships,<br />
nourishing talent with that rarest and most welcome<br />
of art supplies, cold hard cash, spreading around $400<br />
grand in smoking money to area artists out of a total<br />
annual disbursal of $15 million.<br />
The somewhat unbelievable fact that Cuyahoga<br />
County is now one of the top five arts funders in the<br />
nation has got to be having a warming effect on local<br />
morale, as well as hometown economics. Nearly every<br />
weekend gallery openings are featured around the<br />
city, from Collinwood to downtown, Tremont to Bay<br />
Village. Popular cooperative events like the West 78th<br />
Street Complex’s monthly Third Friday events attract<br />
thousands of visitors.<br />
At the upper end of the spectrum, The Cleveland<br />
Museum of Art is nearing completion of its seven year,<br />
$350 million renovation, and has further announced<br />
plans to open a branch for the first time on the west<br />
side in Ohio City in collaboration with nationally<br />
prominent Akron art collectors Fred and Laura<br />
Bidwell. Meanwhile the Museum of Contemporary<br />
Art has broken ground for its own new $26.7 million<br />
building in University Circle.<br />
In this almost convulsively regenerative context,<br />
the Collective Arts Network <strong>Journal</strong> project,<br />
bringing together twenty-eight small and midsize<br />
organizations, is one more instance of a cultural<br />
By Douglas Max Utter<br />
tide which, despite tough times here and elsewhere,<br />
is raising a lot of boats. And granting that <strong>CAN</strong>’s<br />
economic scale is more modest, surely this is the first<br />
time that so many disparate Cleveland-based arts<br />
businesses ranging from private galleries to print<br />
workshops and community arts centers have worked<br />
together. There is a sense that such proliferation and<br />
cooperation taken as a whole add up to an exciting<br />
new development in the region.<br />
Change is in the air, but how different is the reality<br />
of our corner of the art world compared to the state of<br />
things twenty or thirty years ago? One way of putting<br />
it all in perspective is to imagine the Cleveland art<br />
scene minus the current <strong>CAN</strong> members, and without<br />
the many others around town who aren’t part of its<br />
network. Say that the Cleveland Museum of Art and<br />
MOCA, for instance, were to stand alone – like the<br />
Terminal Tower and one or another of Cuyahoga<br />
County’s more up-to-date skyscrapers. What sort of<br />
view would we have?<br />
To answer that question, residents over fifty need<br />
only remember what the scene was like for artists,<br />
PHOTO: LAND STUDIO/CLEVELAND PUBLIC ART<br />
DECADES OF INVENTION, REINVENTION, AND REVIVAL<br />
collectors, and audiences in the late 1960s. Then as<br />
now there were galleries, though far fewer of them,<br />
run by people who believed in the power of art and in<br />
the potential viability of a local art scene.<br />
For a long time MOCA itself, founded as the New<br />
Gallery by Marjorie Talalay and Nina Castelli Sundell<br />
in 1968 in its original location on Euclid Avenue, was<br />
a small, struggling outfit, though linked (through<br />
Sundell’s father, gallerist Leo Castelli) to the larger<br />
world of contemporary art as it existed in New York at<br />
that period. And there was more, of course —actually<br />
much more.<br />
A partial account of the slow growth of SPACES<br />
from its beginnings in 1978, and the development of<br />
artist service networks like the New Organization for<br />
the Visual Arts (NOVA) during the 1970s and 1980s,<br />
plus ongoing contributions by a number of seemingly<br />
indestructible gallery owners and arts activists, can be<br />
found in William Busta’s 1998 essay, “Howling at the<br />
Edge of the Renaissance: SPACES and Alternative Art<br />
in Cleveland.”<br />
Busta himself is a member of <strong>CAN</strong>, and an ironclad<br />
survivor of Cleveland’s vicissitudes in his own right.<br />
In 1980 he was the young executive director of<br />
NOVA, and went on to open the first of his several<br />
ambitious galleries in 1989. His essay celebrating<br />
SPACES’ twentieth anniversary outlines the ebb and<br />
flow of contemporary art through the city during<br />
recent decades, naming many of the key players.<br />
Among the highlights were the Performance Art<br />
Festival, founded by James Levin and run by Thomas<br />
Mulready; the founding of Cleveland Public Art<br />
following a conversation at SPACES in 1984 between<br />
Don Harvey and Kathy Coakley; and the freeform<br />
exhibitions of the extraordinary Art Without Walls<br />
group during the early 1990s. Among its other virtues<br />
this brief history serves as a bracing reminder of just<br />
how severe our collective amnesia can be. A whole lot<br />
did indeed happen in the arts in Cleveland between<br />
the Kennedy administration and 9/11.<br />
Busta doesn’t shrink from the fact that the<br />
automobile had a lot to do with the development<br />
of the broad socio-economic area now referred to<br />
as Northeast Ohio, and the concomitant increase<br />
of communication between widely separated arts<br />
communities – a cultural expansion that began in<br />
earnest around 1961. That was the year, not long<br />
after the completion of the Ohio Turnpike, that<br />
Cleveland Museum of Art Director Sherman Lee<br />
expanded the geographic area for the Museum’s<br />
annual May Show. Instead of limiting eligibility to<br />
artists living in Cuyahoga County, the prestigious<br />
exhibit would accept works<br />
from anywhere in the<br />
Western Reserve – a strip<br />
of territory about 120 miles<br />
long that includes Akron,<br />
Kent, and Youngstown.<br />
During the 1970s Ohio’s<br />
Interstate Highway System<br />
neared completion, pulling<br />
these places ever closer<br />
together. For good or ill the<br />
impact was felt everywhere,<br />
and especially at the May<br />
Show. It’s probably fair<br />
to say that among the<br />
two hundred or so artists<br />
included every year in the<br />
exhibit, a disproportionate<br />
number continued to travel<br />
no farther than the half a<br />
block distance across Wade<br />
Park Oval, where instructors<br />
at the Cleveland Institute<br />
of Art made their art. But<br />
CIA wasn’t the only art<br />
school anymore. Kent State<br />
University’s art department<br />
became a major player<br />
in the region, supplying<br />
inspiration, art, and board<br />
members to the fledgling<br />
SPACES organization in<br />
Image by Sara E. Darby.<br />
particular. When Cleveland<br />
State University hired its<br />
own young faculty in the<br />
early 1970s, was a deliberately unstable hybrid, part<br />
late 1970s the city began to develop a whole new performance, part intervention, packed full of ideas<br />
community of serious younger artists, bolstered also about time and change, and perhaps about revolution.<br />
by the then vibrant Cooper School of Art.<br />
In any case, less than five months later the infamous<br />
Many of these new artists were interested in<br />
Kent State shootings took place, and shortly afterward<br />
exploring ideas (as much or more than making someone painted the words “MAY 4 KENT 70”<br />
objects) and there was considerable cross-fertilization above a window of the slowly collapsing out-building,<br />
from art worlds outside the northern Ohio<br />
creating a makeshift memorial that lasted for more<br />
microcosm. One example was Robert Smithson’s than two decades.<br />
“Partially Buried Woodshed,” made with a backhoe I dwell for a moment on Smithson for two reasons—<br />
and the help of several enthusiastic sculpture<br />
to underline how many connections there have been<br />
students in January of 1970 on the KSU campus. between the Cleveland area art scene and artistic<br />
The thirty-two year old pioneer of post-minimalist developments elsewhere, and also because as I re-read<br />
environmental sculpture (who died three years later “Howling at the Edge of the Renaissance” I was struck<br />
in a plane crash) had been invited by the students by the prominent part that very innovative alternative<br />
to lecture at the University, during which time he art forms, especially performance and installation,<br />
stayed at the home of Brinsley and Lillian Tyrrell. His have played in the history of Cleveland art over the<br />
“Woodshed,” like much conceptually based art of the past forty years. For whatever reason, in an always<br />
page thirty four : : : north east ohio collective arts network journal north east ohio collective arts network journal : : : page thirty five<br />
PHOTO: SARA E . DARBY
shrinking, often conservative city, Cleveland has<br />
produced formidable number of avant-garde events<br />
and venues. This has been so even though both CMA<br />
and CIA long ignored such innovation; and despite its<br />
origins in the ferment of the 1960s , The New Gallery<br />
/ Cleveland Center for Contemportary Art / MOCA<br />
was also slow to host<br />
improvisational or<br />
performance-related<br />
works. But from the<br />
beginning SPACES<br />
made performance,<br />
installation, and<br />
conceptual art forms<br />
an integral part of its programming, alongside<br />
traditional two and three dimensional media.<br />
Cleveland Public Theater was another crucial source<br />
of inspiration for artists seeking to expand their<br />
expressive range into a theatrical, public dimension.<br />
A further, interestingly populist tendency that also<br />
represented its own broad constituency among local<br />
Classes for kids at Art House.<br />
page thirty six : : : north east ohio collective arts network journal<br />
artists has been the two decade run of The People’s<br />
Art Show at Cleveland State University’s gallery.<br />
Resolutely unjuried and committed to freedom of<br />
exhibition, PAS was from the beginning a progressiveregressive<br />
public event that defied all categories and<br />
often left local pundits scratching their heads.<br />
At this point it should be noted that CMA’s<br />
conservatism wasn’t always a bad thing. It’s<br />
unfortunate that younger artists can no longer<br />
remember what the Museum did accomplish in<br />
respect to the local scene prior to 1990, because in fact<br />
it was long the backbone of Cleveland’s art economy,<br />
crucial to its self-image for seventy years.<br />
Mainly that was due to CMA’s<br />
yearly May Show, which was the most<br />
distinguished of Ohio’s several spring<br />
time museum exhibits (Cincinnati,<br />
Columbus, Toledo, and Dayton all<br />
had their own, plus Canton’s All<br />
Ohio Show and the Butler Museum’s<br />
National Midyear Exhibition in<br />
Youngstown). Every year it took up a<br />
quarter of the Museum’s exhibition<br />
schedule, and a corresponding<br />
percentage of the budget for traveling<br />
exhibitions. It was an elegant and<br />
respectfully presented selection of as<br />
many as three hundred works of art<br />
by around half that number of artists<br />
selected from a pool of as many as<br />
1000 by a variety of distinguished<br />
jurors, often recruited from around the<br />
nation. The jurors tended to consult<br />
with museum staff familiar with the<br />
ins and outs of the local scene, and<br />
the result was a comprehensive salon<br />
which audiences and collectors used<br />
to keep track of both up-and-coming<br />
artists and established figures, serving<br />
as a professional benchmark, and as a<br />
key marketplace in its own right for<br />
the sale of contemporary art.<br />
Startling—at least to those used<br />
PHOTO: ART HOUSE<br />
to the modest attendance figures typical for fine arts<br />
events, including non-blockbuster museum shows—<br />
were the sheer numbers attracted to this old-fashioned<br />
exhibition: in the 1980s the May Show’s yearly<br />
attendance regularly reached 100,000 visitors. That’s<br />
hard to beat, and in fact nothing has come close to<br />
"Political climates change, funding ebbs and wanes, galleries die, and<br />
newspapers run out of ink and subscribers, but artists continue their work ."<br />
filling the hole left in the Cleveland art scene’s heart by<br />
the exhibit’s cancellation in the early1990s. It would<br />
be interesting indeed to see just what would happen<br />
in northern Ohio’s newly vigorous scene if CMA put<br />
out an open, thirteen county-wide call for entries,<br />
perhaps in the spring of 2013, to celebrate architect<br />
Raphael Viñoly’s expansion. Such an event would<br />
certainly break the ice with both the arts community<br />
and wider audiences after a long seven years, during<br />
which time much of CMA’s magnificent collection was<br />
unavailable.<br />
For some of this article I’m drawing on knowledge<br />
gained as a writer who covered local arts events<br />
for more than twenty years, and also on my own<br />
experience as an occasional participant situated<br />
somewhere off-center in respect to the city’s art life.<br />
I was twenty-two in 1973, when I submitted an oil<br />
on canvas study of a Braque-like nude male figure<br />
to a show mounted at NOVA’s little upstairs gallery<br />
located at Huron and Prospect Avenues. The work<br />
was accepted, hung around for a month, and then<br />
I fetched it – an anti-climactic routine I would get<br />
used to in later years. I made a second foray in 1982,<br />
entering a Matisse-influenced, brightly colored<br />
acrylic painting of figures in an interior to another<br />
second-tier exhibit held in downtown Cleveland. “The<br />
Great Lakes Art Exhibit” was organized from time<br />
to time by the Valley Arts Center and in 1982 was<br />
arrayed around an enormous sales floor in the former<br />
Higbee’s department store on Public Square. Not too<br />
surprisingly, nothing much came of that experience,<br />
either.<br />
My efforts will sound familiar to any artist in<br />
Cleveland who has worked at it for more than a<br />
decade or so. While all the excitement at SPACES,<br />
was going on, I got married. We had two children,<br />
and I continued to paint. Every March I dragged the<br />
Letterpress printing at the Morgan.<br />
latest canvases out of my basement studio and took<br />
slides of them in our thawing back yard, in what my<br />
partner laughingly called my “May Show dance.”<br />
Then in 1986 a work was finally accepted; things<br />
began to look up. I rented a studio downtown in<br />
the Artcraft building on Superior Avenue, was one<br />
third of a three person show (which included Anna<br />
Arnold and Brian Azzarello) at SPACES in its Bradley<br />
Building incarnation in January 1988, and in 1989<br />
had my first solo show at Bill Busta’s new gallery on<br />
Murray Hill Road. This followed a 1988 one-person<br />
at Joyce Porcelli Gallery, Busta’s predecessor in the<br />
same space. It also took place in the wake of a 1987<br />
solo show at Tommy’s restaurant on Coventry, which<br />
was a lot of fun. And by 1989 I had begun to write<br />
occasional art critiques for Dialogue Magazine in<br />
Columbus and New Art Examiner in Chicago. I was<br />
pleased to show several more times during those years<br />
both at the May Show (which finally ended in 1993)<br />
and at Busta’s until his closing at that location in<br />
1997. Both Dialogue and New Art Examiner also went<br />
extinct, but I continued writing for other publications<br />
based in Cleveland and out of town, and showing<br />
at other area galleries, like the late, lamented Dead<br />
Horse Gallery in Lakewood. One of my favorite<br />
highlights of the past ten years was a 2004 residency<br />
and show at <strong>Zygote</strong> <strong>Press</strong> as their 2004 A.I.R. artist.<br />
And I’m especially proud to have received one of those<br />
CAC Fellowships myself this past year.<br />
If I’ve learned anything from the ongoing saga of<br />
death and resurrection that is Cleveland and its art,<br />
it would be a series of lessons about the necessity of<br />
optimism. Political climates change, funding ebbs<br />
and wanes, galleries die and newspapers run out of<br />
ink and subscribers, but artists continue their work<br />
and, remarkably, often multiply – despite surrounding<br />
conditions. Having said that, I believe strongly that<br />
current conditions are right for a true renaissance (or<br />
the completion of a century-long, first-time birth) in<br />
northern Ohio. The “howling” phase of Cleveland art<br />
may finally be over.<br />
Douglas Max Utter is an artist and freelance art critic in<br />
East Cleveland.<br />
PHOTO: MORGAN CONSERVATORY
WELCOmE<br />
continued from page 4<br />
punch of the devastated economy and the decline of print media.<br />
So all those working artists simply don’t get as much coverage as<br />
they once did. Consider what the NEO arts scene has lost just in<br />
roughly the last decade: Dialog Arts Midwest, Northern Ohio Live,<br />
Angle, ARTefakt, Urban Dialect, The Free Times, and Avenues—all<br />
of which dug deep into the local arts scene—are gone. For a while,<br />
all those existed in addition to what we have now. Shows and<br />
performances—even in small galleries—got covered. Previews were<br />
written. Personalities were explored.<br />
Consider that the Plain Dealer once led public discussion about the<br />
Arts and the Economy, with a daily arts section, including reviews<br />
and features as well as real arts news reporting. Indeed, for a time<br />
a reporter was dedicated to covering the Arts and the Economy.<br />
The editors seemed to agree with the voters in their conviction that<br />
Cleveland’s own ecosystem of artists and galleries mattered.<br />
It’s not like that anymore. Sure, digital media has had a<br />
democratizing effect, and if you consider all the individual artists’<br />
blogs, tweets, and Facebook posts,there are certainly many, many<br />
more outlets now than ever before. And people are certainly learning<br />
to use those methods to promote themselves. But they lack critical<br />
mass. Individual artists typically focus their blogs and social media<br />
on their own work, or that of a small circle of friends. They don’t exist<br />
in the physical world. Therefore they don’t develop broad audiences.<br />
People don’t stumble upon them. They can’t cross pollinate.<br />
And that brings us to <strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>. What you’re holding in your<br />
hands is the product of collective, not-for-profit, bootstrap self help.<br />
The arts organizations once served so well by all that media have<br />
banded together to do something about what they’ve lost. Led by<br />
<strong>Zygote</strong> <strong>Press</strong>, 28 of the region’s small-ish visual arts organizations<br />
got together to help spread their own word about who they are and<br />
what they do—in short, to collectively shout, “We are here!”<br />
With seed money provided by a grant from the Ohio Arts Council,<br />
they each kicked in their own contributions to the cause. Indeed,<br />
they kicked in more than money. As you read through these stories,<br />
you’ll see that most of the bylines are those of the executive directors<br />
of the organizations. More than simply throwing money at the<br />
problem, they invested their time to conduct an interview, and to<br />
write about another organization’s work. In addition to stories,<br />
they’ve provided preview listings of what’s to come in their venues<br />
for the coming year.<br />
There are non-profit galleries, as well as commercial galleries.<br />
There are organizations whose purpose is to show art, as well as<br />
organizations whose purpose is to help artists. This is by no means<br />
an exhaustive list. But it’s a pretty good start.<br />
“we are here! we are here! we are here! we are here!”<br />
page thirty eight : : : north east ohio collective arts network journal<br />
<strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong> was built as an annual publication that introduces<br />
readers to the diverse range of galleries and other organizations that<br />
fuel the NEO arts scene. As it grows in coming years, the stories will<br />
evolve. How that happens will depend largely on the organizations<br />
who have pitched in to make this happen.<br />
We expect the roster of organizations to grow and evolve. Whether<br />
you’re reading this as an arts consumer, presenter, or an individual<br />
artist, we hope you’ll grow along with us, and make your voice<br />
heard, too.<br />
6<br />
23<br />
THe NOrTH eAST OHiO cOllecTive ArTS NeTWOrK<br />
9<br />
<strong>CAN</strong> <strong>Journal</strong> Map Key<br />
1. 1point618 Gallery<br />
6421 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland<br />
2. Arts Collinwood<br />
15605 Waterloo Road, Cleveland<br />
3. Art House<br />
3119 Denison Avenue, Cleveland<br />
4. ArtSpace Cleveland<br />
1400 East 30th Street, Cleveland<br />
5. Art Therapy Studios<br />
12200 Fairhill Road, Cleveland<br />
6. Bay Arts<br />
28795 Lake Road, Bay Village<br />
7. Brandt Gallery<br />
1028 Kenilworth Avenue, Cleveland<br />
8. City Artists at Work<br />
2218 Superior Avenue, Cleveland<br />
9. Cleveland Artists Foundation<br />
17801 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood<br />
10. Cleveland Arts Prize<br />
P .O . Box 21126 , Cleveland<br />
24<br />
14,15,17<br />
1<br />
12<br />
4<br />
8 28<br />
21<br />
22 18<br />
26 27<br />
16 7<br />
3<br />
11. Cleveland Institute of Art Visiting Artist Program<br />
11141 East Boulevard, Cleveland<br />
12. Convivium33<br />
1433 East 33rd Street, Cleveland<br />
13. Heights Arts<br />
2173 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights<br />
14. Kenneth Paul Lesko<br />
1305 W 80th Street, Cleveland<br />
15. Kokoon Arts Gallery<br />
1305 West 80th Street, Cleveland<br />
16. LAND Studio / Cleveland Public Art<br />
1939 West 25th Street, Suite 200, Cleveland<br />
17. Legation, A Gallery<br />
1300 D West 78th Street, Cleveland<br />
18. Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory<br />
1754 E . 47th Street, Cleveland<br />
19. Orange Art Center<br />
31500 Chagrin Boulevard, Cleveland<br />
20. The Print Club of Cleveland<br />
11150 East Boulevard, Cleveland<br />
11 25<br />
20<br />
5<br />
2<br />
13<br />
21. Proximity<br />
1667 E . 40th Street, Cleveland<br />
22. Red Dot Project<br />
1900 Superior Avenue, Suite 117, Cleveland<br />
23. River Gallery<br />
19046 Old Detroit Rd, Rocky River<br />
24. Screw Factory Artists<br />
13000 Athens Avenue, Lakewood<br />
25. Sculpture Center<br />
1834 East 123rd Street, Cleveland<br />
26. SPACES<br />
2220 Superior Viaduct, Cleveland<br />
27. William Busta Gallery<br />
2731 Prospect Avenue East, Cleveland<br />
28. <strong>Zygote</strong> <strong>Press</strong><br />
1410 East 30 th Street, Cleveland<br />
19<br />
north east ohio collective arts network journal : : : page thirty nine
Saturday, September 15th, <strong>2012</strong><br />
Art Galleries & Artist Studios | Historical Walking<br />
Tours | Free S idewalk Concerts | Festivals | & More<br />
For more information, log onto<br />
downtowncleveland.com/sparxcityhop<br />
.<br />
11:00am-9:00pm<br />
<strong>Zygote</strong> <strong>Press</strong><br />
Artist Space Share<br />
LAUNCH<br />
February <strong>2012</strong><br />
quarterartsdistrict.com<br />
<br />
FEB<br />
<strong>2012</strong><br />
ABOUT ZPASS<br />
A Residency-Retreat-Community space, ZPASS launches in<br />
February! Just upstairs from the shop, in a 1,500 square foot<br />
space, we’ve created an exciting new residence and<br />
multifunctioning artist-studio space.<br />
ZPASS has four components:<br />
» It will be home to a new <strong>Zygote</strong> Residency program, as well<br />
as host our ongoing annual Dresden Residency Exchanges<br />
» Provide a space for Artist Retreats for residence and print<br />
shop access<br />
» Be a shared arts community space and studio (providing<br />
other visual arts organizations with an intercity, long or short<br />
term stay residence option)<br />
» Allow <strong>Zygote</strong> to restructure its current Intern/Apprenticeship<br />
program as this new space develops<br />
ZPASS<br />
Z y g o t e P r e s s<br />
1410 East 30th Street<br />
Cleveland, Ohio 44114<br />
216 . 6 2 1.2 9 0 0<br />
zygotepress.com<br />
Visit the<br />
Quarter …<br />
the heart and<br />
soul of<br />
Cleveland’s art<br />
community.<br />
We’re bringing<br />
industrial<br />
buildings back<br />
to life.<br />
We’re setting a<br />
bold new<br />
direction for<br />
Cleveland’s<br />
contemporary<br />
art scene.<br />
We’re building<br />
a community<br />
of dreamers<br />
and innovators.<br />
And we hope<br />
you’ll join us.