CAN Journal Volume 1 Issue 1 2012 - Zygote Press

SpACES
IT’S ABOUT THE RIDE By Nancy Heaton
spaces takes artists and audiences on a journey
SPACES was conceived as an alternative to the Cleveland’s traditional galleries, a place where artists could exhibit
experimental work that might otherwise not be accessible .
Founded in Playhouse Square in 1978, and moving to the
Warehouse District in the 80s—at a time when the neighborhood
was largely vacant, and buildings were being demolished to make
parking lots, the gallery has always been a center of intriguing, even
aesthetically challenging activity for its neighborhood. SPACES
was known as the place in town to find the kind of art objects
that fell outside the limits of traditional galleries. Installation art
was a primary focus, complemented by exhibits of photographs,
sculptures, drawings and works in other traditional media, often
with a theme.
The venue moved across the river in 1990, when it bought a building
on Ohio City’s Superior Viaduct. The SPACES experience has
shifted in recent years, but it continues to transform lives and the
way people look at art.
Today, as the way we experience art globally and personally has
shifted, the making of art has become an interdisciplinary practice
which overlaps into a wide range of other areas. SPACES embraces
this expanding outlook by focusing on experiments which explore
new directions with ideas through various media and disciplines.
When you come to an opening, expect on- the-spot inventions
and collaborations, with hands on and eyes open. As the audience
you will be more engaged, the artist is given more freedom and the
possibilities become endless and unknown.
In other words, SPACES does not curate ART, but ARTISTS and
the creative experience of experimentation. Being unrestricted by
the traditional gallery structure allows artists a whole new range
of artistic expression, with support that is often unheard of in
traditional settings. There are still things on the gallery walls, but
now artists working at SPACES have complete freedom and support
to do more, to challenge themselves and the audience. The audience
becomes involved in the process, leaving doors open to interpret,
challenge and chime in, exciting the senses!
A look at SPACES’ programs gives an idea how this all plays out.
The R&D (Research & Development) program invites artists,
curators and other cultural producers to articulate their research and
development of ideas and objects through a supported exhibition
or project. These exhibitions and projects may be group, solo, or
collaborative endeavors.
The Vault—a converted, walk-in safe that came with the
building—functions as a digital media flat file: there audiences
can experience a variety of video and audio art. Work is added on
a rolling basis, and remains on view for approximately six months.
Viewers have the remote control in their hands to select the work
they would like to view.
SPACES World Artists Program (SWAP) is a residency initiative that
invites local, national and international artists to spend significant
periods of time in Cleveland neighborhoods to create experimental
work. SPACES provides SWAP artists with support for the creation,
exhibition and discussion.
What about artists who still use traditional media to make things?
While the gallery’s programming is intended to mark a deliberate
break from traditional galleries, as long as the artist’s focus is
experimental and as long as it’s about pushing boundaries, there is
space at SPACES: in the words of Executive Director Chris Lynn:
“It’s about the ride, not the destination.”
Nancy Heaton is executive director of BAYarts.
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Location 2220 Superior Viaduct, Cleveland
Phone 216.621.2314
Web http://www.spacesgallery.org
Email Contact@spacesgallery.org
Facebook SPACES
GALLERY HOURS
Noon to 5 p .m . Tuesday through Sunday
Thursdays until 8 p .m .
Closed Monday
MISSION
SPACES is the resource and public forum for artists who
explore and experiment .
A BRIEF HISTORY
SPACES was founded in 1978 by a group of artists looking
to found “an interdisciplinary arena for the visual and
performing arts with an interest in creating and presenting
new art including individual and collaborative works .”
Since then, SPACES has gone on to feature the work of
over 9000 artists in varied formats .
UPCOMING EVENTS
Margaret Cogswell
Christi Birchfield
Marty Weishaar
February 3 – March 30, 2012
Cleveland Convention & Visitors Bureau
featuring the work of Cleveland SGS, the Cleveland
Urban Design Collaborative, Temporary Travel Office,
and The Think Tank That Has Yet to Be Named.
May 11 – July 13, 2012
Please check www .SPACESgallery .org for the most upto-date
information .
PHOTO: SPACES
WiLLiAm BUSTA gALLEry
MORE OF THE SAME By Alenka Banco
william busta gallery offers continuity for both artists and audiences
William Busta says the gallery that bears his name is more about Cleveland than it is about art . William Busta Gallery
is based on his conviction that art is one of the ways that we enter into dialogue with the past and in which we
contribute to the future .
The owner-operated gallery has called Cleveland home since it
first opened in Cleveland’s Murry Hill neighborhood, back in
1989. Having been located for a time in the Detroit Shoreway
neighborhood, it’s now on Prospect Avenue in Cleveland’s Art
Quarter. The gallery represents contemporary artists who live and
work in Northeast Ohio, with one-person exhibitions. Busta then
continues to represent each artist on an ongoing basis.
Busta jokes, “If I look backwards, I am going to guess that I put up
more works of art than anybody else…..except an elementary school
teacher.” He estimates that he has installed more than 250 shows.
Busta decided to open his first galley because he realized when
he was Director of NOVA (the New Organization for the Visual
Arts, a service organization for the visual arts) that there was a
significant void in Cleveland galleries—a need to show works by a
roster of individual artists with some frequency over time. It is that
consistency that is the strength of his gallery.
Busta believes this programming means the gallery is constantly
developing with the artist: when an artist is only focused on one
show, they gear up for that show and then take a sigh of relief. When
an artist closes a show and has their next show scheduled, they
bring a different attitude back to their studio. He believes that is
essential in the creation of better art and better bodies of work. This
relationship between artist and gallery gives an artist the time to
develop an audience and then provides the audience the place to find
the work on an ongoing basis.
The key to Bill’s success is his complete devotion to the process of
discovering the artist and of course the artists work. Busta says,
“When a publisher lands Danielle Steel, all that they can say is that
they have a deep pocket book. The real skill is in finding the next
Danielle Steel.”
He believes that the sense of discovery is in part what people
come to the gallery for. He quickly adds that the discovery for the
audience is only possible after the curator does his homework. The
internet has made the research process much easier, but Busta feels
that going to shows is an important part of the discovery.
Fundamentally for Busta it comes down to choices. All sorts of
reasons other than the work itself determine who he shows. He
considers the artist as a whole career, rather than just individual
things. “I curate the artist rather than individual pieces or individual
bodies of work,” he says. Salability is never an issue for a first show.
The beginning is always about the quality. Among the artists who
have had their first shows at WBG are Hildur Jonsson, Derik Hess
and Laurence Channing.
Busta admits that he does not know exactly why people buy art, but
he believes it deals with immortality. Art is a way that we speak. It
Location 2731 Prospect Ave., Cleveland
Phone 216.298-9071
Web www.williambustagallery.com
Email bustagallery@gmail.com
Facebook William Busta Gallery
GALLERY HOURS
11 a .m . to 5:30 p .m . Tuesday through Saturday
or by appointment
MISSION
William Busta Gallery represents contemporary artists
who live and work in Northeast Ohio . Mostly, the gallery
presents one-person exhibitions, and then continues to
represent the artist .
A BRIEF HISTORY
William Busta Gallery originally opened on Murray Hill in
Little Italy in January, 1989 . In all, it has operated in five
locations, including on Detroit Avenue and its current
location on Prospect .
is a form of immortality, to have a voice through time. So whether
it is the immortality of the person who is making a piece or possibly
the person buying it, many devote their lives to the expressive object.
The real audience for art is people who are engaged in the lives of
new ideas. He feels that it is directly related to the relationship they
build with the artist over time.
All the galleries in the regional scene create a kind of Cleveland
synergy. To have a gallery that shows specific artists’ work
consistently gives the greater Cleveland audience the foundation to
indelibly understand the art. Of all the exhibition places in greater
Cleveland, there is a very complementary function in which we see
the individual pieces, and in which people see the work in context.
Busta points out that in the end, having buyers is also a necessary
part of that synergy.
So what is in the horizon for WBG? “More of the same” Bill
continues. “My formulas and methodologies are down pat, and once
you are sixty you pretty much don’t need to change anything. You
are who you are.”
Alenka Banco is director of Convivium33 Gallery.
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UPCOMING SHOWS
Michael Loderstedt, Menagerie
Dimensional: Printed Works by Current and Former
Students from Kent State
January 6 to February 4
Christi Birchfield
Julie Weitz
February 10 to March 10
Derf, My Friend Dahmer
March 2 to April 14
Spaces exterior, Big Bang opening.
Opening night, as seen from the sidewalk.
page thirty : : : north east ohio collective arts network journal north east ohio collective arts network journal : : : page thirty one
PHOTO: WILLIAM BUSTA GALLERY
Christian Wulffen
March 9 to April 14
NOADA Art Expo
(Northern Ohio Art Dealers Association)
April 19 to 22
Don Harvey
Lane Cooper
April 27 to June 2
Susan Umbenhour
Barbara Polster
June 8 to July 31