Canvas: Spring/Summer 2015

Previews: Akron Art Museum | MOCA | Transformer Station

cleveland | arts | music | performance | entertainment

Tracy Ameen

Spring | Summer 2015

Rare in form and uniquely inspired, this Bainbridge Township artist’s double-wall pottery is special

Inside: Scott Pickering’s art ‘Pops’; 2nd Fridays Hopping in Hudson

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INSIDE

16 Day and night

Stirring emotions often wake Tracy Ameen, but they also inspire her powerful doublewall pottery

Cover image by Michael C. Butz

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Pop! goes the neighborhood Scott Pickering’s art lights up Slavic Village, Cleveland

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Michael C. Butz | editor | editor@canvascle.com Jon Larson | art director | jlarson@cjn.org Gina Lloyd | project coordinator | glloyd@cjn.org Cleveland Jewish Publication Company Kevin S. Adelstein | publisher and ceo Adam Mandell | director of sales RJ Pooch | director of publishing operations

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Editor’s Note

Editor Michael C. Butz weighs in on summer arts festivals

Center Stage

Fictional settings evoke authentic emotions in Akron Art Museum’s “Staged”

Hudson Hopping

2nd Friday Art Hops and The Flea at Evaporator Works are bringing Hudson’s creativity to the forefront”

Events calendar

Plan visits to numerous art, music and cultural festivals

Mixed media

“How to Remain Human” serves as the centerpiece to summer exhibitions at MOCA that scramble genre and geography

Tragedy & triumph

Transformer Station’s “Crackle & Drag” provides an intimate portrait of the artist’s troubled mother

Listings

Local and regional listings of museums, galleries, events and performance arts venues

216-454-8300 | advertising@cjn.org 4

| Spring/Summer 2015

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Fest Fare

Canvas Editor: Michael C. Butz

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Who doesn’t love a good festival, right? Especially when art is involved, and especially this time of year, when we’re invited outside to enjoy the summer sun.

Along those lines, in late April the Plain Dealer reported that former Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald has resurfaced from his unsuccessful gubernatorial bid to pitch community leaders on a new downtown arts festival.

The initial proposal suggests the festival would occur in August 2016, the month after the Republican National Convention comes to town, and that such an event would capitalize on recent investments made downtown.

Making the case for such a festival is also based on the experiences of other Midwestern metros – Columbus, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee among them – that have comparable populations with arts, music or food festivals that draw hundreds of thousands of visitors. Cleveland doesn’t have a festival of that scale, according to the article.

My initial reaction to the report was to drown in civic pride: “Yes! We should have a big festival like those other places.” The idea of showcasing all that’s great about downtown Cleveland, including its dining scene, and the city’s venerable arts institutions, which it seems reasonable to speculate would somehow be involved considering how they’ve built Cleveland’s artistic reputation worldwide, is appealing, to put it mildly.

After my excitement subsided a bit, though, my thoughts turned to what impact it might have on existing festivals – some of which already have a downtown presence – and how it might affect the local arts community.

Needless to say, if this idea gains traction, it’s my hope that it benefits not only downtown business interests but also the artists and organizations who day by day and year by year have built up Northeast Ohio’s artistic community.

If it brings them increased exposure and sales to a broader audience, that’s a win for the region. Thankfully, this proposal is still in its conceptual stages, leaving organizers plenty of time to determine how best to wed the involvement of local artists with the necessary functional needs of other stakeholders – and I urge them to do just that.

While that’s being discussed, one thing is for certain: I don’t intend to wait for a big downtown festival to take advantage of all the artistic offerings the region has to offer – and you shouldn’t either.

To that end, as is the case in every issue of Canvas, you’ll find an events calendar to help you map out your summer festival schedule. I’ve attended dozens of these festivals and art walks over the years, and in addition to seeing the art itself, one of the things I most enjoy about them is the opportunity to visit all of the different communities.

Recently, one of those communities was Hudson, whose growing creative scene we also write about in this issue.

I trust you’ll join me in following news of the downtown festival. I also hope you’ll join me this summer in attending the many other Northeast Ohio festivals.

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Advertisement

Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage

Chasing Dreams: Baseball & Becoming American refusal to pitch the first game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur.

Visitors can get a close look at 145 original artifacts, including game-worn uniforms, game-used equipment, park giveaways, awards, stadium seats and other memorabilia. They also have the opportunity to play virtual catch via an interactive fielding experience, select their favorite cover of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at an iPod station, and build their own team from a database of players.

It is the first time the multimedia exhibition, organized by the National Museum of American Jewish History, has been shown outside of Philadelphia.

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hrough its legends and myths, its struggles and triumphs, baseball has been a reflection of American society for generations. Chasing Dreams: Baseball & Becoming American, on view through Sept. 7, explores how issues around culture, race and community have played out through our national pastime.

“Chasing Dreams offers a mix of history, heritage, nostalgia and pop culture that will appeal to everyone, from die-hard baseball fans to former Little League players,” says Maltz Museum Executive Director Ellen Rudolph.

From Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby breaking the color line in Major League Baseball in 1947 to Cleveland native Justine Siegal becoming the first female coach of a men’s professional baseball team, Chasing Dreams illustrates how heroes on the field have not only played the game but they’ve changed it. The summerlong exhibition also looks at the intersection of sports and values through stories like that of first baseman Hank Greenberg stepping up as the first American League player to register for the peacetime draft in 1940 and Sandy Koufax’s Canvascle.com

Coming soon to the Maltz Museum: Violins of Hope (opening Oct. 1): Israeli violinmaker Amnon Weinstein has spent the last two decades lovingly restoring violins that survived the Holocaust. He dedicates this important work to the relatives he never knew. Approximately 20 of those violins will be part of a Maltz Museum exhibition that illustrates both the strength of the human spirit and the power of music. For more information, visit violinsofhopecle.org.

The Capture and Trial of Adolf Eichmann (opening Jan. 23, 2016): This will be the first exhibition in the U.S. to fully document the pursuit, capture, extradition and April 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, a principal perpetrator of the Nazi scheme to systematically murder millions of European Jews and one of the world’s most notorious escaped war criminals. The dramatic story is told using recently declassified artifacts from the Mossad, Israel’s Secret Intelligence Service.

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Cleveland artist Scott Pickering stands in his Slavic Village living room surrounded by – and hidden by – his many works.

Pop! goes the neighborhood Scott Pickering’s art lights up Slavic Village, Cleveland Story by Carlo Wolff Photography by Michael C. Butz

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cott Pickering surveys his backyard and the one next door and rants. His is chock-full of things he’s collected and transmogrified, creating a kind of electric garden. Next door, there’s a stove, tires, an inner spring.

There goes the neighborhood. Pickering would like to goose it back to life.

Pickering is an artist, a funny one. He can also be an angry one. The 54-year-old Mentor native has lived in Slavic Village for decades, his frame house is paid for, and he’s engaged in changing the profile of Slavic Village from poster child for the foreclosure crisis to a safe haven for creatives like himself.

That isn’t easy.

Still, he perseveres, using his own household as a sort of easel, from the painted front porch swing to the two- and three-dimensional artifacts that animate the rear. Not to mention all the stuff inside a house so crammed it’s hard to navigate.

“I’m a big hoarder,” he says. “The garage is full of crap that I plan on ‘transmorphing’ into some sort of entity, some final art piece.”

He’s also into creating art “that lives for a minute, and then it’s crushed,” like the houses in Rooms to Let, a Slavic

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Hundreds of works of art line the walls and fill the empty spaces of Pickering’s home, including many playful pieces that are fun to mimic.

Village Development project that creates temporary art exhibitions in foreclosed homes about to be demolished.

“That’s very of-the-moment,” says Pickering, who enjoyed working on the 2014 Rooms to Let. “It speaks to me on a very personal level that nothing is forever, which is intense. Getting older, I think about it – issues, life issues. I mean it’s like, you know, life is fleeting, you got to go for it – I mean really, really go for it.

“Doing the art, I really love it,” says Pickering, who also is a drummer, known for powering the legendary Cleveland band, Prisonshake.

He also worked with Easter Monkeys, Speaker/ Cranker and Spike in Vain and now participates in seven or eight bands, including Das Fin. His home is awash in compact discs (there’s a wall of vinyl, too) spanning groups as diverse as the Flesh Eaters, Thelonious Monk and Led Zeppelin.

Music and art continue to fuel him.

“Pop” is the word for Pickering World: his art is bright, upbeat, guileless and scrambled.

One acrylic, ominous even as it draws a chuckle, shows a Viking helmet floating in space with no head to occupy it. Another is a beige-and-white acrylic called “Lady With the Candle Head.”

It shows a woman with candles popping out of her head.

“I’m sure I’ve seen her in my dreams,” Pickering says. “I don’t think I dated her.

“I get a kick out of it, if it makes me laugh,” 10

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Pickering says of the art that litters his house to the point it crawls up the walls.

Influenced by the likes of Francis Bacon, Picasso, B.J. Kitaj and Romare Bearden, Pickering earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Kent State University in 1984 – and started his rock career. His creative career is not about straight lines.

Pickering also works in graphic design and trade shows. But art is always at hand.

“I have to enjoy it first,” he says. “If I don’t like it, it doesn’t get out of this crazy house of mine,” he says of his art, which sells for anywhere from $25 to “the thousands.”

Pickering often uses paint manufactured by the Cleveland firm, DayGlo Color Corp. His favorite media are acrylic and pastel.

“Some stuff is done in five or 10 minutes,” says Pickering, a compact, bullet-headed guy who looks like he could star in one of his own animations. “A lot of my stuff, I like it to look childlike.”

What makes it that way? “I think the reason is because I really try to cut out the bullshit and get right to what I’m feeling, and I want it away from stylistic nuance,” he says.

Pickering certainly doesn’t play it close to the vest.

He tears up when he talks about his mom and his cat, Itsy. Both passed away in 2014.

Both left holes in his heart. He cherishes Squeaks and Clyde, the neediest two of his four Canvascle.com

cats. And he worries about a part of town he says is very close to bottoming out.

Whether it will come up again and join ranks with Cleveland neighborhoods – like Ohio City, Tremont and Waterloo – on the creative rise is another question.

Rooms to Let Last year, Pickering participated in Rooms to Let, a kind of “Habitat with art” in which people submit proposals to transform abandoned homes through art. “It’s like a residential pop-up in these trashed homes,” he says.

In 2014, he curated one such Slavic Village home, painting the outside and one room DayGlo; 30 to 40 artists participated, a number that might be exceeded this year, he says. Another form of expansion might figure, too: “We’re actually toying around with the idea of having a mini cash-and-carry art component, which I think I might want to do.”

This May 16 and 17, all the homes slated for Rooms to Let were to be demolished. Last year, Pickering’s was the only demo.

“I knew that my home at that time was the only one that was slated for demo,” he says, so he figured, “Hey, man, go bananas.”

“It’s pretty liberating when you can do anything; it kind of puts you in a ‘Hey, what am I going to do?’ mood. I did a lot of stuff that I always wanted to do, like draw on the walls. I put collage on the walls, I hung stupid shit from the ceiling. You name it, I tried to do it. I didn’t do enough, I still want to do more.”

He was involved in the project for about a month and “his house” became “a conversation piece in the neighborhood.” He was there all the time, “riding the riff,” giving local kids paint and brushes to brighten the porch and the sidewalk. And at the end, the home, known as the Boingy House, was demolished. Why? “It’s sort of like the great why?” he says.

“Because it is.”

That inarguable assertion seems to fit with Slavic Village, driving Pickering mad with hope at times, turning him desperate at others.

Though he’s been hailed for his community involvement, he’s upset that the house he bought 20 years ago isn’t worth what it was then. Pickering can’t pinpoint when Slavic Village “went kablooey and totally slid into the crapper,” and he misses a not-too-distant neighborhood past when conversation, rather than a gun, would defuse a dispute.

Still, there’s something about the place.

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“A lot of my stuff, I like it to look childlike. … I think the reason is because I really try to cut out the bullshit and get right to what I’m feeling, and I want it away from stylistic nuance.”

Scott Pickering, artist and drummer “I’m not quite sure that my art would be what it is without this constant tension that I experience,” Pickering says. “I don’t know if I could do the same sort of art if I was very content living … and having a little bit more land and not being so overly concerned about crime and the integrity of the neighborhood.”

He recalls walking Slavic Village when Christmas decorations were a big deal and there were festivals on Fleet Avenue and pierogi contests, “polka bands and punk bands and people would get completely annihilated. For a punk rock dude, it was completely mind-blowing – in a great way.

“I love what it was and I love what it could be. I am – what do you call it? – cautiously optimistic.” And in touch with his emotions. And cries easily. Such an artist. CV 11

Barry Underwood, Norquay (Yellow), 2007, archival pigment print, 28 x 28 in., Collection of the Akron Art Museum, Museum Acquisition Fund 2014.20

Center Fictional settings evoke authentic emotions in Akron Art Museum’s “Staged”

By Jacqueline Mitchell

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stage

iant fluorescent goldfish fill a bright blue bedroom, flopping on the dresser and floor and swimming through the air in Sandy Skoglund’s 1981 “Revenge of the Goldfish.” What makes this surreal work of art remarkable? It’s an unaltered photograph. No digital media or Photoshop was used to create or enhance the highly saturated image. Instead, everything seen in the Cibachrome print has been handcrafted and carefully created in front of a camera lens by the artist – from the 120 terra-

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cotta fish, the dresser, nightstands and bed to the posed models – and captured in great detail by a large-format film camera, Skoglund’s photo served as the inspiration for “Staged,” a collection of theatrical, dramatic, intentionally staged photographs, which opened May 2 and runs through Sept. 27 in the Akron Art Museum’s Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Gallery.

“All the work in this exhibit has been specifically staged for the camera. In some cases, the Canvascle.com

r Canvascle.com

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Samuel Fosso, La Femme libérée américaine dans les années 70 [Liberated American Woman in the 70s], 1997 (printed 2006), chromogenic print, 20 x 20 in., Collection of the Akron Art Museum, Knight Purchase Fund for Photographic Media 2006.26

“All the work in this exhibit has been specifically staged for the camera. In some cases, the photographers have arranged every little detail.”

Elizabeth Carney Akron Art Museum assistant curator

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Sandy Skoglund, Revenge of the Goldfish, 1981, Cibachrome print, 2778 x 35½ in., Collection of the Akron Art Museum, Museum Acquisition Fund 1982.1

photographers have arranged every little detail,” says Elizabeth Carney, assistant curator at the Akron Art Museum. “‘Staged’ refers to the idea of staged photography, but also to the idea of the theatrical stage. There’s an element of storytelling in every image, as well as the drama of the stage.”

While some elements of staging are involved in all photography, such as subject matter and components included within the camera’s frame, the photographs in “Staged” take this idea to the extreme.

“A photographer is not just finding something and taking a picture,” says Carney. “They are tailoring that image to exactly what they want. In this exhibit are photographers who construct everything you see in the image – it’s all fake.”

Some of the works are humorous, some are calming, and some are a bit disturbing or dark.

“A lot of them really ask the question, ‘What is going on here?’ and maybe evoke a little bit of confusion,” says Carney. “They’re all relatively open-ended and offer the viewer the opportunity to figure out what’s happening and figure out the story.”

The exhibit features two works by photographer Samuel Fosso – one from 1977, and one from 20 years later. Both are self-portraits, in a sense. Fosso was born in Cameroon and moved to Central African Republic as a teen.

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Carrie Mae Weems, Untitled from the Kitchen Table Series, 1990, gelatin silver prints, 27¼ x 27¼ in. each, Collection of the Akron Art Museum, Knight Purchase Fund for Photographic Media 1996.4 a-c

“When he moved there, he encountered people who were taking photographs and had their own portrait studios and decided that’s what he wanted to do,” says Carney.

Fosso’s uncle helped him open a photography studio when he was still a teen, and he began shooting commercial portraits. He would often take up nearly an entire roll of film for a client.

Instead of wasting the film remaining at the end of the rolls, he would take photos of himself, such as in his 1977 work, “Self-Portrait.”

Donning a muscle tank, fringed Bermuda shorts and disco boots, Fosso poses dramatically for the camera, studio lights and a curtain still visible in the background.

“It’s pretty dramatically staged as a self portrait,” says Carney. “When you think of the history of the Central African Republic in the ’70s, this is when culture was starting to change and the younger generation was becoming more aware of things in America and Europe.”

Local artist Barry Underwood, an assistant professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art, is also featured in the exhibit. Underwood creates elaborate installations made of lights, glow sticks, LEDS and anything else that glows or emits light, then photographs them in landscape settings at a low shutter speed, often at night.

“The result is an eerie but very beautiful quality,” says Carney, who describes Underwood’s photos as “very theatrical in nature.”

Another landscape photographer featured in the exhibit, Spencer Tunick – who was commissioned by Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland in 2004 for a photograph in front of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum – fills public spaces with hundreds or even thousands of nude volunteers for his photographs.

His work “Angel Meadow” depicts a nude crowd in a park in Manchester, England. Tunick gathered volunteers at 6 a.m. in order to capture the light of dawn.

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Akron Art Museum

“Altered Landscapes” On view: Through July 12 “Staged” On view: Through Sept. 27 “Proof: Photographs from the Collection” On view: May 30 – Oct. 25 “They look like they’re milling around, but they are very much posed,” says Carney. “(Tunick) directs everyone with verbal cues. He says his work illustrates the battle of nature against culture.”

Another staged work from photographer Carrie Mae Weems’ Kitchen Table series, “Untitled,” consists of three images that tell a story.

“In the first photo, you see a central figure, a woman who seems to be upset and two other women listening,” says Carney. “In the second, they are sitting around thinking or wallowing, and in the third, they are laughing. … (Weems’ photos) are archetypes, distilled types of experiences that a lot of people share. This shows a woman who’s telling her friends something pretty awful, and then they’re laughing it off. It’s the idea of friendship or platonic love.”

Carney says that though the works in “Staged” may be dramatized and fictional, they evoke authentic human emotion.

“Some people want to ignore things that aren’t real, but these photographs have not been made in deception,” says Carney. “The artists are using the medium of photography to express or tell a story that they want to, even though the facts aren’t real. Like in fictional literature or theater or fairy tales, the feelings that are expressed by the artist or evoked in the viewer of the work are real and can really speak to broader truths about human experience.” CV 15

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and Day Stirring emotions often wake Tracy Ameen, but they also inspire her powerful double-wall pottery Story by Jonah L. Rosenblum Photography by Michael C. Butz

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Tracy Ameen discusses “Cry of a Woman,� one of her many intricately designed and emotionally moving pieces of double-wall pottery, at her studio.

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hen she was younger, Tracy Ameen’s father used to say she was emotional. Ameen used to fight back.

“I accept it now. I’m emotional,” says a smiling Ameen, now 54 years old. Her Wheel Works Art Studio in Bainbridge Township is full of art that supports her father’s claim.

Ameen’s father also once told her that he was going to be an artist – but then she was born.

Her initial reaction: Too bad, Dad. Her later reaction: Ameen pursued art herself and has become one of America’s precious few double-wall pottery artists, her work displayed in the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City and the White House in Washington, D.C. – as well as Pennello Gallery in Cleveland’s Little Italy neighborhood.

It’s more than the unassuming Ameen, whose formal arts education at Kent State University was short-lived (by choice), ever could have imagined growing up on Cleveland’s East Side.

“How the tides turned and got me here is just fate, I guess,” Ameen says of her career. “It’s one of those things that I didn’t pick. It picked me.”

Power in form Ameen’s artwork also picks her – often from the depths of night.

It was late at night, when considering how to differentiate her work from other pottery, she first conceived of her hallmark double-wall pottery.

Indeed, Ameen’s craft wasn’t something she studied in a textbook. When she started, she didn’t even know it existed. It was only later that she learned about its roots in China’s Ming Dynasty.

It is a difficult art form and it took time to work out the kinks. As intricate as the carvings on the outside wall are, Ameen says first creating the two-wall structure is hardest. For a class she once taught in Phoenix, she didn’t even bother having her students try. She made the double wall, allowing them to skip to carving.

“I’ve got to get my hand down in there and pull that wall up without bumping the other one or without it twisting or without it collapsing,” says Ameen, whose voice burns with the charm and conviction of a preacher when discussing her craft and her art. “Getting those two walls up separately and then reattaching them is a job all by itself.”

It has its benefits, though. For one, the outer structure allows her to add a third dimension to her artwork. She can pile clay on top of clay – or carve clay out to add depth and texture to any Canvascle.com

piece. Equally important is the fact that she stands alone in her field.

“No one can tell me you’ve done it wrong,” Ameen says with just a hint of glee.

The overlooked It’s also in the dark of night that a bad dream will lead a distraught Ameen downstairs to her studio to set free her feelings – and to create the works that have brought her global renown.

“I’ve got to release (these emotions) some kind of way and go, ‘I’m OK now. I’m OK,’” Ameen says.

Recently, it was the Lost Girls of Nigeria, approximately 300 girls kidnapped by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, who left Ameen tossing and turning.

So sprouts an unnamed piece in her studio, waiting to be finished, with the Lost Girls’ arms reaching out in tortured fashion.

“I don’t want to hear the details,” Ameen says of the tragedy, still wrestling with how it makes her feel. “My own imagination is good enough. Hearing that story and thinking, ‘Oh, those are babies. Oh, how sad it is, and you know their innocence is gone now.’”

“Have you seen ‘Cry of a Woman?’” Cynthia Ishler asks excitedly.

Ishler is one of many students to circulate through Ameen’s “open-door” studio over the years.

Teaching isn’t Ameen’s passion, per se; it’s more an economic necessity.

“It was just supplementing,” Ameen says.

“I’m not excited about teaching but I can – and I take that seriously.”

“Yes, you do,” Ishler says. “She’s a good teacher, but yeah, she’d rather create.”

Ishler is speechless, on the other hand, about “Cry of a Woman.”

Perhaps there is no speech worthy of the tortured woman who stands, head tilted back, in full anguish.

Ameen passionately explains that this is the story of women – all women – who give endlessly to their families.

“It’s like, ‘Oh my god, I’ve had enough. Does someone see me?’” Ameen says.

A plea to be seen is the theme of much of her work.

“Call to Arms” depicts three arms holding a globe, with “government” and “religion” nearly squeezing it to a pulp, while the “arm of the people” silently supports its weight.

The plight of the overlooked is also what’s 19

Ameen’s Mammy cookie jar collection, which includes “Obama’s Victory” above, has brought her acclaim and controversy.

Unnamed pieces of double-wall pottery such as this one, which depicts scenes from her childhood on Cleveland’s East Side, await completion in Ameen’s studio.

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Supplies are plentiful and the workspaces frequently used in Ameen’s Wheel Works Art Studio in Bainbridge Township.

behind her famed Mammy cookie jar collection – easily her bestseller, with Whoopi Goldberg among her customers.

One sculpted figurine, “Obama’s Victory,” flashes a toothy grin as she hoists the American flag in the air. Another, “Makin’ Sunday Dinner,” licks a whisk while donning a sunny yellow apron. “My Hands is Full” shows a slave cradling a white boy, who reaches toward her face with one hand while holding a pie in the other.

Though the Mammies’ thick lips and deep black skin hint at racial caricature to some, Ameen says they’re a matter of celebrating history.

“This over-black, fat, obese woman, it’s like she’s a joke, but if we really look at it, the joke’s on us,” Ameen says. “It doesn’t have anything to do with being a black woman. It just has everything to do with look what I’ve done, look at what my contribution was.”

Lupus and lags If it seems like Ameen hasn’t invited people to her Wheel Works Art Studio (which doubles as a gallery) in a while, it’s because she hasn’t. She estimates her last show was a couple of years ago.

Her pieces circulate, as they always have, but there have also been some sizable delays. She notes a couple of pieces that were supposed to be finished in 2013 still sit downstairs.

To some extent, that’s just her way.

“I don’t want to be in a position of, ‘that show is coming up, I have to get something finished,’”

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Ameen says. “I don’t want to ever do that.”

Why do pieces sit unglazed in her basement?

“Faking it (to meet a deadline) ends with me tossing it in the backyard,” Ameen says. “As an artist, I just want to do art.”

It has been harder recently as she fights lupus, diagnosed a few years ago.

“I get so tired,” Ameen says. “I push myself beyond what I probably should. I leave out of here and I am dizzy as the day is long. Then, I tell myself, it’s in your head. It’s in your head. That does not exist. A good night’s sleep and we start again.”

Lupus doesn’t make maneuvering 20- to 30-pound sculptures any easier. Just wedging the clay, which requires one bodily thrust after another, is strenuous.

After wedging, the double wall can take hours, the carving can take months and the whole process can take up to a year.

Still, Ameen plows away – and has a show planned for 2016 at Ursuline College in Pepper Pike.

Powerful pieces linger in her studio, including one that hints at her roots among the young children playing in the junkyards of Cleveland’s East Side. Little boys are depicted climbing out of tires and jumping over buildings. It’s freedom, innocence and poverty mixed into one piece.

“I’ve been repositioning myself. I’m reinventing,” Ameen says of her direction. “How do you do that? I don’t have a clue.” CV

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Downtown Cleveland Alliance

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Explore Cleveland with the 13th Annual SPARX City Hop

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ach year, SPARX City Hop brings Cleveland’s residents and visitors together to explore, experience and celebrate some of our city’s most charming neighborhoods along with its art and cultural gems. On Saturday, Sept. 19, this annual event will provide participants, or “City Hoppers,” with the opportunity to be a tourist in the city they call home. Nearly 100 galleries, artist lofts, studios and retail participants will be featured in SPARX City Hop 2015.

While Downtown is in the midst of a renaissance, our urban core and its surrounding neighborhoods are experiencing constant growth. These neighborhoods are home to a number of unique studios, galleries and cultural institutions.

City Hoppers start their day at the SPARX City Hop Main Hub in Downtown Cleveland. The Main Hub, located under Playhouse Square’s GE Chandelier, is home to an information station as well as musical and performance art. Trolleys will pick up eager City Hoppers at U.S. Bank Plaza and take them on guided tours of Downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.

“SPARX allows us to highlight the local art and culture in Downtown Cleveland and its surrounding neighborhoods. Every year, visitors discover new artists and new portions of their city. SPARX is a great way to explore,” said Downtown Cleveland Alliance President and CEO Joe Marinucci.

Interested in exploring your city and celebrating local art? Find more information on SPARX City Hop at Downtowncleveland.com/ SPARX.

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SEPTEMBER 19, 2015 11 AM - 6 PM HOP ON FREE TROLLEYS TO EXPLORE, EXPERIENCE AND CELEBRATE CLEVELAND NEIGHBORHOODS DOWNTOWNCLEVELAND.COM/SPARX

Hudson hopping

2nd Friday Art Hops and The Flea at Evaporator Works are bringing Hudson’s creativity to the forefront

By Kristen Mott

PHOTO | Michael C. Butz 24

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ith its brick roads, tree-lined streets and charming storefronts, Hudson has become known as a small, quaint city.

But recently, it also has become known for its growing art scene.

Visitors will find a handful of galleries and studios to explore, from Hudson Fine Art and Framing, Bellabor Art Jewelry, Life Needs Art and Mary Catherine Haneline Studio on Historic Main Street, to MOD: matter of design and Liston’s Fine Art in the First and Main shopping area.

Although the art scene has grown rapidly in recent years, the art culture has long been an undercurrent in the community.

“People are really wanting to express themselves more. The art community is building,” says Shannon Casey, owner of Shannon Casey Studio in Hudson. “It’s fun to see these empty spaces turn into places that are either doing art or receptive to art.”

When Casey opened her studio two-and-ahalf years ago on First and Main, an art hop was held once a year in October. Due to the limited number of galleries and studios in the community, art events weren’t held regularly.

Casey decided to change that. She began meeting with fellow artists and storeowners in January 2014 to discuss ways to raise awareness of the growing art community in Hudson. The outcome of one of those informal meetings was the idea to host a monthly art hop.

“We decided we needed to have something that’s ongoing so people know we’re here and they can count on it,” Casey says. “They do art hops in places like Canton, Akron and Peninsula.

We thought, let’s try second Fridays in Hudson.”

The first 2nd Friday Art Hop was held in July 2014. About eight galleries and merchants participated. Now in its second year, the art hops, which are held from 5 to 8 p.m. April through September, have increased to about 21 participants.

Canvascle.com

Photo | Karen Koch Paper mache bowls made by Karen Koch of Life Needs Art Studio in Hudson

“We started them because we wanted it to be about awareness,” Casey says. “We wanted people to know that there was an art scene in Hudson. It’s still evolving, but there are artists and they’re living and breathing and working in Hudson. Since then the art hops have just been gaining momentum.”

In addition to involving merchants, the art hops this year also feature hands-on activities. During the April art hop, guests had the chance to create suncatcher-like ornaments. The ornaments were then assembled into a chandelier that’s now hanging in the front window of Hudson Fine Art and Framing. Proceeds from the ornaments helped benefit the Leukemia and Lymphona Society.

“This year we decided to spend some time and really think about creating this six-month series. The art hops are now a chance for people to contribute and do art as well. Most of us teach, so we want to promote the arts,” Casey says.

The art community in Hudson also is garnering attention thanks to The Flea at the Evaporator Works, a 4-acre historically registered property in Hudson. The flea, which is held the last Saturday of the month from May to September, was developed by Randy Baun, who co-owns The Green Roots Collection with Patrick Randall.

Last January, Baun and Randall moved their store from First and Main to the Evaporator Works building, an industrial complex where the tool used to convert maple sap into syrup was invented. That summer, the first flea was held.

“We started the flea to build peoples’ aware25

Photo | Karen Koch Life Needs Art studio on Historic Main Street in Hudson

ness that there was a revitalization of Evaporator Works, with a focus on independently owned shops and boutiques,” Baun says. “It was a great way to attract people and not only offer something new for residents in surrounding areas but build awareness of Evaporator Works as a destination.”

Now in its second year, the laid-back Flea features about 50 vendors, food trucks and live music in two venues. The flea sells predominantly furniture – specifically furniture that has been upcycled or recycled – but this year handmade items from local merchants also will be sold.

“Our store is focused on environmentally friendly clothing, and we started to expand into non-clothing home goods with keeping that recycled and upcycled vibe to the store. We expanded the flea to keep that same environmentally friendly, green-oriented feel,” Baun says.

Baun credits the art hops for playing an important role in the evolution of the art community in Hudson.

“I don’t recall there really being much of an art scene at all until a few years ago. When I attended the art hop last year, I was shocked,” Baun says. “There were 20-something working art studios in Hudson that I was absolutely not aware of, and all the artists had great talent.

“Since then, it’s become another point of pride in the community. I think that all the citizens have been surprised there are so many artists here.”

About 25 studios and merchants in Hudson have already requested to be a part of the June art hop. Casey’s hope for the 2nd Friday Art Hops, as well as the art community in Hudson, is to see it continue to evolve.

“It’s exciting and fun to be a part of it,” 26

| Spring/Summer 2015

Casey says. “To have these art days in Hudson once a month, I think it’s amazing. It just keeps growing.

“Early on we decided that if we banded together we could network and support each other as artists. We’ve organized ourselves and found ways to approach merchants in a way that we’re going to bring in more people. Creating this cohesive art hop helps us all.” CV

Around town

Shannon Casey, owner of Shannon Casey Studio, highlights some popular events in Hudson this summer:

Screen on the Green June 12, July 17, Aug. 29 Grab a blanket and snacks and head over to the First and Main Green for a free, family-friendly movie beginning at dusk.

35th annual Art on the Green Aug. 29 and 30 This free event showcases original work by more than 150 artists. Art lovers will discover paintings, jewelry, pottery, woodcarving, enamel, sculpture, photography and garden decor.

11th Annual Taste of Hudson Sept. 6 and 7 This two-day festival showcases the diverse culinary, arts and entertainment features of Hudson. More than 20 Hudson area restaurants will provide food samples.

Guests also can enjoy 60 musical acts and performances, children’s activities, exhibitors, local artists and crafters, a luxury auto show, and wine and beer garden.

Canvascle.com

Lake View Cemetery has been celebrating life and, of course, the afterlife for nearly 150 years.

Which includes welcoming any and all denominations to our 285 acres of exceptional, affordable, and highly reverential resting places. Stop by anytime. Stay as long as you’d like.

Your Grounds for Life.

12316 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio | 216-421-2665 | LakeViewCemetery.com

Events Calendar

june PHOTO: Waterloo Arts Fest Michael Howe 5: MIX at CMA (Cleveland)

july PHOTO: Cain Park Arts Festival City of Cleveland Heights 3: MIX at CMA (Cleveland)

5:

Walk All Over Waterloo (Cleveland)

3:

6:

Cleveland Mini Maker Faire (Cleveland)

6:

Downtown Akron Artwalk (Akron)

3-5: Boston Mills Artfest Show 2 (Peninsula)

Walk All Over Waterloo (Cleveland)

Downtown Akron Artwalk (Akron)

6: Masterpieces on Main Art & Wine

Festival (Kent)

4:

6-7: Art by the Falls (Chagrin Falls)

10:

Tremont ArtWalk (Cleveland)

6-7: Art in the Village (Lyndhurst)

10:

2nd Friday Art Hop (Hudson)

6-7: Little Italy’s Summer Arts Festival (Cleveland)

10-12: Cain Park Arts Festival

(Cleveland Heights)

12:

Tremont ArtWalk (Cleveland)

12:

2nd Friday Art Hop (Hudson)

12-13: Canton Blues Festival (Canton) 13:

BAYarts Art & Music Festival (Bay Village)

13: Parade the Circle (Cleveland) 13-14: Crocker Park Fine Art Fair (Westlake) 19: Third Fridays at West 78th Street Studios (Cleveland) 20:

Blue Sky Folk Festival (Kirtland)

20:

Clifton Arts & Musicfest (Cleveland)

20:

CMA Solstice (Cleveland)

20: Larchmere PorchFest (Cleveland) 26:

Hip 2B Square: Fear No Art (Cleveland)

27:

Waterloo Arts Fest (Cleveland)

27-28: Boston Mills Artfest Show 1 (Peninsula) 27-28: Shaker Heights Art & Music Festival 28: 28

Wildwood Fine Arts Festival (Mentor) | Spring/Summer 2015

9-11: Tri-C JazzFest (Cleveland)

10-12: St. John Medical Center Festival of

the Arts (Westlake) 11: Blossom Music Festival Opening Night (Cuyahoga Falls) 11: Larchmere Festival (Cleveland) 11: Music in the Valley Folk & Wine

Festival (Bath Township) 11-12: Harbor Fest featuring Tall Ship Madeline (Fairport Harbor) 11-12: Summer Festival of the Arts (Youngstown) 17: Third Fridays at 78th Street Studios (Cleveland) 17-19: Party in the Park (Painesville) 18:

Willoughby ArtsFest (Willoughby)

19:

Taste of Tremont (Cleveland)

23-26: Akron Arts Expo (Akron) 25:

Headlands BeachFest (Mentor) Canvascle.com

Sponsored by:

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

PHOTO: Cleveland One World Festival | Steve Wagner

PHOTO: Chalk Festival David Brichford | Cleveland Museum of Art

1:

Downtown Akron Artwalk (Akron)

4:

MIX at CMA (Cleveland)

1:

Lakewood Arts Festival (Lakewood)

4:

2:

Cleveland One World Festival (Cleveland)

Walk All Over Waterloo (Cleveland)

2:

Warehouse District Street Festival (Cleveland)

5:

Downtown Akron Artwalk (Akron)

6-7:

Taste of Hudson (Hudson)

4-8:

Cellar Door Rendezvous

11:

Tremont ArtWalk (Cleveland)

7:

MIX at CMA (Cleveland)

11:

2nd Friday Art Hop (Hudson)

7:

Twilight at the Zoo (Cleveland)

12-13: Art in the Park (Kent)

7:

Walk All Over Waterloo (Cleveland)

12-13: Cleveland Garlic Festival (Cleveland)

7-8:

Vintage Ohio Wine Festival (Kirtland)

13:

7-9:

Weapons of Mass Creation Fest (Cleveland)

17-20: Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival (Cleveland)

9:

Discover Cedar Fairmount Summer Festival and Arts & Crafts Show (Cleveland Heights)

18:

Third Fridays at 78th Street Studios (Cleveland)

19:

Sparx City Hop (Cleveland)

14:

Tremont ArtWalk (Cleveland)

19-20: CMA Chalk Festival (Cleveland)

14:

2nd Friday Art Hop (Hudson)

21:

Third Fridays at 78th Street Studios (Cleveland)

19-20: Tremont Arts & Cultural Festival (Cleveland) 26:

Berea Arts Fest (Berea)

Music on the Porches (Peninsula)

28-29: Burning River Fest (Cleveland) 29:

Highland Square Porch Rokr (Akron)

Dates subject to change. Canvas tries to list as many events as possible that celebrate Northeast Ohio’s vibrant arts, cultural, culinary, music and performance arts communities. If there’s an event that should be considered for listing, please email information to Calendar@CanvasCLE.com.

Download and print your copy of the Canvas Events Calendar at CanvasCLE.com.

29

d e x mi

a i d me “How to Remain Human” serves as the centerpiece to summer exhibitions at MOCA that scramble genre and geography

Michelangelo Lovelace, Standing at the Fork in the Road at Temptation and Salvation, 1997, acrylic on canvas, 51¼ x 90¾ inches. Courtesy of the artist.

S

Derf Backderf, “A Man Gotta Do,” 1991, excerpt from “The City” comic strip, pen and ink. Courtesy of the artist.

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| Spring/Summer 2015

By Carlo Wolff

ummer at MOCA Cleveland kicks off June 6 when Chicago artist Tony Lewis’s “free movement power nomenclature pressure weight,” six new, large works from a series of Gregg Shorthand drawings, opens in the Toby Devan Lewis Gallery on the second floor. Six days later, a much larger, multiartist exhibition, “How to Remain Human,” will take over the Mueller Family Gallery on the fourth floor of the striking, modern structure anchoring Cleveland’s Uptown district.

In fact, “How To Remain Human” will spill all over the museum, from the atrium on up the stairs, suggests Megan Lykins Reich, who is curating it along with Rose Bouthillier. Reich is MOCA’s deputy director of programs, planning and engagement; Bouthillier is associate curator.

Bouthillier also organized the Tony Lewis display.

The exhibitions promise to scramble media, with text smearing sculpture, graphics caroming off history, cartoons, comics and video cross-fertilizing in the same space.

“As much as possible, in principle, this show is meant to provide resources and space for our artists in our region to create new work” or expand on existing work, Reich said in late April. “So we are always working to the point where we have to pick up new work. ... It is a show that is very lively in its production,” she says, laughing.

“How To Remain Human,” which takes its title from the d.a. levy poem, “Suburban Monastery Death Poem,” Canvascle.com

a d.a. levy, “Agent from Vega H.S.,” 1967, collage. Courtesy of the d.a. levy Collection, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University, and the Cleveland Memory Project.

will feature the work of 14 artists from places including Cleveland, Detroit, New York, Charlottesville and Richmond, Va. It also will display videos by the Pittsburgh-based collective Dadpranks.

While most of the artists are from the Mid-Atlantic region, what makes it a Cleveland exhibition is its sensibility, Reich suggests. It’s also a continuation of “Realization is Better than Anticipation,” an exhibition Reich and Bouthillier curated in summer 2013.

“The point of these exhibitions is to examine and advance those artists … and in creating dialogues across these cities,” Reich says. “We see our region more broadly as a center of artistic activity in its own right. We think this series of shows, not just through the collection of artists we select, but also through engaging writers to write critically on the artists, will create dialogue around the region.”

Bouthillier, meanwhile, has been looking into the work of d.a. levy, a controversial Cleveland artist who flourished in the 1960s, was busted for obscenity (the charges were eventually dropped) and fatally shot himself in 1968. He was alternative before the term gained currency, underground before that term carried cachet.

Bouthillier says she has been poring over levy’s writings “and the visual material he produced that is less well known, a lot of collages, paintings, drawings, sketches,” and she can see “the development of his practice very early from the mid- to Canvascle.com

MOCA CLEVELAND

“free movement power nomenclature pressure weight” | Tony Lewis On view: June 6 through Sept. 6 “How To Remain Human” | regional show On view: June 12 through Sept. 6 late ’60s, moving from conventional styles of poetry to increasingly wilder, more abstract poetry.”

Eventually, levy came to use the page “as a sort of space for visual composition, much more angry, much more political,” Bouthillier says.

A contemporary artist making his MOCA debut in “How To Remain Human” is John Backderf, aka Derf (and/or Derf Backderf), a Cleveland Heights resident who scored worldwide with “My Friend Dahmer,” his 2012 graphic novel about serial killer-to-be Jeffrey Dahmer.

On April 21, Derf said he’s preparing “a showcase of recent work, which is all stories about the Rust Belt Apocalypse that we live in,” for the MOCA show. That day, he also learned he’d won yet another French prize for his Dahmer book – and yet another French award for “Punk Rock and Trailer Parks,” his appropriately lurid graphic novel of the 1980s rock ‘n’ roll scene in Akron.

“God, man, France just rules as far as comics go,” Derf says. CV 31

Tragedy triumph

&

Pink & Yellow, c. 1980, Greenville, Tennessee, from the series Crackle & Drag, 2014. TR Ericsson (American, b.

1972). Archival pigment print; 48 x 60 in. Courtesy of the artist. © TR Ericsson.

Transformer Station’s “Crackle & Drag” provides an intimate portrait of the artist’s troubled mother

By Jacqueline Mitchell

A

rtist TR Ericsson was lying on the couch in his Willoughby home listening to the radio when he first heard the song “Crackle and Drag” by Paul Westerberg of the Replacements. The rocker’s tribute to troubled writer Sylvia Plath references “Edge,” one of the final poems Plath penned before her she took her life at age 30: “Staring from her hood of bone. She is used to this sort of thing.

Her blacks crackle and drag.”

But the haunting words also reminded Ericsson of someone else: his mother, Susan Bartlett Robinson, who at 57 committed suicide in 2003 in Concord Township. The lyrics gave birth to the name of his new exhibit, running May 23 to Aug. 22 at the Cleveland Museum of Art at Transformer Station. “Crackle & Drag” combines photography, sculptures and cinema collected and created by the artist to create an intimate portrait of his mother.

“It’s the story of the artist’s mother and her somewhat tragic life, but a life that also had great moments of love and affection between the two of them,” says Barbara Tannenbaum, CMA’s curator of photography. “It ranges in mood from images of her as a young woman – she was quite beautiful – to films that are much bleaker, showing her later in life.”

People were drawn to Susan. Many of the chil-

32

| Spring/Summer 2015

dren growing up in Ericsson’s neighborhood reached out to her for advice.

“She seems to have been a very extraordinary person in terms of her ability to reach out to others,” says Tannenbaum. “And she’s an amazing model for the camera, intriguing and seductive. You sense a fire and a spirit beneath.”

This is where the word “crackle” comes into play, says Tannenbaum.

“There was an energy and vitality to the artist’s mother, almost like lighting or electricity – it’s attracting, but it can also harm you,” she says.

Susan also had a darker side. The word “drag” might refer to her depression and state of mind. She was an alcoholic and suffered from multiple sclerosis, and her death was most likely an intentional drug overdose, explains Tannenbaum.

“It’s like most lives, which have moments of great joy and moments of great trials and tribulations,” she says. “The exhibit addresses many issues of society through the lens of a single life.”

Ericsson uses various media in his exhibit, ranging from a porcelain sculpture of an axe to traditional photographs. He creates manipulations of family photographs remade in graphite, ash and nicotine. Viewers will also see objects from his grandfather’s house, a glass sculpture containing Canvascle.com

Sue, 2014. TR Ericsson (American, b. 1972). Graphite, resin, and funerary ash on panel; 50 x 33½ in. Courtesy of the artist. © TR Ericsson.

human breath, and a series of film.

“He’s an artist who can speak in many different media,” says Tannenbaum. “Many of the works use the photos as their starting point, whether that’s a found family photograph or one the artist took himself. Some of the most fascinating and unique works are the drawings made from nicotine. His mother smoked quite a bit. Her dining room was just covered with smoke.”

The nicotine prints, such as “Baby Shoes,” come from Susan’s photo albums and appear as if they were smoked into the paper, faded with no sharp edges.

“Here’s this poison that pollutes your lungs, and something poisonous is used in an act of creation and memory,” Tannenbaum says.

A large granite slab, titled “Thanksgiving Day,” sits in the exhibit, engraved with Susan’s harrowing yet humorous account of celebrating Thanksgiving with her family.

“It’s almost like a reflecting pool, but also like a gravestone,” says Tannenbaum. “It’s a hilarious account of the dysfunctional family dynamics that are all too often revealed on holidays in many of our families.”

There’s also a series of 150 “Crackle and Drag” ’zines that reveal glimpses of the family’s history, each volume providing a different insight into family life or a moment that illuminates the family’s story.

Ericsson’s art tells the saga of three generations of a Northeast Ohio family. In addition to Susan, the works examine the lives of his grandfather (Susan’s father) and the artist himself.

Canvascle.com

St. Patrick’s Day, 1982, 2015. TR Ericsson (American, b. 1972). Digital inkjet print; 24 x 24 in. Courtesy of the artist. © TR Ericsson.

CMA at Transformer Station

“Crackle & Drag” | TR Ericsson On view: May 23 through Aug. 22 A print titled “American Greetings,” made of graphite, resin and funerary ash on panel, shows two grinning children at a birthday party, surrounded by cake and balloons. The boy in the photograph is Ericsson, and though it looks like he’s attending a fun celebration, the image is actually staged. The print is based on a photo Ericsson’s father took while working as an artist at American Greetings.

“Dark lines come through from squeegeeing the panel, and you get a sense that it’s almost being canceled out, and it is, in fact, fiction,” says Tannenbaum.

Another photograph from Ericsson’s childhood, “Scarecrow,” shows the artist dressed in a scarecrow costume with an eerie, masked jack-o-lantern head.

“You don’t see his face,” says Tannenbaum.

“You have this sense of the acting, of costuming, of trying to see beneath that but having those efforts frustrated.”

Ericsson’s history with the Cleveland Museum of Art dates back to his childhood, when his grandmother would bring him for visits. In high school, he decided he wanted to become an artist, and he made trips to the museum by himself.

“Here’s an artist that, while growing up, was nurtured by the Cleveland Museum of Art, and now is showing there,” says Tannenbaum. “It really comes full circle.” CV 33

Museum Listings

Northeast Ohio Akron Art Museum 1 S. High St., Akron P: 330-376-9185 W: akronartmuseum.org The Akron Garden Club Art Blooms Photography Show runs through July 5; “Altered Landscapes” through July 12; “Staged” through Sept. 27; and “Proof: Photographs from the Collection,” from May 30 through Oct. 25.

Allen Memorial Art Museum 87 N. Main St., Oberlin P: 440-775-8665 W: oberlin.edu/amam Artists Archives of the Western Reserve 1834 E. 23rd St., Cleveland P: 216-721-9020 W: artistsarchives.org The Butler Institute of American Art 524 Wick Ave., Youngstown P: 330-743-1107 W: butlerart.com Canton Museum of Art 1001 Market Ave. N, Canton P: 330-453-7666 W: cantonart.org The Children’s Museum of Cleveland 10730 Euclid Ave., Cleveland P: 216-791-7114 W: clevelandchildrensmuseum.org Cleveland Botanical Garden 11030 East Blvd., Cleveland P: 216-721-1600 W: cbgarden.org

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| Spring/Summer 2015

Cleveland Cultural Gardens East Boulevard & Martin Luther King Jr. Drive Rockefeller Park, Cleveland P: 216-321-7807 W: culturalgardens.org Cleveland History Center 10825 East Blvd., Cleveland P: 216-721-5722 W: wrhs.org The Cleveland History Center, a museum of the Western Reserve Historical Society, is located in the thriving University Circle neighborhood. The Cleveland History Center features two historic mansions, Crawford Auto Aviation Museum, Chisholm Halle Costume Wing, Euclid Beach Park Grand Carousel, and a number of rotating exhibits exploring the region’s past.

Cleveland Museum of Natural History 1 Wade Oval Drive, Cleveland P: 216-231-4600 W: cmnh.org Cleveland Museum of Art 11150 East Blvd., Cleveland P: 888-262-0033 W: clevelandart.org Great Lakes Science Center 601 Erieside Ave., Cleveland P: 216-694-2000 W: greatscience.com We make science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) come alive! Enjoy hundreds of hands-on exhibits, the NASA Glenn Visitor Center, a six-story OMNIMAX Theater, traveling exhibitions, daily science demonstrations and educational programs, including seasonal camps and family workshops. Open daily.

Discounted parking available in our attached parking garage.

Canvascle.com

Museum Listings Lake View Cemetery 12316 Euclid Ave., Cleveland P: 216-421-2665 W: lakeviewcemetery.com Lake View Cemetery commemorates a 75-year tradition with the Jewish community and enough new space for 100 years to come. A 285-acre visitor destination, we offer tours on horticulture, history and architecture. Open seven days a week with office hours Monday through Saturday.

Kent State University Museum Rockwell Hall 515 Hilltop Drive, Kent P: 330-672-3450 W: kent.edu/museum “Inside Out: Revealing Clothing’s Secrets”: now through Feb. 14, 2016; “Geoffrey Beene: American Ingenuity”: now through Aug. 30; “The Great War: Women and Fashion in a World at War”: now through July 5; “Glass: Selections from the Kent State University Museum Collection”: now through June 28; “Fringe Elements”: May 28 through July 31, 2016.

Spinning Smiles Every Day! Cleveland History Center

a museum of the Western Reserve Historical Society

10825 East Boulevard, Cleveland Admission: $10 adults; $5 children 3-12 WRHS members FREE www.wrhs.org

#CLECarousel

InsIde Out

RevealIng ClOthIng’s hIdden seCRets March 12, 2015 - February 14, 2016

Located at the corner of Main and S. Lincoln Streets Kent, Ohio 44240 Call 330.672.3450 or visit www.kent.edu/museum Canvascle.com

museum 35

Museum Listings Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage 2929 Richmond Road, Beachwood P: 216-593-0575 W: maltzmuseum.org The Maltz Museum introduces visitors to the beauty and diversity of that heritage in the context of the American experience. It promotes an understanding of Jewish history, religion and culture, and builds bridges of appreciation and understanding with those of other religions, races, cultures and ethnicities. It’s an educational resource for Northeast Ohio’s Jewish and general communities.

Massillon Museum 121 Lincoln Way East, Massillon P: 330-833-4061 W: massillonmuseum.org

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland 11400 Euclid Ave., Cleveland P: 216-421-8671 W: mocacleveland.org Pro Football Hall of Fame 2121 George Halas Drive NW, Canton P: 330-456-8207 W: profootballhof.com The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., Cleveland P: 216-781-ROCK W: rockhall.com Rockefeller Park Greenhouse 750 E. 88th St., Cleveland P: 216-664-3103 W: facebook.com/RockefellerGreenhouse

WOLFS

ART DEALERS & APPRAISERS Actively seeking fine paintings and sculpture for purchase or consignment

Appraisals of Fine Art & Antiques

Accredited Member, Appraisers Association of America 13010 LARCHMERE BOULEVARD • CLEVELAND • OHIO • 44120 (216) 721.6945 • info@wolfsgallery.com • www.wolfsgallery.com 36

| Spring/Summer 2015

Canvascle.com

Ingenuity Cleveland Jump on

Board!

Ingenuity Cleveland

is Shaking Things Up in 2015!

Ingenuity Cleveland is a 501c(3) promoting the intersection of art and technology.

1900 Superior Ave, Cleveland, OH, 44114 216.589.9444

Experiences of all colors and stripes, shapes and sizes, coming your way!

Up Next: Cleveland Mini Maker Faire!

Cleveland Public Library | June 6 | 10 am - 4 pm in partnerhisp with CPL | 325 Superior Ave, Cleveland

Stay Tuned: Up and Down East Ninth! in partnership with LAND studio

And Then: Ingenuity Fest 2015!

Find out how to get involved: www.ingenuitycleveland.org

Museum Listings

Ohio and beyond The Andy Warhol Museum 117 Sandusky St., Pittsburgh P: 412-237-8300 W: warhol.org Carnegie Museum of Art 4400 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh P: 412-622-3131 W: cmoa.org Cincinnati Art Museum 953 Eden Park Drive, Cincinnati P: 513-721-2787 W: cincinnatiartmuseum.org Cincinnati Museum Center Union Terminal 1301 Western Ave., Cincinnati P: 513-287-7000 W: cincymuseum.org

CELEBRATE

Columbus Museum of Art 480 E. Broad St., Columbus P: 614-221-6801 W: columbusmuseum.org Contemporary Arts Center 44 E. Sixth St., Cincinnati P: 513-345-8400 W: contemporaryartscenter.org COSI, The Center of Science & Industry 333 W. Broad St., Columbus P: 888-819-2674 W: cosi.org The Dayton Art Institute 456 Belmonte Park North, Dayton P: 937-223-5277 W: daytonartinstitute.org Detroit Institute of Art 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit P: 313-833-7900 W: dia.org

MEET

THE ART OF HOSPITALITY AT THE HEART OF UNIVERSITY CIRCLE.

RELAX 38

| Spring/Summer 2015

1901 Ford Drive 路 Cleveland, OH 44106 866-812-4537 路 www.gliddenhouse.com

Canvascle.com

GALLERY Listings Erie Art Museum 411 State St., Erie P: 814-459-5477 W: erieartmuseum.org

GALLERIES

The Mattress Factory Art Museum 500 Sampsonia Way, Pittsburgh P: 412-231-3169 W: mattress.org Skirball Museum Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion 3101 Clifton Ave., Cincinnati P: 513-487-3098 W: huc.edu/research/museums/skirballmuseum-cincinnati Toledo Museum of Art 2445 Monroe St., Toledo P: 419-255-8000 W: toledomuseum.org Wexner Center for the Arts 1871 N. High St., Columbus P: 614- 292-3535 W: wexarts.org

5882 Mayfield Road., Mayfield Hts. 440-683-4297 theartisticattic.com

78th Street Studios 1300 W. 78th St., Cleveland W: 78thstreetstudios.com 78th Street Studios is the largest fine arts complex in Northeast Ohio, with more than 40 retail galleries, studios and other creative spaces all under one roof.

All Matters Gallery 79 N. Main St., Chagrin Falls P: 440-247-8979 W: allmatters.net Owned by husband and wife Rainer Hildenbrand and Cynthia Gale, the gallery exhibits their nature-inspired art and work by more than 55 other artists. The gallery’s artists all celebrate earth’s beauty and wonder in their themes, materials and intent. For 23 years, All Matters has been a destination for patrons in 46 states and 18 countries.

The Art Gallery 4099 Erie St., Willoughby P: 440-946-8001 The Art Gallery features local art and artists. The Gallery has a full frame shop in which we archivally frame your art, diplomas, wedding invitations, etc. The Gallery boasts a bead shop where we specialize in gemstones, Czech glass and findings. We make small jewelry repairs. Artists teach classes in silk painting, watercolors and beading.

We are looking for upscale vendors with unique blends of Vintage, Handcrafts, Giftware, Antiques & Collectables.

Now accepting items on consignment.

I

f you still haven’t found the perfect gift for that special person in your life, come to The Artistic Attic and find one-of-a-kind items!

We offer a unique blend of Vintage, Handcrafts, Giftware, Antiques, Collectables & Boho Chic Style Clothing. Available from girls’ size 2 to ladies’ 4XL. Are you an artist, craft person or just someone who loves to hunt for treasures but have no more room for them? Become a vendor at The Artistic Attic. Spaces now available.

Canvascle.com

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GALLERY Listings The Artistic Attic 5882 Mayfield Road, Mayfield Heights P: 440-683-4297 W: theartisticattic.com Are you an artist, craftsperson, or just someone who loves to hunt for treasures but have no more room for them? Become a vendor at The Artistic Attic. Spaces now available. We offer a unique blend of vintage, handcrafts, giftware, antiques, collectables and boho chic style clothing.

Bellabor Art Jewelry 220 N. Main St., 2nd floor, Hudson P: 330-289-8884 W: bellabor.com From simple to bold, each piece of jewelry is designed for the modern woman using the ancient technique of Maille.

As a working studio/gallery, you can view the jewelry making in action and talk with the artist about the process.

The Bonfoey Gallery 1710 Euclid Ave., Cleveland P: 216-621-0178 W: bonfoey.com Northeast Ohio’s leading contemporary art gallery features the finest in regional contemporary art by more 200 artists in a 2,700-square-foot, two-floor gallery. Additional services include framing, carving, gilding, hand finishes, installation, art appraisal, art and frame restoration, and fine art shipping.

The Dancing Sheep 12712 Larchmere Blvd., Cleveland P: 216-229-5770 A destination for those seeking the unique in clothing, gifts, and shopping experience or wanting to share the upbeat vitality and offbeat charm of Cleveland’s premier arts and antiques district, the gallery features one-of-a-kind and limited-edition wearable art, contemporary craft, and special baby gifts in a relaxed and welcoming setting.

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Dick Kleinman Fine Art Gallery 56 Shopping Plaza Drive, Chagrin Falls P: 440-600-2127 W: dickkleinmanfineart.com We serve as a showcase for The Art of Dr. Seuss as well as some important contemporary artists.

We are committed to providing our clients with as much information about the artist and artwork as possible, and go to great effort to assure that the highest quality and value is established for every painting, fine art print and sculpture.

Don Drumm Studios & Gallery 437 Crouse St., Akron P: 330-253-6268 W: dondrummstudios.com Consistently voted among the top contemporary craft galleries in the country, this fascinating, two-building showplace offers unique jewelry, ceramics, glass, sculpture and graphics created by more than 500 top American artists. Also featured are works by internationally renowned metal sculptor Don Drumm, whose collections include one-of-a-kind sculpture, home accessories, cookware and garden furniture.

Group Ten Gallery 138 E. Main St., Kent P: 330-678-7890 W: grouptengallery.com Group Ten Gallery is a new artist-owned gallery in Kent. Ten award-winning professional artists with a wide variety of styles are represented.

We present new special exhibitions every four to six weeks. Group Ten Gallery is in the heart of newly revived Kent, with exciting new shops and restaurants just steps away.

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GALLERY Listings Harris Stanton Gallery 1370 W. Ninth St., Cleveland, 216-471-8882 2301 W. Market St., Akron, 330-867-7600 Julian Stanczak W: HarrisStantonGallery.com “Complementaries” Celebrating 28 years of 2012 | Silkscreen international and regional fine art. The gallery’s mostly 20th and 21st century collection ranges from traditional to abstract contemporary and includes original works in a wide variety of media. Custom framing, appraisals, and home and office art consultations are also offered. Each gallery also hosts five special exhibitions each year.

Hudson Fine Art & Framing Company 160 N. Main St., Hudson P: 330-650-2800 W: hudsonfineartandframing.com Visit Hudson Fine Art & Framing Company for beautiful art to enhance your home or for your custom picture framing needs. Specializing in original paintings, sculpture, and antique maps. A full-service framing department and frame and art restoration.

Life Needs Art 220 N. Main St., 2nd floor, Hudson P: 216-789-2751 W: LifeNeedsArt.com Life Needs Art is the art “New Orleans” studio of Karen Koch, a painter and collage artist who is inspired by nature and nostalgia. A canvas is always on her easel, ready for her colorful and energetic artwork. You are welcome to drop by and see what’s new. Classes available. Tuesday through Saturday, 11-5.

Don Drumm STUDIOS & GALLERY

WORLD RENOWNED SCULPTOR 437 CROUSE ST. AKRON 330.253.6268

DONDRUMMSTUDIOS.COM

ONE-OF-A-KIND INDOOR/OUTDOOR WALL SCULPTURES

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GALLERY Listings Loganberry Books Annex Gallery 13015 Larchmere Blvd., Shaker Heights P: 216-795-9800 W: loganberrybooks.com Loganberry Books Annex Gallery features a monthly rotation of local artist exhibitions, with an opening reception the first Wednesday evening of every month. Annual shows include Altered Octavos (October) and Otis’ Old Curiosity Shop (December). Loganberry Books is an independent bookstore with 100,000 new, used and rare books.

Pennello Gallery 12407 Mayfield Road, Cleveland P: 216-707-9390 W: pennellogallery.com Pennello Gallery specializes in contemporary American, Canadian and Israeli fine art and craft. You will always find a sophisticated selection, including many one-of-a-kind, studio glass, ceramics, wood, metal, tabletop, sculpture, unique Judaica and paintings in all media. You may call for an appointment to meet with our bridal registry specialists.

M.Gentile Studios 1588 E. 40th St., 1A, Cleveland P: 216-881-2818 W: mgentilestudios.com A personalized art resource for individuals, collectors and businesses. We offer assistance in the selection and preservation of artwork in many media. Our archival custom framing services are complemented by our skill in the installation of two- and three-dimensional artwork in a variety of residential and corporate settings.

Shannon Casey Studio 70 W. Streetsboro St., Suite 105, Hudson P: 330-541-6864 W: shannoncaseystudio.com “Sirens on the Beach” At Shannon Casey Studio, the focus is on the figurative with imaginative paintings in oil and acrylic and portrait commissions in pastel and oil. Shannon does charcoal and pastel portraits on site at outdoor shows. In studio, she offers workshops and classes for youths and adults.

Negative Space Gallery & Studio 3820 Superior Ave., 2nd floor, Cleveland (Entrance on East 38th Street) P: 216-485-3195 W: thinknegativespace.com Negative Space Gallery nurtures and provides a community for emerging artists in an urban environment. This multidimensional gallery is a hidden oasis of art and people. Once you’ve visited the space, you know what a unique and memorable off-the-beaten-path environment it truly is for our community.

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“Marti Thomas”

Tricia Kaman Studio/Gallery School House Galleries Little Italy 2026 Murray Hill Road, Unit 202, Cleveland P: 216-559-6478

W: triciakaman.com Studio visits welcome by appointment. Tricia’s studio features her fine art portrait and figurative paintings.

WOLFS Gallery 13010 Larchmere Blvd., Cleveland P: 216-721-6945 W: wolfsgallery.com WOLFS has proudly been an important part of Cleveland’s art community for more than 35 years. We specialize in fine paintings, sculpture and decorative arts from the 17th century to present day, with a large selection of Cleveland School art. We provide certified accredited appraisals of fine art and antiques, and regularly present art salons.

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PERFORMING ARTS Dobama Theatre 2340 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights P: 216-932-3396 W: dobama.org Dobama Theatre’s mission is to premiere the best contemporary plays by established and emerging playwrights in professional productions of the highest quality.

Through educational and outreach programming, Dobama Theatre nurtures the development of theater artists and builds new audiences for the arts while provoking an examination of our contemporary world.

Discover

Wood Trader 13429 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights P: 216-397-7671 W: woodtraderframing.com Preserve your unique treasures. Put the final touches on a room with great art and framing.

Art will look best and bring joy to you and your space when it’s something personal, something you made, collected, inherited or simply love.

The right frame can make a picture perfect for your home.

Cleveland Public Library!

PERFORMING ARTS

www.cpl.org

325 Superior Avenue • Cleveland

Porthouse Theatre P: 330-672-3884 W: porthousetheatre.com Porthouse Theatre is Kent State’s professional theater located on the grounds of Blossom Music Center. Each summer, Porthouse entertains scores of Northeast Ohio audiences and provides training opportunities for countless developing theater artists through three productions: “A Little Night Music” (June 11-27); “Violet” (July 9-25); and “Hairspray” (July 30-Aug. 16).

Mercury Theatre Company Notre Dame College Regina Hall 1857 S. Green Road, South Euclid P: 216.771.5862 W: mercurytheatrecompany.org “Ghost”: June 12-14, 18-21, 25-27; “Camelot”: July 10-12, 16-19, 23-25; “Mary Poppins”: Aug. 7-9, 13-16, 20-22; “Pippin”: July 18 Canvascle.com

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EVENT Listings

EVENTS 11th Annual Warehouse District Street Festival Noon to 8 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 2 West Sixth Street and beyond to St. Clair Avenue, downtown Cleveland W: warehousedistrict.org A popular summertime tradition for Northeast Ohio residents and Cleveland visitors, the festival offers delicious food from neighborhood restaurants, terrific musical entertainment, an excellent art show, Jasmine Dragons’ aerialists, residential open houses, sports team participation, architectural tours, street performers, children’s activities, Cutest Dog Contest & Fashion Show, diverse booths and more! Free admission!

14th Annual Discover Cedar Fairmount Summer Festival and Arts & Crafts Sale Noon to 5 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 9 Intersection of Cedar Road and Fairmount Boulevard, Cleveland Heights W: cedarfairmount.org The Cedar Fairmount Summer Festival is a Cleveland Heights tradition. This free event is a delightful way to spend a summer afternoon. Enjoy rides on the Euclid Beach Rocket Car, super heroes and princesses, local musicians, an arts and crafts sale, book authors, balloon clown, children’s games, great eats and more.

Summer Schedule Book by Bruce Joel Rubin Lyrics by Bruce Joel Rubin, Dave Stewart, Glen Ballard Music by Dave Stewart, Glen Ballard Directed by Pierre-Jacques Brault June 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27 Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner Music by Frederick Loewe Based on “The Once and Future King” by T.H. White Directed by Pierre-Jacques Brault July 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25

Ghost

Camelot Original Music and Lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman Book by Julian Fellowes New Songs and Additional Music and Lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe Co-Created by Cameron Mackintosh Directed by Pierre-Jacques Brault August 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22

Mary Poppins

Mercury Theatre Company is located at: Notre Dame College, Regina Hall 1857 South Green Road, South Euclid, OH 44121 216.771.5862 • www.mercurytheatercompany.org

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Mercury Teens Present:

One show only: July 18 Canvascle.com

EVENT Listings Downtown Cleveland Walking Tours P: 216-771-1994 W: clevelandgatewaydistrict.com Offering five free guided walking tours of the Gateway District, Warehouse District, Playhouse Square, Civic Center and Canal Basin Park, each week from May 16 to Sept. 16. Each tour features actors and actresses portraying important Clevelanders from the past. Explore and learn about your city in a whole new way!

First & Main Hudson 43 Village Way, Hudson P: 330-653-9530 W: firstandmainhudson.com or tasteofhudson.com Taste of Hudson (Sept. 6-7) two-day festival incorporates the streets and green spaces of the First & Main retail development as well as the historic Main Street and Village Green areas. A premier family festival, it showcases the diverse culinary, arts, entertainment and other lifestyle features of the region.

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Hudson Art Hop Second Fridays Hudson W: HudsonArtHop.com Second Friday Art Hops are monthly events celebrating the arts. Tour working studios, galleries and local merchants featuring artists in the Hudson area. See firsthand the work that’s being created in Hudson’s expanding arts community. In 2015, visit on June 12, July 10, Aug. 14, Sept. 11.

IngenuityFest 2015 P: 216-589-9444 W: ingenuitycleveland.com IngenuityFest seeks to ignite the creative spark where the arts, science and technology intersect, and to celebrate the truly passionate and engaged people using every tool at their disposal to explore and create. Join us for the Mini Maker Faire from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 6 at the Cleveland Public Library.

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EVENT Listings Northcoast Promotions, Inc. P.O. Box 609401, Cleveland P: 216-570-8201 W: northcoastpromo.com Northcoast Promotions, Inc. specializes in organizing art shows, craft fairs and outdoor events.

We work with for-profit and non-profit organizations, and host our own shows as well. 78th Street Studios Art Walk, every third Friday. For a complete list of shows, visit northcoastpromo.com.

The Shaker Heights Arts & Music Festival P: 216-916-9360 W: shakerartscouncil.org The Shaker Heights Arts & Music Festival promises a weekend packed with great food from local restaurants and food trucks, beer and wine, a juried art show, phenomenal musical entertainment and activities for children. Admission is free. Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, June 27 and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 28.

Sparx City Hop 2015 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 19 Downtown Cleveland, Ohio City, Tremont W: downtowncleveland.com/sparx Cleveland’s innermost districts will be in full swing during the 14th annual Sparx City Hop as our community explores the visual, culinary and performing arts of our city. Nearly 20,000 people “hop” throughout our neighborhoods as a part of Sparx, a Downtown Cleveland Alliance program whose impact extends beyond just the event.

M A Y 3 0 – O CT OBER 25, 201 5 O p e n i n g R e c e p t i o n M a y 29 • 7 : 3 0 p m

Photographs from the Collection One South H igh | A k ron, Ohio 4 4308 | 330.376.9186 | A k ron A rtMuseum.org 46

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