By Josh Usmani
2013 has been an outstanding year for Cleveland overall. Well, except for our sports teams. However, the visual art community in particular had one of its best years in a long time. Venues like the Cleveland Museum of Art, MOCA, SPACES, 78th Street Studios and many more have been featured in numerous national publications over the past year. It seems guests agree that our cultural institutions are among of our city’s strongest assets.
Some of Cleveland’s biggest events of the year were art-related…and world-class. From the opening of the Transformer Station to MOCA’s new location in University Circle to the completion of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s renovations (including the Atrium and Gallery One), the entire landscape of Cleveland’s cultural institutions has been reshaped permanently.
We’ve seen milestones like the 120 year anniversary of Downtown’s Bonfoey gallery (the only gallery in Cleveland older than the CMA), and look forward to milestones like the upcoming 25th anniversary of William Busta’s gallery.
All this positive change is only possible through the combined efforts of our passionate, dedicated and engaged public officials, cultural leaders and community members. We’ve asked a few of them to offer their insight into both the previous year and the upcoming one.
“We can mark 2013 as the year in which Cleveland came to full maturity as an international art city,” says long-time gallery owner William Busta. “With the recently-opened MOCA, Cleveland in full programming gear, the opening of John Williams’ amazing Transformer Station, the completion of the Cleveland Museum of Art as a transcendent encyclopedic museum, groundbreaking on a new Cleveland Institute of Art building (including a new space for the Cleveland Cinematheque), groundbreaking on a new Cleveland School for the Arts — we can look forward to arts tourism being a huge part of the city’s new economy. And also, by the way, on January 3, 2014 the William Busta Gallery celebrates 25 years since it first opened on Murray Hill Road.”
“I’ve been impressed by the increasing number of artists and architects involved in community projects and the production of exhibitions, involving artists of all ages,” explains ARTneo’s Nina Gibans. “Some very interesting and of high quality — mostly short term but memorable. Others much less meaningful and no ‘spark.'”
She continues, “I look forward to 30-year-old ARTneo’s continuing exhibitions of high quality and our serious look at ‘Art from the Millennium’ as well as finding a way to capture the art of the region in a juried exhibition. This past year’s exhibitions were well-balanced spanning seminal exhibits on art (Pioneering Modernism) and architecture (Charles F. Schweinfurth: Uncompromising Architect of Cleveland’s Valiant Age), a retrospective of Audra Skoudas, and work by area artists owned by Clevelanders. Opening in Feb 2014, area artists will be shown.
“Looking forward, my own work has centered on the completion of the 80-minute film University Circle: Creating a Sense of Place that was created over the past 5 years because there is a need always to know how we got to this point in Cleveland at University Circle,” continues Gibans.
“Life fast forwards at a significant pace, and I think we do ourselves an injustice if we do not stop to understand where we come from. The other 2014 project is the Kent State University publication Cleveland Goes Modern: Designs for the Home 1930-1970 about to come back from the printers. There are twelve Cleveland Arts Prize architects whose work has not been shown in an exhibition. Stay tuned. These kinds of projects are never solo — always produced with Cleveland’s talented art and architecture thinkers and doers. I feel lucky!”
“2013 was a year of expansion in my gallery endeavors as well as that of the Cleveland art scene,” explains local artist and gallery owner Loren Naji. “In addition to Loren Naji Studio Gallery, I have started Satellite, a Collinwood installation venue, which will open in the spring. I also have partnered with my sister, Jamilla Naji and Dawn Tekler, forming a gallery venue in the 78th Street Studios.
“In Cleveland, the Ohio City, Gordon Square and Collinwood neighborhoods have enjoyed a burgeoning art scene, which is continuing to add energy and improve these once impoverished neighborhoods,” continues Naji. “In addition to this, the communication rifts between Cleveland’s east and west sides have dissipated and the city now enjoys a unified and diverse art scene with all communities participating and collaborating.
“The year ahead will bring solidification and further development with these art neighborhoods, especially in Collinwood, with many the many grants available and streetscape improvements,” concludes Naji. “I have exciting shows planned in all three of my venues and even a guerrilla sculpture art event, involving 33 artists to take place in Collinwood. I also plan on producing a new body of work and exhibiting it later this year!”
According to Micah Brown of Downtown’s 120-year-old Bonfoey Gallery, “2013 was full of challenges and triumphs as we handled more pieces of artwork for framing than ever in our history and hosted shows featuring Gary Bukovnik, Jospeh O’Sickey and Mary Lou Ferbert. It is with great optimism that we look forward to early 2014 when we will be exhibiting the works of John Tellaisha, and Tim Lachina (February 28 – March 30), and participating in the NOADA show (March 14 – 16).”
“Cleveland is once again emerging as a leading city, in the arts,” declares A. Nancy Cintron, local artist and owner of Lakewood’s Good Goat Gallery. “Each community is blossoming, with its creative hot spots. It’s a large circle of networking artists and galleries, that all support one another, to bring a greater appreciation towards the arts.”
“Over the past year, we really got to slow down and focus on quality of work and community engagement,” says BUCKBUCK’s Joseph Lanzilotta. “From Weekend Wheaties to Your Show, we’ve provided some unique experiences for the public, both creators and spectators. Looking ahead to 2014 and beyond, I think you’re going to see some exciting shows from both local and nonlocal artists, as well as some really great experimental programming.”
“Last year felt like an important year in the recognition of the Arts and Cultural sector and its impact on our city,” says Waterloo Arts (formerly Arts Collinwood) director Amy Callahan. “Organizations like the National Endowment for the Arts, Community Partnership for Arts and Culture, Cleveland State University, and the Cultural Data Project are collecting important data and information that help to make a case for something many of us regard as common sense; that the intrinsic value of art translates into external benefits for a city, that artists are a great investment because they are thinkers, doers, makers, innovators and they work terrifically hard for every dollar earned, that if we don’t let our children practice creativity, if we don’t provide opportunities for them to grow their imagination, we will not have leaders tomorrow who can solve problems, we won’t have innovators who have the courage to diverge off the well trodden path, we won’t have artists who help us experience the beauty of life.”
Callahan continues, saying, “In 2014, I am excited to watch a net of collaborations and connections grow, between organizations, neighborhoods and residents, which will, hopefully, help to hoist Cleveland a little further out of from under water. Waterloo Arts is excited to welcome to our neighborhood other arts groups like Zygote Press, Brick, Praxis, and Loren Naji. We look forward to collaborations with the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Institute of Art and Cleveland Public Library. We hope to develop more relationships in neighboring communities and build bridges to better connect with our neighbors. Our communities still face many challenges, but I have a sense that the Eastside of Cleveland is on the rise.”
“In 2014 Tremont will continue its active arts programming with the Arts and Cultural Festival, Arts in August, work with the Beck Center for the Arts and the monthly Tremont ArtWalks, as well as summer concerts that will be occurring in Lincoln Park and on Professor Avenue in conjunction with those second Friday ArtWalks,” says Tremont’s Brandt Gallery owner Jean Brandt.
“Brandt Gallery will be featuring shows by the Yody’s father and daughter (Thomas and Rebecca) exhibit this winter and the summer season will open with an exhibit by Bruce Edwards. Mastroianni Arts photography exhibits will be focusing on some of the more recent visual arts community in Tremont as well as the punk rock that has inhabited Tremont since the 1980s. Doubting Thomas Gallery continues with more focused and developed group exhibits, largely under the curatorial direction of Natalia Dale.”
“As we reflect on the first year of exhibitions at the Transformer Station, it’s amazing what we’ve accomplished with the support of Clevelanders east and west,” says Transformer Station’s Gallery Manager Danielle Meeker. “Light of Day: Photographs from the Collection of Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell highlighted exciting developments in contemporary art and shed light on the Bidwells’ abiding passion for photography. Bridging Cleveland: Photographs by Vaughn Wascovich showcased the beauty and grandeur of Cleveland’s bridges. Commissioning the series was, in Fred Bidwell’s words, ‘a love letter to the city of Cleveland.’
“Excerpts from Silver Meadows: Photographs by Todd Hido was a dark and dramatic glimpse behind the shutters of Midwestern suburbia from a Kent native who has gone far in the art world but whose work continues to be inspired by his experiences growing up in Ohio.
“For the Cleveland Museum of Art’s first offering, The Unicorn, the idea that memory is a creative reconstruction of the past was explored through dynamic sculptural and video installations by some of the world’s leading young artists. Hank Willis Thomas, the Transformer Station’s current show which continues through March 8th, features powerful and often moving photographs and video works that address how history and culture are framed and who is doing the framing in today’s society.
“A strong offering of programs accompany Hank Willis Thomas, which is on view simultaneously at the Cleveland Museum of Art and Transformer Station until March 8,” continues Meeker. “The artist will lecture at CMA at 2 p.m. on Feb. 1st. A roundtable discussion of issues facing the African American community in Cleveland will follow at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 2nd.
“The following Thursday, Feb. 6, at 7 p.m., three people with unique perspectives will tour the Transformer Station with their take on the exhibition. Free. And with locations to be announced around town through early March, the Truth Booth, a nomadic, inflatable video recording booth will ask visitors to record a 2-minute response to the prompt “The truth is…” Follow #CMAtruthbooth for upcoming locations.
“Also brought to you by the Cleveland Museum of Art, new dates have been announced for the ongoing avant-garde music series at Transformer Station. Third Coast Percussion, Mary Oliver and Han Bennink, Miya Masaoka, Fred Frith, and Carl Stone will perform in the galleries this winter and spring. From March 14-16, 2014 Transformer Station will again host the Northern Ohio Art Dealers Association annual art fair.”
“In 2013 it felt like the arts took center stage with Cleveland as a backdrop,” says SPACES’ Marilyn Simmons. SPACES artists’ projects surprised and delighted audiences—Jimmy Kuehnle’s twinkling tricycle lit up the dark and snowy nights on Cleveland’s streets; Jon Rubin and Felipe Castleblanco facilitated real-time conversations with Iranians in Iran; Pope.L challenged us to pull an 8-ton truck through Cleveland; Mimi Kato took us to the Metroparks to look at invasive species in a new way.
“We were excited to celebrate expansions, new buildings, and openings of arts venues that provide many more opportunities for artists to show their work and the public to become involved with art. Looking ahead, SPACES’ 2014 schedule promises intriguing projects by international, national and local artists as well as fun, off-beat events.”
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Obviously, it wasn’t all positive. The resignation of the director of our beloved art museum was one of the darkest moments in the history of our city’s cultural legacy. However, that was due to his personal issues, and should in no way lessen the museum’s recent accomplishments. The new additions and renovations have raised the bar – creating a world-class experience for visitors.
We may never see another year like 2013, but with all the momentum Clevelanders are carrying into 2014, it’s looking like next year could be our city’s biggest yet.
Make a resolution to visit the art museum, MOCA, SPACES and the many art venues throughout the region.