ButtOut Ohio is partnering with the LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland to host an art exhibit at the Arts Collinwood café on Thursday, Nov. 17!  The artwork, prepared by Center students, will encourage tobacco cessation. Members of the community are invited to view the art display between 7:30 – 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, (11/17) at Arts Collinwood (15605 Waterloo Road, Cleveland).

ButtOut Ohio is a tobacco cessation campaign sponsored by the Ohio Department of Health that aims to curb tobacco use among LGBT students across the state – especially in Northeast Ohio, where nearly 80 percent of LGBT youth self-identify themselves as smokers.

In collaboration with community partners, this event will highlight the Center students’ creative work and free quit line resources will be provided to individuals interested in kicking the bad habit!

The event is free-of-charge, so come out and support LGBT health & wellness, as well as the local Cleveland art scene!

Request for Proposals

Northeast Shores Development Corporation, in partnership with Arts Collinwood, Cleveland Public Art and the City of Cleveland, is requesting proposals from qualified artists for a temporary artwork installation for the Waterloo Tower Revolving Art Program.

History of the Waterloo Tower and the Revolving Art Program

The Waterloo Tower is a three-story stainless steel structure, which sits on a grassy triangle on the corner of E. 156th St and Waterloo Rd in the North Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland. Northeast Shores Development Corporation built the Tower in 2010 in partnership with The City of Cleveland, with support from Councilman Michael D. Polensek and Cuyahoga Arts and Culture. The design of the Tower was a collaboration of artist, Christopher Diehl, and the fabricator, Mike Moritz of Moritz Wood & Metal.

Prior to it being built, 50 local residents met at Arts Collinwood Gallery to discuss a plan for the Tower and suggested it should be used as a framework for changing public art and should have a stage for performing art such as concerts, poetry readings and plays. Hence, the Waterloo Tower Revolving Public Art Program was started, which oversees the changing art installations that are housed in or in some way incorporate the Tower.

Christopher Diehl, artist from dielio inc, provides some history regarding the philosophy behind the creation of the Tower concept. “The large area of asphalt intersection at E. 156th and Waterloo streets was created in order to turn street trolleys around. The trolleys served this vibrant working class neighborhood and they, in turn, served the Collinwood rail yards. Visitors also poured onto Waterloo in order to spend the day at the Euclid Beach Park Amusement park just north off of Lake Shore Blvd. After the trolley service ended, the amusement park closed and I-90 cut the Waterloo neighborhood off from the rail yards. This intersection became a large and ungainly place for cars and trucks to pass through and a hazard for the unwary pedestrian.

“The Waterloo placemaking Tower stakes a flag, of sorts, to reclaim that area as a new civic heart for this reawakening district now reprogrammed for the visual and entertainment arts. The tower will act as the centerpiece of the new pedestrian-friendly plaza next to Arts Collinwood Gallery and the Cafe at Arts Collinwood. As such, the raw stainless steel structure will become a site for temporary public art installations and live music performances. Like the neighborhood around it, it becomes the container to house and display the incredible talent and gifts of the Waterloo community.

Budget

The complete, all-inclusive budget for the program is $3,000, which must include installation fees, artist fees and material cost. If you have an idea and would like help seeking out material donations, please let us know and we will try to provide assistance depending on the nature of the need.

Artwork Requirements

The artwork should be designed to remain in place for up to 7 months. Artwork must be designed to require minimal or no maintenance. All maintenance requirements that cannot be met by the artist must be worked out in advance.

Artwork must be affixed to the tower in a safe manner and designed to withstand stormy weather, including high winds and heavy snow. Artworks consisting of other than soft material may require the approval of a structural engineer.

Please see the attached specification drawings of the Tower. The eyebolts pictured can be used as possible mounting hardware and will be provided if needed.

Submission Requirements

Submissions should contain as much information as necessary to clearly convey the concept and may include drawings, renderings, or other visual or written devices. Artist identification information should be on the back of the submission and thus out of the view of those who will be evaluating the proposals.

Submissions must arrive at Arts Collinwood no later than 10 p.m. on Friday, November 18^th. Proposals may be emailed to a.callahan@artscollinwood.org or delivered/mailed to: Arts Collinwood, 15605 Waterloo Rd, Cleveland, OH 44110.

The competition is open to all artists 18 years or older. Collinwood artists are especially encouraged to apply.

Due to the limited budget, time constraints, and the challenging installation space, it is suggested that the installations proposed, be simple in nature.

Selection Process

Entries will be judged by an independent panel of neighborhood stakeholders and art and design professionals. Interested artists are encouraged to visit the park in advance of developing their proposals.

Questions can be directed to Amy Callahan at Arts Collinwood: 216-692-9500 or a.callahan@artscollinwood.org.

Trillium Trio, a woodwinds group, will play at the Arts Collinwood Gallery as a part of the M4M, Music for Miles Chamber Music Concert Series.  Join us for an afternoon of delightful music on Sunday, November 20th at 4pm.  The Cafe will be open for drinks, coffee, soup, sandwiches and more! This is a no cover performance.

 

 

“That’s All, Folks!”, paintings by Harris Johnson, opens on November 11th at 6pm in the Gallery at Arts Collinwood. The show runs through December 3rd. The image above is entitled, “In the Gallery”, acrylic on canvas, 70″ x 81″, 2011.

Harris Johnson was born in Columbus,Ohio in 1986. He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art with a BFA in Painting in 2009 and Certificate from The Burren College in Ballyvaughan, Ireland. His work has been displayed in local and overseas exhibitions, featured in online publications and held in numerous private collections. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

Artist Statement:  For the past year, I’ve been working on a group of paintings that explores and satirizes the notion of the artist in the studio  My recent paintings come from a tradition of still life painting, portraiture and caricature, yet have no real objects or people present during their making. Every painting is conceived and resolved on the canvas. I begin with a kind of absent-minded doodling that becomes something as the work physically evolves through the process of painting. I draw from specific genres of art (Caricature, Portraiture, Still-life) and take an idiosyncratic or comical approach to my subject matter.

It is my belief that being an artist is a self- referential and self- critical process, rife with absurdity, humor, tragedy, and paradox. When I abandoned the idea of seriousness and gravity, this in turn, allowed me to make this series of paintings. I have always battled with artistic tradition and notions of creative progress, and I use my painting practice to investigate and satirize the world of the artist. Yet, at their foundation, these paintings are sincere, autobiographical ‘tools’ that allow me to remain actively engaged in a dialogue with the world of art.

 

This Saturday, October 29th at 7pm, get  your Halloween spirit on with this smart, quirky independent film entitled “Zombie Dearest”.  This film is the second in a series of films being shown at Arts Collinwood in partnership with Independent Pictures.  The critics called it Creepy and Hilarious!   This film will be shown in the Nan and Miles Kennedy Art Center and is free to the public.  Art School music classics will be played in the Cafe afterwards along with some seasonal food and drink specials!

Zombie Dearest is a romantic black comedy with its very own take on the modern zombie; a scary, quirky comedy that delivers cult horror in an award-winning indie film (Winner, Audience Favorite at The First Time Film Festival in Los Angeles). What Zombie Dearestlacks in blood, guts and gore, it more than makes up for with comic characters, outrageously funny situations and memorable dialogue, making it “Frightening and Hilarious” (Dan Goldberg, producer of The Hangover ), a fun diversion for everyone from the dedicated Zombie Walk aficionado to fans of Shaun of the Dead, Fido or Zombieland. If you like your humor with a pinch of current affair, watchZombie Dearest … very independent, very original… a cult classic in the offing.  Click here for more on this creeper www.zombiedearest.com.

This Saturday, October 29th at 7pm, get  your Halloween spirit on with this smart, quirky independent film entitled “Zombie Dearest”.  This film is the second in a series of films being shown at Arts Collinwood in partnership with Independent Pictures.  The critics called it Creepy and Hilarious!   This film will be shown in the Nan and Miles Kennedy Art Center and is free to the public.  Art School music classics will be played in the Cafe afterwards along with some seasonal food and drink specials!

Zombie Dearest is a romantic black comedy with its very own take on the modern zombie; a scary, quirky comedy that delivers cult horror in an award-winning indie film (Winner, Audience Favorite at The First Time Film Festival in Los Angeles). What Zombie Dearestlacks in blood, guts and gore, it more than makes up for with comic characters, outrageously funny situations and memorable dialogue, making it “Frightening and Hilarious” (Dan Goldberg, producer of The Hangover ), a fun diversion for everyone from the dedicated Zombie Walk aficionado to fans of Shaun of the Dead, Fido or Zombieland. If you like your humor with a pinch of current affair, watchZombie Dearest … very independent, very original… a cult classic in the offing.  Click here for more on this creeperwww.zombiedearest.com.

Singer/songwriter Charlie Mosbrook is a well-loved Cleveland icon. He will treat guests at the Arts Collinwood Café to an intimate evening of song on November 12th at 9 pm in the Cafe. For for more about Charlie and some samples of his songs visit his site at http://charliemosbrook.blogspot.com/.

The Bank Building at 15619 Waterloo Road has become the site of many pop-up art installations over the past year.  This is one not to miss!

Co-Curators Cindy Penter and Paul Cusato stepped in to take the lead in coordinating the video artists, which also includes Colorado filmmaker Ronnie Cramer, who submitted his experimental film, “Sixty in 60,” a series of 20 one-minute short films, to 2011 The Ohio Independent Film Festival.    Installations are original works created with the artists’ own funding sources and equipment for no monetary gain.  The Bank Building, the upstairs of which was once used for medical offices, provides the perfect setting for the installations.  Patrons can walk through the maze of installations, the rooms each assigned to individual artists working together to form one cohesive show.

Cheryl Carter, executive director of Arts Collinwood, Cindy Barber, co-owner of the Beachland Ballroom and Bernadette Gillota, executive and artistic director of Independent Pictures, have been working together for the past year to bring quality film projects to the Waterloo neighborhood including the annual Ohio Independent Film Festival since 2010 and for the first time in November 2011, the Script Mill, which is part of Independent Pictures’ Ohio Independent Screenplay Awards.

 

Timothy Callaghan, represented by the William Busta Gallery, is an artist who lives and works in Cleveland.  Inspired by art critic Lucy Lippard’s book, “The Lure of the Local,” he has spent the last few years drawing upon the  historical tradition  of the genre painting, depicting images culled from daily existence within  Cleveland’s coarse urban landscape.

Educated at the Cleveland Institute of Art (BFA) and Kent State University (MFA), Timothy is known for his landscapes. His new work, which will be on display at the Arts Collinwood Gallery, is a collection of portraits of personalities from the North Collinwood art and music scene, executed over the past year.  This series of portraits began as a personal challenge: to take on a new subject exploring what role the portrait serves in our current time; in the age of Facebook.

In his paintings, these members of the local art and music scene (of which Callaghan is a regular participant) fall into roughly the same category as familiar local buildings and landmarks. It’s important to know that this familiarity arose for Callaghan when he began working at the Beachland Ballroom. It is an environmental familiarity, like moving to a new neighborhood and suddenly seeing the same shops and restaurants everyday as new curiosities.

Join Timothy Callaghan and guests at the Arts Collinwood Gallery to view the paintings at the opening reception on October 7^th.  The Café at Arts Collinwood will be open as well for dinner/drinks before and during the opening from 6pm-10pm. An after-party will be held at the Beachland Ballroom and will be attended by many of the subjects portrayed in Timothy’s work.

A Gallery Talk with the artist will be hosted by local artist, professor, writer and Arts Collinwood Gallery Committee member, Dan Tranberg on Thursday, October 20^th at 7pm at Arts Collinwood.

For more information about the artist, visit www.timothycallaghan.com.

For more information about Arts Collinwood, visit www.artscollinwood.org.

 

The exhibition will be up until October 2nd.

Bios of WOW Artists

Jacqueline Kennedy is a BFA candidate at The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio. She is an enameling major, with minors in printmaking, and metals/jewelry. She has exhibited in northeast Ohio and California. Her work The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is in the permanent collection of University Hospitals of Cleveland.     Greatly influenced by the post-industrial landscape of Cleveland, her work speaks of the intersection between decay and creation.  Visual cues in Jacquie’s surroundings evoke the emotional response that guides her process.  The gathering of material becomes the ritual from which she works. Formal aspects of making such as line, form, color, and composition serve as a foundation from which to refine her conceptual framework. A multi-media approach utilizing enamel, print, and metals provides her with the necessary tools needed to convey ideas.  Material studies indicate knowledge of process.  Experimentation with process bridges the gap between my visual cues and the creation of new forms.  Irreverence for perfection gives her the freedom to discover new ways of making. Jacquie says, “Incorporating the ideals of romanticism with current imagery guides me toward the aesthetic I seek.  This aesthetic, sometimes referred to as “aftermath aesthetic” or “damaged romanticism”, helps substantiate the emotion evoked by the work.”

Brittany Filko has a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art where she was a painting major.  Her work has been shown at a variety of galleries including the Reinberger Gallery, Zygote Press and Arts Collinwood. In 2010 she won the Norita Wyse Berman Memorial Award for Excellence in Painting and in 2011 the Mary C. Page Memorial Scholarship.  Her work is a part of the Dealer Tire Art Collection.  Her work references a particular history in film, which provides iconic representations of romance and glamour from American Culture. In this series of prints, she appropriates highly popularized portraits of famous actresses, from the 1920’s to 50s, such as Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn.  Utilizing specific marks familiar to the intaglio and aquatint process, she imitates the antiqued quality of an aged photograph.  This appearance stimulates a narrative between the contemporary viewer and the evocative printed image. These ideals of the past exist now as a mere reminder of past beauty, a trace, which one can imagine into.

Rachel Shelton grew up in Buffalo, New York, the hub of the Rust Belt. She recently graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art with a major in printmaking.

Living in the midst of the industrial and post-industrial scenery has greatly influenced Rachel’s outlook on human history, her choice of artistic media, and the content of her work. Her body of work began as a visual representation of the opinion that humans are disengaged from nature.  She feels this disconnect is partially responsible for our society’s lack of respect for the environment and resources that sustain us. The work has been constructed and arranged as a “mourning” for this loss of reverence and respect. It utilizes manufactured materials to form organic structures as well as photolithograph prints, asking for comparisons to be made.