Did you see the great Waterloo Arts District feature in Plain Dealer’s Friday magazine today? Thank you to PD writer John Petkovic for the story and to PD illustrator Ted Crowe for the beautiful illustration of the street.

We hope this will make the crowd at the Waterloo Arts Fest this weekend even bigger, as people from all over the area come to see our growing neighborhood scene!

Artis Jake Kelly

The middle and high school students from Arts Collinwood’s Portfolio Project are definitely going to leave their mark for the entire city to see! Inspired by the artwork and concepts that Portfolio Project students created this spring in their arts intensive at Arts Collinwood Gallery, the students chose artist Jake Kelly to transform their work into a mural entitled

“Collinwood Picture Book.”

Jake is known for his iconic concert flyers and awe-inspiring murals at The Grog Shop music venue, and both Melt Bar & Grilled restaurants. The mural is located on the north wall of the Arts Collinwood Community Center, and will act as a visible symbol of the value the students believe the arts have in their community.

Lots of local folks—and plenty from outside the area—have already visited the Arts Collinwood Center at the corner of E. 156th and Waterloo. But if you haven’t yet, we’re offering you a good reason to come visit now. Arts Collinwood has taken over operating the cafe in our building, as another way to support arts programs in our community. Now, every time you grab a sandwich or a coffee, you can be helping make after school programs, gallery exhibits and community events possible here in Collinwood. And you’ll love the new menu!  We’re here Tuesday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Besides soups and sandwiches, you can also pick up registration forms, event information and flyers on all the latest arts happenings. Other good reasons to stop in soon:

• When the Cafe is open, so is the gallery next door!
• Every Thursday evening you can try your hand at life drawing, or maybe a little yoga on a Sunday afternoon.
• Plus live music, poetry and lots more.

Keep your eyes open for the announcement of this year’s Weekends on Waterloo holiday happenings and catch up on the great things going on in our own thriving arts district. We’ll keep the coffee hot for you.

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Beth and Roger Miller are hosting an art exchange at the Waterloo 7 Studio & Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio at 7pm on Saturday, August 1st. Yes, we know that most of you probably aren’t in Cleveland, but we’re telling you about it anyway because it’s like, the coolest idea ever.

And you’re going to want to do it, too.

Two or three times per year, Beth and Roger, who are both artists, pick a theme and send out an e-mail blast to all their artsy friends, inviting them to create a piece that follows the theme and bring it to the art exchange party. We chatted with them about the event and how it all came about.

“Basically, about 15 years ago, Roger realized that he was surrounded by really creative and artistic friends, but had none of their art on his walls,” says Beth. “It works like this; bring an original piece of artwork of your own creation following the theme” … “Each piece of art should be covered or wrapped in some way, so that whomever is choosing it cannot tell what it is. Each artist who brings work gets the opportunity to choose a covered piece of original artwork to unwrap in front of the group and take home.”

Pretty neat, right? More from their e-mail blast: “New artists are encouraged to participate. However, if you would prefer to just experience the event, please come and meet some of Cleveland’s top artists, movie makers, special effects artists, photographers and writers.”

The parties, which they used to hold in their home, have attracted so many participants that they’ve moved the event to an art gallery. “The idea to hold the Exchange in a gallery or larger venue has been simmering for awhile,” says Beth. “Both Roger and I want the local art scene to grow, but also to be united. This seems a great way to get artists to see and hold each other’s work, to inspire each other and to communicate with each other.”

How awesome is that? Answer: Very.

If you are in the Cleveland area and would like to attend, or would just like to get in touch with the Millers — perhaps you’re interested in holding an art exchange in your own town — you can contact them at artexchange_miller at yahoo.com.

Photos (both  past art exchange) courtesty of Beth and Roger Miller.

http://www.3sat.de/mediathek/mediathek.php?obj=13520&mode=play

Here’s a translation of the summary listed with the video:

“In Cleveland, Ohio in the United States financial crisis has hit hard. Every tenth house stands empty as 12,000 homes wait for a demolition ball. Artists’ initiatives are pushing to create an arts movement here to save the city before it’s  too late.”

American Youth
By the photographers of Redux Pictures

From the country’s youngest-ever superdelegate (and Barack Obama supporter), American Idol contestants at tryouts, and strippers in Portland to debutantes at New York’s Plaza Hotel, gangsters on the Navajo Reservation, or widows of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, American Youth provides striking and sometimes startling stories revealing the relationships between self-determination and tradition in our country today.

American Youth features the work of 25 photographers represented by Redux Pictures, documenting the newest generation of 18 to 24-year-olds in unvarnished detail throughout the book’s 240 pages. Included in the book are NEA Fellow Marc Asnin’s unexpected look at Lubavitch life in New York City, Guggenheim Fellow Darcy Padilla’s grim glimpse at teenage homelessness, and W. Eugene Smith Grant recipient Mark Peterson’s portrait of a JROTC in her prom dress, among many others.

Poignant in their ability to reveal the strength of rebellion alongside the inevitable vulnerability of adolescent existence, the photographs stand in both contrast and correspondence to each other. The lives of Muslim teens, Mormon missionaries, AGs (macho lesbians), and wannabe models are shown with an edgy empathy that defines the Redux Pictures’ collective.

The photographs featured in American Youth were edited with the help of Bill Black (Reader’s Digest), Karen Frank (Conde Nast Portfolio), Jeanne Graves (BestLife), Armin Harris (Fortune), Katherine Harris (The Daily Beast), Jane Hwang (ABCNews.com), Michelle Jackson (freelance art buyer, owner of SnapIndigo), Nadja Masri (GEO), Brenda Milis (Men’s Health), Bruce Perez (Redbook), Dora Somosi (GQ) and Allyson Torrisi (Popular Mechanics). The book featured an introduction by Steve Appleford, whose writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, GQ, and Spin.

Work from American Youth was recently exhibited at the New York Photo Festival in May, and will next travel to LOOK3: Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, Virginia, June 11-13. www.festivalofthephotograph.org

Visit www.americanyouthbook.com for regular updates by contributing photographers, editors, and subjects from American Youth.

Greg Ruffing is an editorial and fine art photographer working in the Midwestern U.S. and beyond. His photographs have appeared in publications such as Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Mother Jones, Stern, Der Spiegel, The New York Times Magazine, Spin, Rolling Stone, and more.
He is one of the 25 Redux photographers who contributed work to the American Youth book, photographing projects about Muslim youth, environmentalists, and b-boys/b-girls (hip hop dancers).
His personal and fine art work has been exhibited in a variety of mediums, including multiple collaborations with Cleveland Public Art in the Buckeye neighborhood (2007) and a project confronting the foreclosure crisis (2008). Other shows in the Cleveland area have included Spaces Gallery (2005), the Gallery of Photographic Arts (2005), Standing Rock Gallery (2006) and Artefino (2007). www.gregruffing.com
www.gregruffing.com/blog

Redux Pictures is an editorial and commercial agency based in New York City representing photographers around the world. The agency photographers have been awarded every top prize in photography, have received numerous grants and fellowships and have been exhibited extensively. Redux Photographers include Marc Asnin, Ben Baker, Nina Berman, David Butow, Peter Frank Edwards, Danny Wilcox Frazier, Eros Hoagland, John Keatley, Andy Kropa, Erika Larsen,Gina LeVay, Joshua Lutz, Preston Mack, Kevin J. Miyazaki, Darcy Padilla, Mark Peterson, Michael Rubenstein, Greg Ruffing, Q. Sakamaki, Erin Siegal, Angie Smith, Ben Stechschulte, Brad Swonetz, Nathaniel Welch, and David Yellen. www.reduxpictures.com

Contrasto is a unique enterprise in the field of photography. Contrasto was born in the 80s to be a point of reference for quality photojournalism. The agency’s photographers, in addition to its close contact with the information and culture worlds, allows Contrasto to be a leader in the field of author photography. Its vast range of activities (production and distribution of images for journalism, advertising and image consulting, fashion and publishing, archives available online) is guaranteed by the various resources it draws from; most notably Magnum, the prestigious agency founded by Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Contrasto is publishing house as well, working to realize photographic books, and exhibits in cooperation with Italy’s public and private institutions. The high level of Contrasto photographers amounts to a gallery of unique images suitable for collecting purposes as well. www.contrasto.it

Have you visited the new cafe in the Arts Collinwood building? The Grand Opening is not until June 27, but already the buzz is spreading about the new business on Waterloo!

Read the full article here! Here’s an excerpt…

North Collinwood‘s Waterloo arts district has a lot going for it — the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern, of course, along with a growing number of galleries, studios and funky retailers.

All of which recently attracted the attention of the country’s second-largest-circulation daily newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, which did a full-page spread.

But there was, North Collinwood resident Frank Revy thought, something missing.

So on May 1, Revy, in cooperation with the Arts Collinwood nonprofit that owns the building, opened the Waterloo Cafe on the district’s most prominent crossroads in hopes of providing Waterlooeans and visitors an upscale but old-school eating, drinking and gathering place.

The Waterloo Cafe is at 15601 Waterloo Road, Cleveland. Visit thewaterloocafe.com.

Download and view the flier here!

The family event features thirty of the area’s best known artists who will spread out across the Cleveland area. While an appreciative public watches, the artists will produce their art at outdoor landmark locations and draw upon the inspiration that the venue provides.  Artists will be creating their works on Friday and Saturday, June 19th and 20th from 10 am to 4 pm and Sunday, June 21 from 1 pm to 5 pm. Families are encouraged to bring their children as they will be able to learn about Cleveland and what it means to be an artist by enjoying special “Color Me Cleveland” coloring books.

Artist locations include Strawbridge Plaza (Mall C), the West Side Market, Whiskey Island , Lincoln Park in Tremont, Lake View Cemetery , Idea Center at Playhouse Square , downtown Chagrin Falls , Public Square , and Edgewater Park. Transportation to various artist locations during the weekend of June 21-23 will be provided by Lolly the Trolley. To reserve a trolley pass, call 216.771.4484. Times vary by location, so interested persons should call the Archives at 216-721-9020 for location specifics or visit its website at www.artistsarchives.org.

The artists’ creations will be brought back “wet” to the AAWR’s gallery in University Circle where they will be displayed during a free public exhibition from Monday, June 22, 2009 through Friday, June 26, 2009. Exhibition hours are 10 am to 4 pm. Interested persons may take part in a silent auction of the works during this time. Proceeds from the art auction advance the Archives’ mission of conserving the work of our region’s artists as well preserving Ohio ’s art history.

Color Me Cleveland concludes with the Gala Celebration on Friday, June 27 beginning at 7 pm. Rachael Davis of Rachel Davis Fine Arts will lead a live art auction. The event’s emcee will be WMJI radio personality Jimmy Malone.  Fine Cuisine and live music will complement the event.  The Gala Celebration is open to the public. Tickets are $75 and may be purchased by calling the Archives at 216-721-9020 or visiting its website www.artistsarchives.org.

The Artists Archives of the Western Reserve is a unique archival facility created to preserve representative bodies of work by Ohio visual artists. Through ongoing research, exhibition and educational programs the AAWR actively documents and promotes this cultural heritage for the benefit of the public. The Artists Archives of the Western Reserve is located at 1834 East 123rd Street in Cleveland ’s University Circle district, across from Lakeview Cemetery .

Wall Street Journal article

A great slideshow by WSJ photographer Greg Ruffing

from cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer: April 10, 2009
by Laura DeMarco, Plain Dealer Friday! Magazine Editor

You could spend hours just looking at the floor at Blue Arrow Records and Books in Collinwood.

Literally.

The floor of the newly opened record store on Waterloo Road — and I do mean records, just records, no CDs — is composed of more than 1,000 tiled album covers owner Pete Gulyas laid by hand.

Look, here’s T Rex. Now I’m standing on Pat Benatar. Oooh, I love that Alex Harvey Band record. Wow, check out the hot Ray Charles Singers cover.

You get the picture.

“If I don’t hear someone saying something about at least one album on the floor, then I think something’s wrong,” says Gulyas, who also owns This Way Out vintage store down the street underneath the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern with his wife, Debbie. They previously owned the stellar Renaissance Parlor vintage store on Coventry Road.

It took him 200 hours to complete the floor, which is grouped into themes such as “drinking covers,” “smoking covers” and types of music. For records that he ranks as “good,” he made sure he had another copy before tearing off the front. Other LPs were sacrificed for art.

So what about the records in the bins? Well, there are about 7,000 of them, and all are vintage, says Gulyas. Prices range from 50 cents to around $12, including classic rock, alt-rock, punk, camp classics, lots of glam, 1950s and ’60s swank, jazz, blues and country.

Gulyas, who will continue selling LPs at This Way Out, says he started the store because he and many of his collector friends “wanted to clean house.”

But he adds that he and other store owners, including the staff at Music Saves a block away, have noticed “people are definitely more into vinyl now than a few years ago.” (Music Saves sells only new vinyl. Yes, new music is being pressed onto vinyl. More and more, in fact.)

Gulyas credits this to the fact that, “despite what we were told, CDs start to break down. Vinyl retains its sound. And people love the artwork.”

It’s not all about vinyl here, though. Gulyas also has a rack of vintage music and pop-culture mags, from Creem to Rolling Stone, and racks of pulp-fiction novels with titles such as “Wanton Woman” and “French Fever.” The front case holds rows of retro sunglasses and Nita Ketner’s funky Backstage Pass pendants featuring rock icons such as Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix.

And there’s a shrine, of sorts, dedicated to the Boss. Though most of it is not for sale, record fans should find the case dedicated to Bruce Springsteen fascinating, from old 45s and photos to “Darkness on the Edge of Town”-era posters.

The back of the store features a small stage area for special events. The next one will be Saturday, April 18, when the Prisoners play at 6 p.m. and Hotchacha takes the stage at 7 in honor of National Record Store Day.

Shopping list, Music Saves:

Just down the street from Blue Arrow, Music Saves CD and record store will celebrate National Record Store Day in conjunction with Gulyas’ store. Performing will be Brian Straw at 5:30 p.m., Trouble Books at 6:30 and the Very Knees at 7:30. Also that day, come into the store wearing an indie record store T-shirt and get 10 percent off your purchase. And make a purchase and receive a free goody bag. 15801 Waterloo Road. 216-481-1875.

To reach this Plain Dealer columnist:

ldemarco@plaind.com, 216-999-4577