Collinwood’s New Home for Creativity
By John Benson
A grassroots effort blossoming into a garden of creativity is what brand-new Branches Art Space hopes to bring to the Collinwood area.
The new 1,600-square-foot site is home to an artists’ alliance providing up to 24 artists working in shared studio, teaching and retail gallery space. The venue’s mission statement is simple: to foster creativity and art excellence; provide exhibition, work and teaching space for artists; provide programs and activities that encourage public awareness, participation, and appreciation of the arts; and to serve as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization via the arts.
Lofty goals indeed but Branches Art Space Managing Partner Evelyn Copan-Bute is parlaying her background in business development to this artful project. Cool Cleveland talked to the Cleveland native and 1972 John Marshall High School graduate about the vision for the gallery, which celebrates its grand opening with a reception from 6 to 10PM on Fri 3/23 in Collinwood.
Cool Cleveland: Let’s start with a basic question, what is Branches Art Space?
Evelyn Copan-Bute: We are a shared studio teaching and gallery space. The thought behind it was to really continue the neighborhood building in Collinwood because Collinwood really wants to be known as an arts-on place. So we’re trying to do our part to do that, and we’re inviting artists that need studio space and exhibit space and teaching space there. We’ll also have a very small coffee bar and snacks for donations. We really want to engage the young people in the neighborhood and show off the talent that is in Collinwood and surrounding neighborhoods. This is just a venue for the local artists to really collaborate together and get their names out there.
What do you have in store for the grand opening event?
You are going to be seeing local artists and painting, sculpture, driftwood sculpture, jewelry, pencil drawings, knit-ware. These are all local artists all from Collinwood and Euclid. And going forward we’ll have different artists. We have room for 24 artists, and right now we’re starting with a base of 13. We’ll be building on that. We’ll be showing off individual artists probably on a monthly or six-week basis. All of the artists can only exhibit a limited amount of their work every six weeks before we’ll have a new exhibit.
Does Branches Art Space also have a teaching aspect?
We also have a room set aside for young and emerging artists. For people from the neighborhood who are just starting out, there’s a teaching aspect. We’re going to be having all kinds of different classes and the room where the teaching will be going on is also the room where the emerging and young artists are. They will have things for sale and display.
What do you hope is the feeling associated with the Branches Art Space experience?
It feels like more of a salon gallery more than a straight-line gallery, meaning it’s not hung like a museum. It’s more a salon type, where visually you’re stimulated with seeing everything. We have one fine arts room so you walk in and see the fine arts room with paintings and sculptures and there’s a room set aside just for the jewelry. It’s very colorful, elegant.
Is there a mindset associated with Branches Art Space?
The mindset of this venue is to really appreciate the talent that we have locally and to make sure that people have a new appreciation of the artists’ vision of living in Cleveland. What we’re planning on doing is to really focus on the artists’ vision of Cleveland. For example, there will be a lot of Cleveland photography. This is not set up yet, but we want local authors that have been published or are self-published. We’ll have a book nook with books about Cleveland and by Clevelanders.
Finally, it feels as though Branches Art Space is a launching pad of sorts.
That’s right; it is. It’s to get the names of the local artists out there and to also focus on Cleveland art.
Branches Art Space is located at 18322 Lakeshore Blvd., Cleveland. For gallery hours and information, call 216.408.5142 or visit them online.
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio. When he’s not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria. John also occasionally writes for CoolCleveland.com.