By Josh Usmani
Last week, we published an article summarizing and commenting on the recent discussion regarding the future of the Creative Workforce Fellowship program at The City Club. Applications for this year’s round of Fellowships were “paused” indefinitely as Cuyahoga Arts and Culture reviews the results of the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture’s (CPAC) independent review.
At the meeting, a key question was raised: “How does awarding ‘Artistic Excellence’ equate to funding ‘Community Vibrancy’?”
In an effort to explore this question, we have solicited the thoughts and firsthand experience of an eclectic variety of the region’s most prominent and active members of the arts community.
Nina Gibans, 2009 winner of the Martha Joseph Citation of the Cleveland Arts Prize:
“I am working on ARTneo’s ‘On and Off the Wall,’ a discussion about the visual arts since 2000 to be held at the Cleveland Public Library on Sat 9/13 (9am-1pm). In talking to CWF award-winning artists some have said that this award has made it possible for them to stay/work in Cleveland.”
The Galleries at Cleveland State’s Director Robert Thurmer:
“Each tax dollar spent on the arts and art education is an investment in the overall health and well being of this state and nation. The impact is not merely economic; the investment in the arts creates far-reaching and long-lasting value. It enhances the quality of life in our community and forms the basis for a humane and tolerant society in which ideas flourish and individuals prosper.”
Frank Oriti, recipient of the Cleveland Arts Prize in 2013:
“For me, a lot of the successes that have come in the last three years have occurred because of the fact that I moved back to Cleveland and set up a studio. My first solo show at The Bonfoey Gallery in Cleveland really started things off and gave me the confidence to continue submitting to national art publications. When I started getting attention from these larger publications and showing with a gallery in NY, it only led to more coverage in even larger publications.
“Clearly, it’s very exciting when you get press for doing what you love, but it’s even more exciting for me to see the words ‘living and working IN Cleveland.’ I hope that by continuing to represent Cleveland’s creative community we can aid in bringing more attention and respect to the city of Cleveland, its art scene, and all of the great things we have happening here.”
Christina Vassallo, SPACES’ Executive Director, recently moved from New York City to Cleveland:
“We need to increase our efforts to support cultural producers in the creation of work that is both transformative and has potential to create positive change. For me, projects that have ‘artistic excellence’ (it’s a subjective categorization) offer new insights, unconventional solutions, and expand the way we think about our surroundings. Often times this unfolds as artwork that demands accountability for or questions why things are the way they are, and curious minds are key to vibrant communities.”
Dana Depew, former owner of Asterisk gallery in Tremont (and perhaps Northeast Ohio’s most prolific artist):
“Obviously public art is an important component to community vibrancy. Large scale sculpture and murals can immediately spruce up a community and create an instant dialogue. I have an ongoing project where I have been placing birdhouses in distressed neighborhoods in Columbus but mostly throughout Cleveland. The structures are affixed to telephone poles and on the sides of vacant buildings or abandoned homes. I would come back several weeks or even months later and to my surprise many of the birdhouses were still there. All the aluminum siding would have been taken but the pastel birdhouses remained. There is almost a respect or an appreciation for this object and was left untouched.
“Also, for the past several years, I have been a part of an annual sculpture initiative which loans out public sculpture to various small town cities in the Midwest. They select about twelve works and they are placed around the cities and in the summer months, they create a monthly artwalk. This gives the opportunity for residents to get out and engage the work.
“As well, the local schools are paired up with a public artwork and the students create poems about the piece and they have a big event in which the crafted poems are recited in front of the sculptures. These are just a few ways in which art can be used as a vehicle to create more vibrant and engaging communities.”
Bob Peck, Northeast Ohio’s most successful graffiti artist-turned-fine artist:
“Head south down W. 25th Street from Ohio City and you’ll find a D.I.Y. outdoor art venue called ‘The Fun Wall’ that’s nearly 20 years in the making. Once a shell of a demolished warehouse, the foundation walls serve as a place for urban artists to convene and express. So many have visited over time, that the walls are nearly 1/8″ thick with paint in places. In later years, skateboarders have claimed their stake and built a full-fledged concrete skate park on the land, living harmoniously with the artists.
“Speaking with nearby neighbors throughout the years, I’ve heard stories of inspiration, love, and friendship stem from this once barren slab. I was once approached by a somewhat-menacing man while I was there in later years. As he got closer, he reminded me that I helped him spray paint his BMX bike there when he was a kid. He then smiled and we shared a few beers. It’s amazing how far a little bit of paint will go!”
Daniel Neforos, Gallery Director and Programming Committee Chair of 78th Street Studios’ Cleveland West Art League (CWAL):
“The local art community creates an opportunity for cultural examination and exchange. It allows us to view the world, even if only for [a] moment, through a different set of eyes. These diverse viewpoints and impressions of our community may foster a more meaningful examination of the places we call home.”
SPACES’ “Gallery Oracle” Marilyn Simmons:
“How does ‘Artistic Excellence’ contribute to ‘Community Vibrancy’? How does it not? When artists (which act as small businesses in town) are successful then the whole community benefits. Through the Creative Workforce Fellowship artists have been able to create without strings attached. The funds help them move their art to that next level. They might create a website, buy equipment or invest in a studio. The community benefits economically.”
Christine Howey, current Creative Workforce Fellow who recently created the one-person show Exact Change at Cleveland Public Theatre:
“While it is possible to have a community without an active artistic component, it would be a sad community indeed. The Creative Workforce Fellowship provides grants to working artists in various fields, enabling them to focus their energies on their art. In particular, my grant has helped my one-person play, Exact Change, blossom from a workshop production into a full-run at CPT where almost 1,000 shared a unique theatrical experience. The grant is also helping me prepare to tour the show around Cuyahoga County and beyond. This could not have happened without the Fellowship.”
Tremont’s favorites arts advocate, Jean Brandt (owner of Brandt gallery):
“The 1980s were vibrant for Cleveland arts — SPACES was born at this time — nonetheless I found there was a lack of sufficient venue for myself and others. The fact that they were many talented people living and working in Cleveland at the time seemed clear to me.
“So when I had the opportunity to share the storefront I began renting in 1990 for my law office with an art exhibit, the resultant 24 years of exhibits now seems obvious, but then I had no idea how well my premise would explode. Based on what is occurring in Cleveland today regarding local arts is indicative of how much talent and potential there was and continues to be, as well as how far we’ve come in Cleveland in the past 30 years in supporting this vital community.”
RA Washington, artist, writer, musician and current Creative Workforce Fellow. He and his wife, Liz Bly, own Guide to Kulchur bookstore in Gordon Square:
“To be honest the question of artistic excellence versus community vibrancy is an odd one so when it was brought up at City Club it rang to be a bit of a red herring. First we all know that, or at least we should know that ‘community’ in foundation speak means poor people….[W]e have to begin to unpack phrases like ‘community.’ Do you mean to imply that if it’s for poor people the artistic programming does not need to [be] excellent? I think that’s not what they meant, but that’s what is communicated when you get into those type of broad and un-nuanced statements.
“For me, and what we (and I do mean we) are trying to do at GTK it is essential that it’s excellent, and it’s essential that it’s vibrant. When you think of the money many of the larger organizations receive from the cigarette tax money how much of the programming, jobs and dollars actually trickle down to the people who smoke?
“With our programming we know that we serve a populace that feels that it has no true voice, no real political or financial power. Isn’t that what the fellowship is supposed to be about? It brings about the question perhaps it’s time to truly hold these leaders accountable for the conversations they do not have. It’s still about class and privilege even if you don’t mean it to be.”
Michael Gill, editor of CAN Journal:
“Community vibrance and artistic excellence support each other. One yields the other. I don’t think they can be separated.”
Amy Mothersbaugh, owner of Studio 2091 in downtown Cuyahoga Falls:
“I think art always shows a community has pride, compassion and tolerance. It stimulates creativity in others and promotes new ways of looking at things. It inspires us to remember our humanity.”
Joe Ayala, local artist and former partner of Wall Eye gallery and former gallery director at Cleveland West Art League (CWAL):
“I always felt as an artist to bring in attractive uniqueness to the vibrancy of a rising or established community. Be it art or music, I like to bring in atmospheres most haven’t seen or heard yet confident they would appeal instantly or grow in short time. You have to feel who the community is first, what they want and love, grow to know them then bring your own personal touches to the scene.”
Alenka Banco, owner of Convivium33 gallery and Business Development Specialist for Northeast Shores Development Corporation:
“This is a tough discussion to have because it should never be assumed that one is contingent on the other or evaluated evenly. It’s all-relative and the outcome and success can often be clouded by so many other factors.
“In measuring vibrancy, even an excellent idea and/or program can have no community impact if for example: the marketing isn’t there and the audience hasn’t expanded beyond its programming boundaries or perhaps something as unexpected as inclement weather affects community engagement. The same should be said for the opposite. Often success is measured and driven by popularity not necessarily by quality.
“Supporting an artist that is part of the community because they are part of a community is always a good thing but does that challenge or stimulate the viewer? Is it creating a forum for ‘art’ or just activity? I personally feel that all art…..at every level….. that is created by an individual…. is important to community vibrancy. Think about it….isn’t every major city attaching their hopes and dreams for a vibrant neighborhood on the heals of an artist? My question is: ‘Shouldn’t we be encouraging our children, our friends, and colleagues to always strive for excellence?’ Compare it [to] sports: if a team is striving for athletic excellence doesn’t [the] impact of their individual success strengthen the overall vibrancy of its audience and impact the region economically as opposed to a team that exists.”
Liz Maugans, co-founder of Zygote Press and CAN Journal , recipient of both the Cleveland Arts Prize and Creative Workforce Fellowship:
“I am an admirer of anyone who can get up on a stage and belt out a good melody. Artists, musicians, dancers, writers and performers put themselves out there and consistently belt it out everyday. Creating art is always a community action. CWF fellows are business owners, merchants, nonprofit administrators, entrepreneurs, academics, educators, economic developers, researchers, and activists.
“The Valerie Mayens, Anne Trubeks, Michaelangelo Lovelaces, Gadi Zamirs, RA Washingtons, Robin VanLears, Michael Loderstedts, Barry Underwoods, Andrea Levys, Kristin Cliffels…they are all voices and agents of change that belt it out every day.
“I have instigated projects, most recently in Slavic Village, where ROOMS TO LET was developed out of a project that grew from a CWF award. I had a test drive in a Columbus neighborhood and knew it could be replicated in Cleveland ‘s Slavic Village, the hardest hit zipcode devastated by foreclosure. Vacant houses, that stood dormant, became opportune places that 700+ people came, off 65th and Fleet, to an undesirable area, with no arts district, no restaurant scene and a legacy of crime and decline.
“The artists, who created over 40 installations in these three vacant homes, along with Slavic Village neighborhood development staff (and a small grant from CAC/Neighborhood Connections) created a moment where people from the community got to see their neighborhood through another lens of possibility and amusement. The installations were awe-inspiring, magical, contemplative, political and connective.
“The debate of whether these awards to individual artists are about artistic excellence or community engagement seems bizarre because I think all artists, musicians, writers, performers [and] dancers improve the quality of life in our cities and towns. They enhance community development; spur urban renewal; attract new businesses; draw tourism dollars; and create an environment that attracts skilled, educated workers which build an innovative workforce.”
Local artists Gary and Laura Dumm are preparing for a collaborative exhibition at Breakneck gallery later this summer. The recently created a mural titled “Our Love Letter to Cleveland” on the Orange Blossom Press building on West 25th in Ohio CIty:
“Our most recent encounter with awarding ‘Artistic Excellence’ that contributed to ‘Community Vibrancy’ occurred when I received a Creative Workforce Fellowship in 2013 so that we could accomplish our large-scale Love Letter To Cleveland mural close to the West Side Market. Even to the casual passerby, this was an immediate and obvious contribution to ‘Community Vibrancy.’
“In subsequent conversations with Councilmen Cimperman and Zone we were told of their interest and promotion of public art (and artists) as mechanisms in the revitalization of neighborhoods and even a lessening of crime rates there. Artists and galleries have quantifiably helped to ‘regentrify’ several areas of our city, and the business efforts of other recent Fellows, Valerie Mayan and RA Washington in Gordon Square need to be both applauded and patronized.
“At its simplest, the awarding of a CWF grant allows an artist to live and continue working on their ‘Artistic Excellence’ while spending the money (usually) in our community on what they need to create. The unquantifiable part of another Fellowship ‘year’ (2012) occurred in my artistic collaboration with Fellow/author Scott MacGregor on his graphic novel A Simple Ordinary Man, since after two years (and drawing nearly 1,800 panels), only now am I finally approaching the project’s end. And the ‘quantifiable effect’ of the Fellowship’s ‘Community Vibrancy’ will only be seen after this work is published, hopefully next year.
“We are grateful and unabashed promoters of the value of the CAC/CPAC grant in allowing Cuyahoga County’s artist recipients the time it buys to hone their skills and achieve additional ‘Artistic Excellence.’ One can put a price on a particular piece of art, but to us, being able to walk in our neighborhoods to visit galleries and view public art, as ‘Community Vibrancy,’ that’s priceless.”
Cleveland Public Theatre’s Executive Artistic Director, Raymond Bobgan, recent recipient of both the Cleveland Arts Prize and Creative Workforce Fellowship:
“With intense and in-depth arts programs that serve over 500 children from very low-income families and adults in transition, a successful model for neighborhood economic transformation, and a proven track record for engaging community in making art, CPT has witnessed incredible community vibrancy because of the arts. None of this would have been possible without depth and authenticity. Look at the people who are in CPT’s long-term, most adventurous and sometimes avant garde productions, like Rusted Heart Broadcast or Cut to Pieces. These are the very people working on the frontline of our most transformative education programs.
“There is something about the depth of artistic work that has incredible impact. There is a reason people associate the word ‘magic’ with the arts—it is an ineffable experience. When you are close to that experience everyday though the pursuit of artistic excellence, it changes you. And it can’t be held in, it changes the people around you. It changes your connection to the community. I could and would never have founded STEP, Cleveland’s only arts-based, job-training program designed for low-income youth, without the foundation of deep work with ensembles of actors who work in serious and rigorous exploration of humanity.
“Recently, STEP opened their adaptation of of Midsummer Night’s Dream called Now the City Dreams. The power of that performance defines vibrancy and the community experience on the lawn of Herman Park was immeasurable. There were 30 children who live in public housing in the front row. There were elderly adults from across the street. There were lawyers, doctors, carpenters, social workers, truck drivers, cafeteria workers, and many more. They were in a communal experience that celebrated the power of love and the human spirit, transmitted by a group of teenagers, mostly from families with an income of less than $20,000.
“The audiences came expecting ‘magic,’ and words I heard as I walked across that grass field were: ‘brilliant,’ ‘transformative,’ ‘enlightening.’
“Alumni of the program were there too—they shared their experience—’this program saved my life,’ ‘I wouldn’t be where I am without STEP,’ and a mother’s words hit home: ‘this program saved my family.’
“This is the power of artistic excellence and the leaders of STEP can testify that their work is founded, rooted, fed, inspired, and nurtured by their deep artistic work—hard movement and singing research far from the public eye, obscure and dangerous improvisations, painstaking building of sequences of deeply personal actions, and the opening of that work to the public in intimate settings. Three of the leaders of the teens at the park are recipients of the CAC, CPAC Creative Workforce Fellowship. There is no THIS without THAT. Magic has more science to it than most people understand. There is a direct correlation between the research and deep art work and the wide dissemination.
“Do arts impact education, economy, talent retention, community pride, and tourism? Of course, but these things can be served with many other investments. There is only one truly unique public value that the arts can provide. There is only one worthwhile and noble aspiration for arts funding. There is only one reason for CAC or any public funder of the arts to exist—to support magic in our community.”
Faye Hargate received the Creative Workforce Fellowship for her work as an Education Associate at Cleveland Public Theatre:
“I still don’t get the difference between vibrancy and artistic excellence. The only thing I can surmise is that CAC is in the unfortunate position to not have the time, interest or purpose to really get to know the fellows, on a professional and even personal level so as to grok the full story and gain a deeper comprehension of community/artistic impact we do. I have seen you, meg, Tom, Susan and Valerie at events, investing in our art, getting to know us, the multi-faceted sides of our lives and the art that we create in, for, by this Cleveland community.
“You take the time. Can CAC really do that? I imagine CAC knows the fellows primarily by paper, our applications and reporting documents throughout the year. They read numbers and perhaps see a few photos and even watch the promo videos, but does that really give them the full story? How to provide a report that captures our VIBRANCY?
“Also, yesterday [at the City Club forum], we didn’t discuss excellence in innovation – in thinking and shaping our community. Why does excellence give us pause? Do they feel it’s exclusive? That’s a very limited definition. And I don’t think we are talking semantics.
“As you may know, I applied twice, 2011 and 2013. I learned so much from not getting the fellowship and then made a bang ass application in 2013 and was lucky enough to be awarded. My life has absolutely changed. Not only am I more involved in my own PERSONAL art, but I see myself as a shaper in this community. I feel more confident and have a greater sense of ownership and duty. Purpose.
“In 2013, I wanted to make a strong, specific, detailed case why I should be awarded and what I thought a panel would think was truly innovative in my art, and so I applied as an installation artist with a strong interest in female identity. This is a huge part of what makes me who I am, and yet it is only a part. 45 weeks out of the year, I teach youth, ages 4-14, who live in CMHA public housing. We create original work, using the same creation methods I use for my ‘professional work,’ and present 3-5 new works to the community each year. My education work is deeply tied to my artistic work – it even sounds wrong now to draw a distinction between the two, but these lines help people, like CAC, understand. Right?
“I am now creating a solo piece that explores adolescent girl sexuality. It will be produced at CPT, as part of our artistic season, unconnected to our community education programs, AND YET, it would be impossible for me to create this piece without the work that I do in the CMHA projects with the 450 individual youth I teach every year, many of whom are young girls on the brink of puberty, trying to explore their identity and stay safe in a climate of chaos. I have known Tsunami since she was 7, now 12, I have literally been a part of her maturation, a touchstone for her to lean on and a consistent mentor in her life.
“How could CAC know that if they were only to know me as an installation artist?”
Douglas Max Utter is a recipient of the Cleveland Arts Prize, and recently served on the visual arts jury for this year’s awards:
“At first this seems something like the headache-inducing question often put to university bigwigs and English Department pundits, ‘How do the humanities contribute to America’s strength?’ or words to that effect. The fact is, artists aren’t necessarily the most upbeat people, and an important function of contemporary art and literature is to question the coherence and integrity of our daily lives, rather than to reinforce complacency. So, vibrancy? Bah, humbug, they might be expected to reply.
“Yet the question is important. Are the stories that we tell, the images we look at, the sounds we listen to, really valuable to our sense of ourselves, to our growth as individuals, to our understanding of one another? Do they enrich our lives in significant ways that may even help to get us through hard times, or are they luxuries that can be dispensed with in the face of harsh economic and political realities?
“It’s also very difficult to separate artistic excellence as such (the actual quality of artwork) from the galleries and other venues that present and promote it, and the people who invent and manage those public situations, not to mention the Boards that sometimes commission art, the funding organizations that occasionally finance both private and public efforts, and so on. ‘Vibrancy’ is possibly a product of all of these things, or none of them. At the core of art’s value is its unique relation to the individual.
“Here’s a personal anecdote. I grew up in Cleveland Heights near the top of Cedar Hill, the only child of a scientist/academic father and a mother who had a passionate interest in culture, human rights, and the visual arts. There were no art programs in my school (Roxboro) at the time, but the Cleveland Museum of Art was nearby. Eventually I attended classes there and at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and began at an early age to observe and draw, and later paint.
“Gradually I built an artistic identity, which for me was an understanding of myself as an active respondent to the world, a person who lived and relived, doubled and tripled the visual realities I observed and the processes that underlay all that scenery, all those bodies, the lines and volumes textures and colors of the whole world, enhancing my own understanding and experience.
“I didn’t have a lot of company in those days in my artistic explorations in Northern Ohio, or any notion of the ‘vibrancy’ of culture in the region. Yet that isn’t quite true. As I say, there was the Museum and CIA, and as it happens there was also a very unusual married couple living next door. I’m not sure how they spelled their name and it might be best not to mention it here without permission, but the salient fact about these two, older German people was their art collection, hanging on every wall inside the little peaked house, all the way up the stairs. These weren’t negligible works. Primarily they were smaller works on paper by William Sommer and Charles Burchfield – two painters who I already could recognize and had admired, at CMA’s collection and elsewhere. Each summer my neighbors headed out of town to the studios of these artists, returning home with pictures which, as I dimly realized, were real-life treasure.
“That these good people had this interest, this kind of aesthetic judgment, at that time (1958-59), and were willing to share it with the little boy next door, helped to shape my life and enrich my sight. If there is a “vibrancy” inherent in shared culture, which may go on and add its tone to the larger world, I think it is a secret rustling of previously unsuspected dimensions, of new levels of connection, new perceptions and moments when the outlines of change shift suddenly closer.”
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We could easily continue with countless more examples of firsthand insight and experiences, but this article is already more than 10 times longer than normal. If you’d care to contribute to this important conversation, please do so in the comments below. Also, Cuyahoga Arts and Culture will hold their next Board of Trustees meeting at SPACES on Mon 9/15 at 4pm. The Fellowships will be a major topic of discussion, and the public is invited to attend and offer their comments and/or concerns towards the end of the meeting.
Josh Usmani is a 27 year old local artist, curator and writer. Since 2008, his work has been featured in over 50 local and regional exhibitions.