The Cleveland Arts Prize is thrilled to announce the distinguished recipients of the 2023 awards, recognizing exceptional achievements and contributions in various artistic disciplines. These individuals have demonstrated unwavering dedication, creative brilliance, and a profound impact on the arts community and society as a whole.
The Cleveland Arts Prize 2023 winners are: Emerging Artists: Stephanie Ginese for Literature and Atefeh Farajolahzadeh for Visual Art; Mid-career Artists: Dana Jessen for Music and Dr. Jacinda Walker for Design; Lifetime Achievement Janet Macoska for Visual Art: Martha Joseph Prize to Richard Rogers; Robert P. Bergman Prize to Susan Braham Koletsky; Barbara S. Robinson Prize to Joseph and Nancy Keithley. Read more.
The 2023 Cleveland Arts Prize Discipline Award winners are:
Emerging Artists
Stephanie Ginese for Literature
Author, instructor, and stand-up comedian from South Lorain, Stephanie Ginese has been published in zines, journals, & anthologies throughout the country. She has been a contributor for multiple digital Latinx platforms. Stephanie’s work has been featured in Las Palabritas Journal at Harvard University, The Pinch Journal at The University of Memphis, Homology Lit, Wax Nine Journal, Cleveland Review of Books, and elsewhere. Her debut collection of poetry, Unto Dogs, was released by Grieveland Publishing in July of 2022 and focuses on themes of Puerto Rican nationalism, history, reproductive violence, and spirituality. She has a BA in Literature from Cleveland State University and an AA in Creative Writing from Tri-C.
Atefeh Farajolahzadeh for Visual Art
Iran-born Atefeh Farajolahzadeh is a visual artist who employs photography, video, and coding-involved installations in her practice. Her current works projects explores the idea of being elsewhere and the psychology of being in-between (the place of origin and her new place). Her work is driven by personal experiences as an immigrant, facing the state of suspension between her current home and her country of origin and through abstraction and representation, fiction and non-fiction. Her work was shown in SPACES, Cleveland; Hyde Park Art Center’s biennial exhibition, Chicago; Ohio University Art Gallery; Akron Soul Train residency. She adjunct teaches in the Department of Film & Media Arts at Tri-C.
Mid-career Artists
Dana Jessen for Music
Hailed as a “bassoon virtuoso” (Chicago Reader), Dana is in high demand as a soloist, chamber musician, improviser and new music specialist who is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and a Huygens Fellowship. She has presented dozens of world premiere performances throughout North America and Europe with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Dal Niente, Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Orchestra, S.E.M. Ensemble and the Amsterdam Contemporary Ensemble. Currently she serves as Associate Professor of Contemporary Music and Improvisation at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She holds a M.M. in Bassoon Performance from New England Conservatory of Music and a M.M. in New Dutch Swing from the Artez Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in the Netherlands.
Dr. Jacinda Walker for Design
Dr. Walker is celebrated for her design, diversity, research and strategy work. She is the founder + creative director of designExplorr, a social impact organization whose mission addresses the diversity gap within the design profession by exposing design education to African-American and Latino youth and raising awareness for corporate organizations. She has led design thinking and community design workshops for numerous organizations and AIGA chapters. She earned a B.F.A in graphic design from University of Akron and an M.F.A. in design research & development from The Ohio State University. In 2022, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Ringling College of Art + Design.
Lifetime Achievement: Janet Macoska for Visual Art
Since 1974, Janet Macoska has been capturing rock music’s greatest on film and now digitally. Her work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Jazz Times, People, Vogue, American Photo, Classic Rock, 16, Sports Illustrated, New York Times and London Times and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Permanent collections that include her work are The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Smithsonian Museum of American History, The National Portrait Gallery in London, and The Grammy Museum. VH1, Bravo, A&E and the BBC regularly use her work in their “rockumentaries.” Artists who have used her images for the records include David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, The Clash, Devo, Heart, AC/DC, and The Kinks.
Robert P. Bergman Prize: Susan Braham Koletsky & Richard S. Rogers
Susan Braham Koletsky
Over her 25 year tenure as the Museum Director of The Temple-Tifereth’s Gallery in the The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Susan has brought to bear her considerable talents as an artist, educator and advocate. As a result of her leadership she has brought a relatively unknown collection of Judaica to a position of prominence within the North American Jewish Art realm. Susan has engaged both Jews and non-Jews in robust conversations about Judaism, anti-Semitism and social responsibility. Her vitality and energy have fueled her personal vision that art, as a tool to educate, can enrich our understanding of our world, inspire us to create art, and benefit the wellbeing of our community.
Richard S. Rogers
An exemplar of civic leadership, compassion and unwavering dedication, Richard is a driving cultural force in Akron. Among his many artistic achievements are his collections of contemporary ceramics from Asia and the U.S and 20th century American and European design. His most significant achievement, and one that will affirm his legacy, is his creation in 2017 of Curated Storefront, a non-profit dedicated to transforming downtown Akron into a more vibrant community through the arts. Rick’s brilliant idea, for which he won a Knight Arts Challenge grant, was to activate vacant storefronts in downtown Akron with art displays. He has played a pivotal role in shaping the city’s development, growth, and inclusivity and his vision will continue to inspire generations to come.
Barbara Robinson Prize for the Advancement of the Arts: Joseph P. and Nancy F. Keithley
Advocates for arts, culture, education and collaboration, Joseph and Nancy Keithley serve as a testament to the power of philanthropy to shape and elevate a community’s cultural soul. In 2020 their monumental gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art of 114 artworks worth $100M served as a catalyst to elevate the museum’s impact and accessibility. Moreover, in 2013 they established the Nancy and Joseph Keithley Institute for Art History at Case Western Reserve University which not only provided additional resources to support curatorial and art scholarly education, it also advanced inclusive initiatives, artistic exploration and community engagement for nearly all University Circle institutions. Joseph and Nancy Keithley stand as pillars of support within Cleveland’s thriving artistic landscape. Their legacy will forever be intertwined with the region’s artistic renaissance.