Your post about Paul Dacey and the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art takes me back and forward... back to the New Gallery and Nina Sundell and Marjorie Talalay...  many great collectors and artists in what I remember to be a vibrant time in the arts of my childhood - the late '60s and the '70s, when so many were really excited about collecting, many Cleveland artists were really hitting big on the global scene... perhaps the grass just looks greener in the rear-view mirror but perhaps there's something we lost that we need to find again, taking me forward....

You reminded my I talked for quite a while at my parents' Christmas party this year with Marjorie Talalay and asked if she would be willing to help champion some rejuvination of the visual arts here and she is cool with that. She said she is active with a dance group, which I believe is Groundworks (Susan,  what do you know about Groundworks... they are performing at Ingenuity July 15th... and have a very funky website here) and she is still interested in contempoary art. So to Agnes and Peter we need to add Dear Marjorie. To whom else can we turn back to help lead forward in this space?

Looking back, to look forward....

Originally called The New Gallery, it was situated on Euclid Avenue in a modest store front. In 1974, two years after moving to a turn-of-the-century house on Bellflower Road in University Circle, the Gallery changed its status to a not-for-profit institution, to more effectively pursue its primary educational objectives. Ten years later, to aptly project its role in the community it was renamed the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art.

From the outset it was the goal of the founders to present work perceived to be on the "cutting edge" of contemporary art. It is gratifying to note how many of today's acclaimed artists who emerged on the national art scene at the end of the 60s or the beginning of the 70s had one of their earliest solo exhibitions in Cleveland, at the New Gallery.

The Center's educational activities have ranged from hands-on workshops for inner city students, to outreach programs in the community, and to the publication of scholarly exhibition catalogues. A prestigious Fall Lecture Series has become an eagerly awaited annual event.

Last October the Center added a large satellite space in the spectacular new downtown Galleria at Erieview. It now presents a full season of exhibitions and events from two key locations: University Circle and downtown Cleveland the cultural and the commercial hubs of the city. To date, over 150,000 persons have visited the Center's Galleria space.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees it is a privilege and pleasure to congratulate Marjorie Talalay, the Center's Director and Nina Sundell, Honorary Trustee, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary year of the Center. Their curatorial expertise, boundless energy and professional dedication have served to provide this community with the opportunity to experience the challenging intellectual and aesthetic excitement of today's art created by today's artists.

Further, I would like to recognize the loyal and generous support of my fellow Trustees and numerous other individuals, corporations and foundations who have demonstrated their belief in the importance of providing Cleveland with a forum for the new and experimental in the visual arts.

No doubt I express the sentiment of founders and supporters by looking forward to a future of increased cultural services to the community.

Anita D. Cosgrove,
President
The Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art

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Seven Generation planning for the arts. Which will exist in 150 years? What to fund with the sin tax?

Artists... yes
Musicians... yes
Dancers... yes

Where do we put the sin tax money? I say nurturing seven generations of artists, musicians and dancers... paying for direct lifelong art education... public art and performance... art supplies and support services... problem solving... sounds like the Pollock/Krasner foundation...

The Pollock-Krasner Foundation’s mission is to aid, internationally, those individuals who have worked as artists over a significant period of time. The Foundation’s dual criteria for grants are recognizable artistic merit and financial need, whether professional, personal or both.

History of the Grant Program

The Foundation is pleased to report that since its inception in 1985, it has awarded 2,747 grants totaling over 40 million dollars to artists in 66 countries.

That is my suggestion.

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But how would you divide $20 million a year for 10 years and perhaps more important who would you have divide the $20 million up for the arts. How much goes to all the struggling arts organizations that create those 4,000 jobs and $1.3 billion - the foundations and CEOs can't do it alone anymore - like the Beck Center, Play House, Cleveland Orchestra, Red Orchestra, Cleveland Opera, Dancing Wheels, Access the the Arts, Music Settlement, Playhouse Square, Ideacenter, Sparx in the City, Groundworks, Cleveland Institute of Art, MoCA, Film Commission, CPAC, 1300, *, Cleveland Public Art, School for the Arts, Cleveland Public Schools, East Cleveland schools, Westlake Schools, Lakewood schools, other city schools, each city's little theaters, church art galleries and education programs, all denominations, other galleries, experimental theaters, artists themselves... film, dance, music, painters... how do you decide who gets what? That isn't theoretical but must be determined - ideally before asking sinners to pay for it, unless the belief is that there aren't many smoking voters so they don't need to sell the tax to anyone. But for what, decided by whom?

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