I have a feeling I know who wrote this post at Cleveland Public Library, but I won't out that person. It's so true. If you are feeling out of sorts at this time of year, try POETRY.

 Benin Bronze, Head of an Oba, Cleveland Museum of Art

You may have noticed a group of golden brown rectangular stones swelling out of the ground in the Euclid Avenue median across from Severance Hall. I don't have a good photo yet, but I will post one soon. The work is by Murase Associates http://www.murase.com/flash/index.html founded by Robert Murase (1938-2005) a Japanese American landscape architect.

Stonehill Auditorium, The Mandel Jewish Community Center of Cleveland
26001 South Woodland Rd, Beachwood OH 44122

Tickets $15
To purchase:
Visit The Mandel JCC
Call (866) 546-1358
Order on-line at www.clevejcc.org.
(Transaction fees will be added to phone and online orders.)

Museum Exhibition Showcases Works of Nature Artist, Former Director

AlfredoArreguin: Universal Patterns

You don't need to know anything about an artist, his inspiration or the construction of his art to love it.

Cleveland’s
largest and most comprehensive exhibition of fine prints, begins
Friday, September 26, 2008 with an opening night benefit preview and
continues Saturday, September 27 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Sunday,
September 28 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Cuyahoga Community College’s
Corporate College located at 4400 Richmond Road in Warrensville Heights

Location

New WorksRiver Gallery

19046 Old Detroit Rd.

Rocky River, Oh 44116

440 331 8406

Location

Weapons of Mass Construction "Paradigm Shift" group show @ Vision Art Gallery. Opening reception Friday, Sept. 12th from 6pm-10pm

Keith Marlowe, Amy Casey, Arabella Proffer, Sean Burns, Bob Peck, Donald Black jr., Many more.

Vision Art Gallery
410 E.156th Street, Collinwood, OH 44110
www.visgall.com

Location

Bread and Puppet Theater here at Coventry Schoolyard during their last visit to Cleveland.

Location

I noticed that the film industry now wants some significant subsidies to locate film work in Cleveland and that Gov. Ted Strickland’s administration wants to accommodate these desires.

(By the way, the County Arts & Culture tax has produced $12.7 million this year and $29.8 million since Feb. 2007. Shouldn’t there be enough there for any real film needs?)

If an apple a day keps the doctor away, what is the economic value to Northeast Ohio of bringing fresh, local fruits and vegetables to poor, unhealthy, underserved inner city places like The Star Neig

Location

I've used the Cleveland Heights library on Lee Road since the 1970s, and can say with confidence the recent Studio Techne reinvention of this facility transformed the space, site, and surrounding neighborhood for the better. Featuring a dramatic, high-art bridge over Lee Road, and two reused buildings - one signficantly modernized - with crisp, fitting site improvements, this is one of the best library facilities and urban redevelopments in Northeast Ohio.

Huge props to the many artists, MCs, DJs, bboys-and-girls, organizers and 100s of real NEOans who turned out for the 7th annual City Xpressions Street Art Festival, August 23, 2008, at West 25th and Lorain, Cleveland. A perfect summer day - great happy crowd - creative vibe and entertainment - and some spectacular urban art. While there weren't as many artists as the last year I attended, what showed was diverse and often pure genius.

August 23, 2008, was the City Xpressions 2008 arts and culture festival, at W. 25th Street and Lorain... one of my favorite annual events in the region... more photos to come!

Harry Bell is a powerful urban artist, well appreciated in Cleveland and beyond. His most famous work I know is the Wall of Sorrows, recently dismantled, under controversy, and now in storage... scheduled for future re-installation. You may know his current work from cruising through Cedar and E.55th, where he is commissioned by a gas station and car dealership to create urban art on their walls, now including the work-in-progress shown above... a memorial tribute to "Houghs Angel", Fannie Lewis, rest in peace.

Thanks to Sudhir, I had the opportunity to check out the Flobots at Peabody's, Sunday night. If I'd browsed the Cleveland Scene Magazine concert preview, beforehand, I probably wouldn't have bothered going. The 100s of fans who enjoyed the show agreed that would have been a mistake.

Give yourself a thoughtful, beautiful, stimulating, uniquely American gift.  Visit the Westmoreland Museum in Greenburg, PA to see Painting in the United States: 1943-1949.  The exhibit runs Sunday, June 29, 2008-Sunday, October 19, 2008.