At the E4S awards party, transportation sustainability champion Jim Sheehan stressed that Ohio City Cycles has lots of great gift for the holidays - from recycled bikes to cool eco-cycle art objects and other great stuff so after you shop local and organic at Champion Basketeria, at the West Side Market, swing by Ohio City Cycles for all your other holiday shopping... if you see a solar and biofuel powered van parked out front, that's probably the other transportation champion, Matthew Harris - great people!

The Cleveland Botanical Garden Flower Show returns to University Circle on May 27 - 30, 2005. This show is the largest outdoor flower show in North America.



Cleveland Botanical Garden is the country's first urban garden center.

Student Holiday Art Sale December 3rd, 6-9pm; December 4th, 10am-9pm; December 5th, 1-5pm, Gund Bldg., Room 111, 11141 East Blvd

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Thursday, November 18th at 7pm - STELARC is
an Australian-based performance artist whose work explores and extends
the concept of the body and its relationship with technology through
human-machine interface incorporating medical imaging, prosthetics,
robotics, VR systems and the Internet. The interest is in alternative,
intimate and involuntary experiences, Ohio Bell Auditorium. More info
at www.stelarc.va.com.au/. See image.

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The First Annual Cleveland Institute of Art Design Summit
FREE AND OPEN TO
THE PUBLIC

What I Learned From School

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Rarely have I been as overwhelmed by the visual impact and
intellectual excellence of an art exhibit as I am with the current photography
show at Reinberger Galleries, Cleveland Institute of Art: Shimon Attie: The History of Another: Projections
in Rome from November 10 through December
23, 2004.

Mel Chin's presence at the CIA
"Aesthetics and Consumer Culture" symposium showed art and artist at
their very best, inspiring attendees to make Cleveland a more
valuable community...help save the world. Some concepts he presented from his work that we should embrace in our community include:

1. Use art to give all Clevelanders a voice throughout the community
   and beyond
2. Create collaborations of art, science and technology for
   environmental good
3. Realize our poverty is a Weapon of Mass Destruction and use art to
   go to war against that
4. Add more cultures to our "Cultural Gardens" and interconnect them all with all our people

Transcending the artfulness of the event was the reality of art as social activism, which
inspires a more intelligent vision of the human role in Earth's future, being for global benefit. Chin’s impact
is that important - as is the realization everyone here may be as impactful. Read on and learn from the best of art...

Art and creative industies represent $ billions in economic activity in Northeast Ohio, and the CIA is the greatest fuel we have for that wealth engine. Not only does the CIA provide the region with great creators - fine, design, graphic and craft artists and entrepreneurs - but CIA brings to town monumental art and events that generate cash for our economy. Most important, CIA is developing programs that raise awareness of social issues essential to improving the quality of life and prosperity of all our residents. Read and contribute insight gained from experiencing CIA enlightenment here.

People who complain there aren't leaders in Northeast Ohio fighting each day to improve our economy and quality of life are themselves ignorant and to blame for the problems in this community. Innumerable exceptional, dedicated, capable and effective leaders fight day in and out to improve everyone's lives here, every day - it is the people who do not participate actively in this process who are our region's "quiet crisis"?. Each day we have opportunities to be solutions - visit the REALNEO calendar frequently to get up to speed and learn where, when and how to make differences in the future of this community, participate in forums on-line, find and share insight with our community leaders, and take personal responsibility, now.

For the past several years, one of the hottest topics in NEO economic development circles has been the value and future potential of our "creative class" - Cleveland State recently estimated Playhouse Square's contribution to the economy at $43 million per year, and CPAC finds just arts and culture creates $1.3 billion a year in econopmic activity in Cuyahoga County alone - but creative class guru Richard Florida only ranks our creative class at 30th out of the 49 largest regions in America, and all local economic development thinkers think we have lots more value to capture. REI Director Ed Morrison projects that "Creative" industries are in fact our next "Steel", and he and other creative leaders here are doing lots about forging more value in this sector of the new economy, including hosting a session at REI November 9 about harnessing more of its horsepower. Here are my notes from the session:

Building a creative industry base in Northeast Ohio requires us to think in new ways. We're lucky, in that a number of other regions -- mostly in the U.K, Australia, and New Zealand -- have been moving in this direction.

11/06/04: 12-12:30 PM
Katia
Almeida-Tracy, Case Western Reserve University
Shipibo
Designs: Hybridism and Commodification in the
Peruvian Amazon

11/06/04 - 11:20 AM - 12 PM
Adrianne
Santina, University of North Texas
Plains
Tipis, Kitsch, and the Fashioning of American
Identity

11/06/04 - 10:30-11:30 AM Presentation by Irene Sunwoo, Architectural Association, London
Object and Icon: The Farnsworth House as Architectural Collectible

We were fortunate to have join us, from London, England, architecture historian Irene Sunwoo, discussing an innovative concept, being a house as an art object desired by collectors and brokered as a collectible - in this case she profiled the controversial Farnsworth House of Mies Van der Rohe, 1946 - 1951, which was sold in 2003 as lot 800 in an auction at Sotheby's, for $7.5 million. The winning bidder was the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois, which will now operate the house, hailed as an architectural masterwork.

INTRODUCTION:
The Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) brought to Cleveland a remarkable
symposium on the Aesthetics and Consumer Culture which explored diverse
historical, sociological and locational aspects of art, in the modern
context of the consumer culture. Topics ranged from the commoditization
of the image of the tipi as Kitsch in Anglo American society, and the impacts of
commercialization on Peruvian Amazonian Shipibo designs, to the delegation of the
Farnsworth House as an architectural collectible, the globalization of
nothing, and the astounding life work to date of the inspirational artist Mel Chin -
bringing to fortunate attendees a breathtaking, mind-expanding
saturation of truly unique, world-class intellectual insight of great
value to our region, as we seek identity and value in the
commercialization of our art and artists.

SYMPOSIUM EVENTS ARE FREE AND
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, EXCEPT FOR CINEMATHEQUE FILMS.

A book of knowledge dedicated to the CIA "Aesthetics and Consumer Culture" symposium, held Thursday evening, November 4; all day Friday, November 5 and Saturday, November 6, Aitken Auditorium, 11141 East Blvd. A symposium on contemporary art, design and culture. Influential international artist Mel Chin
will present the keynote address on Saturday, November 6 at 6pm. A
public reception with the speakers will be held 4-6pm on November 6. George Ritzer of the University of Maryland is a featured speaker on Friday, November 5 at 7pm. See the schedule. Media page.

Sponsored by the Liberal Arts Dept. For more info contact Dr. Rita Goodman (rgoodman [at] gate [dot] cia [dot] edu) or Ms. Lane Cooper (lane_cooper [at] hotmail [dot] com).

November 5, 2002 from 7 - 8 PM: Session 2 - Featured Speaker

As part of this exciting event, the CIA brought renowned writer and social theorist George Ritzer to speak about "Art,
McDonaldization and the Globalization of
Society". I had the pleasure to attend, and share the following observations about how his presentation fits our interest of nurturing regional economic development.

Let's beat Artsopolis (and Silicon Valley) and save NEO artists money. The following article plugs an arts portal in Silicon Valley that they claim is getting the attention of lots of other arts organizations around the country. I do use Artsopolis when in SF and the protal is good, but it is no better than we can do here - and we need this capability to promote one of our greatest regional assets... the arts!!!

I received an email today from area economic development leader Kevin Cronin that should be of interest of content creators interested to commercialize books, music and images. Nice service - don't know if it is cost competitive... and wonder, can't folks in publishing here compete with this, as self-publishing will continue to be a growing business (some folks will always want dead trees to read ;-)

In the words of Northeast Ohio Arts Educator of the Year Mary Beth Matthews:

As a little P.S. to all of Cleveland's chronic complainers who like to whine and say,

"Nothing ever gets done in this city"
"People have no vision here"
"Clevelanders don't know how to work together"
"It's all just a lot of talk"
"New ideas don't stand a chance."
"The Cleveland Schools suck."

At Max Hayes, we refused to get caught up in all of that negativity...We're makin' it happen...Ha!

Ha is right - it has just been announced Mary Beth and her students will install a major public arts project at the Soap Box Track, right down from her school,

<>Event:  OAC Grant
Program Workshop Individual Artists

Date:  11/6/2004 -
11/6/2004

Location

Regional leadership has shown conceptual support  to figure out how Northeast Ohio artists may use optimal information technology to enhance their abilities to survive and thrive - live doing what they love. for this desire, and money is being invested to help artists grow an industry around their activities, but the results are not yet optimal.

Cleveland artists and arts organizer Susie Frazier Mueller published an Op/Ed in the 10/24/04 Cleveland Plain Dealer on the importance of artists as entrepreneurs in Northeast Ohio, which makes important points to consder for deveoping the local economy.

"Community
of Minds," Regional Business
& Technology Networking Event, Wednesday, 11-17-04,
5:30PM - 8:00PM, George Dively Building, Case.
Be alert! Listen and exchange insights with speaker Len Steinbach, CIO, The
Cleveland Museum of Art. CMA connects culture, community with
telecommunications technology bridging the gap between business, exhibition, the
internet and new media technologies. Videos & display interactives. Join
us. Meet cool thought leaders in University Circle & learn about changes
affecting technology and business. Co-sponsored by Thompson Hine and
REI. This event is free but you must register online
in order to attend at: http://www.communityofminds.com/LogIn.asp?NextPage=registration.asp?EventID=86.

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