Always one of the most important arts events of each year, in NEO, the Cleveland Institute of Art Student Independent Exhibition (now in its 61st year) proves, as promoted, "Tradition doesn’t always have to be stodgy". Far from stodgy - this show is always exciting, in your face, over the top, fun and inspiring. It is also one of the best places in the world to see what art and artists are influencing this region now and will continue to change the world throughout our lives.

Dana Schutz, Relic, 2006
30 x 22 inches, #28 of 100

While chatting with my parents the other day, my dad mentioned they had just bought the above print by globally-hot NEO/CIA trained artist Dana Schutz, who blew the NEO art scene wide open this Fall with her fantastic exhibition of paintings that drew international acclaim and such massive crowds the MOCA gift shop sold out of everything on hand... here's a write up about this print from a Dana Schutz fan in Houston, and gushing praise about the show and MOCA from a visiting arts champion from Detroit (who I quote, about MoCA/Cleveland: "For me MOCA in Cleveland was bittersweet.  It was great to see that places like Detroit can build up and become something and even support young artists.  It is hope that Detroit ,too can have a contemporary.  But it was also a sad reality check that we are a city lacking a fertile art environment.  Let's hope that the talks of Detroit getting a contemporary will actually go somewhere.  Maybe we can kidnap some of the city planners from Cleveland????"). I hadn't heard anything about this important print (or any Schutz prints on the market), which my parents said Dana donated to MoCA to raise funds for them, so I asked my parents how they had heard about it and they said they believed they read about it in the international arts magazine ArtNews - not anywhere in NEO. They sought it out - bought it - and MoCA made money. There are more for sale... more money to be made for MoCA (at $2,200 a piece, making good money for MoCA)... more great arts investments to be made by arts patrons, here or elsewhere.

This in today from Cleveland Tech Czar Michael DeAloia and CIA Future Center Director David Moss... their personal invitations to all to join them at Future Center for a reception for artist Guy-Vincent Ricketti's Identity Remix... read on... hope to see you there.

Now Showing : Indentity Remix

Stop into FUTURE Gallery and experience the work of Guy-Vincent Ricketti and the thought-provoking Identity Remix.

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MVRDV several years back produced a book titled Regionmaker.  The book was brought to my attention via Bill Scheele who presented during some of the very first colloquia at REI Tuesdays.  Bill initially saw the book at a book store on the West Coast, and purchased it because of the book’s unique use of dual languages (Dutch on the left page, English on the right hand page) and the use of binding the book together with different colored pages ( to distinguish the different chapters)  When I read through the book I told Ed Morrison that Regionmaker included a  thesis  confirming (with mathematical precision) Mr. Morrison’s “Quality Connected Spaces” economic stimulation philosophy.   Bill’s  newCAT  (interesting that MVRDV was under discussion in 2004 at REI, while it just hit the radar with CIA in 2007) was itself an effort to improve the local technology economy through expertise in digital art.   But back to MVRDV - if MVRDV designs their CIA University Circle job with the same high level of  innovation with which they designed their Regionmaker book - then we will have unique and stimulating architecture here in Cleveland.

Photo: Max Pucciariello

MOMIX is returning to Cleveland to perform their newest magical multimedia piece Lunar Sea. The astoundingly creative mind of Moses Pendleton triumphs again with this exploration of the Lunar Sea and the other worldly creatures that inhabit.

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Here is the first video dance I've seen packaged up with promo sponsor ads at the beginning and on the player - so, if this funds good content, is that bad? We'll see this tested more and more every day... for now, see what you think of what the sponsors like...

In what represents significant progress with a very positive trend, the Cleveland Institute of Art has announced their selection of one of the world's most respected hip young architecture firms, MVRDV, to design the new campus for CIA. Based out of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, the new CIA design will be MVRDV's first work in North America. Add this to the selection by MOCA of Foreign Office Architects of London, for their new museum and we have two of the hot creative properties in the world focusing their best efforts on two of NEO's most important institutions and design projects, both located within strolling distance in the University Circle redevelopment area called "The Triangle." 

Help us identify qualified candidates for the Cleveland Arts Prize winners for 2007!

Nominations are open!  Go to our website and nominate the person you think best for the Prize!

January 26-28 featuring “Major to Minor” and “The Music Room” by Artistic Director David Shimotakahara and “New Work Premiere” by Amy Miller.                                        

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Three articles in the Sunday, January 14, 2007, Cleveland Plain Dealer really caught my attention. 1. "Power shifts, and a fast-track bill is derailed"; 2. "Gloomy forecast" and 3. "Lost confidence in Bush? So has he"  - especially the last one, where Elizabeth Auster writes, about President Bush, that "he now seems shaken by the prospect that his vision of a free and stable Iraq may be fading along with his power to achieve much else." Because of this, despite "Gloomy forecast", I expect most important aspects of the Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, Ohio, US and global economy to improve dramatically over the next 2, 4 and 10 years. In fact, I can't think of an area where there won't be significant improvements. Think of the growth I expect like when an economy is freed from a dictatorship and people are allowed to be free and thrive - markets open up - that is America, now that Bush has been replaced by democracy.

University Circle Celebrates MLK Day - JANUARY 14 & JANUARY 15
Celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in University Circle. On Sunday, January 14, and Monday, January 15, many University Circle institutions will offer free or discounted admission and special programming for visitors. UCI will provide free shuttle buses on January 15.

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Since late June, 2006, a growing team of innovative community leaders has been working together with Lamond Williams, the owner of Hot Sauce Williams BBQ, and East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer and Community Development Director Tim Goler, and government leadership in Cleveland, to determine how best to redevelop the historic Hough Bakery Complex, formerly the Star Bakery, which Lamond also owns. The objective is to use that redevelopment as a catalyst for transformation of the neighborhoods surrounding that significant property, located on Lakeview, partially in both Cleveland and East Cleveland. On the map above, the Star Complex is in magenta, and the green circle marks a 1/2 mile radius surrounding that - the other colored areas are key neighborhoods and assets within that radius.

I met a few days ago with Ed Hauser - the "Citizen Hauser" who single-handedly saved Whiskey Island for the public - to see what he's been up to for the past few months. In brief, besides helping save Northeast Ohio from ODOT and their foolish pursuit of their ill-conceived Innerbelt Bridge and Trench plans, and continuing to single-handedly challenge the Port Authority's ongoing attempts to destroy Whiskey Island, Ed is taking next steps in his one man, multi-year battle to save the remarkable National Historic Landmark Coast Guard Station, at the tip of Whiskey Island, at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, designed by J. Milton Dyer, also architect of Cleveland City Hall. Ed mentioned to me he in the process of pressuring the city of Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi to seek a court order to force the city to comply with its own landmarks-preservation law, which requires owners of city landmarks to keep the properties secure and water tight, and, if the city fails to act responsibly and lawfully, Ed intends to file a citizens lawsuit against the city. Today, the Plain Dealer picked up the scent of the story, and shared some of the sad commentary of some of those related to the sorry state of this landmark, and the declining historic integrity of this city.

Tonight, 1300 Gallery wrapped up five years of transforming the visual arts scene in Northeast Ohio, with a classic showing of hallmark works of passionate visual expressionists Derek Hess and Bask, ending an era of hosting some of the coolest exhibitions and parties in Cleveland history, and doing that just right.

Zygote Press, Inc. is Northeast Ohio's only non-profit cooperative fine-arts printmaking facility. In its tenth year, Zygote is located with other arts organizations and businesses in Cleveland's Quadrangle neighborhood, a developing arts district complete with galleries, restaurants and exciting new live-work possibilities for artists and other members of the creative community.

It is always a pleasure and privilege to see the Cleveland Orchestra perform at Severance Hall, but their presentation of Gustav Holst's "The Planets" was unique and special. This is a great creative set of compositions, being composed in 1914-1916 as highly expressive, at times avant-garde voyages to each of the planets known at the time, long before man had physically probed space, and no man has probed space more aptly than did Holst. And, I doubt any men and women could probe the complexities of these compositions more ably than does the Cleveland Orchestra.

One of NEO's most striking and fascinating galleries, Convivium33, is featuring, as its first anniversary showing, Evolution 1964-2006, an exciting retrospective of the work of globally appreciated mixed-media artist and Case University art professor Christopher Pekoc, curated and catalogued by prolific author and Case art history professor Henry Adams, delivering an inspiring and intriguing experience for all visitors. From Professor Adams' writings about the show: “There’s something dark, tough and roughly textured about Pekoc’s work that captures the creative essence of Cleveland”... “His imagery is both repressed and intensely sensual.” I like those thoughts about Pekoc and Cleveland and this show very much.

1st Anniversary Exhibition - Convivium33 Gallery at Josaphat Arts Hall in cooperation with the Bonfoey Gallery presents: CHRISTOPHER PEKOC- EVOLUTION 1964-2006

Christopher Pekoc, whose mural Night Sky in the main hall of the downtown Public Library is a Cleveland landmark, will be staging a major retrospective [that charts the technical and expressive evolution of his work over the last four decades and that highlights the ways in which photography has remained a constant creative stimulus for his work.] The exhibition, at Convivium33 Gallery in Cleveland will feature over 40 years of work as well as major pieces that have not been seen in decades, such as his grand-scale Kent (State) Triptych, based on his eyewitness experience of the shooting of unarmed student protesters by the National Guard in 1970.

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John Jackson  Works and Processes Opening Friday, Nov 3rd 6-9 p.m.   Zygote Press Gallery 1410 East 30th St. Cleveland OH 44114

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While I still “live” in NEO, I now largely work in Toronto, and post most of my insight from there. I believe such global insight sharing offers unique perspectives to NEO not otherwise available and encourage more cross-boundary insight trade. As someone long associated with the Northeast Ohio economy and arts, I can't help but compare what I experience in Toronto (and Canada) with my experiences in Cleveland (and the USA), and I feel lessons learned far and wide, like in Toronto, will help NEO develop a stronger new economy at home. For those far and wide, I encourage you to post your observations here!

Two weeks ago saw the second birthday of REALNEO. I started REALNEO in October, 2004, to provide “Regional Economic Action Links for North East Ohio” and implement for the region some exciting open source social networking technology. While the outcomes have not been entirely what I expected, and these years have in ways been rough, I've been thrilled to help drive and support some great developments in the community.

The Plain Dealer published early details for a wonderful vision that has been developed by the Beck Board of Directors, with the City of Lakewood and the Lakewood schools, that will offer all of NEO a wonderful arts and learning asset for the future. "The Beck Center for the Arts will stay in Lakewood and form a partnership with city schools to create an arts-education academy that would anchor a possible cultural district in Lakewood's west end." "Other potential partners could include colleges and businesses." Sounds like a great opportunity for the CIA, and perhaps Kent State, wo have a valuable presence on the West Side!

Please join members of ClevelandBikes, friends and colleague with The Cleveland Orchestra on a silent ride in memory of Orchestra member Charles Barr, killed in a cycling accident on August 11th.  The ride is scheduled for Sunday October 22nd at 2:00 pm.

A silent ride is a low-speed group ride in memory of cyclists injured or killed while riding. The ride is intended to create opportunities for communities to spend their time and thoughts in a shared activity, winding through University Circle and past Severance Hall, the home of The Cleveland Orchestra. The ride (excluding the registration and safe riding instructions) will take approximately 30 minutes. Unfortunately, unaccompanied minors, or those under age thirteen, will not be able to participate in the ride. The ride proceeds regardless of weather.