The opening reception for the Biser Collection is Saturday Nov. 1st from 5pm – 9pm and runs through Nov. 15th.

Biser compliments his photos with his selection of poems, military creeds, etc. The result is a personal collection that is truly powerful and touching. We are honoring Veteran's Day with this presentation.

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I am taking a point of personal privilege by linking to my daughter's presentation of how she does her art work. She has been suffering from acute back pain and this afternoon she will undergo her third back operation. I think it is a testimony to her courage and creativity that she spent the day before putting together this short film of how she works. I want to share it.

Museum Exhibition Showcases Works of Nature Artist, Former Director

5 Rings Gallery & Winery will show Biser's collection from Friday September 12th through Saturday October 25th. The show opens with a reception 9/12 from 5:00 - 9:00pm. The artist will be on hand to answer questions about his work. Join us for our hand-crafted wines and complimentary appetizers at the opening. The show runs til 10/25/08.

The Coit Road Farmers Market is one of the most endearing places in real NEO. Hidden away in a near-dead industrial graveyard of East Cleveland, with the curb-appeal of a brownfield, it is not a place one goes without intent. So it amazes me that just about every time I go there I see someone I know. I guess I know some pretty smart people.

ATTENTION ARTISTS!!

ArtSpace-Cleveland*, along with other artists, is forming a group to explore ownership of an affordable live/work studio in the city of Cleveland.

Are you interested?

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Work at To Masumi exhibiton featuring sunflower seeds

"Read More" public art in the Cleveland Flats... perhaps by The Sign Guy

The nearly completed Richard Fleischman addition to the Putnam Collection, in University Circle, Cleveland, Ohio - photos by Evelyn Kiefer - Logo by Norm Roulet - 07/17/08

I was thrilled to receive news today that one of my favorite NEO artists, Pamela Dodds, a REALNEO artist of the Day, has been awarded a $25,000 Individual Support Grant from the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation. The Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation was established by American artist Adolph Gottlieb (1903-1974) and his wife Esther.  The foundation provides large grants to ‘serious, fully-committed artists,' ‘regardless of their level of commercial success.'  This year the foundation received 482 applications from which twelve artists were selected to receive awards. I'm proud to say Evelyn and I have one of Pamela's inspiring and impressive linoleum cut prints in our collection... "Drift", above... perhaps it is time for more area collectors to seek out her work... website here!

When people wonder what is the value of a local daily newspaper, I must point to the story of Shaw High School Band, which was invited to China to perform but could not afford to do that. The Plain Dealer article "Bang a Drum, Proudly", by Connie Schulz, raised enough attention and funding to get them there, from where they just returned in triumph (nicely covered in the PD here, today)... a $500,000 whirlwind phenomenon all occurring in less than 6 months!

I love art, and much in the Cleveland Museum's collection, and the old and newish CMA, but I am not convinced the current reengineering of the museum is economically positive for the region, and I am very displeased with their new slogan "art is back" as shallow and disrespectful to the real NEO arts community, which has never left. The museum needs to better explore its identity and role here, as so many arts organizations, our population and economy transition, and the CMA takes a proportionately larger share of the arts funding pie. If CMA is spending $100s millions constructing new edifices for old mold and cobwebs, I will be very disappointed. I'm waiting to see Rub put his shine on anything, other than proclaiming art is back in a place it never left. What do you think... did art leave?

The Gallery: Studio of 5 Rings will exhibit original abstract oil paintings from Elyria artist, Don Cox.  The show will open Friday August 1, 2008, and it will run through Saturday September 6, 2008.  The show will have an opening reception Friday 8/1/08 from 5:00pm - 9:00pm.  Don cox will be on hand to answer questions at the opening reception. 

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James Levin (seated) with the Brew Crew at Carnegie Hall - photo by Sandy Kish

To follow the jobs loss data, cited in item below, here’s a quick update on a couple of our onerous Cuyahoga County regressive taxes and what  they cost us monthly.

For your May payments, citizens & taxpayers, to support the Browns Stadium, used nearly exclusively (what 9 or 10 days a year) by the billionaire Lerner family, we paid $5,544,424 in May alone. Since switching the stadium "sin" taxes for the baseball field to the football field in August, 2005, we’ve paid a whopping $39,249,696. Always nice to help billionaires. The Lerner family pays a measily $250,000 in annual  rent and the city pays its insurance bill of some $125,000.

I was saddened to learn today that the excellent Northeast Ohio painter - a Cleveland Institute of Art graduate and productive artist - Scott Miller passed away, this weekend. I'm sure detals will follow here and in other arts media. My mother taught Scott at CIA and remembers him as a great talent, who lived life his own way. Scott just had a powerful show of recent work at Gray's Auctioneers Gallery, in December 2007, at which I shot these photos of Scott and his work - I'll post more later.

You can visit the Pangea Day website here

Or, for details of the May 10 event visit Cat Strat's web site at
http://cat-strat.com/10May2008.html

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Cigarette smokers should be burned up.

The following figures tell why smokers should be fuming. Cuyahoga County smokers have been taxed for the following reasons and amounts since 1990:

"It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic,

Dance that will engage the visual arts community and the new music community.

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