Link Spring 2023: 50 sparkling years

50 sparkling years

Glass program inspires passion, innovation, community and teamwork

By Karen Sandstrom

Call it kismet or even a series of fortunate events, but the origin story of Cleveland Institute of Art’s Glass program practically glistens with a sense of the inevitable.

It was 1971, and artist Dale Chihuly had just cofounded the Pilchuk Glass School in Stanwood, Washington. To gin up business, he invited members of the Union of Independent Colleges of Art to send two students to Pilchuk for a summer workshop.

Joseph Zeller was chair of CIA’s Ceramics program at the time. CIA had no Glass department then, but Zeller did have two ambitious and energetic Ceramics students:

Christine Federighi ’72, and William Carlson ’73. At Pilchuk that summer, they were bitten by the glass bug. They called Zeller in the middle of one night with something of a demand.

“They told me that unless there was some kind of glass facility when they came back, they weren’t coming back,” Zeller says.

Without seeking permission from College leadership, Zeller quietly built a small glass furnace in the kiln room in Ceramics. It stayed hidden and dormant during the day. “Unless you were coming in at night, you never knew anything was going on,” Zeller says.

Before long, though, President Joseph McCullough caught wind and asked Zeller what was going on. When Zeller told him about the furnace, McCullough authorized him to turn a three-car garage on CIA’s property in University Circle into a glass studio. To this day, Zeller heaps credit on McCullough for his enthusiastic support.

“Joe was all about offering a full menu of opportunities at CIA,” Zeller says. “But I also think he liked glass. It’s so tactile and mesmerizing.”

McCullough’s support for the department never flagged. “He didn’t quite give us a blank check,” he adds, “but he never said no to a bill that crossed his desk.”

In 1973, the College hired Brent Kee Young, who had just earned his MFA at Alfred University in

New York. From that point until his retirement from CIA in 2014, Young built the curriculum, found students to become new voices in studio glass, and established an undergraduate glass program to take seriously.

Federighi went onto a successful studio career in ceramics and was a professor at the University of Miami in Florida; she died in 2006. Carlson became a sculptor and glassmaker, and led departments at University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign and the University of Miami.

This year, CIA’s Reinberger Gallery will mount the exhibition Risk + Discovery: Glass Innovation at CIA, from April 6 through June 16. The show will include work by Young, who handed department leadership to Marc Petrovic ’91 in 2014; by Benjamin Johnson, current chair of CIA’s Craft + Design Department and academic coordinator of Glass; and by other current and former faculty, technical specialists, alumni and students.

CIA Glass alumni have had their work collected by museums and sold in galleries around the world. They have forged careers in housewares

Spring 2023 News for Alumni and Friends of the Cleveland Institute of Art

CIA faculty member Benjamin Johnson trims the lip of a goblet while sophomore Annie O’Brien, Faculty Emeritus Brent Kee Young and studio manager Zachary Gorell observe his work in CIA’s Glass Studio.

President’s Welcome

Thank you for sharing and spreading the love of the Cleveland Institute of Art! As you may have seen on our social media channels and emails in February, we launched the #ForTheLoveOfCIA initiative, and I can’t express how happy it made me to read and watch the 200+ comments and video posts, and learn why you love CIA too! Key themes we heard were community, creativity and the passion for our students. This outpouring of love was also accompanied by a giving challenge, and I thank all of our new donors for your support.

But, sometimes you have to fight for the things you love. I recently returned from a lobbying trip in Washington, D.C. to advocate to Congress

for a number of bipartisan issues, including the importance of financial aid and doubling the Pell grant; the impact of the creative economy; and the value of higher education—especially in private, nonprofit institutions like CIA.

We know that a college education brings greater long-term monetary gains, but it also has been shown to improve health and well-being, increase civic engagement, and close equity and attainment gaps. Together, we continue to stand for building an inclusive system of higher education that supports upward mobility.

We know that many of our students wouldn’t have access to an education at CIA without the support of federal Pell grants, and we also know that the arts-and-design sector makes significant contributions to our economy. We are especially proud that CIA graduates are not only thriving in their careers, but also making an impact on their communities.

Here’s What’s Going On!

Risk + Discovery

Fifty years after the program’s humble beginnings, Risk + Discovery: Glass Innovation at CIA will celebrate glass in all its forms. Opens April 6 in Reinberger Gallery. cia.edu/exhibitions

2023 Spring Show

Celebrate with us as CIA unveils some of the best work created by students of all levels working across all majors. On view April 25–28; Runway Show on April 25. cia.edu/events

Lunch on Fridays

Learn about the latest in art and design during Lunch on Fridays. Remaining Spring 2023 semester lectures are scheduled for March 24, April 7 and April 21. cia.edu/lof

2023 BFA Exhibition

Every year, CIA seniors pour themselves into their capstone projects. Get a closer look at their work by attending this year’s BFA Celebration + Exhibition May 12–13. cia.edu/events

Speaking of having an impact, I was moved by the body of work in In Our Skin, the inaugural Black History Month exhibition by CIA’s Black Scholars and Artists student club. It was an important and empowering moment for the participating students—and a few recent alumni— to come together and showcase their talents. I was particularly inspired by Drawing sophomore Jazzee Rozier’s remarks during the opening reception in the Alan Lipson Gallery. The sense of belonging at CIA she said emerged through In Our Skin was uplifting—and something I hope all our students experience in ways meaningful to them during their time here.

Warmly,

Kathryn J. Heidemann President + CEO

Presidential Listening Tour

President + CEO Kathryn J. Heidemann will host several events this spring and summer to connect with CIA alumni. Watch your inbox for additional information. She hopes to see you there!

• March 12: New York City

• March 16: Cincinnati

• April 12: Chicago

• June 8: Detroit

Questions about attending can be sent to alumni@cia.edu

Faculty designs symbolic CIA chain of office

By Jordan Berkovitz

When Kathryn J. Heidemann was named President + CEO of the Cleveland Institute of Art, Board chair Cynthia Prior Gascoigne charged Craft + Design faculty member Matthew Hollern with a dazzling task: “We’re going to need some new bling.”

The bling in question was a chain of office, a symbolism-rich ceremonial adornment often worn by top collegiate and civic officials.

“As a symbolic object, the chain of office represents the essential elements of a college, and creates a unified whole for the president to wear, and for all to see,” says Hollern, professor and academic coordinator for the Jewelry + Metals concentration within Craft + Design.

The chain of office is a relatively new tradition at CIA. It was inspired by Board member Michael Schwartz, who served as president at both Kent State University and Cleveland State University and would attend CIA ceremonies in full regalia, including two presidential medals.

The first CIA chain of office was presented to President Emeritus Grafton Nunes in 2018, during his tenure as President + CEO. Heidemann received hers during her investiture ceremony on September 23, 2022.

What went into Heidemann’s chain of office? “The process starts with a good conversation about the College and the recipient. This is essential because empathy is the first component of design thinking,” Hollern says.

“Research and initial concepts help shape a design brief with concepts and parameters. A familiar process of design then opens up to sketches and renderings, which leads to the next conversation,” he continues. “Iteration affords design experimentation, variations and prototypes, along with aesthetic considerations. Material language is essential to designers and makers, and each material is considered for physical, aesthetic and symbolic value.”

Meetings with Gascoigne determined final design elements. Ultimately, the chain—made from sterling silver, bronze, enamel, and lab-grown ruby cabochons—was created through 3D modeling and 3D printing, lost wax casting, fabrication, stone setting, enameling and hand-finishing.

Hollern describes every element of Heidemann’s chain of office as significant. The palette of bronze, oranges and reds was one of the more important considerations. The center medallion design refers to the pediment window on the north façade of the original Joseph McCullough Center for the Visual Arts and features CIA’s logo.

At the other end, the counterweight element features the original name of the school, the Western Reserve School of Design for Women, and 11 keystones symbolic of CIA’s 11 presidents. The chain includes 10 medallions, which represent six academic disciplines and four essential elements of the College: Foundation, Liberal Arts, craft, design, entertainment arts, visual arts, the Jessica R. Gund Memorial Library, the Cinematheque, the Jane B. Nord Center for Teaching + Learning, and Reinberger Gallery. The chain is heavy and hinged at each link, industrial

and refined, representing characteristics of CIA and the city of Cleveland.

One special design component was kept secret by Hollern. In her first post as president on Instagram (@ciaprez), Heidemann shared a photo of herself at age 4 dressed as Wonder Woman and reflected on working with artists and designers and their “superhero powers.” This led to a bronze element fashioned after the headband of Wonder Woman that unites the two wings of the chain at the center medallion.

What sets CIA’s chains of office apart from those at other institutions? Their uniqueness. “Unlike a traditional chain of office made for and held by a college or university, the chains of office at CIA have been offered as unique ceremonial regalia for each of the two most recent presidents,” Hollern says.

President + CEO Kathryn J. Heidemann wears her CIA chain of office while sharing a moment with her son, August, after her investiture ceremony in September. Photo by Amber N. Ford ’16.

Photographer Ford expands career portfolio

By Carlo Wolff

Seven years out of the Cleveland Institute of Art, photographer Amber N. Ford ’16 is enjoying the ride as her career path takes bends and turns she couldn’t have predicted when she graduated.

Best known for portraits so penetrating they become character studies, Ford particularly enjoys photojournalism. But her curiosity and drive have opened up other channels as well— even sound.

Through July 5, Ford is an artist-in-residence at moCa Cleveland. Her audio installation there, Someone, Somewhere, Something, aims to capture expressions of grief in what the museum describes as sound collages.

“Photography will always be my first love, but I’m interested in and open to trying new mediums when the conversation calls for it,” Ford says. “When creating work, I want to move forward with even more intention and go down whatever path makes the most sense.”

Ford grew up in South Euclid, Ohio, where she was turned on to photography by Brush High School teacher Hadley Conner ’88. These days, what she likes to do best is make pictures for national publications: Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian The Post and The Atlantic first reached out to her during the pandemic.

“I hadn’t tried to break into national publications prior to the pandemic, but it was always an interest of mine,” she says.

Ford’s work has been exhibited at Kent State University, Transformer Station, the Morgan Conservatory and Cleveland Print Room, among other venues. Her portraits figured in Missing

History of Massillon: Unheard African-American Stories, on view in summer 2022 at the Massillon Museum. She recently curated work by Amanda D. King, whose photos were featured in an exhibition at the McDonough Museum of Art at Youngstown State University.

Ford credits CIA for nurturing her. “The secret is to position yourself around folks who want to teach you and see you do well,” she says. “Every one of my faculty members wanted to see me succeed. They taught, pushed and supported me since the first day I stepped into that department. I won’t single anyone out because they all played a specific role in my life but I am happy to say

we still keep in touch and they all hold a special place in my heart.”

Photography + Video chair Barry Underwood calls Ford one of his favorite people. “She is so helpful, humble and a laser-focused mover,” he said.

“When you are fresh out of college you think you know what you want to do but that can quickly change when you get the opportunity to do it, and because of that, plans shift,” Ford says. “Am I where I thought I would be? No, but that’s not a bad thing. Sometimes what you get is even better than what you imagined. I am exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

Jergens admired, respected by CIA community

By Michael C. Butz

“Truly inspirational.” “Kind, insightful and present.” “A grand man.” “An influential teacher.” “A beautiful soul.” Cleveland Institute of Art alumni and former colleagues shared these descriptions and many more of faculty emeritus Robert Jergens in the wake of his death on January 29.

Jergens was a 1960 graduate of CIA, and after attending Yale University in New Haven, Conn., and taught at CIA from 1969 to 2000. He was known to many as a demanding and gifted professor. In 2001, he was awarded faculty emeritus status, and in 2002, he became the first person after Viktor Schreckengost to win the Viktor Schreckengost Teaching Excellence Award.

“We were encouraged to experiment and find the inherent beauty of abstract forms, and his students knew to come prepared with the energy to debate through constructive critique,” says Pamela Argentieri ’87, one of Jergens’ former students. “I remember him looking excited as he picked up my over-labored drawing and ran it under water, allowing the colors to bleed and run together. He opened my eyes to what a serious artist is. I still have the letter I received from him welcoming me to CIA”

Craft + Design professor Matthew Hollern joined CIA in 1989, which is when he met Jergens. “He taught in the Foundation Design room next door to the Metals Department in the former Gund building on East Boulevard. We were colleagues for the rest of his tenure, and friends long after his retirement.

“Robert was a very important member of the faculty, particularly for his leadership of the Foundation Design faculty,” says Hollern. “Robert was a quiet leader, chair of Foundation for a period of time, and served as a role model and mentor to many faculty. His teaching was legendary, surprising, creative, thoughtprovoking. He taught students to see differently, and to think divergently.”

Jergens’ impact was felt long after he left CIA. From 1998 through 2017, he set up the Robert Jergens ’60 Scholarship for Excellence in Foundation Design for students who were pursuing Craft majors.

Hollern recalls Jergens approaching him about creating the scholarship during a Faculty Exhibition opening reception.

“Each year after, we invited Robert to attend our scholarship review process where we would select five winners, one for each major (Ceramics, Enamel, Fiber, Glass, Metals),” Hollern says.

“Robert always deeply enjoyed the review, and lunch together with his colleagues in the Craft disciplines: Brent Kee Young, Judith Solomon, Bill Brouillard, Tina Cassara, Deborah Carlson, Kathy Buszkiewicz, Gretchen Goss and myself.

“Robert was always excited to see the young artists’ works, and loved to see the most innovative and ambitious works rewarded,” he continues. “He was exceptional, kind and remarkably generous. His scholarships were essential to scores of excellent students, and exceeded $300,000 over the decades.”

In his personal artistic practice, Jergens explored complex relationships between abstract composition and observed reality, with a particular concern for the way the mind processes optical data.

In 2016, he was presented with one of CIA’s top honors: the prestigious CIA Medal of Excellence for artistic achievement. “As an artist, Robert was always innovative, making work that was new and unfamiliar, edgy and quirky,” Hollern says.

Amber N. Ford ’16 speaks during moCa Cleveland’s Winter/Spring 2023 Opening Night Celebration, which included her exhibition— Someone, Somewhere, Something—on January 27. Photo by The Dark Room Co.

Ryan Bodley ’17 chats with Robert Jergens ’60 during the student scholarship reception in 2015.

CIA faculty turn time off into time well spent

By Carlo Wolff

Faculty who want to get the best from their break in teaching can do well to keep a few tips in mind. First, welcome new ideas and environments. Second, apply a strong work ethic so no time is wasted.

So say ceramics artist Seth Nagelberg, associate professor of Craft + Design at CIA, and Barry Underwood, chair of Photography + Video.

Nagelberg took his first sabbatical in Spring 2022 semester. He worked at home, traveled to various art sites and gatherings, familiarized himself with other cities, and taught ceramics as a visiting artist at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. He also took a 3D printing class through CIA Continuing Education and bought a 3D printer for his studio.

In leaving “room for the unknown,” as he put it, Nagelberg’s technological acumen expanded and his viewpoint changed.

“For years, I preferred the man-made— architecture, machines, toys,” he says. “Now I am seeking the connection between nature and mathematics. Crystals, bubbles and branches can all be explained with geometry and numerals. I learned that my practice can inform my practice. Being immersed has allowed me to form connections between the various things I do.”

What advice does he have for CIA alumni considering a sabbatical?

“Make a plan that includes time to get off-track,” Nagelberg says. “Don’t expect that you will have amassed so much work at the end but that you will have ideas to propel you into the future.”

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and automotive work. Graduates have not just survived on glass, they have raised families, run businesses, earned awards and taught new generations.

Nate Cotterman ’07 makes contemporary glass barware, lighting and home decor items. He and his wife, Antonia Campanella ’10, run Nate Cotterman Glass in their home studio in Northeast Ohio. He credits CIA for giving him the problemsolving skills and lots of studio time to hone his craft. “It is truly a privilege to make a living creating work in a material I love,” he says. “It is awesome that I have been able to create a variety of lines of work that speak to my interest in industrial design, and that I can bring to life in glass.”

While none of the CIA artists have achieved household name status like Chihuly, many have enjoyed great success and made an impact in the glass world. “We’re all contributing and have our own identity,” Young says. “I’m proud of that.”

Building a legacy on teamwork

One memorable experience of Young’s tenure was the big move. In 1983, the College moved some departments out of its headquarters on East Boulevard and into “the Factory” on Euclid Avenue. Glass was among them. The whole department had to be moved during holiday break between ’82 and ’83. The task was enormous, but, Young says, “We didn’t think twice about it. And we were hot over there in a matter of a month.”

What got the job done so efficiently was teamwork. Young was purposeful about glassmaking as, in part, a process that took place in community. He assigned projects that required seasoned students to work with newbies. Studio cleaning

Where Nagelberg navigated all things urban, Underwood positioned himself in the natural. He spent his 11th residency during summer 2022 at the Lucid Arts Foundation in Inverness, Calif. During his three weeks there, he made sure to create new work, but he also had time to simply think.

“Being alone on a hillside with a fox, deer and some quail allowed plenty of self-reflection,” says Underwood.

“It is a privilege to be given an environment to work in, a studio to work out of and do prep work, and the time to do the work.”

Underwood pursues residencies in places that highlight nature. The weather and solitude rekindle his empathy for his students.

“Every time I begin a new residency, I think of how this is a similar experience that the students might be going through when they arrive,” he says. “As an artist, you need to keep learning something, be it technical skills or tools, new concepts, or something happening in society.”

Search for residency opportunities in environments you want to experience, he advises. Avoid residencies that charge a fee and don’t expect miraculous transformations.

“Being an artist is a job,” Underwood says. “There are no magical experiences. You go to whatever your studio is and make something.

Art is about “making and trying and failing and trying again and again, along with being open and exposed to various types of culture. Pieces and ideas connect. Then you go to bed, get up the next day, and try it again.”

Now pursuing her MFA at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., Duncan remembers one especially difficult day when she was struggling with emotions. Her parents had left the U.S. to return to Thailand. She told Johnson she didn’t feel well and wanted to leave class.

“We talked about what needed to get done since I wasn’t going to be there. Then he left me alone— except he came back to ask me something,” Duncan says. “I was such a ball of negative emotions that I had to look up to the ceiling to stop myself from crying, so of course Ben noticed something was wrong.”

was done as a group. As part of the school’s Craft Guild, students worked together to organize popular sales of their art. Glass students took (and still take) group field trips.

From such efforts, enduring relationships grew. Michael Mikula ’87 has been a full-time self-employed artist since 1988. Soon after graduation, he was invited to join Young and Mark Sudduth ’83 in their hot shop.

“Brent sought and succeeded at building a sense of community in the Glass Department,” Mikula says. “We took pride in our then-shiny new department, and enjoyed a genuine collegiality with deep friendships that have carried on ever since. A lot of changes have occurred at CIA since 1987, but I still feel at home there.”

That sense of community continues under Johnson, and it helped sustain Duanngamon “Liz” Duncan ’21 as she was learning to be an art student far from her family in Thailand.

Duncan talked. Johnson listened. On that day, “Ben wasn’t only the instructor, and the program wasn’t just a way to get a job,” she says. “It was my community and support system. I saw Ben as a role model, really. He was one of the best parts of my experience as a Glass major.”

These days, Glass continues as part of the Craft + Design department. The reorganization allows students to explore within craft disciplines while still focusing on their chosen medium.

Johnson, who joined CIA in 2018, has many of the same goals for his students that Young had during his tenure.

“I don’t tell students what they should make, how they should be, or what material they should use,” Johnson says. “I just try to get them to develop their own voice, so that they’re expressing themselves in some way with some material, and so that they have a studio practice that they can figure out how to sustain.”

Faculty Emeritus Brent Kee Young instructs CIA sophomore Annie O’Brien on shaping the foot of a goblet he and faculty member Benjamin Johnson worked on.

CIA faculty member Barry Underwood created “Borderline” during his summer residency at the Lucid Arts Foundation in Inverness, Calif. Courtesy of the artist.

Richard Newman ’60 published a book, Throughlines, on his evolution as an artist and his education at CIA, Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. and Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and his teaching and artistic career from 1965–2023.

Rebecca Kaler ’64 had a solo show, Fallout: Rebecca Kaler, Paintings from 2003–2022, at Artists Archives of the Western Reserve in Cleveland.

Charlotte Lees ’65 had work in Arts Beacon of Light at Riffe Gallery in Columbus, Ohio, and will show in the Heights Arts Members Show at the Cleveland Heights, Ohio gallery starting June 16.

Ron Testa ’65 had work in Motion > Blur at Praxis Photo Arts Center in Minneapolis.

William Harper ’67 had jewelry and enamel works enter the collections of The Cleveland Museum of Art; the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Conn.; The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design in Providence; The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock; Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, Calif. and the Swedish Museum in Stockholm. Harper recently gave a presentation at Yale University.

Tom Roese ’71 had 19 drawings added to the permanent collection of the Southern Ohio Museum in Portsmouth, Ohio.

Debrah Butler ’74 had work in the 86th National Midyear Exhibition 2022 at the Butler Institute

of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio; the 46th Annual Art Exhibition at Fairmount Center for the Arts in Russell Township, Ohio; and the 20th Annual Kaleidoscope Juried Exhibition at Summit Art Space in Akron, Ohio.

Larry Garber ’75 had 14 drawings in the alumni art show of Sewickley Academy in Sewickley, Pa.

Nicole Mawby ’75 had two watercolors in the 51st Annual Gates Mills Art Show at Gates Mills Community House in Gates Mills, Ohio.

John Parker ’75 had work in the 2nd Annual Apex Sculpture Walk in Apex, N.C.; The Danville Art Trail 2022 in Danville, Va.; The 16th Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition in North Charleston, S.C.; The 11th Annual Fenton Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition in Fenton, Mich.; The 4th Annual Morros Greenway Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition in Detroit; The 5th Annual Mount Clemens Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition in Mount Clemens, Mich.; and The 5th Annual City of Sandusky Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition in Sandusky, Ohio.

John Jackson ’77* was honored in Against Gravity: Remembering John Jackson at Artists Archives of the Western Reserve in Cleveland.

Petra Soesemann ’77 (Faculty Emeritus) had a piece, “Saturn’s Hexagon” featured on the cover of Constellation, a new book by Harvey Hix to be published by Cloudbank Books and awarded the Vern Rutsala Book Prize. Recent work also appeared in Essential Matter at the College of Wooster Art Museum in Wooster, Ohio.

Have a note to share?

Please submit by April 15 to link@cia.edu for inclusion in the next issue of Link

2023 Alumni Exhibition: Submissions will be accepted from April 1 through May 22. Visit cia.edu/alumni for details.

Gloria Mark ’78 was a guest on Experts on Expert, an extension of Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, where she discussed her book, Attention Span

Babs Reingold ’78 had a solo show, Lost Trees, at Hillsborough Community College Gallery in Tampa, Fla.

Jack Thomas Hamilton ’81 has work in Pencil and Paint through May in the Beeghly Hall Galleries at the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio.

John Hrehov ’81 had work featured by Gallery Victor Armendariz in the 2022 Mid-Summer River North Gallery Walk in Chicago; South Shore Arts’ 79th Annual Salon Show in Munster, Ind.; and in Nocturne and In a Midnight World, both at Artlink Gallery in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Marsha Sweet ’81 had work in CONNECT: Small Prints by Members of The Boston Printmakers at Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, Conn.

Charles Szabla ’81 was included in the juried exhibitions NewNow2022 at Cuyahoga Community College’s Gallery East in Highland Hills, Ohio and Fresh at Summit ArtSpace in Akron, Ohio.

Lucia De Marinis ’84 had work in Mapping Space and Time, an exhibition of works on paper at Preston Square in Ottawa, Canada.

William Moore ’84 had sculptures included in Artexpo in New York; the 2023 Art of Possibilities

Art Show and Sales at the Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute in Minneapolis; the Valentine International Exhibition with Biafarin online and the Diversia 32nd UN Calendar International Group Exhibition with Biafarin and Exhibizone Exhibitions in Toronto.

Rodney Carpenter ’85 had a solo exhibition, New and Different, at the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Libraries in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

Judy Takács ’86 won the first-place prize in the 91st Akron Society of Artists Annual Juried Members Exhibition at Akrona Galleries in Akron, Ohio. A solo show, The Goddess Project: Warriors, will debut at the Ashtabula Arts Center in Ashtabula, Ohio from July 7 to July 29. A painting by Takács was accepted into the 19th Annual FRESH Juried Exhibition at the Summit Artspace in Akron. Work was also included in the Ohio Artist Registry 2023 Juried Exhibition at the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Columbus, Ohio.

Pamela Argentieri ’87 was invited to participate in an exhibition organized by 4BYSIX, a community interest company using creative means to support the disadvantaged and homeless, in London as part of the Break in Emergency series. Artists transformed decommissioned London bus panels into artwork.

Eddie Mitchell ’87 had work in Color, Light and the Outdoors at Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Bedford, Pa.

Earl James ’88, Linda Zmina ’89, Kevin Snipes ’94, Andrea LeBlond ’95, Scott Goss ’06 Valerie Grossman ’12 and Kelly Pontoni ’19 had work in The Series and the Multiple at YARDS Projects in Cleveland.

Kristen Cliffel ’90 and Ewuresi Archer ’21 are among the 2023 artists-in-residence at Akron Soul Train in Akron, Ohio.

Petra Soesemann ’77

Melanie Mowinski ’92 published a book, Collage Your Life: Techniques, Prompts and Inspiration for Creative Self-Expression and Storytelling with Storey Publishing, a division of Hatchette Press, in 2022.

Laura D’Alessandro ’93 and Violet Maimbourg ’21 had work in a group show, The Occult, at Doubting Thomas Gallery in Cleveland.

Salvatore Perconti ’94 received a first-place award for an outdoor exhibition, Wendy Park: Connecting People to a River’s Recovery, from The National Association of Interpretation. The exhibition’s sign design and sculptural sign holders were recognized by the award. The exhibition took place at Wendy Park in Cleveland Metroparks Lakefront Reservation.

Jeanetta Ho ’96 had work in the DayGloSho at Waterloo Arts in Cleveland and a piece in the 11th Annual Juried Exhibition at the Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland.

Chris ’98 and Shelley Harvan’s ’97 Aril Memorial (formerly Memento Memorials) has launched two new product lines. BARE is the first cremation urn that is its own shipping box and is certified by the Green Burial Council for Green Burial. The ROOK is a hand-held, all wood keepsake urn with custom engraving options. The Harvans continue to wholesale and retail their other product lines through their Aril Memorial website.

Lori Kella ’97 had work in State of the Art: Constructs at the Akron Art Museum in Akron, Ohio, and in a solo exhibition, Shifting Ground, at Youngstown State University’s McDonough Museum of Art in Youngstown, Ohio.

Susan Danko ’98 had work in Inspired by Shenandoah, an exhibition featuring work from the 2022 Shenandoah National Park artists-inresidence at ART 180 in Richmond, Va.

Timothy Callaghan ’99 had a solo show, Factotum, at William Busta Projects in Cleveland and The Nexus of Art and Health at Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. Work was commissioned by MetroHealth’s Glick Center in Cleveland and Summa Health in Akron, Ohio.

Amy Casey ’99 was covered by cleveland.com for her art practice, which includes a selection of her work as the cover art for a new album by indie/ alternative rock band The New Pornographers. Casey had work in State of the Art: Constructs at the Akron Art Museum in Akron, Ohio.

Adam Holtzinger ’03 and Susan Spiranovich ’04 discussed their glass work with The Business of Home

Jason Milburn ’03 had a solo show, Jason Milburn: Supply Chain, at the Sally Otto Gallery of University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio.

Candice Willett ’03 received two EyesOn Design Awards at the 2022 North American International Auto Show.

Natalie Lanese ’05 painted a mural in Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood.

Ben Kinsley ’05 and Jessica Langley ’05 will present their curatorial project, “The Yard,” on the panel “Alternative Exhibition Platforms in a Time of Emergence and Endemic Infection” at the 2023

Obituaries

Gerald Garfield ’51 passed away January 2, 2023. He studied Painting and Illustration.

Robert Jergens ’60 (Faculty Emeritus) died January 29, 2023. He majored in Painting.

Peter Marks ’66 passed away October 20, 2022. He majored in Graphic Design.

College Art Association Annual Conference in New York.

Oliver Barrett ’07 won two silver Clio Awards in Key Art + Packaging for a Steelbook-edition of The Hurt Locker (2008). Barrett also completed work for Nike’s World Cup 2022 campaign, “Into the Footballverse.”

Cheryl Cochran ’08 recently completed a series of 10 pieces for LAND studio that will be installed in the labor and delivery rooms of the new MetroHealth Glick Center in Cleveland.

Lauren Chaikin ’09 had work in the Foot Squared exhibition at YARDS Project in Cleveland.

Josh Greiner ’09 designed the interior of the newest Ford Mustang.

Georgio Sabino ’09 had work in the Ohio Artist Registry 2023 Juried Exhibition at the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Columbus.

Lauren Yeager ’09 was selected as one of the participating artists in the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy.

Kara Hungate ’10 had a collection of work on view in the Fairmount Gallery of the First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

Carmen Romine ’10 had work in Paper and Printed Landscapes at BAYarts in Bay Village, Ohio.

Leigh Brooklyn ’11 won a Future Art Award through Mozaik Philanthropy’s international show, Women. Life. Freedom. Her work was part of a public art projection of 30 international artists onto the façade of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Work was also in a show with Gallery Art Unified in Los Angeles; Her Story at Virgil Catherine Gallery in Chicago; and Woman XV at the Gallery at Lakeland in Kirtland, Ohio.

Katy Richards ’11 has a solo show, Pocket Full of Posies, on view through April 28 at HEDGE Gallery in Cleveland.

Martinez E-B ’12 and Edward Valentin-Lugo ’19 had work in The Body Rock at Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, Ohio.

Clotilde Jiménez ’13 had a solo show, La Memoria del Agua, with Mariane Ibrahim in Mexico City.

Nolan Beck-Rivera ’15 and CIA Liberal Arts faculty member Elizabeth Hoag talked about the growing effort from museums and organizations to repatriate stolen and looted artifacts and artwork on Ideastream Public Media’s The Sound of Ideas

Amber Ford ’16 curated Amanda D. King: Root Matter on view at Youngstown State University’s McDonough Museum of Art in Youngstown, Ohio. Ford also has a solo exhibition, Someone, Somewhere, Something at moCa Cleveland through June 11.

Kimberly Chapman ’17 had work in the Valley Art Center’s 51st Annual Juried Art Exhibition in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. The show also includes work from Debrah Butler ’74, Bill Fleming ’74, Christina Blaschke ’15, Violet Maimbourg ’21 and Madeline Davis ’22

Orlando Caraballo ’18 had work in solo exhibition, Capicú, at Akron Soul Train in Akron, Ohio.

Bianca Fields ’19 discussed her work in an article with KC Studio

Julia Milbrant ’19 and Sydney Nicole Kay ’21 were featured in the “Who’s Next” article in the Winter 2022 edition of Canvas magazine. Kay’s photograph was featured on the magazine cover. Derek Walker ’23 was also featured.

Violet Maimbourg ’21 gave an artist talk at Carnegie Mellon University, College of Fine Arts in Pittsburgh as part of the Frank Ratchye Studio for Creative Inquiry. Maimbourg also taught a two-day workshop on creating silicone prosthetics in an Activated Animorphs class at Carnegie Mellon University. Work was also on view in a group exhibition Paroxysm at Westbeth Gallery in New York City.

Amani Williams ’21, along with Nijole Palubinskas ’55, Karen Beckwith ’87, Yuko Kimura ’94, Rebekah Wilhelm ’09, Nikki Woods ’12 , Davon Brantley ’18, Kelly Pontoni ’19 Connor Goodwin ’20 Savannah Saliby ’20 Ewuresi Archer ’22 and CIA Printmaking chair Maggie Denk-Leigh, had work in Cleveland Prints at Cuyahoga Community College’s Gallery East in Highland Hills, Ohio.

Ewuresi Archer ’22 and Susan Squires ’83 were first place winners of the inaugural Paul and Norma Tikkanen Prizes at the Ashtabula Art Center in Ashtabula, Ohio. Rebecca Kaler ’64, Judy Takács ’86, and Leigh Brooklyn ’11 all won honorable mentions. Paul Tikkanen* is a 1949 CIA alum.

Alyssa Lizzini ’22 was named the recipient of the NEO Artist Residency with Zygote Press in Cleveland.

Teagan Ferraby ’22 was among the first artists to be selected to produce a limited-edition collection with Otentu.

Ohio Arts Council: The following CIA alumni were among the 75 Ohio artists who received an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council: George Kozmon ’82 Guy-Vincent ’83 Judy Takács ’86, Greg Martin ’89, Lori Kella ’97 and Crystal Miller ’23

Marlene “Rocky” Gribner ’70 died November 16, 2022. She majored in Illustration.

Jane Van Halteren Ferdinand ’71 passed November 30, 2022. She studied Graphic Design.

David Jupp ’86 passed away January 2, 2023. He was a Graphic Design major.

David Houry ’07 died January 20, 2023. He was a Technology + Integrated Media Environment (T.I.M.E.) major.

John Hrehov ’81

Faculty and Staff Notes

Jared Bendis ’04 (Game Design) took part in two panel discussions—“Immersive and Effective: Storytelling for Learning” and “Designed for Education”—at the LEAP Tech Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He also delivered a talk, “The Interactive Media Lab at the Cleveland Institute of Art: Designing a VR, AR and XR Educational & Production Studio for the 21st Century and Beyond,” at the event.

Conor Bracken (Liberal Arts) had his translation of Jean D’Amérique’s No Way in the Skin without this Bloody Embrace shortlisted for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. Excerpts were published in Circumference, On the Seawall and sx salon

Davon Brantley ’18 (Admissions) will have a solo exhibition, Awaken in The Garden My Love, from April 15 to May 28 at the Massillon Museum in Massillon, Ohio. He was also named runner-up for the Otentu Despite Competition, which awarded him a $300 Blick Art Materials gift card and placement in Otentu’s catalog. It also means 50 editions of his winning entry will be reproduced and sold as limited-edition creations on Otentu. Brantley was also granted a solo exhibition with Cleveland’s KINK Contemporary for its 2024 calendar year.

Colby Chamberlain (Liberal Arts) received a Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant for his book Fluxus Administration, forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press.

Dan Cuffaro ’91 (Industrial Design) built and introduced the Industrial Design Mobile Prototype Lab, which includes laser cutting, 3D printing and various supplies. The Lab allows faculty to take Rapid Prototyping anywhere within the CIA facility for demos and iteration sessions. He also introduced Version 1 of a new project called m.power, which focuses on helping students understand what it takes to bring a product to market before graduation.

Maggie Denk-Leigh (Printmaking) has work in Women Who Print through May 31 in the Future Ink Graphics Community Gallery in Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood.

Scott Goss ’06 (Foundation) was recently one of five artists selected to create interactive, illuminated artworks for the city of Peekskill, N.Y. His project, titled Pinwheels, is to be included in the Enlighten Peekskill project, which will illuminate a more than 1-mile walking route from the city’s train station to the town center. It will include eight 15-foot tall and 6-foot diameter pinwheels that will be self-powered through both wind and solar energy.

Steven Gutierrez (Foundation) had work in Rendering: A Digital Discourse at Valley Art Center in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Connected to that show, he also participated in an artist panel about AI and its implications in the art world. Separately, he had a

temporary public art display as part of Light Up Lakewood in December in Lakewood, Ohio.

Allison Hall (Foundation) is currently making work for an upcoming solo show in 2024 at BAYarts in Bay Village, Ohio. Her studio at the Screw Factory in Lakewood, Ohio will be open to the public for the Spring Art Show & Open Studios event from 6 to 10pm Friday, May 5 and 10am to 3pm Saturday, May 6. She had a piece, “Archie on the Island,” in Foot Squared in Yards Projects at Worthington Yards in downtown Cleveland.

David C. Hart, PhD (Liberal Arts) delivered the paper “Politics, Art and the Career of Francisco Toledo in 1970s New York” at the Ohio Latin Americanist Conference in Athens, Ohio.

Elizabeth Hoag (Liberal Arts) will attend the 88th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, where she will present a paper co-authored with Riley Rist ’21 entitled “Handson in the Classroom: Teaching Anthropology and Archaeology to Undergraduate Art Students” as part of a larger symposium on pedagogy in the undergraduate classroom.

Matthew Hollern (Craft + Design) will have work in Break in Emergency, an ongoing series of exhibitions that support disadvantaged people, at 4BYSIX in London, England.

Tony Ingrisano (Painting) has work in View From Above, a three-person show on view through April 23 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Long Island in Patchogue, N.Y.

Benjamin Johnson (Craft + Design) exhibited in CraftForms 2022, 27th International Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Fine Craft at the Wayne Art Center in Wayne, Pa. and the 61st Mid-States Art Exhibition at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science in Evansville, Ind.

Virginia Konchan (Liberal Arts) will host a launch event for a poetics/craft anthology, Marbles on the Floor: How to Assemble a Book of Poems (University of Akron Press, 2023), on April 1 at Mac’s Backs–Books on Coventry in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

Jimmy Kuehnle (Sculpture + Expanded Media) was a panelist for “Can We Create Ethical Artificial Intelligence?” at The Happy Dog in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.

Scott Lax (Liberal Arts) teamed with CIA’s Illustration Department to work on poster and Playbill designs for his play, 1970, which will have its world premiere in September at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

Andrea LeBlond ’95 (Craft + Design) exhibited in The Nexus of Art and Health at the Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery in Columbus, Ohio.

Jackie Mayse (Jessica R. Gund Memorial Library) was awarded a 2022 Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO) Conference Scholarship and attended its day-long conference in November.

Seth Nagelberg (Craft + Design) has work in the 18th Annual Ceramics Invitational through April 1 at River Gallery in Rocky River, Ohio.

Thomas Nowacki (Life Sciences Illustration) visited California State University in Monterey Bay as an external reviewer for its Scientific Illustration certificate program.

Chen Peng ’16 (Foundation) will have paintings featured in ArtMaze Mag Issue 31

Alyssa Perry (Liberal Arts) had poems in the Cuyahoga County Public Library’s Read & Write series and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park Poetic Inventory at Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center in Kent, Ohio. She was a finalist for the $10,000 Changes Book Prize.

Jessica Pinsky (Sculpture + Expanded Media) received an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council.

Zach Savich (Liberal Arts) edited a series of essays on the theme of “wellness” for the Cleveland Review of Books as part of the Cleveland Humanities Festival. He published new poems in the literary arts journals Always Crashing and Diode

Pam Spremulli (Foundation/Graphic Design) recently completed her mural, “Kaleidoscope History,” at Cleveland Public Auditorium. She was one of three Northeast Ohio artists selected by the City of Cleveland to honor the venue’s 100th year by creating murals that speak to its rich history. She had a solo exhibition, Studio Bloom, at the Cleveland Botanical Garden’s Guren Gallery, which included a children’s art workshop, “Drawing from a Bug’s Eye View.”

Anthony Scalmato ’07 (Animation) animated and designed for the Jacquie Lawson Sussex Advent Calendar, which reached No. 1 in the app store in the Lifestyle category during the month of December. He is currently working on the Jacquie Lawson Colouring App.

Brent Kee Young (Emeritus) received an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. In addition, he will exhibit at the 51st Annual International Glass Invitational Award Exhibition, which opens June 5 at Habatat Detroit Fine Art in Royal Oak, Mich. The exhibition will be held in conjunction with the 2023 Glass Art Society Conference.

Chen Peng ’16

Seth Nagelberg