Dust to Rainbow

DUST ➯ RAINBOW

FRONT International Triennial’s second edition to embrace art as therapeutic process

Jacolby Satterwhite (b. 1986, Columbia, S.C.; lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.), “Dawn,” (2021). HD color video and 3D animation with artist-designed wallpaper on masonry wall, Cleveland Clinic, as part of FRONT International. Photo courtesy Cleveland Clinic.

By Becky Raspe

This summer, the FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art aims to be a rainbow of sorts – an exhibition of brightness and healing across Northeast Ohio following a very hard storm.

Launched in 2018, FRONT will return to welcome international artists to 20 Northeast Ohio sites on July 16, running through Oct. 2.

Titled “Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows,” the second iteration of the contemporary art festival aims to approach and embrace art as an agent of transformation, a mode of healing and a therapeutic process. The name is in homage to a 1957 poem, “Two Somewhat Different Epigrams” by Langston Hughes: “Oh, God of dust and rainbows, help us see. That without dust the rainbow would not be. I look with awe upon the human race. And God, who sometimes spits right in its face.”

Prem Krishnamurthy, artistic director of the 2022 FRONT triennial, says the theme and title of this year’s triennial dates back to 2019, after copious research and several visits to regional artistic hubs like Cleveland, Akron and Oberlin, visits with institutions and partners in those communities, artists and other historical or contemporary sites that seemed important to the curatorial team.

“It came out of thinking about the history of the region, and the kind of industrial production that produced prosperity and wealth, but also had negative effects on the environment and on social infrastructure,” Krishnamurthy says. “And also the very fraught and challenging relationships that do exist in Cleveland and the region between different kinds of communities.”

FURTHER SHAPING OF ‘OH, GODS’

After the theme was announced in January 2020, Krishnamurthy says full-scale planning for a 2021 event began. But, little did anyone know what the next two years would bring, and how the theme would remain relevant – almost too much so – he adds.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, FRONT was postponed until 2022.

“What has been important is to think about how art works in all of these different time frames,” Krishnamurthy says. “That fact that art making, exhibition making and triennial making are all longterm processes that do not emerge in a day. At the same time, there are these ways in which art can create pleasure and joy and bring people together around shared

aesthetic experiences, which can happen very quickly. Almost like a rainbow – they’re very fast, but can quickly produce a sense of community and belonging between people who don’t know each other.”

Following two years of limited physical interaction and collaboration, Krishnamurthy says one of FRONT’s priorities was to tap into the local aspect of the triennial, working closely with area venues to create an “exhibition of exhibitions.” That sets FRONT 2022 apart, to some extent, from the inaugural event in its effort to ensure artwork by international artists fi ts with existing collections at each local institution.

“With each partner institution, we have been in conversation for about three years now trying to fi nd artists who make sense within their program and resonate with the people who are already there,” Krishnamurthy says. “We’ve worked with them to present a set of artists who are living in Cleveland alongside artists who aren’t in Cleveland but whose work can be seen in dialogue. It’s become a rich dialogue between the venues and us – which is a bit of a change from the fi rst FRONT. Each venue will be a rich experience.”

The pandemic experience also brought about an interest in public artwork, Krishnamurthy explains. One example to be exhibited is “Dawn” by Brooklyn, N.Y.-based artist Jacolby Satterwhite, who worked with local contributing artists RA Washington and LaToya Kent to ask residents of Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood to describe and draw their version of utopia. This exhibition will be on display at the Cleveland Institute of Art in the University Circle neighborhood as a virtual reality arcade and as a freestanding sculptural screen outside of the Cleveland Clinic’s new BioRepository building in the Fairfax neighborhood.

“Jacolby’s work is a good example of non-traditional exhibitions and installations happening at museums or art venues, but also at non-art venues and even in public spaces,” Krishnamurthy says. “I think that is important because ultimately, FRONT is a free, open art event meant to invite and engage as many people as possible.”

TAPPING INTO FAIRFAX

As Satterwhite’s fi rst public artwork in collaboration with Cleveland communities, “Dawn” uses a combination of traditional and digital media to explore the ideas of contentedness and utopia from the perspectives of 100 Fairfax residents who contributed drawings to the project.

Kent, who lives on Cleveland’s east side, and Washington, who lives in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood, fi rst became involved following a community meeting announcing the project, hosted by Cleveland Ward 6 Councilman Blaine Griffi n, Cleveland Clinic and FRONT International.

“I thought (Kent and I) should get involved because you need a fi ne touch to get the community to participate,” Washington says. “I thought it was right up our alley and that we could help deliver these interesting stories from the community. We wanted to serve as emissaries.”

Kent, who previously worked in the community at a transitional house for formerly incarcerated women, says she noticed the neighbors had a lot of interesting stories, in part due to the neighborhood’s foundation built over generations.

“It felt a strong sense of family and solidarity,” she says. “I found a lot of people, once they knew what we were doing, they were getting on the phone and telling other people to get involved. You saw this interconnectedness within the neighborhood and the residents.”

As the project continued, Kent says she noticed some of

Cooking Sections exhibition, “CLIMAVORE: On Tidal Zones,” (2017 to ongoing) Isle of Skye. Photo / FRONT

Running in conjunction with the FRONT Triennial, Collective Arts Network’s CAN Triennial will also return from July 8 to Aug. 31, featuring 125 artists from seven Northeast Ohio counties.

The CAN Triennial was first held in 2018, along with FRONT, with an aim to further highlight the Northeast Ohio arts community.

The artists selected will exhibit in 19 venues in six neighborhoods. They will contend with the theme “You Are Here,” which calls artists and viewers to focus on their understanding of the concept of time and place, and our relationship to it as individuals, says Michael Gill, executive director of CAN.

Developed before the pandemic and revisited almost a year later, Gill says the concept felt even more poignant than before.

“When we reconvened, our curatorial team went right back to that subject,” he says. “We began this as a regionally-focused show. (The theme) has that geographic implication, but I think in the past year, the other appeal was living in the present tense and all of the things going on in our world right now.”

The theme also remained relevant because artists inherently create in response to their experiences, Gill says.

“Artists respond to the world around them in all different ways – from overtly to more obliquely or symbolically,” he says.

The first CAN Triennial was held only at the 78th Street Studios, but Gill says it was time to further highlight the strength of Cleveland’s art scene beyond the Detroit-Shoreway arts complex. This year, in addition to the 78th Street Studios, participating venues include Praxis Fiber Workshop, Waterloo Arts, the Galleries at CSU and Graffiti HeArt.

Additionally, for the first triennial, the curatorial team worked as a committee, ending up with “sort of an amalgam” of ideas, Gill says. This year, curators broke down into smaller committees to choose art and venues within their assigned neighborhoods.

“This allowed them to frame their vision and interpretation of ‘You Are Here’ within the neighborhood they’re focusing in,” he says. “We have intentionally chosen neighborhoods where there are clusters of things you can get to easily, and even walk from one venue to another. Choose a neighborhood and just go.”

For more information, visit cantriennial.org.

- Becky Raspe

Gill | Photo / Bob Perkoski

the submissions reflected that residents felt their current living situation was their definition of utopia. This was evident in participants who came from the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings held across the street from where they were set up, who Kent says had a “beautiful inspiration from their experience there.”

“It wasn’t some distant fantasy,” she says. “It isn’t a stretch from what they desired. It seemed that being able to be supported in their neighborhood seemed like something beyond their dreams in a way. I felt a sense of euphoria from that group of people – they were being served properly, and all of us want to be seen, served and respected.”

EXHIBITS TAP INTO COMMUNITY, OFFER INTERNATIONAL MESSAGES

That concept of being seen, served, respected and involved permeates through many of FRONT’s 2022 exhibitions, Krishnamurthy says.

Other exhibits on that theme will include Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s community-driven explorations at the Cleveland Public Library. Her project will be anchored by a generative prompt like “Tomorrow, there will be ...”. Rather than content, the artist provides a protocol for engagement. Renée Green’s “Contact,” a sprawling exhibition occupying all of moCa Cleveland’s public spaces, seeks to interweave conversation around other participating artists’ works. At Transformer Station in the Ohio City neighborhood, Sarah Oppenheimer and Tony Cokes are developing a large-scale participatory installation that combines tactile and interactive interventions into architecture with videos that investigate representations of race, gender and class using text and music.

“Some of these projects are almost like rainbows,” Krishnamurthy says. “They’re things that are more ephemeral and fleeting, but might bring together a certain community at a certain time for a certain purpose. I think the experience of visiting FRONT, whether from out of town or from Cleveland, is a little bit like a treasure or a rainbow-spotting adventure.”

Similar to karaoke, Krishnamurthy says he wants visitors to approach the 2022 triennial as sharing joy with strangers – the “aesthetic pleasure of art can bring people together across differences.”

“It’s not just the color of a beautiful painting or something that strikes you as pleasurable or fun,” he explains. “It’s things that kind of slow you down, that are actually complex and make you think about or experience things in ways you haven’t before. I want people to come out of this with a sense of being moved. To feel like they don’t have to just sit or stand in front of a painting, but are whole bodies. And that something happens by experiencing art in a space with other people.”

ON VIEW

Installations and exhibitions for FRONT International 2022 Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art will be on view from July 16 through Oct. 2 at 20 venues around Northeast Ohio. The exhibitions and experiences will be centralized throughout five regions: Cleveland’s Ohio City, downtown and University Circle neighborhoods, Akron and Oberlin. FRONT’s opening weekend will be July 16-18, with more information about its opening gala to be announced. For a full list of venues and artists, visit frontart.org.

Chagall for Children

On view at the Maltz Museum in Beachwood from May 11 to August 28, 2022

The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage announces the highly anticipated Cleveland premiere of “Chagall for Children,” which explores the work of one of the bestknown and best-loved artists of the 20th century, Marc Chagall. This special exhibition offers 14 multi-sensory exploration stations specifically designed to engage children ages 2 to 12. Each station features a high-quality reproduction of one of Marc Chagall’s works and encourages exploration of art principles such as color, composition, light and texture.

This unique exhibition was created by Kohl Children’s Museum and features over a dozen Chagall masterpieces, all accompanied by hands-on interactive elements that allow children to express their own creativity. “Chagall was such a whimsical artist,” says KCM President & CEO Sheridan Turner. “Young children immediately pick up on the fanciful and unusual aspects of his work. He really appeals to children’s senses of wonder and fantasy.”

Each piece of artwork includes an audio recording that gives guests information about the piece. After learning some background information about the work, they can take part in a hands-on activity related to the artwork.

These imaginative activities are as varied as Chagall’s works. For example, a fabric rendition of Chagall’s “The Rooster” lets children rearrange the bird’s colorful tail feathers. A bas-relief of “The Birthday” allows guests to make rubbings of the artwork to take home. “The Poultry Yard” offers various soft-sculpture animal parts that children can mix and match to create their own fantastical animals.

At different stations throughout the exhibition, guests can create mosaics, weave tapestries, use touch screens to digitally alter Chagall’s masterpieces, conduct symphonies, and – through the magic of video – even insert themselves into one his paintings. After these hands-on experiences, guests can curl up in a reading nook stocked with children’s books about Chagall’s life and work.

Ways to Explore

In-person: Visitors can tour the “Chagall for Children” exhibition in-person at the Maltz Museum, Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance at maltzmuseum.org or by phone at 216-593-0575. Masks are not required for entry. General admission: $12; students & seniors: $10; children 5 to 11: $5; children under 5 and Maltz Museum members: free.

Public Programs

This summer, to accompany the special exhibition, the Maltz Museum will host unique programming for all ages. The “Chagall for Children” kick-off event will offer fun for the whole family, and one Sunday a month the museum will host a unique artistic workshop for artists ages 1 through 101. Young families will be invited to join the Maltz Museum and its partners for a “Stay and Play Storytime” every Thursday morning. Finally, for adult audiences the museum will offer a series of lectures examining Marc Chagall’s art in the context of 20th century history and, partnering with Spirit of Clay studio, three pottery workshops for adults.

About the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage

Located approximately 20 minutes from downtown Cleveland in the suburb of Beachwood, the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is housed in an award-winning building crafted from Jerusalem stone, uniquely set into its landscape. Offering two permanent collections plus a gallery dedicated to presenting world-class special exhibitions, the Maltz Museum is rooted in the Jewish value of respect for all humanity, telling universal stories of hope and resilience to educate and inspire a more just, civil and inclusive society. Family programs are offered monthly at a low cost of $5 per person.