Calm before the storm? Nah.

We love the butterflies and peaches, and the warm colors on our cover this issue, but above all we love the magnifying glass, because it calls to mind curiosity. For my money, curiosity is the most precious commodity in the art world—the desire for knowledge, for connection, for discovery, for new things.

The photo is by Kate Sweeney, from Spitball, an exhibit at the Cleveland Print Room featuring photography by artists age 30 and under, selected by Loop barista and curator Kory Gasser. For several years, Gasser has made Loop one of the most interesting exhibit venues in Tremont: constantly introducing new artists, and usually hanging their work from eye-level to high ceiling to show as much art as possible. Curious? If you haven’t seen it, you should. And either way, go see what Gasser has put together at the Print Room.

Spitball opened the same night as this issue of CAN hit the streets, and the same night as Walk All Over Waterloo, during which ArtiCle opened an exhibit of works by Jill Milenski, Gail Pritchard, and Gail Crum. This issue of CAN is among the fattest ever, because more galleries—including new ones—are telling you about more shows. You expected some kind of calm before the summer storm that will be CAN Triennial and FRONT International? Nah.

In this issue you’ll see that Mary Urbas’s annual from WOMAN exhibit is back at Lakeland Community College. And that BAYarts continues bringing some of the most interesting work in the region to the western suburbs—in this case works of Jen Omaitz. The Morgan Conservatory will host no fewer than 14 artist residents in the coming months. Meanwhile, Orange Art Center, Elevate, and Shaker Community Gallery all are serving their communities with new energy. It’s time once again for Kalman and Pabst’s biennial photo exhibit, which features hundreds of photos by the agency’s staff, and is always a blowout of a party.

Cleveland did not have anywhere near this level of activity when Douglas Max Utter wrote about then-recent CIA grad Dana Schutz in the very first issue of Angle magazine in March, 2003. Later in this issue, you’ll read what he has to say about her current show, Eating Atom Bombs, on view at Transformer Station through April 15.

There are other kinds of news, too: Cleveland Arts Prize has announced a new award, specifically to honor “extraordinary commitment to the advancement of the arts through leadership in policy, legislation, arts education and community development.” And Zygote Press welcomes a new executive director Jane Black, as well as a new show curated by Rebekah Wilhelm. Still Point Gallery has moved to a new location in the Cedar-Fairmount neighborhood. A new gallery—Art at the Schoolhouse—has taken its familiar place in Little Italy. And the ground-breaking installation exhibit Rooms to Let, which has taken place each spring in Slavic Village homes slated for demolition, also has news: This year it’s scheduled for the last weekend in July, to coincide with CAN Triennial and FRONT.

And speaking of those landmark events, artists’ deadline to apply to CAN Triennial is just two weeks away, March 15. No matter how busy the art scene in Cleveland is now, it is going to get busier. We look forward to seeing you.