Author: Christopher Johnston

Cleveland Arts Prize winner Greg Peckham will emphasize art while leading  Conservancy for CVNP

In recognition of his several decades of promoting access to public art in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, Greg Peckham was selected by the Cleveland Arts Prize to receive this year’s Robert P. Bergman Prize. “Greg exemplifies the values celebrated by the Bergman Prize,” says artist, friend and mentee, Mark Reigelman II (CAP 2018). “His thoughtful leadership, generosity of spirit, and […]

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Transformative Arts Fund: Ariel Verguez and the Storer Avenue Phoenix Project

“Long-term transformative change has to start locally,” Ariel Vergez says. He’s the lead artist for the Storer Avenue Phoenix Project, a Transformative Art Fund awardee working in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood. The project was awarded $393,700. After a series of workshops and studio sessions, the project takes flight from 11 am to 6 pm Saturday, September 6, in The Art Garden […]

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The Collector’s Collector: Teresa Vasu DeChant

Curator and collector Teresa Vasu DeChant has been building significant art collections for several decades, primarily for the Cleveland Clinic and MetroHealth Medical Center, as well as for individual corporate clients, private collectors—and herself. “I have always enjoyed building collections,” she says. “Some of them were value-based, picking artists that sold at Sotheby’s and Christie’s that might go up in […]

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Impart 216: Representation, Repair, Engagement, and Rebranding with Murals in Mount Pleasant, via the Transformative Art Fund

“When I moved to Cleveland in 1979 or ’80, the mural program was just an anti-graffiti program, so it wasn’t nearly the murals that they have now,” says Impart 216 lead artist Robin Robinson. She had frequently visited Cleveland as a child of Philadelphia because she had family here. “It was just people painting over the graffiti, making that community […]

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The Transformative Arts Fund, Works In Progress: The State of an Enormous Investment in Cleveland, through Artists

In the past several months, various Cleveland neighborhoods and communities have begun to benefit from seven projects awarded nearly $3 million in total last year through the  City of Cleveland’s Transformative Arts Fund (TAF). The money came from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a response to the Covid pandemic. During a short application period in 2024, 103 proposals […]

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Collector Darl Schaaff Exhibits Favorite Life Artifacts in His Own Museum

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The living embodiment of gregariousness, Darl Schaaff likes to ask people who enter his private museum, “if you wanted to display what your life collected, what would that look like?” That framed quote greets visitors as they step inside The Darl Center for the Arts near the corner of East 55th Street and Broadway Avenue. Built in 1904-1906, the Classical […]

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Pete Dell: When the Artist Becomes Art Collector

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In the early 2000s, Pete Dell began collecting art during weekend excursions to University Circle with his teenage son, Denver. The two would start by catching an unconventional film at Cinematheque at the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA). Then they would visit various art galleries throughout the city. “That’s when I started buying art and gradually started spending more money […]

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How Joseph and Nancy Keithley Built an Art Collection that Became a Historic Gift to CMA

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As a young married couple, Joseph and Nancy Keithley knew they shared a deep appreciation for art. Fittingly, they had met at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 1974, when a mutual friend invited them to a small party the matchmaker hoped would spark a romantic union between two other friends. “After about 45 minutes, the two […]

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