On Racial Equity and the Accuracy of Mirrors

  We’ve said since the beginning that CAN Journal is a mirror of the art scene here. The truth of that, however, depends on who happens to be standing in front of it.  For the last two years, Cleveland artists have been talking about racial inequity in our art scene—a conversation pushed along by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture’s efforts to […]

Read more

Worldwide Begins at Home

You’ve seen at least one variation of this idea expressed on bumper stickers: Think Globally: Act Locally. That may mean something different to everyone who reads it, but when it’s stuck on the back of an old, fuel-efficient car along with a bunch of other bumper stickers that say things like “Imagine Whirled Peas,” and “Coexist” (spelled out in the […]

Read more

Punch Above Your Weight / Growing the Pie: Selling Art Beyond the Boundaries of Northeast Ohio, Part Three

It could happen here: In 2014, two New Orleans photographers—the husband-and-wife team Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick—showed a series of photographs of the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana as part of the art triennial, Prospect. Speaking of their exhibit, called “Slavery: The Prison Industrial Complex,” Calhoun told the New Orleans Times Picayune, “Angola is still pretty much run like […]

Read more

Buck the Trend, Break the Mold – For the Betterment of the Village

The recent announcement that FRONT Festival will take place in Cleveland (July 7 – September 30, 2018) is not just the promise of another festival, but one that looks beyond our beloved region, outward to the world. It gathers a dozen mid-sized to major institutions, including the Cleveland Museum of Art, as presenters of work curated by Jens Hoffmann (who […]

Read more

Inter Urban-Ism

The vast majority of the murals recently painted along the Red Line between the Airport and Tower City are completely devoid of politics. That’s remarkable, especially as the city prepares for the Republican National Convention. With broad support from the Cleveland Foundation and several public entities, and with board approvals required even before the artists’ names were released (let alone […]

Read more

BIPARTISAN SUPPORT

What do you want the world to know about Cleveland? And what do you think the world could learn from this place? Those questions are on a lot of Northeast Ohio minds as some 50,000 reporters and politically active people are soon to arrive here for the Republican National Convention. We wanted the world’s attention. We got it. Now what […]

Read more

Inter Urban Project Rides RTA The Red Line gets a slew of commissioned murals in time for the RNC

Visitors arriving in Cleveland for the 2016 Republican National Convention –most of them, at least—will arrive at Hopkins International Airport. The candidates and their top level staffs will probably have chauffers, and lots of others will surely drive rental cars. But with Greater Cleveland RTA offering light rail service directly to the heart of downtown, it’s safe to say that […]

Read more