With so much focus being centered around the home these days, we’ve become increasingly aware of what we surround ourselves with. The right piece of art has the potential to transform imposing walls into open windows that expand your space and light up every room.

Awareness and appreciation of others seem to be shifting globally too, in ways that can be difficult to express. For those of us who create for others, expression is the greatest gift we have to offer. Heights Arts is devoted to connecting local creators with their neighbors who seek inspiration, imagination, and fresh perspectives for themselves, their homes, and their loved ones. Heights Arts is where perfect gifts and local artists are discovered.

Each holiday season, our year-round store expands to fill our entire space and features over 100 local artists in multiple disciplines. The 2021 Holiday Store runs from November 5 to December 31 and will be open seven days a week for extended shopping hours starting December 1.

If you’re wondering whose work to watch for, check out wall prints by Katie Ford, jewelry by Catherine Davies Paetz, and woodwork by Tom Ream, to name just a few. You can visit us at heightsarts.org for a closer look at our artists and inventory.

GIVE AND GIVE BACK

By shopping with us for a unique gift, you are supporting both Heights Arts and the artists we support. In this, our twentieth year of connecting artists and the community, your purchase will add to the more than $1.3 million in commissions and music performance fees Heights Arts has given to artists, musicians and poets in the Cleveland area since 2000.

NEW EXHIBITION – RUST

The Rust Belt refers to a group of states near the Great Lakes that grew to prominence in the late 1800s. Once the country’s industrial heartland, these states experienced a decrease of manufacturing and heavy industry dating to the middle of the 1950s, as the original infrastructure aged and corporations moved their production first to southern states, then to other countries, following cheap land and cheap labor. In cities like Cleveland, Detroit, Youngstown, and Pittsburgh, abandoned factories and machinery were left to rust, and many jobs were lost. Because we had the lakes, canals, rivers, and railroads for shipping, this region had been perfectly located for success. But things changed. Yet, as we all know here, Cleveland is tough. Our artists, a resourceful lot, have embraced the situation.

Many artists use metal refuse and scrap, resourced wood, found objects, and used clothing as the material for their work, because it is both ecological and often cheaper than new materials. It also has a certain patina and personality because of its history. Some artists use the history and social context of the Rust Belt as inspiration for their work. Many photographers see beauty in the rust and years of built-up grime that coats the old bridges and stonework, and painters and printmakers mine the same resource for their own production. Ceramicists and glassmakers carry on the region’s long traditions in these media to create work that continues to inspire.

This exhibition embodies an esthetic of reuse and reclamation that celebrates the Rust Belt’s layers of character—the muscularity, the refinement, the resilience, the patina of age, and the energy of reinvention.

Participating artists for Rust in alphabetical order are Adrian DesJardins, William Brouillard, Doug Meyer, Linda Mayer, Matthew Albright, Micheal Costello, Pamela Pastoric, and Stephen Yusko. We’re also pleased to present Jesse Rhinehart, known by many for his mural Heights Center Building Mural East, located at the intersection of Cedar and Fairmount, in our Spotlight gallery alongside Rust.

NEW EXHIBITION – FIGURATIVE/ABSTRACT

We begin with the Figure. Then the artists take liberties. And aren’t artists always taking liberties?

What if the ability to abstract from a subject enabled classical figurative art? What if the desire to express (something), and make connections (to ideas, materials, the mind) is foundational in abstract work? Leonardo said in reference to his drawings: “Observation and imagination”. He didn’t specify how much of each.

In this exhibition, we assume figurative and abstract art are porous categories and ask how contemporary artists navigate the territory.

 

HOLIDAY STORE|NOVEMBER 5–DECEMBER 31
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK STARTING DECEMBER 1

RUST | JANUARY 14–MARCH 13

SPOTLIGHT: JESSE RHINEHART | JANUARY 14–MARCH 13

EKPHRASTACY: ARTISTS TALK, POETS RESPOND TO RUST | SEPTEMBER 23

FIGURATIVE/ABSTRACT | MARCH 18–MAY 15

 

HEIGHTS ARTS
2175 Lee Road
Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118
heightsarts.org
216.371.3457