There are few times when a threadbare cliché—such as, say, thinking outside the box—seems made for a moment. When Grace Blackley and Maddie Harbert were in the early stages of their design degrees at Kent State University, they learned one of the first foundational lessons students are taught to master early on in the program: to draw a square. The […]
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The printed CAN Journal—CAN’s most visible and best-known outlet—typically doesn’t publish exhibit reviews. That’s because we want them to be timely, and our quarterly schedule often means exhibitions would be closed by the time a review could appear in print. Because the state of arts journalism is a current discussion in the region (including the essay in this issue by […]
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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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Summer 2025 Photo Poet Hollis Mehling’s site-specific works focus on the quintessential magical grunge that hangs in the air on Coventry Road like smoke. An analog reflection on the Midwestern, Rust Belt grit that births new imaginations and interpretations of the neighborhood. A space influenced by old and new, whimsical and poetic, holding all the sensory experiences felt on a […]
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Your easy, chronological guide to exhibits and opportunities at Northeast Ohio galleries, studios, and museums coming in the next few months. More information about many of these exhibits can be found elsewhere in the pages of CAN Journal. These listings are based on announcements from each presenting organization, at press time. Due to changing circumstances, events may be added, cancelled, […]
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Eighty years after Karamu Artists Inc.’s 1941 exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art, CMA highlights the collective’s role in shaping Cleveland’s Black arts scene and its broader cultural influence, with Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community. The exhibition opens March 23. In 1938, the United States was enmeshed in unflinching racial segregation and widespread poverty. Black Americans, already […]
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It is the morning after moCa’s new Curator and Deputy Director DJ Hellerman’s first curatorial project opened to a crowd of more than 700 widely diverse art lovers. DJ and I meet over Wojtila’s pastries and coffee at 10 am on Saturday, January 25; he was one of my first students in Cleveland, and we’ve not seen one another in […]
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Buffalo artist Gary Wolfe met Cleveland artist John Sargent in 2012, when Sargent briefly lived in the Queen City. Both were involved with the Buffalo Society of Artists—an organization founded in 1891 to help advance the cause of artists in that part of the world. They got to know each other over the space of about six months, and kept […]
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I recently went to moCa Cleveland for the opening of Dear, an exhibit of photos provided by Birthing Beautiful Communities. Dear is a tribute to the strength, resilience, and beauty of Black motherhood and the community that supports it. Birthing Beautiful Communities is an organization in Northeast Ohio that holistically supports pregnant women from the time they find out they […]
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“Hi, I’m Kyra!” reads the top of the homepage of the website of Kyra Wells. “I am a Graphic Designer.” And then a vertical line, like the cursor of a text, swipes left and erases that job title, replacing it with Motion Designer. Then Brand Strategist takes its place. Next is Design Educator, followed by Community Advocate, and finally Champion […]
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