Arts and Culture

Cleveland’s artistic and cultural traditions have long been beacons that light residents’ lives, attract visitors and newcomers, and keep our city high on the list of desirable places to live and do business. But art and culture cannot live in the past. They must grow and evolve to remain relevant and compelling in changing times and to stay strong enough to weather economic cycles. The Cleveland Foundation has always held arts organizations’ needs high among our priorities. Our support ranges from small grants for neighborhood projects to multimillion-dollar investments in the long-term excellence and sustainability of our largest and most globally renowned organizations. Rarely has that sustenance been more timely or crucial than in the last few years. We’re delighted to have been able to continue our support, not just for the arts’ sake, but for every man, woman, and child whose lives are enriched by our community’s vast arts offerings.

Anisfield-Wolf Prize mixes intimacy, potency, grandeur

Tickets to the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards ceremony always go fast. But for the 75th anniversary celebration in 2010, they were gone within hours – all 1,000 of them.

That demand is a tribute to the growing national and international prominence of the prize, and to the literary, cultural, and artistic sophistication of its birthplace city, says Henry Louis Gates Jr., the distinguished Harvard scholar and cultural critic.

“This prize is one of the most prestigious in the literary world,” says Gates, the perennial emcee and jury chair. “It’s appropriate that the ceremony has become a big event – one that manages to be both intimate and grand. And Cleveland, itself intimate and grand, is the ideal host.”

Edith Anisfield Wolf, a poet, businesswoman, and social activist, was far ahead of her time when she created the award to recognize literary works that confront racial, ethnic, and cultural perceptions. The year was 1935 – two decades before the advent of America’s civil-rights movement. Her prize has since honored a literary Who’s Who: Langston Hughes, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Toni Morrison, and nearly 200 others.

Edith Anisfield Wolf, who died in 1963, asked the Cleveland Foundation to sustain this tradition. Sharing her passion and shepherding her bequest, we point with pride to the growing distinction of this national book prize and the spotlight it shines on Cleveland for one very special night each September.

SUSTAINING EXCELLENCE

Even before the Great Recession, our city’s leading arts institutions realized that to make enough money, grow audiences, and stay fiscally fit, they were going to have to take risks.

The Cleveland Orchestra, for instance, considered residencies in Miami and Europe. Other institutions aimed to move to new venues, or launch novel audience-building campaigns ’ costly plans amid growing cuts in arts funding.

So in 2008, the Cleveland Foundation’s board of directors quietly launched Sustaining Excellence, a three-year, invitation-only program of special support for some of the city’s most important arts organizations: Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Play House, Cleveland Public Theatre, Community Partnership for Arts and Culture, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art, Opera Cleveland, and Playhouse Square.

Now in its final year, Sustaining Excellence has extended a safety net of $6.6 million in grants, ranging from $75,000 to $1.2 million each, to buttress those organizations as they moved to become more self-sustaining. Among the outcomes: Apollo’s Fire’s plans for its first international tour, Cleveland Play House’s historic commitment to relocate downtown, MOCA’s looming move to University Circle, and Cleveland Public Theatre’s successful marketing campaign.

ART BEYOND BORDERS

Historically, most of our city’s traditions in classical music, visual arts, and theater have reflected the Western European roots of most of Cleveland’s artists and audiences.

They’re proud traditions with a proud lineage. Yet as Cleveland strives to become increasingly global and vibrant, our culture has room for more artistic diversity.

So our board authorized Creative Fusion, a program that reaches around the globe for new artistic influences to bring to Cleveland. Creative Fusion hosts international artists here for extended stays. The program links them to students and audiences across the region in the hope that a deep engagement will infuse our culture with diverse new influences.

Representative illustration for Arts and Culture

For instance, our first artist in residence, Turkish playwright Özen Yula, spent 10 weeks mentoring and challenging a group of students from seven Cleveland public high schools as they wrote a play. At the same time, Yula directed Cleveland State University dramatic arts students in a production of his play about political banishment, called ‘codename:EXILE.’

Creative Fusion also hosted two other artists of Turkish origin – Gypsy dancer Sevi Bayraktar and visual artist Serpil Sevgen Schmutz – and South African visual artist Nandipha Mntambo.

GROWING AUDIENCES

The long-term sustainability of our city’s artistic and cultural offerings depends on cultivating enthusiastic audiences, artists, and patrons of the future. So we’re pleased to support such efforts.

For example, we granted $278,000 in mid-2010 to Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio and its in-school arts programs for 256,000 students across Cleveland and its suburbs.

We also give to Joyful Noise, which offers free music lessons to children in targeted Cleveland neighborhoods. Our funds have helped that small but lovely organization double the number of students it serves.

Learn more at www.ClevelandFoundation.org/Arts

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The Cleveland Foundation Report to the Community 2010-2011