Brewed Fresh Daily

Have: More ideas than time. The ability to influence young minds. Want: Like-minded individuals with the desire to build Cleveland's arts community Title: Chair, Fine Arts Dept Home: Cleveland Heights, OH USA Company: Cleveland Municipal School District From: Auburn Twp, Geauga County, OH Industry: Education/ Visual Artist, Interests: Urban secondary education, Visual arts education, promoting regional artists, developing collaborations between the schools and the arts community, Universities: Ohio University Athens OH Cleveland State University When asked what I do for a living, I'm apt to respond that I attempt to make silk purses out of sows ears. Lately, I have been succeeding. I teach Visual Art to inner-city teenagers at a trade school in the city of Cleveland. This is a school for the adcademically disinclined, that has been struggling to overcome it's reputation as 'Last Chance High". I was initially hired to teach Sign Painting back in 1998 to a student body comprised of mostly boys studying welding, construction, auto tech, machining, and diesel. I convinced my principal that sign painting was obsolete in this age of technology and asked him to let me teach art. I was amazed with the facility, the shops, the equipment, and the technical abilities of my students. This was a sculptors paradise. Too bad, I was a painter. To remedy my lack of 3D expertise, I sought local sculptors for residencies, and began writing for grants to be able to pay them. I began establishing relationships with the various arts institutions in the city as well as individual artists and independant galleries. I became interested in creating public art with my students and recieved major funding to accomplish that goal. We are now involved in several public art projects with nationally and internationally renouned artists. We keep looking for new ways to continue our collaborations with the community, develop new talent, and change a few lives. I also enjoy writing. My chosen career has provided me with many stories. I have been writing a column for a local quarterly arts magazine, mostly autobiographical/personal musings. I am going to include my latest essay on this page. It explains a lot about who I am, and what I do all day. Read on...[by clicking on the title of this post]