Jan 27 2016

Cleveland Museum of Art

Brent

Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art is truly a treasure here in Northeast Ohio. This world-class museum is free and open all year for families to enjoy. Here is more about the museum from the Cleveland Museum of Art website: “The museum opened on June 6, 1916, after many years of planning. Its creation was made possible by Cleveland industrialists Hinman B. Hurlbut, John Huntington, and Horace Kelley, all of whom bequeathed money specifically for an art museum, as well as by Jeptha H. Wade II, whose Wade Park property was donated for the site. The endowments established by these founders continue to support the museum. The original neoclassic building of white Georgian marble was designed by the Cleveland firm of Hubbell & Benes and was constructed at a cost of $1.25 million. Located north of the Wade Lagoon, it forms the focus of the city’s Fine Arts Garden.

Establishing Programs for Children and Adults
Frederic Allen Whiting was the museum’s first director from 1913 to 1930. An authority on handicrafts, he believed in the museum as an educational institution. Under his leadership, the museum established the education department and a wide variety of programs for children and adults. In 1919 the first “Annual Exhibition of Cleveland Artists & Craftsmen” was held. This exhibition soon became known as the May Show, and continued to showcase local artists for 73 years.

Securing an International Reputation
William M. Milliken served as the museum’s second director from 1930 to 1958. During his tenure the museum continued to prosper, particularly during the 1940s and 1950s, when a series of large bequests, including the Rogers Bequest and the Severance Fund, allowed the purchase of significant works that established the museum’s international reputation.

Three important milestones occurred in 1958. On March 4 the first major addition doubled the size of the museum. During the year the museum also received a sizable bequest from Leonard Hanna Jr., which provided the funds necessary to function in the mainstream of national and international art collecting. Dr. Sherman Emery Lee became the museum’s third director. Lee would be known for his long tenure in the director’s role and the development of the museum’s Asian collection, which ranks as one of the finest in the country. During his directorship another wing, developed by signature architect Marcel Breuer, opened in 1971. It contained special exhibition galleries, classrooms, lecture halls, Gartner Auditorium, and the headquarters of the education department.

Expanding the Collections
In 1983 Dr. Evan Hopkins Turner became the fourth director. Another addition to the museum opened during his tenure. It contained the museum’s extensive library, as well as nine new galleries. Turner’s legacy includes the expansion of the photography and modern art collections and the reinstallation of permanent galleries. He also established the museum’s community-centered focus to ensure the institution’s relevancy to its audiences.

Enhancing Community Connections
Turner’s community-centered outlook continued under the directorship of Dr. Robert P. Bergman, who served from July 1993 until May 1999. A specialist in the art of the European Middle Ages, Dr. Bergman established community advisory committees to act as consultants for exhibitions and programs. Upon the untimely death of Dr. Bergman, deputy director Kate Sellers was appointed acting director and served from May 1999 until March 2000.

Advancing a Great Legacy
On March 13, 2000, Katharine Lee Reid, the daughter of former director Sherman Lee, became the museum’s sixth director. Her special interests included 17th-century European paintings, 20th-century painting and sculpture, and late 19th- and 20th-century American and European decorative arts. Under her tenure, ground was broken for the Rafael Viñoly-designed renovation and expansion of the entire museum complex. Mrs. Reid retired in 2005.

Building for the Future
Succeeding Katharine Lee Reid in April 2006, Timothy Rub became the seventh director of the museum. With a background in architecture and modern and contemporary art, Mr. Rub brought 20 years of museum experience to Cleveland. The museum’s renovation and expansion project continued under Mr. Rub, with the renovated 1916 Beaux-Arts building reopening in June 2008 and the new east wing in June 2009. Mr. Rub resigned as director in September 2009 to become director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Deborah Gribbon, a former director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, served as interim director until September 2010.

David Franklin, an internationally respected scholar of Italian Renaissance and baroque art, was the museum’s ninth director; his term ended in October 2013. Fred Bidwell, the retired executive chairman of JWT/OgilvyAction, a national advertising agency serving leading brands with more than 500 employees, served as the museum’s interim director.

William M. Griswold was named the tenth director of the museum in May 2014, and is currently leading the museum as it approches its centennial anniversary”.

Make sure to check out more about this amazing museum here: http://www.clevelandart.org/

Purchase this photo: Brent Durken Print Sales

http://brent-durken.pixels.com/


Dec 15 2012

Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art

Brent

Moca Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art

Todays photo is of the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). This beautiful new building is within walking distance of both Little Italy and Wade Oval. Here is some information directly from MOCA’s website about the new building:

“MOCA’s new building is designed to serve as a catalyst for creativity and growth in a cosmopolitan Cleveland neighborhood, which is home to one of the country’s largest concentrations of cultural, educational and medical institutions.

The nearly 34,000-square-foot structure, which is 44 percent larger than MOCA’s former rented space, demonstrates that a museum expansion need not be large in scale to be ambitious in all respects. Devised for both environmental and fiscal sustainability, the design is at once technically inventive, visually stunning and highly practical.

The dynamic structure was designed by Iranian-born Farshid Moussavi of London, formerly with Foreign Office Architects (FOA) and now principal of Farshid Moussavi Architecture (FMA). This is her first U.S. commission and her first museum.

In addition to FMA, the design team includes executive architects Westlake Reed Leskosky, headquartered in Cleveland and designers of more than 50 cultural buildings throughout the United States.

Moussavi says that museums today are not just homes for art, but serve multiple functions and host a variety of activities. “Our design for MOCA Cleveland aims to provide an ideal environment for artists and visitors and to foster creativity and variety in exhibitions and programs.”

Because MOCA is a non-collecting institution – one of the relatively few such contemporary art museums in the country – its new building does not need to accommodate collection galleries, says MOCA Executive Director Jill Snyder. “This building’s design is a perfect expression of the museum’s philosophy and programs. Flexibility is key to a program like ours that embraces aesthetic, conceptual and cultural diversity, and displays works in a great variety of media and genres.”

The four-story building, which anchors the Uptown district, rises 60 feet from a hexagonal base to a square top, where the primary exhibition space is located. All four floors contain areas for either exhibitions or public programs.

Clad primarily in mirror-finish black Rimex stainless steel, the façade will reflect its urban surroundings, changing in appearance with differences in light and weather. Three of the building’s six facets, one of them clad in transparent glass, will flank a public plaza designed by James Corner Field Operations, a New York-based landscape architecture and urban design firm. The plaza will serve as a public gathering place and will link MOCA to Uptown attractions and amenities, including the expanded Cleveland Institute of Art, designed by Burt, Hill with MVRDV, and new commercial space and residential units, designed by Stanley Saitowitz/Natoma Architects Inc.

Upon entering the building, visitors find themselves in an atrium where they can see the dynamic shape and structure of the building as it rises. This space leads to MOCA’s lobby, café and shop, and to a double-height multi-purpose room for public programs and events. From there, visitors may take MOCA’s monumental staircase, a dominant architectural feature of the building, to the upper floors. On the top floor the 6,000-square-foot gallery space has no fixed dividing walls, allowing for a variety of configurations. This floor also contains a gallery designed for new media work and the Dick and Doreen Cahoon Lounge, which overlooks the plaza and Uptown.”

For more information about this great museum click here:

http://www.mocacleveland.org/

Today’s Quote: “Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs”. – Ansel Adams

 


May 16 2012

Free Stamp

Brent

willard park free stamp

The Free Stamp by Danish artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen

From about.com:

“The 50-foot tall aluminum and steel replica of a hand stamp sits downtown at Willard Park on Lakeside Avenue, next to City Hall. The artwork was originally commissioned in 1982 by the Standard Oil Company to sit in front of their soon-to-be-constructed headquarters building on Public Square (now the BP Building). The piece was originally to sit with the “Free” stamp facing downward, hidden from view. However, before the piece could be installed, Standard Oil was acquired by the British Petroleum Company (BP) who did not favor the piece. “Free Stamp” sat in storage in Indiana for years before BP donated it to the city of Cleveland.”

More info: http://cleveland.about.com/b/2008/05/31/free-stamp-in-cleveland.htm

Today’s Quote: A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament. –Oscar Wilde


Apr 18 2012

Fountain of Eternal Life during the winter time

Brent

Fountain of Eternal Life

Today’s photo is of the Fountain of Eternal Life during the winter time. During the winter months the fountain is turned off but it still looks pretty cool.

From Wikipedia –

“The Fountain of Eternal Life, also known as the War Memorial Fountain and Peace Arising from the Flames of War, is a statue and fountain in Cleveland, Ohio designed by Cleveland Institute of Art graduate Marshall Fredericks and dedicated on May 30, 1964. The sculpture, which serves as the city’s major memorial to its citizens that served in World War II, is situated on Memorial Plaza, which is part of the Cleveland Mall.

The fountain was initiated and promoted by the Cleveland Press, which raised $250,000 in donations from private citizens and various organizations for the project. The centerpiece is a 35-foot (10.7 m) bronze figure representing man escaping from the flames of war and reaching skyward for eternal peace. The bronze sphere from which the figure rises represents the earth. Four granite carvings, representing the geographic civilizations of the world, are placed around the sphere. On the surface of the polished granite rim surrounding the fountain are bronze plates bearing the names of 4,177 Greater Clevelanders who perished in WWII and in the Korean War. Following a complete restoration during the construction of an underlying parking garage in connection with the neighboring Key Tower, the memorial was rededicated on Veterans Day in 1991″.

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_of_Eternal_Life

Today’s Quote – “Every man dies. Not every man really lives”. – William Wallace


Feb 24 2012

Chagrin Falls

Brent

 

chagrin falls ohio

The picturesque village of Chagrin falls has grown around a natural waterfall on the Chagrin River. The town is known for its restaurants, historic architecture, shopping, and its arts community. For more information on Chagrin Falls:

http://www.chagrin-falls.org/

Today’s Quote: “A picture is a poem without words”. – Horace


Jan 23 2012

The Fountain of Eternal Life

Brent

Fountain of Eternal Life

 

From Wikipedia –

“The Fountain of Eternal Life, also known as the War Memorial Fountain and Peace Arising from the Flames of War, is a statue and fountain in Cleveland, Ohio designed by Cleveland Institute of Art graduate Marshall Fredericks and dedicated on May 30, 1964. The sculpture, which serves as the city’s major memorial to its citizens that served in World War II, is situated on Memorial Plaza, which is part of the Cleveland Mall.

The fountain was initiated and promoted by the Cleveland Press, which raised $250,000 in donations from private citizens and various organizations for the project. The centerpiece is a 35-foot (10.7 m) bronze figure representing man escaping from the flames of war and reaching skyward for eternal peace. The bronze sphere from which the figure rises represents the earth. Four granite carvings, representing the geographic civilizations of the world, are placed around the sphere. On the surface of the polished granite rim surrounding the fountain are bronze plates bearing the names of 4,177 Greater Clevelanders who perished in WWII and in the Korean War. Following a complete restoration during the construction of an underlying parking garage in connection with the neighboring Key Tower, the memorial was rededicated on Veterans Day in 1991”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_of_Eternal_Life

Today’s Quote: “Beauty awakens the soul to act” – Dante Alighieri


Jan 10 2012

Sunrise in the Italian Garden

Brent

Italian Garden

Today’s Photo: Sunrise in the Italian Garden

This photo was taken early one morning about a year or so ago. If you have never spent any time here you are really missing something. Here is some more information:

http://blog.culturalgardens.org/index.php/category/italian-garden/

“A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy” – Luis Barragan


Jan 9 2012

Welcome to the Ohio Theater!

Brent

ohio theater

Today’s Photo: Welcome to the Ohio Theater!

Standing on the stage of the Ohio Theater and looking out into the seats. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about the Ohio Theater:

“The Ohio Theatre is a theater on Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, part of Playhouse Square. The theater was built by Marcus Loew’s Loew’s Ohio Theatres company. It was designed by Thomas W. Lamb in the Italian Renaissance style, and was intended to present legitimate plays. The theater opened on February 14, 1921, with 1,338 seats. The foyer featured three murals depicting the story of Venus, and the balcony contained paintings of Arcadia. Throughout the 1920s, the Ohio had a stock company and hosted traveling Broadway plays.

In 1935, the theater was redecorated in an Art Deco style and transformed into a supper club called the Mayfair Casino. The owners hoped to turn the establishment into an actual casino, but since gambling was not allowed in Ohio, the Mayfair closed in 1936. The Loew’s Theatres chain (then the parent of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) acquired the building, and in 1943 the Ohio reopened as a movie theater. A 1964 lobby fire damaged the interior, which was painted red to hide the smoke damage. Decreasing patronage caused the theater to close in early February 1969, along with the rest of the Playhouse Square theaters. Twice the Ohio and State Theatres were threatened with razing in order to build a parking lot; in 1972, when the buildings were saved by public outcry, and again in 1977. The Playhouse Square Foundation responded by obtaining a long-term lease for the theaters, and the Loew’s Building was purchased by Cuyahoga County. In 1978, the Ohio was added to the National Register of Historic Places, along with the rest of the Playhouse Square group.

Because of the extent of the building’s fire damage, the Ohio was originally slated to be the last of the group to undergo renovation, but plans were accelerated so that the theater could become the home of the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival. The $4 million restoration took less than nine months, and on July 9, 1982, the Ohio Theatre became the first Playhouse Square theater to reopen, with 1,000 seats, showing Shakespeare’s As You Like It.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_Theatre_(Cleveland,_Ohio)

Today’s Quote:

If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great – Tom Hanks

Fore more info: http://www.playhousesquare.org/


Jan 5 2012

The Emperor’s Gun

Brent

Flintlock Sporting Gun of Napoleon I Bonaparte

Today’s Photo: The Emperor’s Gun

This double barreled flintlock sporting gun was made by Jean Le Page for Napoleon Bonaparte, who in turn gave it to the Polish count, Vincent Corvin Graf von Krasine-Krasinski as a gift. Le Page was also the royal gun maker for the French king, Louis XVI. This amazing gun and many others can be viewed in the armored court section of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

For more info:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/amica/amico6100263-36064.html

http://www.clevelandart.org/

Today’s Quote: A picture is worth a thousand words.- Napoleon Bonaparte


Jan 3 2012

Standing Alone

Brent

Single Flower at the cleveland zoo

Today’s Photo: Standing Alone

Today’s photo was taken at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. I thought everyone could use a little bit of spring on a day like this. It’s only a few months away!

Today’s Quote: You laugh at me because I’m different; I laugh at you because you’re all the same – Jonathan Davis