ATNSC

_BOOK RECOMMENDATION: 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝘼𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖

Mason, J., & Suehsdorf, A. (Eds.). (1962). Creative America. Ridge Press.

_ABSTRACT This book has been created for the National Cultural Center. The national center for the performing arts is about to be built in Washington. Creative America is conceived in its spirit. It is a book about creation in all the arts. It is not a survey or an encyclopedia. But it is an attempt to picture the circle of creation: It starts with the sources of inspiration. It shows work beginning - the first struggle with an idea and the attempt to put it on paper, or on canvas, or in stone, or on stage. Elation is there as the work advances. So is dejection. There is the finished work - and its audience. The circle continues as learning begins and youth reaches out for new aspirations. The circle comes full.

When man creates, he is affirming his individuality and his humanity. This book, like the National Cultural Center, is dedicated to that spirit. (p. 3)

CONTENTS
The arts in America by John F. Kennedy.
Sources of inspiration (photographs).
The creative process by James Baldwin.
Work (photographs).
The creative arts by Louis Kronenberger.
Accomplishment (photographs).
Stone steps by John Ciardi.
In a glass of c***r by Robert Frost.
The creative heritage by Mark Van Doren.
Learning (photographs).
The creative purpose:
Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Harry S. Truman.
Aspirations (photographs).
Creative America by Joseph Wood Krutch.
Photographs by Magnum.

The “National Cultural Center” would become a living memorial named 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗻 𝗙. 𝗞𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗱𝘆 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝘀

_𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙣𝙤𝙭 Today at 6:30pm EST
Join us by the fire to mark the shift from summer to the fall.

This experience will begin at 6:30 and end at 8pm.

Take a moment to hold space for change.

*How are you closing out your time from this past season? What have you learned?

*What needs to be shed?

*How do you want to enter this season?

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹? 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲.

_Dress for the weather + perhaps bring something warm to drink

Fall Equinox.

📷: Jean-Michel Basquiat, “Pez Dispenser”(1984) on view at PAAM

Join us in wishing Sookkyung Park good travels back to her home as she completes her time in our community in Cleveland.

We also look forward to when she returns.

The connections between papermaking, memory + creating space and breath for unknown possibility are potent in Sookkyung’s practice.

We are grateful to have hosted you + look forward to what emerges.

Join us in welcoming visiting artist Sookyung Park!

Park will be present in our community while in residency at Morgan Conservatory

_ABOUT THE ARTIST

“Paper is more than a material to me—it is a vessel of memory.

As a child, I made toys, cushions, and kites from recycled paper, and grew up in a house where paper was part of the windows and floors. These experiences have shaped the way I understand paper—as something that carries traces of childhood, culture, and lived experience.

Through my practice, I seek to transform these memories into new forms, exploring the emotional and material possibilities of paper. At the Morgan Paper Residency, I hope to experiment with diverse papers and processes, expanding my practice and discovering new ways to express memory, identity, and the traces of life through this ever-evolving material.” —S.P.

Follow Sookyung at Sookkyung Park to learn more about her practice.

Welcome to Cleveland + to our arts and culture community!

Histories.

What does Cleveland have to do with Labor Day? More than you might think…

Labor Day has a surprising connection to Cleveland—and to John Patterson Green, a Black lawyer, politician, and judge who helped make the holiday a reality in Ohio.

In 1890, Green introduced legislation in the Ohio Senate calling for a Labor Day holiday. His efforts helped establish September 1 as Ohio’s first official Labor Day in 1890, years before the federal holiday was established.

So as we celebrate Labor Day, remember that this national tradition has some very local roots.

Want to learn more? Signal Cleveland recently explored Green’s story and his place in the history of Labor Day.

Read the full story from Signal Cleveland: https://signalcleveland.org/father-of-labor-day-was-black-lawmaker-from-cleveland-john-patterson-green/

Credit: Courtesy of Cleveland Public Library Photograph Collection

signalcleveland

𝗘𝗫𝗛𝗜𝗕𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗜𝗦𝗧
Ernestine Taliaferro
𝙐𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙙 (𝙎𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚), circa 1960’s
Oil paint on canvas board

_ABOUT THE WORK This painting is indicative of Taliaferro’s studio practice, the subject of Black life; to see one’s self + lived experience in a work. The use of still life speaks to the spatial memory of the African descendant in the Americas—incorporating a depiction of a West African mask within the African-American modern aesthetic.

This work was located in the home of a Black family in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood and turns its head on who collects art; who art is for.

It communicates who sustains and invests in Black women local artists in Cleveland’s past; here and now.

This exhibition marks Akhsó Gallery’s fifth year of existence—sited in a residential neighborhood, community based and artist-led.

Taliaferro’s work primarily seen in homes, now in a gallery, could be seen as a form of “afrofuturism.”By bearing witness to her work in day to day life, its impact could have been the seed that birthed future Black art spaces or catalyzed the individual practice of a Black artist in our city.

The exhibition as memory and as repair.

_ABOUT THE ARTIST 𝗘𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗼 was a Cleveland based artist working across, painting, drawing and design. She lived in the Glenville neighborhood until her death in 2005.

Join us in honoring Ernestine Taliaferro’s practice, through the group exhibition 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗝𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗 or 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙖𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙒𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝘽𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 which runs through September 2026.

Schedule your visit: calendly.com/akhsogallery

For Inquiries: [email protected]

Alison Croney Moses 𝙊𝙪𝙧 𝙐𝙣𝙞𝙩, 2024
Wood and acrylic paint

_ABOUT THE ARTIST + THEIR PRACTICE 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀 creates wooden objects that reach out to our senses—the smell of cedar, the color of honey or the deep blue sea, the round form that signifies safety and warmth, the gentle curve that beckons to be touched.

Born and raised in North Carolina (USA), by Guyanese parents, making clothing, food, furniture, and art is embedded in Alison’s memories of home life as a child.

Alison’s work explores themes of family, relationship, pregnancy, childbirth, safety, and care. Her work investigates the ‘private’ and ‘personal’ of life experiences that often encourages isolation and deterioration and in turn her work sparks dialogue, building a community of people with similar experiences and creating spaces of processing through care and repair.

Her works are in the collections at the Detroit Institute of the Arts, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Rose Art Museum at Brandies, and the Fuller Craft Museum.

She is a recipient of the 2023 Boston Artadia Award, the 2022 USA Fellowship in Craft, a finalist of the 2024 LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize, the recipient of the 2024 Black Mountain College International Artist Prize, and the 2025 Foster Prize at the ICA Boston.

Alison serves at a Trustee at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. She holds an MA in Sustainable Business & Communities from Goddard College, and a BFA in Furniture Design from Rhode Island School of Design.
_from alisoncroneymoses.com

𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗝𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗 or 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙖𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙒𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝘽𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 runs through September 2026.

Schedule your visit: calendly.com/akhsogallery