- [David] Production of "Applause," on Idea Stream Public Media is made possible by The John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation and by Cuyahoga county residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

(upbeat music) Coming up, Summit county's home for contemporary art just got a new look for its 100th birthday.

We take a tour of the Akron Art Museum's refresh.

Plus celebrate 50 years of dance in Montgomery county with the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, and listen for Latin jazz along the Cuyahoga from Jackie Warren and Sammy DeLeon.

It's time for another artistic tour of the Buckeye state, it's "Applause," I'm Idea Stream Public Media's David C. Barnett.

Celebrating its centennial, the Akron Art Museum recently refreshed the galleries featuring its permanent collection known for its contemporary art curators made the decision to spotlight the museum's greatest strength in a new way.

(upbeat music) - Hi, my name is Jared Ledesma.

I'm senior curator here at the Akron Art Museum and I help organize the exhibitions and work with the collection here.

So right now, we're in the museum's collection galleries.

You usually see about 3% of a museum's collection that's usually what's on view.

These galleries are devoted to showing works in the collection.

Right now we're standing in a building that opened in 2007.

This was an addition to the older building right next door.

So when this building opened in 2007 there was a certain display of collection objects.

This re installation is the first time that we have ultimately moved a lot of those objects around taken them off view things like Chuck Close's, Linda that a lot of people might recognize or remember that is now in storage to make sure it stays preserved.

Because we have over 7,500 objects, we wanna bring things out that have never been shown before especially works that we've been collecting over the past century.

This is our 100th anniversary.

So we really wanted to bring out works that show the strength of the collection as well.

Also, I should say that over the past few years a lot of museums in particular have been under pressure about being kind of artifacts of colonialism and the collections that are mostly composed from heterosexual, cisgendered, white men and us included in looking over our collection.

And so we really wanted to showcase that we do have works by people of color in the collection by women artists.

And it was really important to bring those out as well.

(upbeat music) This is actually a recent acquisition that we've made into the collection.

It's by Herman Aguirre, who's based in Chicago and the subject is in 2018 when a mound of clothing was found in Vera Cruz, Mexico and the clothing belonged to children.

And it was basically a mass grave due to drug violence in the area.

So Aguirre is depicting this, this moment in history but it's also about kind of looking upwards toward the sky and thinking about heaven and memorializing these victims.

But his medium is really interesting.

He uses oil skins.

So like when you open a paint lid can and there's like still that dried paint around the lid.

So that's what we're looking at here.

He's collage them onto the surface and really built up this amazing kind of three dimensionality.

So we're looking at a work called "All Fall" by Jenny Holzer who's an American contemporary American artist who actually is from Ohio originally.

And so she is well known for creating digital artworks for kind of adapting these digital signage systems to display what she calls truisms or her truisms, statements about American society, about beauty.

They also deal with culture and society at large.

And so this work in particular there are five panels that are displaying her truisms on all of them and they all run at the same time.

And it's both in English and in Spanish.

This is a fan favorite, this has been on view for a while.

This was not in storage.

It actually was in a different spot though.

And I recognized that a lot of people love this work and I wanted it showcased and centered in our main collection gallery here.

This is by Mickalene Thomas, who's a contemporary American artist.

She's really interested in Matisse and Picasso and art history but she's also interested in subverting that history, this history that has been very white centric as far as models and muses.

So she uses her own gaze as a Black, queer woman in looking at her models and depicts them is very strong and depicting this type of black femininity.

And I love the title, it's called "Girlfriends and Lovers" which is kind of her a sly way of indicating friendships between women, but also romantic connections as well.

- [David] Share the past, create the future selections from the Akron art museum collection is on view now through April 9th, 2023.

In 1968, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company began with a mission of providing opportunity for dancers of color.

Rooted in the African American experience, DCDC continues that tradition more than half a century later.

(upbeat music) - The Dayton Contemporary Dance Company has a broad audience.

Individuals who love arts and culture, creativity and experiencing what I call the African American story from the soul.

The Dayton Contemporary Dance Company was started in 1968 by Geraldine Blunden.

- My mother Geraldine started this company and built it because really there was no place for African American dancers to really train here in this part of the United States.

When you think of dance companies, you think of dance companies existing in coastal cities.

And she was very adamant about the fact that one could exist here in the Midwest where people only thought there were cows in cornfield.

We are a performing company that tours and we also offer educational activities from K through 89 but we are rooted in the African American experience which means we perform dances of that culture, of that conversation.

- DCDC's history is rooted in the civil rights movement.

It's about the African American experience.

And now as the world is becoming multicultural it's relevant to today.

DCDC is the artistic exploration of multicultural reality.

If you like high energy, it's the place to go.

This is not some lullaby.

This is very high energy dance and it's very easy to digest and it's very powerful.

And one walks away from a performance feeling great.

- I started dancing with the company when I was 12.

So I sort of grew up as the company grew up.

I started choreographing when I was 15 or 16.

So there's always been a place to grow and be nurtured here.

As we move through this 50th anniversary.

And I start to think about what the future holds for us.

I still wanna hold fast to those things that make us us.

And that's a very, very nurturing environment.

The roster of dancers for DCDC's first company come from all over the world.

Dayton is home for every artist that joins this company for whatever length of time to what they do and who they are doesn't just live inside of the studio space.

- I'm from Indianapolis, Indiana, a really good friend of mine had previously danced for DCDC.

And he talked about them a lot.

So he put DCDC on my radar but then when I saw them dance, it put me like head over heels.

I was like, this is my next spot.

If I don't get here, I don't know what's next.

But I have got to get into the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company.

- I'm from Nashville, Tennessee.

I saw DCDC do the wonderful concert dance that they do.

And I was like, oh my gosh like that's a really big D like, this is really amazing.

So I took the next year and a half after I met DCDC to prepare myself for coming to audition, being able to host a large conference like the International Association of Blacks and Dance during our 50th anniversary is a great opportunity to just allow people to experience DCDC and to experience Dayton.

- IABD stands for the International Association of Blacks and Dance.

Five dance companies, we call 'em the founding fives.

They all came together and they wanted to create a platform where young dancers could come, audition, work, network, all under one roof - DCDC was one of the founding member companies.

There were five of them, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Dallas Black Dance Theater, Philadanco, Lula Washington and Cleo Parker Robinson.

So IABD is now this consortium of Black dance of Black dance companies, Black scholars Black artistic directors.

And every year we all get together and there's a conference and festival and it's like a family reunion.

And it's just four days of being with people who know what you are going through.

And it's always an experience that revives and refreshes you.

We had a youth performance and a collegiate performance.

We had an audition for summer study for dancers and the takeaway was over half a million dollars in scholarships that were offered to those young dancers.

The Onyx performance was the crown jewel of the weekend because it showcased the major African American dance companies from across the country.

Lula Washington's piece "Fragments," Lula is a self bread choreographer and Lula creates work that sparks her emotional ID no matter what it is.

And I think "Fragments" talks about that, I think the pieces created in a way that it can have modules added onto it.

As other things peak her curiosity movement is our language.

Like words are writer's way.

Movement is how we connect with our audiences.

And "Fragments" was a perfect example of that.

Philadanco performed "Endangered Species."

The piece that was created by Anthony Burrell and it was one of the most incredible works of dance that I've seen in quite some time.

Clearly he tackled a social ill and a social problem in that work, but the way it resonated in those dancers' bodies, for the performance of that work it should be seen everywhere.

People ask all the time what is different about Black dance?

And I think it's the energy and the perspective and how we can reach out there and grab your heart and twist it in your chest.

If you'll just sit still long enough and come support us and "Endangered Species" was the prime proof positive example of what that kind of work can do.

- People have said that they feel something when they watch the company, that there's like a spiritual connection that they can feel.

I know that the first time that I saw DCDC I also felt the same way.

The atmosphere that the organization sets allows us to be our full selves and allows us to be artistically liberated so that when we are on stage there's this real sense of dancing from the heart and giving with nothing to prove, but everything to share.

We try to think about that as we are performing.

And I think that people receive that.

- I'd like to believe that with all of the other innovations that have happened in the soil of the Miami Valley, DCDC is a part of that.

Arts and culture really touched the soul.

- I think we are proud to be from Dayton.

We are here, we are rooted here and I'm hoping that we'll be here for another 50 years.

- [David] From Uzbekistan to Sagamore Hills.

On the next "Applause" we meet an illustrator sharing Folklore with future generations.

Plus a poet from Dayton lends her voice to the artistic project, "Walking with Words."

And we share a masterpiece of minimalism by legendary composer, Philip Glass, all that and more on the next round of "Applause."

(gentle orchestral music) Inspired by the mosaics of Italy, Columbus artist Terry Albanese creates glasswork uniquely her own.

And after the pandemic hit, she used her art to pay tribute to those working on the front line.

- I describe my work as painting with glass.

As a child, I loved drawing, loved it.

I've always painted more as a stress relief as opposed to having it be my life.

Then Frank and I were married.

We took a trip over to Italy and I fell in love with mosaics.

We just finished a wine tasting and sun was shining.

It was just a glorious fall afternoon.

So we're walking down the street of Montepulciano and I looked up and maybe about 10 or 12 feet above the ground was this mosaic sign in front of a boutique hotel.

And the sun hit the gold, hit my eye.

And it was just like this light.

And I thought, oh my gosh I've gotta do something with this, I've got to do something with this.

When I illustrate, I illustrate on the diagonal.

So then what I started to do was to take sheets of glass cut long thin strips, set them on the diagonal that then would emulate my illustration style.

And that, I mean, it just all clicked at that point.

The glass I use is handmade glass, it's made in the Laurel highlands of Pennsylvania.

The glass studio called Youghiogheny.

To give you an idea, each piece of glass is an original piece of art in itself.

Look at this purple this deep purple with the white striations.

Once I've got the illustration finish I'll choose the glass I want to use for the glass painting.

And then the cutting glass process begins.

(upbeat music) So glass has been cut.

I now have my pallet and as I build piece upon peace you'll see this pedal start coming to life.

Although mosaic set the basis of it it's still a true unique art form for me the technique and the style, no one else is doing it.

I butt joined the pieces because to me grout stops your eye.

You may not realize it, but it's almost like a period at the end of a sentence.

And I didn't want that.

I wanted to be able to paint with glass.

And that flow comes from being able to butt joint the pieces.

So you don't have that visual separation from piece to piece.

(upbeat music) I can't forget that moment.

I will not forget that moment.

So what I do in each of my glass paintings I incorporate a piece of the gold smalti and smalti is the glass that's used in the classical setting of mosaics.

And as you can see here, this is gold on one side and then they've got it on top of blue to give it more depth as they create it.

So I always incorporate a tiny, tiny piece of this in my glass painting.

And it's to remind me of that inspiration, to remind me of how quickly our lives can change for the better in a second, if we just follow that inspiration.

So each glass painting will have one of these pieces of smalti in it.

And I place it for instance, in this flower, I think about okay, if the sun were to kiss this flower, where would it be?

And that's where I place the smalti.

I'm often asked who inspires me as an artist.

And when I think of the masters, for instance I think of Renoir.

I mean, it goes back years ago when I was studying at CCAD, I fell in love with Renoir and his paintings, I mean, I could stand in front of them just totally immersed and mesmerized by the beauty.

But then when I learned his philosophy that's when I really fell in love with his work.

He was painting a very dark time too.

And his philosophy was there's enough darkness in the world.

I don't wanna bring more.

So his word was pretty.

He says, I want to paint pretty things.

I wanna bring pretty into the world.

And that's how I feel.

I feel that as a person I was created to create work, that brings light that brings hope to bring a sense of healing.

And I believe in the connection between art and healing.

So it's my ambition to bring into the healthcare industry more information about art and healing and the importance of that connection.

Two years ago, when our state, Ohio, started closing down because of the pandemic I was haunted by the thought of the healthcare workers going into the hospitals willingly to care for people.

They're hoarding the hands of our loved ones.

Who's caring for them, who's saying, thank you?

Who's saying we appreciate you?

So I was moved to do something.

That's when I came up with a concept for a garden of gratitude.

So what I did was I identified 18 different characteristics that I saw in the healthcare workers, everything from courage to resilience, inner beauty, compassion.

And I then did research and found flowers that symbolize each of these characteristics.

So a garden of gratitude is an exhibition of glass paintings that will be touring, Ohio hospitals and the University of Kentucky to thank our, what I call wounded healers.

When I see my work resonate with somebody, I'm moved and I know I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

- One, two, three, four.

- [David] When it comes to Latin jazz in Northeast Ohio, pianist Jackie Warren and percussionist Sammy DeLeon are at the top of their game.

These two long time friends composed this piece of music for "Applause" and they call it "The J.S Mumbo."

("The J.S Mumbo") If you wanna check out this full performance, you can.

Visit Applause Performances via the PBS app and a good time was had by all.

At least we hope so.

I'm Idea Stream Public Media's David C. Barnett.

See you next time for "Applause."

("The J.S Mumbo") Production of "Applause" on Idea Stream Public Media is made possible by The John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation and by Cuyahoga County Residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.