- [Narrator] Production of Applause on Ideastream 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 funk music) - [Kabir] Coming up, travel to a northeast Ohio temple that's now home to a series of Pop Art masterpieces.

Plus, meet a maker for Mentor known for accessorizing city skylines Cleveland to Copenhagen.

And a romantic symphony by a Finnish composer gets the Cleveland Orchestra spotlight at Severance.

Hello everyone, I'm Kabir Bhatia from Ideastream Public Media, and you're just in time for another round of "Applause."

Thanks for joining us.

(upbeat guitar pop music) Artist Andy Warhol is known for his portraits of famous people like Marilyn Monroe.

Now, a collection of Warhol portraits can be seen and studied in Beachwood, thanks to a generous donation.

Joel Saltzman and Leslie Wolf grew up attending Park Synagogue religious school in Cleveland Heights as boys.

Their lifelong friendship included an appreciation of music and art.

- [Joel] We had very big interests, each of us, in rock 'n' roll music and in various art.

And Warhol was one of them.

- The writers and the painters who Leslie liked were ones who took risks with their work.

And to me, that just seems to apply to Andy Warhol so much.

And I think that is one of the reasons that my brother really cared about Warhol's work.

- Well, he was in the avant garde.

He was controversial.

I enjoyed his colors.

He was not accepted.

- [Kabir] Little did the two friends know that they'd someday gain their own set of Warhol portraits.

It was a series that came at the suggestion of one of Warhol's good friends.

- He had a wonderful gallerist in New York City, Ronald Feldman.

Warhol kept asking him for ideas.

"What should I do?

What should I do?"

(gentle piano music) And then he suggested "What about 10 Jews of the 20th century?"

And Warhol was very excited about that.

And they both worked together to produce this beautiful portfolio.

- Warhol created the series in 1980.

Not long after, Saltzman, then working in Washington DC, received a call from his old friend Leslie, who became a college professor in California.

- He called me and and said, "I saw in a gallery they have a complete suite of Warhol's 10 portraits of Jews of the 20th century, and they're beautiful and what do you think?

I can't afford all of them," he said, "but you wanna go in on that and we'll figure it out?"

And I said, "That sounds interesting."

(wistful piano music) - [Kabir] Saltzman had a connection in New York City that led him to Warhol's famous art studio, the Factory.

By combining resources, the two purchased printer's proofs of the series, 10 portraits of Jews of the 20th century.

Actress Sarah Bernhardt, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, philosopher Martin Buber, writer Gertrude Stein, physicist Albert Einstein, neurologist Sigmund Freud, composer George Gershwin, author Franz Kafka, and comedians the Marx Brothers.

- The art handlers shipped it down to me in DC, the whole suite in a in a box.

I said to Leslie, "What am I gonna do in one bedroom apartment with this?"

And he said, "Just keep mine contained in the box."

I said I'll frame my five, and I framed them and I put them up in my apartment.

Leslie then flew to Washington and saw the portraits up and we went over, I opened the thing up.

It was under my bed really for years, his five.

And so from time to time, whenever he'd come to Washington, he would look at 'em.

Then ultimately he fell ill and ultimately came back to Cleveland and got an apartment.

And I drove his five on the Pennsylvania and Ohio turnpike to Cleveland.

And we hung them in his apartment here.

And he enjoyed 'em very much.

He couldn't travel after that, so he enjoyed them very much for I think maybe 10, 12 years until he passed away.

- [Nancy] We didn't really know what to do with them and we didn't want them to be damaged in any way by being out and having exposure and stuff, you know, with lighting and things.

So they were in storage till we could find the right home for them.

And we just kept waiting and time just kept passing by.

- [Kabir] Fast forward to 2021, and Saltzman was downsizing from his home outside of Washington DC to an apartment in Beachwood.

- I wasn't going to have a big enough space to have my five anymore.

And I said, you know, it's much better that, I think, that the public gets to see these.

They haven't seen 'em for all these years.

- I give Joel credit that he contacted us about putting it together with his five and making the donation here.

And we thought that was a phenomenal idea.

- [Kabir] For the Temple-Tifereth Israel and its museum, the donation is transformative.

(sweeping jazz music) - This gift is really the piece that is telling of Jewish culture of the 20th century.

- [Jonathan] The moment we're looking at that is represented in these portraits is a moment we in Jews struggle for citizenship, for equality, for acceptance, for dignity, for participation and contribution in a whole range of aspects of life.

This is the time wherein we find Jews, on the one hand being integrated into a number of societies and eventually into America, while at the same time we witness the destruction of Jewish life in Europe during the time of the Second World War and the Holocaust.

- A lot of discussion comes up from these.

Well, who would be the 10 famous Jews of the 21st century?

- I think he'd be thrilled, he really would, and he would be very grateful to Joel for pulling it off.

- It's marvelous to see it, you know, well lit and on one wall, it's stunning.

- 10 portraits of Jews of the 20th Century by Andy Warhol is on view at the Temple-Tifereth Israel Museum through June 2023.

(exciting music) From a story by two friends' passion for Pop Art to a father and son tale of art and metal.

We head now to the Columbus neighborhood of Whitehall, home to Jay's metal crafting.

- Ever since I was a kid working in my dad's metal shop, there was always fire, there was always hot stuff going around, and I was probably a little bit of a pyro as a kid.

(heavy metal music) I'd always be, you know, messing around the shop, twisting metal and melting stuff and all that kind of just sprung the creativity as I was older and I could actually, you know, functionally do something with it.

Just being around it my whole life inspired me to come this far.

(inquisitive string music) We make creative custom home decor that's artistic and also functional.

So things like, you know, plant hangers and we make wine racks and jewelry trees.

A lot of it's just stuff that we just start bending, creating in the shop, to find something that we like or that's suitable.

A lot of the things that we've made are also like custom requests for maybe family.

(machine whirring) Definitely like our steel plant hangers, those are one of the biggest things that we sell (fire sparking) 'cause we make it so like one of the arms rotates around so people can actually get their stuff in and out of 'em and they can go inside and outside.

And then we also make a wall mount that goes with them and it's all twisted wrought iron, it just matches really well and people have been buying those up like crazy.

I mean, we have trouble keeping them in stock.

(tools sparking) (folk guitar music) So I grew up hanging out with my dad in his metal shop as he was completing projects and whatnot.

I was just a little kid running around 'cause he'd bring me with them all the time.

I even remember when I was in grade school and they'd give you those papers, like "what do you want to be when you grow up?"

I always wrote "welder."

Like, I always wrote that 'cause I always wanted to be just like my dad.

He was also a very creative person.

He'd be making artistic items for my mom and for family members.

And I kind of found some of these things and I kind started recreating them and as he saw me doing this, it just kind of expanded.

He would give me some pointers, you know, "maybe here, try this, try this.

Here's a better way to bend that so it's not all wonky."

He really just guided the process a lot and you know, made me who I am today and I would not be able to do this without his teaching.

It's really sad that he passed away too soon.

I mean it was super unexpected.

My father has had this very same shop in Whitehall in this location for the last 30 years, no, more than 40 years now.

Once he passed away, I just continued running the shop and exactly the way he had always done it, exactly the way he taught me.

And he definitely was the kind of guy who never skipped any steps, never took the short route.

He always did everything by the book and did it correctly.

And that's why he was such a renowned metal fabricator in this area, 'cause everyone knows his name, everyone knows his work.

I know he would be proud of where I brought this business and that's what makes me happy the most.

And I know he's watching everything that we're doing here and he's just cheering me on.

The material that we work with is all wrought iron steel.

We work with some stainless steel as well.

Like the art that we make is all stainless steel.

But it's all wrought iron.

All of the metal that I use for my art, it's all scrap metal from a local metal shop.

I go there, I'm really good friends with the guy, he kind of just sells me off his scrap.

And then what I do is I twist the steel, it all starts in 20 foot lengths, and I might cut it down, I twist it into different shapes.

It's all very abstract.

It all starts out with just sheets of stainless steel.

And then I'll buff designs into it and then I'll take the sticks of maybe a quarter inch square bar or three eighths square bar and I twist them with my hand into various circle-y shapes.

And then I figure out how I want it to sit on my metal.

(gentle ambient music) and then I'll weld it all in and then I'll use a torch with the stainless steel, which brings out the colors in it.

There's a different variety of the rainbow that you can bring out with heat on the stainless steel.

And that's specifically why I use the stainless steel as a background.

And that's gotta be the best feeling out there is when you have somebody who loves this stuff just as much as you do.

Because not everybody does.

There's some people, you know, it depends on what your style is, it depends on what you like artistically.

So then when someone comes and just is thrilled about our stuff, it just hits something special inside, it's just like, "Ah, you love it, I love it."

And then they take it home and you know that they're gonna have that thing forever and they're always gonna think about where it came from and who made it.

And just knowing that I've got pieces all around the world in people's homes really just warms my heart, like, I love it.

I think a lot of the passion just comes from making things that people love, and I love metal so much, I just love working with it, that anything that I can make that somebody else loves it just brings me, you know, pure joy.

(upbeat funk music) - [Kabir] The golden age of shopping malls may be over, but for some, the nostalgia lives on.

On the next "Applause," follow an Akron photographer's journey through forgotten malls in the Rust Belt.

Plus, get in the holiday spirit with the art of the gingerbread house in Columbus.

And listen for the sound of the Sousaphone with Akron's annual tuba Christmas celebration.

All that and more on the next round of "Applause."

(upbeat music fading) Is there an art story you'd like to see on "Applause"?

Your suggestions are welcome.

Please share your arts and culture story ideas from around Northeast Ohio via email to arts@ideastream.org.

Every city has its own unique skyline and those who adore it.

Let's meet a maker whose skyline silhouettes decorate her purses and accessories.

- [Anne] Love for creating runs through each and every one of our products.

It's one of the best parts about my job.

Alongside the fact that our customers are appreciating the things we're creating, they're getting moved by the products we're creating, and that is just so rewarding to see that joy that we're bringing through things we're creating with our hands.

(upbeat synth pop music) Hi, my name is Anne Skoch, and I am the founder and CEO of Anne Cate.

Anne Cate is a Cleveland-based accessories brand and manufacturing firm specializing in skyline silhouette purses and pillows and other simple accessories.

I've always been a creative entrepreneur and have had my own business since I was 13 selling random purses and accessories on Etsy.

Anne Cate started when I was a sophomore in college when I went to create some pillows for my dorm room.

They were just some simple pillows with my favorite city skylines on them, and one Facebook share led to another, and people really encouraged me to start selling these products.

And within several months, my 19-year-old self was having many sales and had a national retailer inquire about wholesaling.

From that moment on, I realized that there's so many places that impact us and that our products exemplify that and that there really could be a unique business idea within these skyline products.

So I spent the rest of my college career working on Anne Cate and growing it, which led us to where we are today five years later in our own manufacturing studio with a team of three wonderful women sewing, creating, and fulfilling our products.

Scaling our business was the biggest challenge we have faced and overcome.

We've just been blessed with amazing employees that have helped us who have started part-time, now who are full-time, and willing to invest in Anne Cate and who see the same vision as I do.

But it was also a leap of faith and a lot of luck to scale from a dorm room to where we are today.

(Anne chuckling) Being made in America was at the core of Ann Cate.

No matter how we scaled, I knew I wanted that to be at our foundation.

Whether it was me in a dorm room or our own team or finding another manufacturer, I wanted to be made in America.

So everything is still made by hand, one by one.

It's designed in studio, it's printed, then it's cut and sewn and fulfilled all in Cleveland, Ohio at the Anne Cate manufacturing studio.

Sublimation is a process where it's not a screen print.

It actually prints right into the fibers.

So then we heat press it to 400 degrees for a minute, and it's gonna transfer that paper right onto the fabric.

And so then this becomes a mini purse that we then go and sell.

You know, Anne Cate has always been my dream and I'm so lucky to be 25 pursuing this dream and to be growing with this dream.

Anne Cate is gonna be around for a long time.

I see us continuously developing products that are made in America, that are also simple, and that mean something to our customer.

- [Kabir] There are lots of local entrepreneurs making it these days.

To discover more, visit our "Making It" series online at arts.ideastream.org.

(mellow surf pop music) It's time to jazz things up with a young lion from the Queen City.

Romel Sim studied trumpet at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.

Today he tours the US from his home base in Chicago.

Let's hear about his Ohio origins.

(wistful jazz trumpet music) - [Romel] Jazz is everyday life.

My earliest influence within jazz, I would have to say my grandmother.

And in her basement she had this picture of the great Count Basie, a phenomenal jazz pianist, arranger, just a master of the music.

And I'd always look at that picture, ever since I was a boy, and I'd be like, "Who is that man?"

You just see the silhouette and this light on him, and him sitting at the piano.

And I always thought it was cool.

I didn't necessarily know at that time that that was jazz music or that he was affiliated with it.

But I felt a vibe from that picture and it meant a lot to me and I still have it to this day.

(jazz trumpet music) My primary is trumpet, and I realized, in my journey with this horn, is that she's very demanding, in the sense that you have to respect her, in a sense.

And some people say, you know, "I'm battling with my horn," and I realized over time that it is you, it's just an extension of you.

It's all art, it's all freedom, and it's all self-expression.

(jazz combo music) (audience applauding) At my journey at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music as far as the jazz program there, I'm very thankful for it because of these two main people, Craig Bailey and Dr. Scott Belt.

As far as my major is jazz trumpet performance and studying the music outside of just the notes, 'cause it's much more than that.

A lot of people say that, you know, jazz is this, jazz is that.

And to me, it's your own interpretation of it to a certain extent.

I'm in this paradox because at one point it's like I have my own voice already.

And there's also this sense of discovery.

You know, I'm 21 years young and I know I don't have it all together but I'm willing to go through this journey called life.

And through my journey so far, I realize I know a lot about nothing.

And I say that humbly because I feel like right when you think you master something or that you know everything about it, you know, life comes around the corner and it shows you, hey, it's much more.

I come from great musicians, Buddy Bolden, Bunk Johnson, King Joe Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Winton Marsalis, even to the Nicholas Peyton, and sad that we lost him, one of my favorites, Roy Hargrove.

I'm just being me when I make my music 'cause it's just genuinely me.

I'm very thankful for certain mentors in my life, such as Irwin Stuckey, Craig Bailey, Marlon McKay.

These men reaching out to me, Elder David, saying that you can just be yourself.

I mean, not everyone's necessarily gonna like it.

Not everyone's gonna necessarily love it, too.

But you're being genuinely you.

And when it comes to the music, it's the same thing.

We all have emotions, we have families, stuff that we're going through, stuff that we don't tell people about.

But listen, we're going through this thing together.

You know?

I'm gonna lean on somebody's shoulder one day, so you can lean on mine.

And that's how I got the connection to the melody of this ballad that I just recently wrote.

If you want love, you show love, even through adversity, even through people that don't show you the love that you necessarily would like.

'Cause it all comes back.

- [Kabir] Let the music play on, from the 513 to the 216.

The Cleveland Orchestra recently performed a work by 20th Century finished composer Jean Sibelius, who wrote this piece in 1915 after a trip to the United States.

(haunting, complex orchestral music) If you enjoyed this performance, you can find more Cleveland Orchestra concerts online via the Orchestra's Adella app.

And we also recommend the PBS app where you can watch "Applause" on demand.

It's time to say "avasti."

That's goodbye in Finnish.

Thanks for watching.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

Please join us for the next edition of "Applause."

(uplifting ambient theme music) - [Narrator] Production of "Applause" on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, the Kulas Foundation, and by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.