- [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 & Culture.

(jazz music) - [David] Coming up, let's get out in front of the 2022 FRONT Triennial, with a trip to the International Art Expo's home base, in Hingetown.

Plus, we serve up some cool coffee for a warm day at Scoot!

Cold Brew, and renowned American composer, John Adams, picks up his baton to lead the Cleveland Orchestra.

It's time for your weekly dose of arts and culture happening here in the Buckeye State, we call it "Applause."

I'm Ideastream Public Media's David C. Barnett.

Artists from around the world, as well as Cleveland, bring their creativity to the floor for the second FRONT Triennial.

This three-month-long contemporary art exhibition showcases dozens of artists at more than 30 sites around Cleveland, Akron and Oberlin.

Ideastream Public Media's Carrie Wise looks at how this arts showcase aims to heal.

(varied music plays simultaneously) - [Carrie] Be sure to bring your cell phone to the Cleveland Public Main Library downtown, and queue up your favorite song.

New York artist, Jace Clayton designed an audio installation where people can play their music on 40 speakers, arranged in a circle in the library's first-floor gallery.

- [Jace] This piece to me, it's an invitation to gather, and it's not just come look at my art, it's come bring your sound, something that's meaningful to you, and share it with this space, and enjoy this space and the architecture of it, and the way the sounds are bouncing around.

So I wanted it to be a kind of, I wouldn't call it a meditative space, but a space of focused listening, and a reminder about so much of the joy of being human revolves around music and sound.

- It's really amazing, I'm listening to it now, and it's spinning around me, and it's going off into the distance, and it's coming back.

Apparently, we're playing stuff backwards, it's doing everything.

- [Carrie] "This is an example of artists opening up power structures to other people," says FRONT artistic director, Prem Krishnamurthy.

- It's a pretty powerful gesture, within a space like a library, which is public, but it's typically about silence, it's typically about study, to take that and say, hey, now anybody can walk in here and make it their own space.

- [Carrie] This work is just one of many showing up in public places, as well as museums in Cleveland, Akron and Oberlin, for the second edition of the FRONT Triennial.

Delayed for a year by the pandemic, a theme of healing runs throughout.

- The idea of art as a mode of healing, a form of therapy, seems really so important to our community today, and in fact, the world.

We've come off of two years of a world pandemic, a health crisis that we've never experienced before, and social unrest, and social questioning, and political turmoil, that seems unprecedented.

- And the entire show, which is contemporary art in all of its different forms, from sculpture, painting, installations, video, performance, music and more, (Chorus sings) is focused on art as an agent of transformation, a form of healing and a mode of therapy.

- [Carrie] While this $5 million exhibition features artists from around the world, locally-based creators are involved as well, including Cleveland sculptor, Charmaine Spencer.

- The title of the piece is "Reconstruction."

I built this pretty soon after my mother passed away, and it is kind of rebuilding.

- [Carrie] Using old wall lath, Spencer created a tall sculpture designed to allow light to filter through as it does between trees and a forest.

- It did help the grieving process, and then it helped the, kind of the idea of ancestry, and that made me realize that I am still connected to my mother, death doesn't actually dissolve the connection.

- [Carrie] Her sculpture is a main focal point inside Transformer Station in Cleveland, which serves as the hub, or launch spot, for the entire exhibition.

- We hope people will come here first to orient themselves, as they then embark on a journey across Northeast Ohio.

- [Carrie] Another work on view at Transformer Station is by artists Sarah Oppenheimer and Tony Cokes, they call for visitors to move and change their art.

- As you rotate the two black beams, you shift the position of the projectors and these sort of screen-like panels that move up and down in the space.

There's a kind of conflation and overlap and confusion of what affects what, where is it located, and it means that when you, as a visitor, come to the space and start to play with the work, the extent of your reach is in question, how far is the thing that you affect, and how close is the thing that you touch?

- [Carrie] Organizers expect this exhibition will touch people in unique ways, perhaps even inspiring some to create themselves.

- An exhibition is not an endpoint, an exhibition, or anything, is just a waste station.

And so, we're gonna see a really exciting exhibition for the next three months in Cleveland, but I think it's real effects are what comes after that.

- [David] You'll find more about the 2022 FRONT Triennial online at arts.ideastream.org.

(jazz music) On the West Side of Cleveland is a cool place to sample a unique style of coffee.

Our "Making It" cameras caught up with the folks from Scoot!

Cold Brew.

- I always wanted to create something of my own, something that would be useful to people, and I've always liked coffee.

- There's so much to learn about coffee, it can be anything that you want it to be, we really want to make sure that it is delicious.

(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Kari DeGraff, and I am the owner of Scoot!

Cold Brew.

- So my name is Rachel, I manage Scoot!

Cold Brew, here in Cleveland, Ohio.

We specialize in the brewing of high quality, delicious cold brew.

- So I'm from Washington state, and at the time that I was getting out of manufacturing, at that point, my buddy and I were working long hours, tons of overtime, and we were both just like, no, that's enough, and we just started roasting coffee and getting right into it.

Cold brew was just starting to sort of gain some traction.

We just started messing around with different roasts, different coffee beans, you gotta have some sort of way to set yourself apart in a business, right?

And so we're like, all right, how do we make coffee unique if everyone's gonna be doing cold brew?

- All of our cold brew is infused with the tiniest bit of either honey or maple.

This doesn't add sweetness to the cold brew, it's not a sweet product, it really just evens out the mouth feel and the body of the cold brew.

Today, we are going to be doing honey, (laughs) which is our standard, original, the one we started off with.

- That's what we did, and then it totally stuck, and it seemed to be like this is a good product, this is a good cold brew.

Typically, if you think your traditional drip coffee, or a shot of espresso, you have the grounds, you run hot water through it, and the hot water is what gives it that lovely, the aromatics and the beautiful smell, but it sort of shocks the beans, and that's what kind of gives you the bitterness.

- And that's why a lot of people like cold brew, since there isn't heat applied, it has that really unique, smooth, consistent flavor.

- With cold brew, it's cool, because you steep it like tea, so you grind the coffee, and you just run cold water through it, and then you let it steep, like overnight, it can be anywhere from 17 to 24 hours.

And it's just this mellow process where it just slowly extracts all the goodness, so it doesn't shock the coffee, and it doesn't have that bitterness, which is pretty cool.

(peaceful music) You pull the grounds, and now you have this dark, rich concentrate, which is basically like the equivalent of espresso.

- Half of what we do is single-serve, and half of what we do is cold brew that you take home and enjoy throughout the week.

- You can do the same thing, the same way you'd pour a shot or two of espresso, you can pour a shot or two of the cold brew concentrate.

Again, a lot of people think it's cold coffee, and it's not, it's just the way it was processed.

- Something that I love about coffee is the community aspect, it really, really brings people together.

- 'Cause we have the opportunity to impact someone's day, and you want someone to come in and leave there feeling better, you have this opportunity to spread joy.

And so, if I can take care of my employees and they feel happy working there, then that's gonna spread, and then that will spread into the community, and so that's really what I think is pretty important.

- [David] Scoot!

Cold Brew is the latest to step into the "Making It" spotlight.

For more profiles of Northeast Ohio entrepreneurs, visit arts.ideastream.org.

(jazz music) Okay, now that we're properly caffeinated, it's time to dance.

(joyful flute music) Let's shuffle on over to Cincinnati, where Ohio Heritage Fellow, Padma Chebrolu, shares her passion for the classical dance of India.

- So I was born in a city called Guntur, and I was the youngest of the three.

I had a beautiful childhood growing up there, and that's where my dance training has started.

So my dad was into performing arts a lot, so he wanted me to be an artist.

I loved attending the dance studio there.

My heavy training is in the classical dance styles, classical dance styles use classical literature, classical composition, classical music.

And they happen in different languages, India is very rich in different languages, so you need to be knowledgeable in all of that to be able to take what's available in music and put that into the context of the dance, and also do the storytelling, and entertain the audience, who might not be familiar with what's happening, with the dance and the music.

And then when I teach, I need to be able to discuss with the student, and help them understand, so they can project that story and music very well.

So within one genre of style, there's different variations to it, so this is very common in classical dancing.

So I learned Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam, Andhra Natyam, Mohiniyattam, and also dabbled into other styles.

(Singer sings Indian classical music) There's a lot of storytelling in our dances.

The stories are about some mythological stories.

So our mythology's extensive, and as you know, this art form comes from Indian culture, in Indian culture, we have a lot of mythological figures, and they each have their own stories, and the poetry and the composers come up with these stories.

So as a choreographer, or as a performer, what you do is you take that basic standard poetry and composition, and you put all the intricate stories within that.

As dancers, we don't talk, we have to express the story, and the same one person, one performer, has to do a multitude of characters.

Costuming is extremely important, and Indian costuming comes from ancient times.

So for females, we wear something called a sari, and the sari weaving is a very ancient tradition.

And even the British colonized for 400 years, we never let go of our culture.

Our clothing is a representation and an identity of our culture.

And also, we have something called temple jewelry that we wear.

These pieces are, again, we have the master artist, master jewelry artist, who create this jewelry.

In our family, women go through high school, and then they usually get married and become homemakers.

In my case, I was always interested in higher education, so I came to University of Cincinnati and pursued graduate studies.

The community here is very open-minded, so Cincinnati became home.

When I started this cultural center for India, years ago, it was about passing on what I know as an art to others.

Cultural Center for India is about bringing the culture of our heritage arts to the Ohio community.

So we teach, perform, do workshops, where people want to learn more about diversity, inclusion, equality, through art, through music, through dance, through expressing ourselves.

I like both being a performing artist and a teacher.

And teaching is so much fun, because I have students who are three to adults.

But the teaching process is, you are making a difference in a person's life.

- Padma, as an educator, and an artist of classical Indian dance, has transmitted her culture through the community.

She loves what she does, and she treasures the art form.

Padma is one of those exemplary artists.

And I think something that's different about her is that she really goes to the community, goes to college dance programs and schools.

And one of the things is, when people think about dance, they think about ballet, modern, perhaps, and they may not think about classical Indian dance, which has been around for thousands of years.

- When kids are growing up here, they go to school and they have, they understand the mainstream American culture, and they enjoy it and they celebrate it, but at home, their parents are helping them to learn their own heritage.

So we are not a commercial dance studio where hundreds of kids come and go, that's not what we do, we are not commercialized.

We go for true artistry.

And a lot of our students win many awards, many scholarships, regional, to Ohio level, to national level recognition, because it's a total development.

So my job is, once I identify their inner artist, I need to unlock that.

These kids are prodigies, and they have the talent already built in, I just have to bring it out.

I'm constantly demonstrating to my students of how the art should be done, and how it should be pursued, how it should be celebrated, and how it should elevate the spirits of the audience.

In every performance, this audience education.

We hear on the news so many things, that people are not getting along, they should respect each other, but when we go perform, or when we ask to come and perform, I never see that.

The minute we walk in, we are artist, so that respect for the artist is there, regardless of where I go in Ohio, or beyond Ohio.

So it just, I would say, diminishes, all the barriers people have in their mind.

- [David] Artist Dexter Davis almost lost everything (groove music) when he was gunned down in a road rage attack, two years ago.

- I looked through back the window there, they weren't coming behind us, then they shot through the car door and got me.

- [David] On the next "Applause," Davis responds to that life changing event with new work at the FRONT Triennial.

Plus, learn about the punk rock roots of book publisher Microcosm, which got its start right here in Northeast Ohio.

All that and more, on the next episode of "Applause."

(stately music) Art and religion have complimented each other throughout recorded history.

In Columbus, the art of the Catholic faith has a new home for its collection of ancient artifacts.

(chant music) - The Jubilee Museum is the largest Catholic museum in the United States recognized by Rome.

And it didn't start that way, it started in 1999 by a local priest who just started taking some things from local churches and setting up a few museum rooms, basically, in this old Holy Family High School.

And it kind of grew, the word caught on, and stuff started coming in from people's basements and from closed churches.

And then stuff started coming in from the holy land and all over the world.

So we have some amazing, amazing pieces here.

(chant music) Since I became the director many years ago, I've been working towards making this place a national museum.

Again, we've already been recognized by the Vatican as the largest diversified collection of Catholic art in the country, and it's gonna keep growing, we are in line to get several, several large collections, a wonderful benefactor of ours wants to give us his manuscript collection in the future, which has about 4,000 pieces and it's worth about $10 million.

So we're talking ancient crosses, Bibles and leaflets going back to 800 AD and stuff, so some amazing pieces coming here.

And again, we cannot take pieces like that in our current building, we can't assure temperature control, moisture control, and those are pieces that absolutely have to have that kind of environment.

We are being very graciously invited to move into the Catholic foundation.

Everybody kind of knows that building across from the cathedral is the first Wendy's here in Columbus.

But our Catholic Foundation, they're using mainly the entire upper floor, so they invited us to come use the first floor of their building.

It's a pretty large space, not as much space as we have currently, but we'll be able to make it a museum environment.

(ethereal music) You really don't wanna wear gloves, because the gloves can actually catch onto the pieces and actually rip it off.

A problem, and it's not a problem, it's a good thing.

but with Christianity, it goes back 2000 years, so some of our coins and stuff that are from the time of Christ, compared to the statute that was carved 200 years ago, it makes it difficult to decide, what are we gonna keep, or, what are we gonna display, or take.

Well, welcome to our new space here at the Catholic Foundation building.

So right now we're unboxing all of our artifacts, it took us about two years to properly wrap the artifacts, pack them, and store them for the move.

The new location does have really good temperature control and humidification control, which was something we did not have at our old location.

And that is something that is extremely important when you're working with textiles, manuscripts and oil paintings.

It's just fun getting these pieces back out, and it's exciting to see them again and get ready to open to the public to show them.

(triumphant chorale) Welcome, everybody, for the first time, to the Museum of Catholic Art and History.

When the board of trustees started working with the Catholic Foundation here, we decided it's time for a new name, a new space, and a whole new situation.

And we came up with the Museum of Catholic Art in History.

The word Catholic actually means universal, so this is a place for everybody.

Most of our visitors here are not Catholic.

The reason we have all this art, especially in the Catholic church, is going back to a time before we had education like we have today.

Most people didn't even have books, you couldn't read the Bible at home, you were hearing the Bible versus a church, but when you walked into a church, and you saw beautiful oil paintings depicting Jesus with the children, or a stained-glass window of the Nativity, you could see that image, and be like, wow, I understand this.

These things were helping you pray, helping you meditate, helping your imagination work, so it could put yourself literally back in time to what it would've been like during the time of Jesus, or whatever these images are depicting.

And again, this is art, this is another form of expression that touches people in different ways.

- [David] The Museum for Catholic Art and History is open Tuesday through Saturday at its new home on Broad Street in Columbus.

(jazz music) American composer Steve Reich is a master of the music known as minimalism.

(Orchestra plays dissonant tremolo) His "Three Movements for Orchestra" kicked off a concert by the Cleveland Orchestra led by another American composer of note, John Adams.

Here's an excerpt of that performance.

(Pianist and Orchestra play dissonant tremolo) (tremolo intensifies) (bass section is heard more strongly) Be sure to watch future episodes of "Applause," as we sample more of this John Adams-lead concert with the Cleveland Orchestra.

And by the way, you can also sample some yourself via the Cleveland Orchestra's Adella app.

(Orchestra continues playing) And for more episodes of "Applause," watch OnDemand via the PBS app.

Well, that's it for now, thank you for being a friend of this program.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's David C. Barnett, inviting you to join us for the next round of "Applause."

(Orchestra continues playing dissonant music) (intense ethereal music plays briefly) - [Announcer] 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.