(dynamic music) - [Announcer] Production of "Applause" on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation, The Stroud Family Trust, and by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

(jazzy music) - [David] Hello, I'm David C. Barnett.

Welcome to Northeast Ohio's arts and culture show "Applause."

For months, the Cleveland Immersive van Gogh exhibition has been building buzz by keeping its location under wraps.

But this week, the exhibit opened inside a renovated warehouse on East 72nd Street, now known as Lighthouse Artspace Cleveland.

The interactive show features the work of Dutch Impressionist, Vincent van Gogh.

Throughout his life, he created more than 2,000 works of art.

This exhibit features some 400 of his paintings.

- This is an effort to get inside the mind of van Gogh, which was an interesting place to be.

And to think about how he thought about colors and brush stroke.

But this isn't a piece about education, this is a piece about emotion.

The whole thing is choreographed to an incredible soundtrack.

There's this extraordinary epiphany, which is my favorite part of the show, where suddenly we go from some of the more monochromatic pieces like "Potato Eaters."

And it's as if van Gogh discovers color, we sort of jump into van Gogh's ideas of color.

- [David] Immersive van Gogh is the vision of European artist Massimiliano Siccardi.

He began creating large-scale installations some 30 years ago using projected moving images and music.

- Roughly three years ago, I had the opportunity to fly over to Paris.

I was just blown away by what I saw.

I mean, I didn't know what to expect when I went.

And once I got there, and I saw what was going on, and I really thought it was going to be the next thing for people to experience art, for people to experience, it brings together art, filmmaking, and theater to me in a very interesting and intriguing way.

And so I sat down with Massimiliano and I said, I'd like to be the one to bring your work to America.

- [David] Siccardi studied dance at the London School of Contemporary Dance.

In 1990, he left the world of dance and began working with video.

He's a celebrated photographer and professor of digital image elaboration at the Academy of Communication and Imagery of Rome.

- The show itself is not about seeing an omnibus of the art.

It's more about Massimiliano Siccardi, and his vision, and how he interacts with van Gogh.

So it's one cutting-edge artist, 130 years after the death of the other cutting-edge artist.

So he's sampling from these 400 images that we licensed for him.

And then he does, he animates them.

So when you see this in the show, these sunflowers move and they sway in the wind, and clouds go by overhead, and the stars twinkle in Starry Night.

So you get that movement in the piece.

But moreover, and more importantly, is it's informed by Massimiliano.

He's deconstructing the pieces, one morphs into the other, that morphs into the other.

And the effort here, according to Massimiliano, is to try to capture what might've flashed before van Gogh's eyes in the moments before he passed away.

So you've got an artist 130 years later, trying to delve into the psychology of van Gogh through the visual artifacts that we have from van Gogh, his pieces.

- [David] Siccardi's vision comes to life inside a 40,000 square foot space with 18 foot ceilings, miles of fiber optic cable, state-of-the-art sound, and 60 projectors.

Moving images, blown up to 500,000 cubic feet, surround visitors on the walls, ceiling, and floor.

- And one of the biggest challenges that we have is getting these galleries open, it's a massive construction project.

We have to get permitted.

We have to make sure that we're doing everything right in order to make this a safe environment to work in, or for the public to come into.

And then the next phase is the art.

We always look for spaces that can both display the art in an exciting way, and kind of are rooted somewhat to the community that we're in.

So we're, Cleveland will be the 10th city that we're opening.

And in many of them we're in industrial sites, which is what this is.

The transformation of an industrial site with van Gogh's art.

So when you see steel columns, and brick work, and cement floors illuminated with the organic shapes of sunflowers, it's this incredible transformation.

This type of transformation, it really does fit nicely in an industrial space.

- [David] As for the future of this industrial space, after Immersive van Gogh wraps up next year, Lighthouse Artspace Cleveland will remain as a projection gallery.

- [Man] This is all projection.

This is a multimillion dollar installation.

But I'm hoping that van Gogh will run for a very long, healthy run.

And we've installed the equipment, this is a massive installation, so we'd love to change over the content.

We're looking at different ideas that Massimiliano has.

And, as I mentioned, there's other artists that are coming through, and seeing what we have, and are very excited about it.

So I suspect that there's gonna be more and more exciting things here.

(dynamic music) - As a kid, Cory Grinder liked to tease his older sister, learning her music lessons by ear, and then playing them back.

Growing up in Stow, he went on to study classical music on the piano and violin.

But by the age of 16, Cory discovered old-time country and bluegrass music, and he never looked back.

Today, Cory has an Akron honky-tonk sound all his own.

Recently, Cory Grinder and the Playboy Scouts joined us in the Westfield Studio Theatre for "Applause Performances."

Cory, you got your start in Northeast Ohio, in country and bluegrass.

And when you discovered it, coming from the classical area, you discovered a, what you've described as a welcoming community.

Talk about that.

How so was it welcoming?

- The cool thing about country, old-time bluegrass, a lot of the music with the acoustic instruments in that genre, I think it's just kind of a players type of music where it's really fun.

It's just how I met these guys.

We just love to jam and you know, any excuse, so.

When you find players that just wanna play music, you get along quick.

(laughs) ♪ He walked away from that honky tonk night ♪ ♪ He was feelin' it too ♪ ♪ And even turning off and I, oh yes I do ♪ ♪ He was feelin' it too ♪ ♪ It's hot sometimes, now why can't I say ♪ ♪ Find a woman who doesn't feel that way ♪ ♪ But let me tell you brother ♪ ♪ When you do find a woman that feels just like you do ♪ ♪ We got to cross that dance floor ♪ ♪ And I do, I was feelin' it too ♪ ♪ And you grabbed my hand and squeezed it ♪ ♪ And I do, oh yes I do ♪ ♪ He was feelin' it too ♪ - Cory, I understand you watched the great PBS program that Ken Burns produced on the history of country music.

And one of the people featured on that show was a guy named Buck Owens.

For some reason, his music reached out and got you.

What was it about Buck that you liked so much?

- Well, I guess the same way that I was looking for a type of music that would be fun, I could put my energy into, I think Buck Owens and some of the other cats that were in that Bakersfield scene at that time in California, who were going against what was happening in Nashville with country music that was-- - Talk about what that was.

- Heavy in strings and things, elements that weren't, maybe it was all getting a little smooth and poppy, it was just easy listening music.

But you know, I'll speak for myself, but I like to have fun.

And I think a lot of other people enjoy to get a little rowdy too.

So, when you're playing at honky-tonks and bars, you gotta get a little louder, you gotta cut through, you need some screaming guitars.

And it really can be a tight, fun area to get into when you're going out, and you're able to just have music for the dancers.

♪ Take me ♪ ♪ How you think I'll be ♪ ♪ Don't take me like I am, I say ♪ ♪ Take all my time ♪ ♪ Honey, take my hand ♪ ♪ Take me ♪ ♪ Take me just the same ♪ ♪ Take my heart, my ring, my loving ♪ ♪ No give and take, no pushing and shoving ♪ ♪ I said, take, take, take, take me ♪ ♪ Take me for a fool ♪ ♪ Let me take your place ♪ ♪ Take me ♪ ♪ Take me just the same ♪ - [David] In June, you guys went on an 11 state tour.

And I guess you're traveling around in a bus.

Tell us about this.

It's an old school bus and you painted it blue?

- We got it, it was a yellow school bus.

And we took in about two months time as a team, we stripped it all down, we sanded it, we painted it.

We built the inside, you know, insulated floor.

Tebbs and Bee did a huge amount of the work.

- [David] But you had some issues.

- We did have a little bit of issues.

He might, (laughs), he has a lot of opinions on that situation.

- Well yeah, it's my bus.

And we spent all the time working on getting it ready, but we didn't have time to do much mechanical work, or any at all.

I greased the chassis and that was about it.

I didn't check out the motor, I didn't check out the brakes.

We just.

- Oh man.

- We had drove it around and figured, well, it better work.

So anyway, I'm going to pick these guys up, we're leaving, it's Sunday, we have a show that day in Columbus.

And the front brake locks up, smoking, it seized up.

So I had to take it, go to a shop that I worked at at the time, and worked on it in a very stressful fashion.

And then, as I'm putting it together, I'm losing my mind, and stressed out, and I broke one very critical piece.

And so I thought all hope was lost.

But anyway, I found a little bolt to jam in there, and we rode that all the way to Texas.

- [Cory] It was the magic bolt.

♪ I sure am a piece of work ♪ ♪ And I must drive you up a tree ♪ ♪ The last thing you ever deserve ♪ ♪ Is to have to spend your time with me ♪ ♪ I say to you in good conscience ♪ ♪ Also in good health ♪ ♪ When I do wrong you're best to leave me alone ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm the best punishment for myself ♪ ♪ Being alone with me is misery ♪ ♪ And the thoughts I have lead to insanity ♪ ♪ The last place that I'd ever wanna be ♪ ♪ Is shouting out only be alone with me ♪ ♪ Now I don't blame you for leaving me this way ♪ ♪ Putting me on the shelf ♪ ♪ When I do wrong you best leave me alone ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm the best punishment for myself ♪ (jaunty music) - You paid for your 11 state tour, you took out a microloan from a local organization that was started out, I remember towards the beginning of the pandemic, to help musicians.

Tell us about that and how it works exactly.

- Well Cleveland Rocks Past Present Future, early on in the pandemic, they formed as an opportunity to help provide relief to people that were out of work.

All, not just musicians, but anyone working in music, entertainment kind of field.

There's so many people that were affected by the pandemic.

But a unique opportunity that they were able to give to me, I reached out to Cindy Barber and told her that I have a new album, I'm booking this tour, I want to make some strides forward.

And they were starting this microloan program, Cleveland Rocks Past Present Future was.

And it was kind of just looking for someone that had a plan, and needed some help, needed some funds, and then maybe a little bit of support around it.

And they brought me on as their first recipient of the loan.

And I couldn't be more thankful that they really took an interest in me.

And it felt like such a great moment for us, where we felt like Cleveland kind of got behind us and had our back.

And they sent us out there, they helped us organize things.

Cindy helped me with finding some better gigs, and she also helped us get signed to Blue Arrow Records.

♪ She got style ♪ ♪ She can give it to you ♪ ♪ You can talk your talk ♪ ♪ But just look at that gal and go ♪ ♪ She got flash ♪ ♪ Just look at her hat ♪ - [David] For more music from Corey Grinder and the Playboy Scouts, and to listen to my extended interview with him, go to arts.ideastream.org.

An the next "Applause," meet two award-winning artists drawing attention to the environment.

Their works reconsider both what people trash and treasure.

Plus, we meet a culinary historian who explores African-American cooking, and the role that food has played throughout history and across cultures.

And in 1968, painter Frederick Hammersley explored art in a revolutionary way, using computers.

All this and more on the next "Applause."

Throughout much of the 20th century, Black fashion designer and business owner, Amanda Wicker, made her mark on the city.

While it's been more than 30 years since her passing, the Western Reserve Historical Society is teaching a new generation about her legacy in Cleveland.

Ideastream Public Media's Carrie Wise has the story.

- [Carrie] When Amanda Wicker moved to Cleveland nearly a century ago, she put her education to work.

Having studied teaching and sewing, she started her own business out of her home, training others in dressmaking.

- She's launching this business in basically what is the era of the Great Depression.

That's when her business is taking off.

And she's a widow.

- [Carrie] Wicker's determination paid off.

Not only did she create unique designs for herself and her clients, she helped others do the same.

- She started out with a business in her home with a single client, teaching them how to sew, and turned it into this huge school that taught teenagers, adults.

She taught high fashion design couture techniques.

But also, if you wanted to be trained in garment industry factory work, she could train you on machines that way too.

- [Carrie] Wicker moved her business out of her home and established the school at East 89th Street and Cedar Avenue in Cleveland's Fairfax neighborhood.

- I really like the fact that she's an alumna of Tuskegee Institute.

And of course the founding principle of that school in Alabama was Booker Taliaferro Washington.

And he was someone who preached self-help for Black people.

So it was an industrial and a normal school.

Certainly lots of jobs available in manufacturing, sewing, textiles, creating the fabric, working with the thread.

And then creating the garments once the fabric has been manufactured.

And so I like to think that Booker T. Washington would have been proud of that Tuskegee alumni who eventually studied in Washington, DC, and then made her way to Cleveland.

And became the focal point of a burgeoning Black fashion community here on America's North Coast.

- [Carrie] For decades, Wicker celebrated Cleveland's Black fashion scene with annual shows.

The large-scale events featured models wearing the latest designs, live entertainment, and scholarship awards for students.

- She called her fashion shows the Book of Gold.

And you get a program with a gold cover.

And it was a sort of part graduation ceremony for students, and then part just a way for locals to display their work.

Because the fashion shows were kind of a mix of student work, Amanda Wicker work, but also they would bring in local milners to showcase their hats on the models.

- [Carrie] Wicker designed clothes throughout her life, from wedding dresses to suits and evening wear.

More than a dozen of those creations, as well as her photograph collection, were donated by her niece to the Western Reserve Historical Society.

- I think like playful is a good word for her style.

So fun, a little bit of sparkle sometimes, a fun silhouette.

I have a personal favorite.

It's a sort of chartreuse green dress that's covered in a gray lace.

And then on the back, it has a detail that's almost like sort of half of a cape.

- [Carrie] Wicker also had a talent for helping the community look its best.

She was an active member of Antioch Baptist Church and the Cleveland NAACP.

She taught her trade for more than 50 years, until selling her school and retiring in the late 1970s.

- I think a lot of people don't necessarily think that teaching someone sewing is a form of activism, but it can give you a skill to become something different.

It can help support a community.

- The freedom of expression, I would have to say, associated with fashion, design, and dressmaking, I think that's something that Black women in particular came to appreciate in the years following the end of the Civil War.

And certainly something that Amanda Wicker was the expert on.

And she taught other people to express themselves in excellent ways.

- [Carrie] Her legacy lives on through the exhibit, Amanda Wicker: Black Fashion Design in Cleveland.

- [David] You might say that Columbus artist DonCee's work is a cut above the rest.

And that's because he uses an Exacto knife to manipulate pieces of fabric, primarily leather and suede, into intricate works of art.

Take a look.

- I grew up in Columbus, Ohio.

Went to Columbus South High School.

After I graduated high school, went to CCAD.

Took up ad design and illustration, but somehow I ended up doing fabric artwork.

So that's a totally different story.

(upbeat music) It started with just growing up in the hip hop era.

We used to love to just create.

And we would go to Shottensteins, and we would buy these partly torn jean jackets.

And then we would even tear them up even some more.

And then what I would do would paint on either like denim, sometimes even just canvas, and we would get a seamstress, and she would sew in some of the seams into the jacket.

So that kind of really got me into studying fabric.

After a while I would start going to the fabric stores, and just started buying fabric, and just creating clothes just freehand.

Just didn't know anything about patterns.

I was just basically just, just being basically my creative self.

Well, the technique I guess, it's a collage style.

So it's a process of where I'm taking something and I'm just putting layers on top of layers.

(upbeat music) Obviously, I'll start from the background and move it up to the foreground.

When I initially started working, there were more or less like two-tone pieces.

And what I would go into art galleries, and I would look at my work, compare it to other paintings.

And I said, okay, I gotta do better, I gotta step what I'm doing.

I was like, I wanna take this to a level of where it looks like a painting.

So it, there was a lot of trial and errors, and a lot of experimenting.

In the beginning, my pieces were really bulky 'cause I would use the more heavier fabrics.

When I learned a technique for cutting the thinner fabrics, it was like almost like game over for me.

Because at that point, I was able to put shadows, and highlights, and bring more different elements into my artwork without it looking bulky.

That was the key.

And that's why today people look at it and they can say, this looks like a painting, until you walk up on it and it's like, no, this is just all fabric.

Oh, number one, leather and suede.

Number two would be denim.

And everything else after that.

I think that they, when I work with leather and suede it just really translate really well with my pieces, and I just love the texture of it.

And I think that it really comes out.

Denim is another totally different look, I really like that as well.

I love blending the different types of denim together, as the same way with the leather and suedes.

My only tool is the Exacto Knife.

And, the technique is just learning how to cut those thin fabrics with accuracy.

There are a lot of little different techniques that I do, I don't wanna just kind of like disclose them all.

I'll go and I'll say one technique I'll use.

If you got a real thin fabric, there's a certain glue that you can use, you can apply to the back of the fabric, which at that point kind of gives it a more of a solid feel and it's easier to cut.

Typically, I would say about 95% of what I do it basically comes from out of my head.

I typically really don't use references a lot.

It's just things that I just think about.

I just love to create.

(gentle music) So when I'm creating a piece, I really get into it.

So if I'm creating, let's say a city scene, and I'm creating buildings, I'm not just an artist, I'm an architect.

If I'm doing a portrait, and I'm creating a person, I am also, I'm designing their outfit, designing their look.

So yeah.

Well, that's the thing, when I do a piece, I am all in.

I think the funnest part is when you're right in the middle and when you can see that vision come together.

'Cause initially when you're creating a piece, you're like, oh, is this gonna work?

And then as you're working, you're like, oh, I'm starting to see it now, it's coming together.

On the flip side, the worst part, I think is coming towards the end, trying to finish that piece.

'Cause at that point you're ready to move on to the next piece.

And that's when you really have to be careful.

'Cause I'm like, no, stop, take your time.

Make sure you complete this correctly.

One of the reasons why I used a bird, it represents freedom.

And when I first started doing artwork, I kind of felt like that actor that gets typecast.

People were expecting me to do a certain type of artwork.

And one of the reasons why I adapted that bird, 'cause that bird allows me to do anything I wanna do.

You know, if I wanna do an abstract piece, it's gonna be, I'll do that tomorrow.

Portraits, landscapes, anything, sports pieces, I do it all.

If I feel it, I'm gonna do it.

Art is my therapy.

I really hope that for the viewer that it affects them the way that it affects me.

So a lot of times, if I'm dealing with something, I go into my studio, the art is, that's my release.

And I'm able to just basically deal with stress in that way.

So I want that to be conveyed with my artwork, with also with the viewer.

So that's one of the things I wanted to also accomplish with some of these, my new pieces as well.

So I really hope that resonates with the viewer.

- [David] And that's it for today's show.

You'll find more arts and cultural programming online at arts.ideastream.org.

I'm Ideastream's David C. Barnett.

See you next week for another round of "Applause."

♪ Feet are coming up at my door ♪ ♪ At least wake me up with a call ♪ ♪ I probably won't be on time ♪ ♪ Sure ain't gonna be early ♪ ♪ I might not even make it at all ♪ ♪ Might not even make it at all ♪ (dynamic music) - [Announcer] Production of "Applause" on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation, the Stroud Family Trust, and by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.