- [Presenter] Production of "Applause," on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents.

Through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

(gentle music) - [Kabir] Coming up, dig into deep storage at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Meet a Cedar Point enthusiast, who goes way beyond the rollercoasters.

And check out a tune by a talented group of teenage jazz cats from Tri-C. (upbeat jazz music) (upbeat music) Hey gang, welcome back to another round of "Applause."

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

After a decade of reconstruction, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History is ready to unveil the final pieces of its $150 million renovation project.

Join me for a look behind the scenes at how staff prepared new exhibits for the galleries.

(quirky music) The leopard and the gazelle for decades these foes have been on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, captured in mid battle.

They're among just 5% of the museum's millions of artifacts which are on view at any given time.

Getting items ready for display is no easy task.

- It starts with identifying the objects.

We have to get everything up into one space, which is what we've done here.

And then you start a sort of triage process of what is the condition of everything.

You kind of give everybody a health checkup.

- [Kabir] Megan Strong has been the museum's Director of Collections for two years.

She works with curators and researchers to bring artifacts to life for visitors, and that requires an unusual skillset.

- I do have a background in archeology and art history, which I think is a really great background of how you handle and store and deal with a whole host of materials.

So I am not an expert in insects, but I can understand how do I preserve an insect so that it stays in the best condition possible.

I am not an expert in fossils, but I know stone and essentially that is what a fossil is to a greater extent.

We wanna make sure that these objects are here in the same condition in a 100 years time in 200 years time.

- [Kabir] That could mean the occasional light dusting of an object or maybe something more extensive.

(quirky music) - The Dimetrodon.

So this is one of those objects that was out on display previously.

And one of those sort of projects where we didn't know quite what we were gonna be getting into.

He was actually embedded in a big block of foam as part of a thematic piece, a scenery piece.

And so thankfully we were able to work with some conservators, get him out of there safely.

But I have had to scrape with little dental picks, very small pieces of foam off of his toes and make sure that he gets cleaned appropriately.

- [Kabir] And from there, when an object is ready, the team works on something the rest of us should never see, mounting hardware.

- And that involves, like heavy machinery and welding and sometimes 3D printing and specific fitting to every object.

You're gonna have these very shiny brass mounts that everything is being held with.

So you have to paint them all.

And you have to make sure they're color matched to the graphics.

So that in of itself is a whole separate process.

So by the time you actually get something into a case, it's been months, months, months, months of work more than likely.

And then eventually it's still like little final tweakings of things and that to get everything fit in properly.

But the goal is that you will never notice the hours of work that went into getting an object ready to go.

It's perfectly clean, it looks exactly how you want it, and the mount just disappears into the wall.

- [Kabir] The walls at the Natural History Museum have undergone a big transformation in recent years.

Gone are the dinosaur taxidermy and gem galleries.

Replaced by the story of how humanity is part of the natural world.

- How the world impacts us as humans, how we impact the world as humans, and how we generally fit in.

We're not separate and distant from the natural world, but we're a part of it and we depend on it.

Our food, for food, the air that we breathe all is based in the natural world.

And our connection to that is of fundamental importance for the future of humanity.

- [Kabir] That's a big change from how artifacts were displayed for decades after the museum moved to University Circle in the 1950s.

- I would call the former way of displaying objects, kind of the cabinet of curiosity framework.

Where you just have a lot of stuff out.

And you have them labeled, or you might have them associated with, you know, these are all gems in the gem collection, but it was much harder to tell the why story within that context.

So we do have a lot of the objects that we've had before.

But we definitely don't have like the overwhelming number of them that we had before because we're selecting things to connect with things that we really want the visitor to experience and understand.

(lively music) - [Kabir] The Cleveland Museum of Natural History's refreshed galleries debuted December 13th.

Sandusky's Lake Erie Coast is home to a place that's amused us for more than 150 years, Cedar Point.

A lot of that history is on view at the Cedar Point Historical Museum, thanks to one man's vast collection that just kept growing and growing.

(upbeat music) - Good day, and thank you for coming to the Downtown Sandusky, Cedar Point Historical Museum.

My name is David Kaman, and I have the pleasure of being the Curator and Executive Director of this museum.

Over the last 50 years, I have been in love with Cedar Point, and I have amassed a tremendous amount of different Cedar Point memorabilia.

I loved sharing this memorabilia with my family and friends, but as the amount of items that I had grew greater and greater, I felt a bigger and bigger need to share it with other Cedar Point lovers.

And as a result, we've created this beautiful Cedar Point historical museum within the very friendly confines of the downtown Sandusky Merry Go Round Museum.

(lively music) How many items do we actually have here in the Cedar Point Museum?

The answer to that question is, I don't know, there's just so many unique little items that deserve your attention.

(lively music) This case goes back to 1890.

Our oldest item that we have is here.

It's a ribbon from 1893.

And in the olden days when groups of people would come to Cedar Point, the entire group, everyone in the group would wear their ribbon showing where they were from, what city and the year.

A lot of people have asked me, David, how did you get started in all of this?

And it is really a love story.

When I graduated from high school here in Sandusky, that summer, I started working at Cedar Point.

I worked from 11:30 at night till 8:00 in the morning, changing light bulbs.

At that point in time, I just fell in love with the park.

My dad had six or eight postcards that he had showed to me.

I started collecting postcards and then it expanded to all the things that you see.

(lively music) And one of the real treasures that we have here is a picture of Cedar Point's first rollercoaster, which was the switchback railway, and it actually was 25 feet high.

So imagine the screams of delight that that caused.

I started collecting so many years ago, but a treasure that I've had my entire life that I have a picture from 1931 of my mother and my uncle sitting on a carousel horse in Cedar Point.

It's just such a wonderful thing to have a part of my family be a part of this museum.

One of the delights of putting this museum together has been the people that I've met who've made contributions to it.

- When I became of age to have a job during the summer, I chose Cedar Point or they chose me.

And when I retired in 2005, I was Director of Park Operations, in charge of park admissions and park services.

(gentle music) I also have a collection of Cedar Point, and I had also tried to find a place to place my items.

It's not quite as large as Davids, but I have different things than he does.

So when I would see something or when I would where there's a gap, such as he had no green glass in the display case, or none of the pink or the custard or milk glass.

So I have added some of my pieces from my collection to his collection.

So we have more of a, you know, everything's covered.

(lively music) - When the Cedar Point Resort initially opened, it opened as this beautiful hotel.

The hotel breakers with the beach, but it was very classy and they sold very classy items such as this glassware.

(lively music) - This is one of my favorite display cases because it has some of the great rides from the '60's and '70's.

It also has some of the unusual souvenirs that you could buy, such as the giant comb, the back scratcher.

- Every year for as long as I can remember, I have had numerous visits to the beautiful place known as Cedar Point.

I've been on every rollercoaster.

I'm still a rollercoaster freak.

Hence, we have all these inaugural rider medallions here in the museum.

But Cedar Point is just so much more than the roller coasters.

I just love the atmosphere of seeing families have fun.

Cedar Point takes you away to a wonderful place.

- I hope everyone that comes through the door has memories, fond memories of Cedar Point, and this will help bring them back.

So that they can relive them again.

(lively music) - [Kabir] You can find the Cedar Point Historical Museum inside the Merry-Go-Round Museum on Jackson Street in downtown Sandusky.

Our next spotlight shines in Columbus, where environmental artist, Char Norman likes to forage for her materials.

Norman says she wants people to appreciate the natural world in her work and recognize its importance and beauty.

(gentle music) - My training is in fibers, weaving, coiling and paper making, and I almost always try to get all of those elements in my work.

But then I'm an environmentalist.

So that's really important that I bring in those natural materials.

And that could be anything from seed pods to tree bark to just stems of weeds that I'm weaving with.

So I would describe it as it's three dimensional, normally a sculpture and starts on the loom.

So I'll start with a woven piece that I'll then form three dimensionally and in some way either attach it to a natural element or incorporate that natural element within the sculpture itself.

(gentle music) I hike every day and I have since I was a kid.

So I'm out in the woods mostly.

I'm originally from Southern California, so when I moved here, it was like woods wow trees.

But I think an important piece that really got me on this path is when I noticed the Emerald ash borers killing all of our trees, okay?

And as the tree dies, the bark sheds off in these beautiful long pieces.

And actually the piece behind me is an installation I did about the Emerald ash borer.

So I started collecting this bark and noticing the path of the bug is really, really beautiful.

But I wanted to say something about these trees and what's happening.

So I wanted to recreate the shape of the tree with handmade paper.

And then hang them so they hang as if they're ghost trees.

And you know, just the whole idea that we lost all these trees was really inspirational to me, but also pretty sad.

(gentle music) (loom clacking) (gentle music) This is hemp, unspun hemp.

It's been carted, clean carted.

It's ready to spin into intertwine or thread or whatever, but I like to use it raw.

(loom clacking) And I put it in here just for texture.

The whole idea of those weavings you're standing by, these are trees.

And I kind of set up a little experiment for myself that these are all forged materials or materials I already had, nothing new.

Well, I wanted to see what I could use.

And again, I'm referencing trees and all their variety and fungi.

That's why I have all these little things like what grows on the trees, the tree trunks.

But I often, you know, will just go out in the yard or to the woods and I'll grab sticks and things to weave in.

(gentle music) I want people to notice nature and how we react to it.

That it's a symbiotic relationship that we have to nurture, that we're caretakers, we're not here to use things.

So I want people to look at like a simple seed pod, and I'll encase it in a weaving so that you notice it and you think, oh, this is something special.

Or bark off of a tree that I've used for a sculpture.

And people will notice it and say, wow, there's some real beauty to this.

A lot of times it's things people will just walk over in the forest and never notice, but I'm trying to enhance it so they do notice.

And really think about that, how beautiful it is and how it's very important to us as the human race you know, if we destroy the environment, there's no hope for any of us.

So that would be the crux of it.

(gentle music) Just the act of creating is really important.

I mean, my mind is always going a mile a minute on what can I do with this or how can I express that?

That to me is very rewarding.

And then when that comes to fruition, which happens through a lot of trial and error, a lot of working, a lot of engineering of the fiber, and having that realized in the way I had wanted and say what I wanted, that I think is so rewarding.

- [Kabir] Let's now meet young lady from Nevada, who just loves to create, whether she's playing her violin, picking up a paintbrush or rollerskating through the house.

Juliette Leong is full of artistic ideas.

(upbeat music) - My name is Juliette Leong and I'm eight years old.

My most favorite thing to do is play with my friends.

Second is reading.

I like graphic novels, fiction, nonfiction.

I love reading so, so much.

I get in trouble for reading and I love painting.

I started painting when I was eight months old.

My parents put me on the dining room table and gave me paint and paper to play with.

I guess they wish they didn't really do that because I made a mess on my table.

I just like splatted my hand in the paint and like basically fingerprinted the whole table.

(lively music) I use color pencils, acrylic paints, watercolor paints, and grosh paint.

And I've tried oil paint, but it took forever to dry and I don't like waiting forever, I'm impatient (giggles).

(lively music) Gathering materials is kind of the first step of painting, but an idea is really the first step.

I paint landscapes, abstracts, animals, and portraits.

Oh, and abstract realism.

Sometimes I feel stressed when I'm doing it in live competitions or I have to like paint in person with other people that are not kids.

But when I'm just painting for fun, I feel happy and excited.

(lively music) I donate the proceeds from the sale of my paintings to raise money for nonprofit organizations that help others such as AADP, or Asian American Donor Program.

Race to Erase MS. Ladies Who Rock 4 a Cause, and many more.

(lively music) It makes me feel great helping people and trying to save their lives.

When I'm not painting, I'm usually playing my violin.

(upbeat music) I first saw a violinist play at San Francisco City Hall when I was about two years old, and then after I saw Ray Chen perform, then I really wanted to play the violin.

So that's what got me started.

(upbeat violin music) I love practicing my violin while roller skating.

(upbeat violin music) You learn how to hold your bow straight and it has to be straight and not like cricket because then it'll go off the fingerboard, it'll be all over the place.

(orchestral music) I got to play with the Reno Chamber Orchestra because I won the Concerto competition in March and it was so exciting.

(audience applauds) They like made a big box for me to stand on (laughs).

That was funny.

(upbeat orchestral music) My favorite concerto is the Mozart Violin Concerto number three in G Major.

(upbeat orchestral music) The Reno Chamber Orchestra is a really fun orchestra.

I get to meet some of the solo violinists.

They always come out and I love the Reno chamber orchestra.

(gentle orchestral music) I wasn't nervous because I just think of it as another public performance, or if I'm practicing at home.

(upbeat orchestral music) I love performing so much.

To me, an artist is a person who has an idea in their head and they just share it with the world.

(upbeat orchestral music) (audience applauds) - [Kabir] Here's what to expect next time on "Applause."

We explore the career of Pablo Picasso, through his works on paper.

Join us as we step inside the Cleveland Museum of Art to see Picasso's creativity at play.

Plus we go behind the scenes of a Columbus art exhibition with a couple of the curators.

And Canadian soprano, Barbara Hannigan, makes her conducting debut with the Cleveland Orchestra.

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

(gentle orchestral music) It is been fun, my friends, but we need to say, see you later.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia, sending you off with a cool composition by a student from the Tri-C JazzFest Academy Drummer Nehemiah Sticks Baker wrote this tune after the passing of his grandmother.

He got to perform it with fellow academy students at the 2024 Tri-C JazzFest on stage at Playhouse Square.

It's called "Faded."

Check it out.

(upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music) - [Presenter] Production of "Applause," on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents.

Through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.