- [Announcer] 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 & Culture.

(bright funky music) - [Kabir] Coming up, immerse yourself inside the floating curtains of dried flowers at the Cleveland Public Library.

Plus, we take you backstage at an Ohio Scenic shop making an international impact.

And the Cleveland Orchestra performs the world premiere of a concerto by Wynton Marsalis.

Welcome back to another round of "Applause," my friends.

I'm Idea Stream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

(light gentle music) Inside the downtown Cleveland Public Library is a delicate yet delightful display of dried flowers that appears to float before your eyes.

It's the vision of British artist Rebecca Louise Law, but it was assembled by hundreds of northeast Ohio hands.

(bright curious music) - People were really sort of in awe of the scale of this, something so big yet made up of so many tiny pieces.

- First impressions were it's incredible.

Way bigger than I imagined, way more immersive.

- I was overwhelmed.

We've had many great exhibits in this space but by far, this is the largest exhibit.

- Rebecca Louise Law has just been on my artist's crush list forever.

Rebecca is an artist from the UK.

She lives in Wales now.

She is best known for these installations that are stringing flowers but she has a pretty extensive artistic practice with lots of materials.

- Early in her art career, she was trying to sort of paint the world as she remembered it as a child and she wasn't able to capture that feeling with paint and she started working directly with flowers.

- One thing that drew me to her is how she involves the community in the creation of her works and also her stance on sustainability.

This installation uses over 500,000 flowers.

100,000 are from Cleveland and they were saved from the landfill.

- Some of the flowers in "The Archive" are actually from her father's garden and they've traveled all around the world over 20 plus years.

- People were bringing them.

We are saving them from funeral homes that we're gonna throw them out, grocery stores, drying them, and then stringing them.

And then the other 400,000 are reused from past installations that Rebecca has done.

- Rebecca has really wanted to look at sustainability when it comes to her work.

She's wanted to look at how to get that sort of emotional sense of the natural world that we're in.

- Once this installation is done, she keeps them for the next one.

So that's why it really is the archive of her artistic practice.

And even when she came, I mean, I knew she was into sustainability but she was saving every single petal, all the crumbs, like nothing was going to waste, which was just amazing to see it as part of someone's artistic practice.

- "The Archive" here is called "The Archive" because it has flowers from every single project she's worked on all over the world.

So we have a bit of every single one of her projects here.

So this is sort of the archive of her projects here at Cleveland Public Library.

- I mean, these are many, many years of exhibits that are part of this installation and then the hand of Cleveland residents in bringing their own flowers.

It's a really cool collaborative effort.

(bright intriguing music) - She really believes that her art speaks to everyone that she likes.

Like what we did in Cleveland where you bring folks from all different generations, older folks and younger folks to work on her exhibit.

- Rebecca came to town and taught us how to string them on the copper wire and we divided them into different types, different colors.

We had volunteers helping immensely to string up all them on the copper wire.

- It was really cool.

I mean, seeing everybody learning how to take these flowers and wrap them and put them together and then understand what the larger picture was going to be when it ultimately was done.

- Then we took all the completed strands and put them in a blast freezer, which preserves them more.

Make sure there's no pests, which is really important for the library.

We have never worked on such a project with so many community volunteers that are so involved and passionate and part of a project.

- What was one of the really great things about the volunteers is when they've come to see the exhibit, you will hear people say, oh, I worked on those.

They can see, you know, did I string the pine cones or was I making the clouds of baby breath?

- All of a sudden I'll be like, oh, I remember working on that table.

And I like some of the stories that both people were sharing at the tables of the Cleveland volunteers.

But then also Rebecca will say, oh, that's from my father's garden.

This strand, that was one of her strands I worked on and it's here now.

And it's like part of the whole story.

- There's like fungus in there.

There are these pods that look like birds and you see things and you think, how has that been here this whole time and I haven't seen it?

So you do have that sensibility going through here that like your different days, your senses are like attuned to different things.

So even though I get to see this most days of the week, it's a different experience most days.

So that's really special too.

- We had over 200 volunteers.

It was a very amazing team effort to pull it off.

- We worked with a local fabricator called Mercer Works.

They created this wooden structure here.

They have a whole team of people down in Kent, Ohio who worked on this.

If you zoom in on these, they're all strung on copper wire.

What's really amazing about this is you can see the hand touches.

Every single piece of this project was touched by human hands so many times throughout this project.

(light gentle music) - One of the bonuses of bringing it inside has been we've been bringing more people back into the library which is really important for us.

- The way that Rebecca's piece fills the space was just really special.

It's like that great marriage between a great idea and a great concept and a great execution in a beautiful space.

- So to have something that people are drawn to that people are talking about on social media and they want to come into our institution and see has been really a big plus for us.

- After COVID, you know, just getting people back in our library buildings and frankly back in public spaces and in downtown at the, you know, the level that we used to be.

It's been work and I'm so happy that the library's been able to be part of that sort of reactivation and re-energization.

(light gentle music) - Every time I talk to folks about libraries, they still have the general stereotype of us sitting around shushing people and the general stereotype of what a library is.

But libraries are so much more than that, right?

We are the community living room for so many folks who may not have an opportunity to see an exhibit like Rebecca Louise Law.

- I am especially excited to be able to come to this installation in the winter when I'm like craving some prettiness, some greenery, some pretty flowers, those kinds of things.

And so I love how they're preserved in a beautiful way that you can see 'em throughout the year.

(light gentle music) - [Kabir] "The Archive" by Rebecca Louise Law is on view at the Maine Cleveland Public Library through May, 2024.

(light gentle music) Let's travel now to just outside of Dayton to West Carrollton, Ohio, home to a scenery shop of epic proportions.

For more than two decades Scenic Solutions has created singular designs for a wide variety of stage shows all across the globe.

(light gentle music) - Anybody can build the scenery and it's the details that really make it a show and help create this whole environment as opposed to just scenery on stage.

We kind of build an atmosphere and an environment into everything we do.

- We are a small company, but we produce big, big things.

We just got done with a national tour, a blue man group which will be all over the country and the amount of scenery that we churned out for that show was just astronomical.

That's what blows my mind the most is that we're able to produce such large productions with such a small group of people.

- We serve a multitude of industries.

We work anywhere from high school theater level to first run Broadway tours.

We also build entertainment for the cruise line industry.

We make the magic happen mostly backstage behind the scenes.

Because we are a custom shop, not a single job is the same.

Not a single client needs the same thing, not a single material we use is the same.

There are days when there's no one in the shop and there are days when there's 40 people in the shop.

There are days when I have six crews all over the world.

At any given point in time, we might have eight to 20 projects in different stages within the company.

We have a lot of good people working here.

- Scenic Solutions has been in business for 24 years.

We started with the sewing room in the basement of our old house.

Dan was working for the Dayton Ballet's lighting designer and I was freelancing as a custom designer and seamstress.

And pretty soon Scenic Solutions became our life.

Dan is my business partner.

He's president of Scenic Solutions.

He is my husband.

It's a very busy place.

I sometimes say it is so chaotic that you can't keep up.

There's never two days that are the same.

- The clients come up with the creative designs.

And then myself and the other production managers and drafters take all of their ideas and turn them into something we can actually build and create all of the drawings that we give to the carpenters.

- I take drawings from designers and draftsmen and engineers and communicate them to the guys working under me.

And we turn it into reality.

I feel like the welding department is the backbone of most of the things that are built here.

We always start with a structure.

It's just the nature of scenery that you have to start with a structure and then you make it look like something entirely different.

The way scenery is today, most of it has to be portable.

Be lightweight, durable, and that's what the metal structure gives you.

With touring shows, it has to last for a year, if not more.

As far as a cruise ship show goes, we do have weight constraints when it comes to cruise ships so you gotta keep things light.

- The cruise line industry definitely presents unique challenges.

Typically when you go to a Broadway show, the theater does not move.

On a cruise line, the theater moves.

That bases a lot of our decision making on how to build stuff.

The other unique challenge of a cruise line is getting your scenery lighting props into the theater.

They never design big enough doors to get the items into the cruise ship.

Typically, the crew will have to carry the scenery through the cruise ship in the middle of the night when everyone's asleep up the stairwells into the theaters.

And that is a unique situation.

- I recently went to Italy for a single day to do a site survey on a cruise ship that we're working on there.

This is the room everything we'll load into through that door.

I also took all of the measurements of the doorways and the hallways and our path from getting everything from the loading dock through the ship and into the theater.

And made sure that everything broke down into a small enough piece to fit through that path.

- It's definitely worth the cost because we know things are gonna fit as opposed to sending a piece of scenery or an entire show to the other side of the world and then it not being able to fit through the door to get it onto the ship.

That would be a big expense.

One thing that would blow their minds, I would say probably that they've seen a lot of our work and they just haven't realized it.

We've got a lot of stuff all over the Dayton area but you'd never, unless you work there, you'd never know that we actually did it.

We kind of sneak in, sneak out, so we're not, you know, well visible out to the general public.

- We helped Kettering firm out school district consult and install rigging lighting and the orchestra shell for their new theater.

We work for the Schuster Center, Downtown Dayton Victoria Arts Association.

- It's really hard to think of what the coolest thing that came through Scenic Solutions is.

Blue man group's pretty cool, but getting to do the Rike's boxes.

(light gentle music) Starting in the 1940s, Rike's department store did a display every year at Christmas.

People that have lived here or grew up here, if you say something about the Rike's elves, they talk about how they used to go see them when they were kids.

It's a very big part of Dayton's Christmas holiday.

We originally built the boxes that the Rike's Elves were in about 15 years ago, and then last year they approached us and asked for new boxes with new scenes inside.

(light gentle music) It feels amazing to give this gift to Dayton.

We've been part of the Dayton community for a long time but to get the chance to give such a big project back to the community feels great.

(bright funky music) - [Kabir] The world's largest historic D-day tribute takes place each year, not on the shores of Normandy, France, but instead Ashtabula, Ohio.

On the next "Applause," experience D-Day Conneaut along the Lake Erie shore plus a Columbus dancer builds community with the traditions of West African dance.

And we look back on the 2023 Tri-C Jazz Fest with a groovy tune from Akron guitarist, Dan Wilson.

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

♪ 'Cause I can feel it ♪ ♪ It's on your side ♪ ♪ You're in love's pictures ♪ ♪ I know she cries ♪ - [Kabir] Watch past episodes of "Applause" On the PBS app.

We're off to the Queen city to meet a collective of Cincinnati artists and musicians that goes by the name TRIIIBE.

Dedicated to art and activism, this talented group brings community together with their music and a potluck for the people.

(light gentle music) ♪ Look at the stars ♪ ♪ I guess they're really not that far ♪ - Well, we were originally called Black Seas TRIIIBE so TRIIIBE has always been here.

But once we changed our name from Black Seas TRIIIBE, we wanted to keep TRIIIBE 'cause TRIIIBE is just that whole inclusive family feel and that's what we always wanna bring in the city.

But then it's a acronym as well.

So we mapped it out as true representation of intellectual individuals invoking Black excellence.

There's three i's in there.

There's three of us of course, which is symbolic.

And then tribe overall, like, that's just our staple.

We operate as a tribe, you know, and we reach out to people, and look to make them our tribe, so.

- I think what surprises people most from my perspective is that we haven't been together for a long time.

We've only been doing this for honestly a year as TRIIIBE and only two years of us really knowing each other diving into what it means to create.

- I think the dynamic of us, like being one male, two women showing how we could work together.

I think that that's not always often seen.

So people are not surprised.

But yeah, they are surprised when they are able to see like how fluid we are able to work because you really don't often see it that much.

- We're not professionals at all.

We don't take training for this.

We literally just know what we wanna do.

We invite other people to do it with us and we all figure it out together and we just get better together.

And that's powerful for people to see.

Just to know how easily attainable it is to make your community better.

♪ Big heart take big bang every time ♪ ♪ Big heart take big bang every time ♪ ♪ Big heart take big bang- ♪ - There's a book club.

That's every first Monday.

- There's an event called Indigo Vibe and Flow and it's for like an intergenerational group of people that are interested in learning how to communicate.

There's also Solstice, which is a yoga meditation, mindfulness, mixed with food.

- We got raised in the bars every first and third Thursday that's downtown.

And we talk to the children in the Cincinnati public library and we are challenging them to, you know, express themselves and be able to put it in a different way.

- What else?

There's potluck for the people every last Sunday of the month.

- Urban gardening classes, fitness classes.

- Oh yeah, we have fitness classes on Sundays.

We teamed up with Daniel from Burst Out.

Workout Fitness was a part of Cincinnati Peace movement as well.

- Seeing all the different kinds of people that come out to the different kinds of things that we do.

There's this range, wide range of ages, wide range of backgrounds that comes out to speak their truth.

- So over here, this is the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

Students got together and decided to be a part of this event by giving people the opportunity to express themselves through art.

I believe that this is a awesome thing that they're doing because as you can see, people getting a chance to not just eat and get clothing and stuff like that, it's a fellowshipping.

And getting to know people, getting to know your neighbors, getting to know the community, people in the community.

You know, we're not all bad people, you know what I mean?

So I think it's a good thing.

(bright electronic music) - We wanted to drop a album for about two years now, so and then we recreated our sound.

We would say we had to- - We recorded like 40 songs.

I mean- - There's like - It's bad.

- So many songs that haven't even made it.

- It was almost 22 tracks, right?

- There are songs that we've even forgotten that aren't coming to mind right now that- - Facts.

- I'm sure we've recorded- - Facts.

- That were going to be on this.

- But it started off as just us writing a ton of material, us recording a ton of material, different places.

Looking for the right sound.

- Right.

- With different people.

- For this album, I feel like we spent almost probably like a solid a year and probably spending three days out the week we were doing something with the album.

Whether it was writing something together, whether it was listening to something together whether it was playing something, even if that was being played and it wasn't on the album, just us getting together and building that chemistry.

It all started to create everything that we was doing.

- The concept for "I Am What I Am" is all that we are.

All that we are right now.

Truth, speaking that truth.

Storytelling.

- Your truth.

- Yeah.

- Like, I am what I am.

Like, take that everybody just not like as TRIIIBE, like as a listener, you are who you are.

♪ Everything is everything the universe touch ♪ ♪ Everything is everything the universe touch ♪ - We take on roles like really well.

Peace is a muscle man.

He gets it done.

Like, he's a executioner.

I already know that.

Z honestly keeps us going.

She maintains us.

And then again, I'm just kind of bossy.

So, but we all like, we do have these personality traits that makes it easy for us.

Now, I won't say easy.

It makes it possible for us to stay organized.

- We have many things that we're good at and to utilize like how to really like come together, that has been like a huge, huge phase of growth.

We're always evolving and figuring out how best to work with one another, not just in this three that we have, but all over the city.

- We have not always had the platform or pull that we have now.

So when we first started, it was just three young adults trying to figure out the best way to make something happen.

And a lot of people, we would not be here right now if it weren't for a lot of people giving us chances investing their time, energy- - Showing up at all our shows.

- Showing up, yeah, all of that- - Sharing- - Taking us places, letting us use their cars, like.

- Yeah, our visibility is huge.

And that's something that comes directly from the community.

- To have known TRIIIBE as three separate beings and for them to just coagulate into this super being of a group, it gives me chills.

The impact that they have on the community is phenomenal and it's glorious and it's something you want to hear, you need to hear to follow through with living a good life or just being a better person.

They have set a bar without even trying.

They paved the way for people to follow.

And that's just that.

- TRIIIBE.

- TRIIIBE.

- TRIIIBE.

- TRIIIBE, TRIIIBE, TRIIIBE.

(bright curious music) - Our message and our music is not the usual music and sound that you would hear or at least advertise sound.

And that's cool 'cause it is what it is.

And we are who we are.

And I think that's important to make that statement.

It's rebellious.

Even just saying like, at the end of the day with all this influence around us, this is who we are.

I am what I am.

And then you just kind of have to deal with that.

- [Kabir] Well, the curtain is lowering on this week's "Applause," my friends.

I'm Idea Stream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

We leave you with a world premier concerto composed by jazz legend Wynton Marsalis.

Available in full on the Cleveland Orchestra's app, Adela.

It's a work Marsalis wrote for his good friend, orchestra principal trumpet, Michael Sachs.

Enjoy.

(triumphant jazz music) (triumphant jazz music continues) (triumphant jazz music continues) (triumphant jazz music continues) (triumphant jazz music continues) (bright funky music) - [Announcer] 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 & Culture.