Production of applause and ideastream.

Public media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Coming up, contemporary artists take on contemporary issues at the Akron Art Museum and art instructor brings hope and healing to the brokenhearted in Cincinnati.

And a bossa nova musician brings Brazilian beats to the Tri-C Jazz Fest.

Hello and welcome to another round of applause, everyone.

Look, it's me in the flesh.

You're welcome.

Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

Let's start with a trip to the Akron Art Museum for an exhibit dedicated to contemporary artists.

The show presents a range of voices working in photography, sculpture, video and more.

Enjoy this tour with the curators of, she said.

She said She said, she said, is an exhibition that highlights the work of 37 artists that identify as female and that are looking at female experience and understanding it in kind of a broader sort of way.

It's really important to have different generations voices to acknowledge what came before and then acknowledge what strides have been made.

I think the theme that most illuminates that is perhaps the body where we start with some forms by Yayoi Kusama in the early sixties, kind of centering women's work and and this this idea of domestic labor and sewing in a way that had never been seen before, at least in the contemporary art world.

And the Guerrilla girls, their 1989 print is showing some really important disparities within the contemporary art world at that time that is frankly still relevant.

You really couldn't have a show about the last decades of art by women without appropriation as a theme.

It's a way that a lot of really incisive points get made.

So for Natalie Gibbard with this video titled The Swing, she's jumping off from John Honoré Fragonard, 1760s painting, also titled The Swing.

It shows a woman on a swing.

She's being pushed by a chaperon, and there is a third figure there in the bushes underneath her trying to get a peek at the frills of her skirt.

That's the jumping off point for this video appropriation.

The woman we learn is not necessarily so enthralled with her admirer and tries to escape from him and crawls away.

He's crawling after her.

He gets very desperate.

He gets sweaty.

The tension kind of mounts.

I wonder if the suggestion is ultimately that while a woman might escape from certain confines of gender relations, merely escaping them doesn't mean that that's the end of your journey.

You may have to look further to find something that will satisfy you, that will make you happy and kind of go from there and keep exploring.

The title is fluff.

You you fluffing fluff.

When you approach the object, you're suddenly confronted with both the kind of slick quality of the silicone.

This piece in particular includes a lot of found objects and is interesting in contrast to what is understood as portraiture in general.

Right?

Thinking about like painting or photography.

That's also and is included in this gallery.

Cindy Sherman although she's using her own self, her own image, and she's both the model, the producer and the director of all of these different photographs that she produces.

She's very clear that these are not self-portraits.

They're a way of a viewer to understand, perhaps some facets of themselves in larger society, to be able to interpret themselves and think about how advertising, how like wider cultural represents and can influence how we see our own selves.

So this piece by Nina Chanel Abney was created while Nina was in grad school.

The piece itself is a group portrait and self-portrait.

She's a black female, but everybody in her class was white, and so she did a reversal right where she is the white femme prison guard.

And then the students of the class are the black inmates.

We came to understand that this piece was created in secret.

So the the students didn't know about the work until it was revealed in the kind of final MFA show.

So Mickalene Thomas is a really important artist who has done so much work in the realm of portraiture.

Her work is absolutely addressing stereotypes of black women in in the wider sphere.

She's using a lot of different materials to really make her portraits sparkle.

She's using things like rhinestones that are really important to her culture, specifically.

This exciting work behind me as Maria Nepomuceno is untitled installation from 2010, and Nepomuceno is a Brazilian artist and an exciting part of this work is that she worked with Brazil's Honey Queen Tribe on some of the sort of basket straw weaving techniques that are involved in this piece that help it to gain its really robust physical structure, to bring in an unusual material like straw and to have exciting visual patterning in the surface of these woven materials in the work.

The work is meant to be echoing, if you look closely, if you look at some of its different forms of the female anatomy.

I hope that people are excited by how this material is being used.

How straw could be something pretty typical, not too exciting that you'd find it on farm.

Maybe you'd find it in utilitarian object and here it is made into something totally different, really vibrant, really lively.

The phrase he said, she said, is often used to denote cases where you can't reach a definite ending.

You know, it's he said she said, who knows what the truth is.

So by switching that up a little bit and saying she said she said it's really one centering women's voices.

But also I think maybe alluding to the fact that we can get to some truth here right.

You can come to this exhibition and you can think of it as a survey of what women have been doing in art over the last decades.

But you can just as easily think of it as a survey of what has been going on in contemporary art period by anyone, because these artists are part of those broader conversations.

They're important participants that really talented participants.

And this show really, if we were to drop the idea of it being women artists, but just to say this is a survey of contemporary art, it would function just as well.

she said.

She said Contemporary women Artists was organized with the Rubell Museum and is on view at the Akron Art Museum through August 10th.

let's travel to Cincinnati, where artist and author Dr. Sarah Hellmann dedicates herself to helping those in need.

Using a spiritual approach to teaching art.

Hellmann encourages and inspires through her program.

Art for All People.

I'm very inspired by the great spiritual teachers that have went before me.

You know, the teachings of Christ and Dr. King and Mother Teresa.

A large part of my work is reminding people who they are.

And I start every session by saying, let me remind you who you are in case life beat it out of you.

I'll remind you, you know, you are not your mistake.

You are not your addiction and you are not your diagnosis.

Your child or the most high God.

You've got royal blood in your veins and you've got the qualities of the king you came from.

And all of you have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage to rise above the struggle you're in today.

So if you've forgotten who you are, I'll remind you, you know, you are a royal warrior.

Well, I know in suffering, I'm a recovering alcoholic and I have bipolar disorder.

And it actually works to my advantage in the work I'm doing.

Gives me street credit.

You know, I'm not just some lady from the suburbs coming in trying to help people, but I've been there so I know.

Struggling.

I do.

I do.

And one of the big answers for me was art.

Art gives us a chance to breathe.

It offers a type of breathing space for the soul and painting and that communion with God when I paint.

It's very healing.

And I get to watch.

I get to witness the healing powers of the arts every day.

And it's it's an incredible honor.

It's an incredible privilege to bring the arts to people who tell me they feel broken, they feel unwanted, that there's been days without somebody looking them in the eye, you know?

And I come in and I remind them who they are and I give them some canvas and paint and I just give them some space.

And it's a beautiful thing.

So I received my doctorate in education.

But during my doctorate, when I was working on my dissertation, I was studying the resilience levels and at risk adolescent girls.

And I really wanted to use an arts based dissertation.

And I got a lot of pushback because it's never been done before.

And then after schooling, I started the ministry art for all people under the idea that people suffer in art heals, and the arts, I can say, saved my life in times of anxiety, stress, depression.

I always return to the arts to feel better.

And for me, painting and making art, it's very it's a spiritual experience.

And I think that's true for anything we do with real intention.

It can be very spiritual.

And the arts helped me.

Perhaps I my life and I knew they could help so many other people.

And we serve people who are affected by and carceral and addiction, mental illness.

We work with veterans and those experiencing homelessness.

I also work with women in prostitution, all under the idea that people suffer and art can heal here.

I'm here to bring you some healing and some hope.

Good time, a time to be mindful and to get your mind off of trouble.

I'm not here to blow sunshine up your skirt.

I'm here to help save your life.

You know, I work with a lot of what other people might call undesirable people.

And I can't help but think of Mother Teresa's quote.

You know, if you judge someone, you have no time to love them.

So my role as director is to love people, is to bring them hope, to bring them healing, to say, hey, I'm broken, to, but we can get strong in our broken places and we can do this together.

And there is hope for everyone.

I've worked with the most desperate heroin addicts and I've seen them turn their life around.

I've seen them get jobs despite criminal records.

So I'm there to remind them that this isn't your story is not over.

This is not the last chapter.

Keep going.

I work with people who tell me you planted the seed.

You were the one that helped me turn my life around.

And I consider it a great honor, a great privilege to walk alongside people in their dark times.

I wasn't painting.

I wasn't doing art.

I was just, you know, having a lot of trouble.

And when I got here, I found out that she was having a painting class.

And I sat in one and I was like, Wow, this is so cool.

And I'm going to get back into.

She let you know that, you know, you are somebody you know, and through art that she's here to help you through life.

She goes to enormous lengths to, you know, find people housing and get them involved in her painting and taking people to painting.

And she's just a very unconditional, loving person and cares a lot about the underserved.

So art for all people is all about bringing hope and healing to the brokenhearted.

It's we are here, We see you.

You are not alone in this struggle.

You are loved and you are wanted.

Hope is a beautiful thing.

It's worth fighting for.

It's worth waking up for.

And I'm reminded of the words of Dr. King where darkness cannot drive out darkness.

Only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate.

Only love can do that.

And I think love and hope they're related and they're vital.

They're vital to all of us.

And we must do our part to keep them alive in our lives, but into the lives of those we meet.

If you're looking for things to do in northeast Ohio that have an arts and culture flair, listen up.

I want to tell you about our free weekly newsletter that spotlights arts, events, news and the occasional trivia question from me.

It's called The to Do List, and you can sign up online at Arts Dot Ideastream, dawg.

Now to Columbus, where a husband and wife make music together both on and off stage.

He plays saxophone, she plays the flute, and together they're known as Tower Duo Oh, we've been making music together for a long time.

Our first performance as Tower Duo formally was in 2007, but we were in college together at Stetson University in Central Florida.

That's where we met.

And we started dating in November, and I think in November we started making music together.

Yeah.

And so that process, because we a flutist and saxophonist of finding music written for that combination has been sort of the focal point of what we do now, because that combination is not a traditional normal instrumentation in classical music.

And so as such, we have done two things.

We've done transcriptions of of other works of older classical music.

And we also have championed this this sort of our our mission as Tower to have to commission and work with living composers.

So we play the music of today of composers who are live and working, who are writing about what it's like to be alive today.

And and that's great because those composers are our friends, our neighbors.

They live in every community.

They're every type of person.

They share experiences and human experiences that are so diverse and and tell the human story in so many unique ways.

And I think our artistic process, I think it can be siphoned down into one word.

I don't know if you can tell us, but the word is passion.

And so this is really good.

This is really good for music making.

It also means that we've got really, really, you know, set ideas about music and the music that we want to create and what it's going to look like.

And so our process looks like mad sessions of planning, and this is what we're going to commission and it's going to be this.

I mean, it looks like furious scribbling and and, you know, we're our hair is nuts and we're pace He's a pacer.

He paces all over while we're in the middle and I get very pink in the face.

Yes.

Oh, this person and this person.

So that's like on the concept side and then on the work side, because it does take a lot of work, a lot of, you know, sitting and working through the music.

Our big joke is that we aren't married when we're in the middle of rehearsals.

So we can be as much like, Nope, that's wrong.

You're wrong.

That's the wrong way to do that.

We're going to approach us this other way and then at the end, it's always really cute as hell, especially being like we're married again.

But it's actually really good for our process because we're passionate human beings, and that is to go back to what we were talking about.

Passion is intrinsic to music and art making and the human experience, so it makes sense that it needs to be present in the music making.

When we're practicing, we're performing together.

So much of our emotion is based on what the music is telling us.

You know how you move to music, The music sort of tells you, you know what to do.

And music really is a dialog that's very much a partnership.

And so it's perfect in the scenario, you know, because for generally just having a conversation, it just happens to be a musical conversation.

And I think we seek that out as part of our creative process as well.

We seek out the given the take and and when we're talking over each other and when when it's my turn to talk and when it's your time to stop or when it's your turn to sing and when it's my turn, I think that's actually really special.

And also a big part of it.

Yeah, I think that collaboration in like rehearsal, like how we talk about the music we're making, how we decide when to come out of the texture, when to pull into texture, who's the most important line.

I think that that background work that's done because there's a lot of work and in making music prepared, but we never want it to feel like we're performing.

Although I love a lot of work that's hard.

We want it to feel like, Oh, that was fun.

It was, you know, enjoyable.

That was listen to how beautiful that is.

But that takes that takes background rehearsal and effort and practice and study and discussion.

Beyond just being musicians and performers, we're also teachers.

And so teaching is about relationships and it's about people and it's about people beyond the person you're teaching, even in that moment.

And so, you know, the best part for me about being performing arts is, is the the human elements, the people and the relationships.

This was one of the probably best experiences like events of being in Cuba.

These students, not only were they like so extremely talented and so passionate and so excited to make music, but they're also so hungry to hear what you have to say to hear your perspective.

There are so open to your ideas and in fact, a lot of them I've stayed in contact with since Cuba, which is really exciting.

A lot of them are really excited about their futures.

So kind of goes to what you were saying about legacy and sort of that expansion where it's a it's a bit of a butterfly effect.

When we finished the masterclass where they were performing for me and I was, you know, obviously demonstrating and playing for them and with them after that, I asked if if there was a moment where they had questions while I was packing on my my instrument thinking, Oh, we're at the end.

And then every hand froze.

And I was like, wow, kind of overwhelmed with, you know, like how much they want.

They it was kind of a beautiful moment because it wasn't just like, okay, the masterclass is over where students, we want to go to our our fun thing or hang out with our friends.

They wanted more.

It was over and they wanted more.

And I, you know, and I stayed a little longer and we had to be somewhere.

And the people we were with were like, We got to go.

We've got to go.

But I'm like, I'm teaching.

I'm teaching.

You got to be here with these students.

And it was just a beautiful moment.

You know, it's a people.

It's always the people.

Every relationship is a new one.

It's an exciting one because I do a lot of teaching and also a lot of performing.

I also meet musicians in different stages of their life.

So young people are just like little tiny bodies are just as exciting to meet as, like the wise artists that have been on the scene for forever and have so much to share.

And so it's community really.

I think that's probably what draws me to being an artist anyway.

And teaching does also feel sort of like you're on a stage, so they're kind of equal parts and the stage doesn't happen unless there are people there in the audience.

I don't make music in a vacuum, so it's definitely people.

For me, the most rewarding part about being performing as a musician is also the people.

Music is about people, and it's that power that it transcends language and problems of the world and it expresses ourselves, but it's always expressing human things.

So it's the people part of it Next time on APPLAUSE, we share a story that gets my stamp of approval.

A century old club of stamp enthusiasts draws collectors from across the country to northeast Ohio.

every exhibit is a history book of sorts.

You'll get an education in Philadelphia.

The study of stamps.

And we go even further back in time.

As Lady Louise tunes up, it's period instruments for a charming baroque sonata from France.

All that and more.

The next round of applause.

I'm looking forward to that music.

But right now we have some Brazilian beats for you.

Thanks for watching this round of applause.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia, as we say.

So long.

Here's another great performance from the 2024 Tri-C Jazz Fest recorded right outside our studios here in downtown Cleveland's Playhouse Square District.

This is Northeast Ohio's Brazilian music master Moises Borges.

(singing in Portugese) Production of applause and ideastream.

Public media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.