- [Announcer] Production of "Applause" on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

(smooth music) - [Kabir] Coming up, we go chasing rabbits to a family run gallery in Barberton.

Explore the rich history of the Ohio State University's special collections and enjoy a jazzy take on a '70s classic by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

♪ Why do birds suddenly appear ♪ (upbeat jazz music) Welcome everyone to another round of "Applause".

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

In downtown Barberton, White Rabbit Galleries is a space for artists to connect.

Ideastream Public Media's Carrie Wise takes us inside the community art center on West Tuscarawas Avenue.

(calm music) - [Carrie] It's a casual atmosphere inside White Rabbit Galleries.

You could admire art on display, pop your head in a studio while an artist is at work or even try your own hand in art making - Barberton is kind of an art desert.

So we thought that we would start this with local artists.

We could support them in their endeavors and in their businesses as well as local makers.

- [Carrie] There's a consignment shop promoting local creatives, wall and studio space for rent, as well as regular exhibitions, both group and solo shows.

- A lot of times I will find artists that have never done gallery shows before and I just kind of, I just ask them, "All right, would you like to have a solo exhibition or a group exhibition?"

And you can always tell people get nervous 'cause they've never done it before.

And I always like to kind of calm their nerves a little bit because I tell them I have never run an art gallery before.

It's not what I expected to be doing.

- [Carrie] Molly Brown and her mom, Laura Smith, had art studios in this building when it was under prior management.

During the pandemic, they seized the opportunity to create their own vision for a community art center.

- Having been born and raised in Barberton, we had a little bit more knowledge about Barberton and their grasp of the arts, why you need arts and expounded on that.

So when the opportunity arose, we wrote up a business plan and went to the city with it and it just took off from there.

- [Carrie] One artist who recently established a studio here is painter Nick Lee.

- I'm really interested in art just because when you go to like a gallery or an institution, there's not that much representation for people that look like me.

So I'm really interested in making that representation and trying to inspire more artists to represent us in American culture.

- [Carrie] Another artist, Mim Daniel, can be found in the studio with the blue door.

- So I say all the time, I make art that makes me happy and I hope that that energy and attitude is conveyed to other people.

So I do a lot with flowers and nature and the fantastical or whimsical and I also do a lot of work with inspirational art.

- [Carrie] Another artist, Ron White, works here in a variety of mediums.

- I'm a figural sculptor, an ice carver, a jeweler and a mural drawer.

And I love to use charcoal.

Sometimes I use color in my own work, but I kind of think for me in my work, like if I apply color, I'm almost telling you my opinion, how to feel.

So I like monochromatic work better, that way, the message is still open for you to bring an emotional quality.

All right, see it's opposite- - [Carrie] White also teaches art at White Rabbit Galleries as well as at Barberton High School.

- I've seen all the talented students he's had at the high school and I always admire what they do.

So I was able to take lessons with him and I find it a big blessing.

I've had some deaths in my family and I look at it as grief therapy for me and it makes me feel really good that I can draw better.

- Art instruction is another part of the mission for this community arts space.

With a grant from ArtsNow in Summit County, they plan to expand from prior offerings.

- Some of the classes were like Sumi-e ink painting, which is a Japanese painting technique, watercolor acrylics.

And we even had a local artist that is developing a game where everybody sits down and they do artwork and they pick a card and what they need to add to their artwork and sometimes pass it on to the artists next to them to complete.

- [Carrie] The aim here is to welcome artists of all abilities, including those who might not even consider themselves artistic.

- We're trying to get the community involved.

And sometimes when you talk to people, they're always like, "Oh, well I'm not an artist."

And I always tell people like, even if you're at home cooking and you really enjoy that and you're putting something on a plate and you're crafting a composition on your plate, that makes you an artist.

If you're out in the yard gardening and you're creating like bouquets of flowers, it really makes you an artist.

- [Carrie] One artist from Barberton on display didn't really get exposure for her art until after she passed away.

Her donated her paintings to White Rabbit Galleries, which now support a scholarship.

- Carol Rector Marsh was a traditional artist that worked in oil painting and then went through acrylic painting and she never showed anyone.

And it's kind of a shame because she had talent and skill and she should have shared that with people outside of just giving free paintings away at church and things like that.

But that's why we're here so that we can give people that opportunity.

- [Carrie] They're also trying to bring new people to Barberton and have enjoyed getting submissions from artists around the region.

- We have people from Aurora and Pepper Pike and a lot from like more Cleveland area, but then we'll have people from Canton and we go further south.

But it's fun because Barberton isn't well known for art, but when the people submit, they're coming from places that also aren't well known for art, but they don't have to go to Akron or Cleveland or Columbus for that.

- [Carrie] While operating White Rabbit Galleries is currently a volunteer effort, the Barberton natives are at home feeding the arts in their community.

- [Kabir] White Rabbit Galleries welcomes visitors Thursday and Friday evenings from 4:00 to 7:00 and Saturdays from 11:00 to 7:00.

We're off to Columbus to dive into the archives of the Ohio State University Library's special collections.

From the art of the comic strip to an itty bitty manuscript, it's a treasure trove of arts and culture.

- Special collections are rare and unique materials that the university library collect and they are one of the very unique collections that we have in the library.

And some of these collections have an appeal to the local community, to the state, and even have international repute.

And these collections are here to be used.

They're supposed to be used by our researchers, students and even the community.

Special collections have been here since the advent of this university, but since the early 1900s, we start seeing the collection steadily grow up to now that it's grown so much that we are one of those big research universities with some of the largest collections.

These collections are primarily located here in Thompson Library, but they're also located in other parts of the university.

In Kenny Road, we have our university archives.

We call it the depository.

It carries the memory of this institution so that we can be able to know where the university has come from, the policies that have been there over time, and the wonderful things that have happened in this university.

Special collections are a collection of unique materials that help this university library to stand out.

And we have quite a number of collections and these collections tend to be rare and unique.

They have gems that have there that when researchers access them and use them, they make their research to stand out.

One of the big collections that we have is the rare books and manuscripts collection.

These are medieval manuscripts.

They are first copies of books that are been published and many of these books are rare.

We have the Lawrence and Lee Theater Research Institute.

This is a wonderful collection of theater scripts, sets, and the papers that deal with theater.

And this is amazing collection that is normally used by researchers from all over the world.

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library happens to be the largest collection of cartoons in the world.

It's one of the most comprehensive and people from all over the world come to use this collection because of its very, very unique nature.

Currently, we have more than two million comic strips in our collection.

Special collections are definitely unique because they help to, one, to preserve the history, like the history of this university, the history of the community.

They also help us to understand the culture of a place.

For example, when we have our collection of cookbooks, they give us a great insight into the food ways of the place where those collections were gotten.

And then, they will also, like the cookbooks will help us show the changes that have been there in society and how different cultures have either come together or interacted and the kind of foods that they have.

So we preserve for future generations, so that when these future generations come, they can see how society was doing things, how the politics of the time was, how the environment has changed.

So with all this, we have that diversity in terms of format of materials, be they photographs, be they maps, be they research papers and other archival materials.

So this diversity in formats really help in teaching, learning and research.

At the same time, we also collect diverse subject areas ranging from health sciences to environment, to politics, to art.

All these are really, really helpful in preserving the totality of the culture of a people.

- [Kabir] Do you consider yourself an arts aficionado?

Then what's stopping you from subscribing to our arts and culture newsletter?

It's called the To-Do List and you can find out more online at arts.ideastream.org.

Photographer Barbara Pennington has felt like no one pays attention to folks older than 60, but she's paying attention.

Her first book, "Extraordinary Women From An Ordinary Place," showcases portraits and biographies of more than 50 women.

Pennington says this idea started more than 20 years ago.

(gentle music) Photographer Barbara Pennington felt like no one paid attention to people age 60 and on, but she's paying attention.

Her first book, "Extraordinary Women From an Ordinary Place," showcases portraits and a short biography of 52 women Pennington formerly worked with, met at the Peninsula Art Academy or knew through mutual friends.

She's now onto her next book with men, "Not So Ordinary."

She says this idea started 20 years ago.

- I like that one with the eggs.

- I worked as a director of patient and volunteer services at Euclid Hospital.

And at that time, I had 240 volunteers.

Most of them were female and most of them were women in their '70s and even a few in their '80s.

Many of them were retired professionals and many of them were women that door to door in the '50s to collect money to build that hospital.

I thought someday I wanna write a story or do a book or something about women of age because women of age are oftentimes overlooked.

My own mother, when she turned 80 said, "I am insignificant."

And I said, "Mom, what do you mean?"

She said, "Because when you get to be my age, nobody looks at you anymore."

And that statement stuck with me.

And now that I am her age, 81, it's so true.

And I find that in restaurants, if two old ladies go in to a restaurant, they seat you like near the kitchen or something.

(gentle music) So I asked them to bring a prop that was something significant of their hobby, their lifestyle, their profession.

When she was in high school, they said, "You're not college material."

She's a PhD.

She traveled all over the world and taught it at case.

She flew airplanes, another very interesting woman.

Tina, graphic artist who was an alcoholic all her life and is now sober.

Wanda Hansler, 94 years old, she's still teaching watercolor classes.

When I finished with the "Extraordinary Women," the publisher said, "Barb, who do you want on the cover?"

I thought, oh, my God, I can't, I can't.

How can I possibly?

And I would page through, I would look through each page of the photos.

My dining room table was laid out with every woman's picture and their story and I would walk along and look at each one and I think maybe her, well, maybe her, well, oh, I can't do that.

(gentle music) One day, I was wandering around Peninsula and wandered into the Peninsula Art Academy.

At the desk, I looked at this woman, this elegant woman.

And when she was sitting like a profile, she had this gray bun pulled tight back and just this beautiful face and all those memories of that idea about doing a book about women came back to me.

I left there and I couldn't get her out of my head.

And so, the following week, I went back again and I mentioned this book to her, this idea that I wanted to do and to photograph her.

And she, "Oh, my dear," and she just kind of waved me off in her sweet, gentle way, but I don't give up.

And so, I went back again and I approached her again and I said, "Edna, I'm serious.

Get your calendar out, I want to photograph you."

And she did.

And that's how it started.

Perfect.

(gentle music) Good, good.

When I retired from Euclid Hospital, those wonderful volunteers collected money and they knew that I always had an interest in photography and bought me a Nikon film camera and I had absolutely no idea what to do with it and I bought a digital camera.

And then in 2004, I joined the Cleveland Photographic Society and that was a big life changer for me.

- You watch our students grow and our members grow.

So when someone like Barb gets to the point where she's actually successfully publishing books, we really take pride in that too because it's one of our own and we know we've all had a little hand in that.

- And so, I started taking classes there.

I started a mentoring program there to be supportive, to help new members as I needed help when I was starting out.

Now that I've completed the one about women, I decided that I was going to do another one 'cause I was into this now and I really enjoyed it and portraits and people are what I'm most happy doing and that's why I decided I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing photography.

I've tried everything else.

I've done macro, I've done all of it.

And now I wanna focus on doing these books with portraits of different people and different subjects.

Which one do you like the best?

- I like that one better.

- Yap, that's it.

- Perfect.

- You're in the book.

- Barb and I used to work together many years ago at the Beachwood Marriott.

Barb was a salesman and I was the banquet manager and Barb and I became friends.

And then she heard about me, and so she contacted me a few months ago and said, "Would you like to be in the book?"

I said, "Sure, why not?"

I was very honored like, wow, somebody's writings about me after all these years.

(gentle music) - [Kabir] Barbara Pennington's second book of the series, "Not So Ordinary Men" is Available Now.

Here's what's stepping up for the next round of "Applause."

We meet the husband and wife team behind Cleveland's Djapo Cultural Arts Institute dedicated to the music, dance and folklore of West Africa.

- If you want to learn about a people, if you want to learn about a culture, dive into the art.

- [Kabir] Plus the Cleveland Orchestra gets romantic with a beloved symphony by Anton Bruckner.

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

(orchestral music) Okay, it's time to say later days, my friends, I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

Will catch you on the flip side of this classic tune from the 1970s made famous by the Carpenters.

It comes from our friends at the Akron Recording Company and features jazz vocalist, Olivia Van Goor, who grew up in Hudson.

Here she is with the Bacharach-David song, "Close to You."

♪ Why do birds suddenly appear ♪ ♪ Every time ♪ ♪ You are near ♪ ♪ Just like me ♪ ♪ They long to be ♪ ♪ Close to you ♪ ♪ Why do stars ♪ ♪ Fall down from the sky ♪ ♪ Every time you walk by ♪ ♪ Just like me ♪ ♪ They long to be ♪ ♪ Close to you ♪ ♪ Well, on the day that you were born ♪ ♪ The angels got together ♪ ♪ And decided to create a dream come true ♪ ♪ So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold ♪ ♪ And starlight in your eyes of blue ♪ ♪ That is why ♪ ♪ All the boys in town ♪ ♪ Mm, they follow you all around ♪ ♪ Just like me ♪ ♪ They long to be ♪ ♪ Close to you ♪ (smooth jazz music) ♪ Oh, and on the day that you were born ♪ ♪ The angels got together ♪ ♪ And decided to create a dream come true ♪ ♪ So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold ♪ ♪ And starlight in your eyes of blue ♪ ♪ That is why ♪ ♪ All the boys in town ♪ ♪ Mm, they follow you all around ♪ ♪ Just like me ♪ ♪ They long to be ♪ (Olivia vocalizes) (smooth jazz music) (bright music) - [Announcer] Production of "Applause" on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.