2010 winners

2010 Cleveland Arts Prize Winners

Special Prizes Robert P. Bergman Prize — Steven Litt
	As art and architecture critic at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Steven Litt has been called many things: a true Clevelander, a thought leader, a resource in the education of young architects, a persistent voice for design quality and a champion of the importance of art and architecture in Cleveland’s success. Now they can call him a Cleveland Arts Prize winner. Litt opens the eyes of the public to political, cultural and artistic contexts that the public might overlook. He strikes fear in the hearts of those who have something to hide because he “smells evasion like a bloodhound,” said Kathleen Crowther of the Cleveland Restoration Society. Lillian Kuri of The Cleveland Foundation said “I cannot imagine another nominee with such a broad and deep impact on artists, designers and the trajectory of planning in this community.”
Martha Joseph Prize — Gordon Square Arts District and the leaders
	The Cleveland Arts Prize honors the Gordon Square Arts District and the leaders who had the vision and the influence to revitalize an inner-city Cleveland neighborhood using the arts. These leaders opened people’s eyes to the value and relevance of the arts in a community. Their work brought together two theaters and a community development organization with philanthropic, corporate, governmental and entrepreneurial communities across the region. These partnerships have put people to work, increased the value of real estate in the neighborhood and attracted media attention to Cleveland as an arts destination. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said the revitalized neighborhood is “vital to the future of Cleveland’s economic growth and ability to compete, including attracting tourism.” The initial $30 million capital campaign is being used to leverage $500 million in neighborhood economic development. The leaders are: Cleveland City Councilman Matt Zone, Detroit Shoreway Community Development Corporation Executive Director Jeff Ramsey, Near West Theatre Executive Director Stephanie Morrison- Hrbek, Gordon Square Arts District Executive Director Joy Roller, Cleveland Public Theatre Executive Artistic Director Raymond Bobgan, Cleveland Public Theatre founder James Levin, and Detroit Shoreway Community Development Corporation Founding Executive Director Ray Pianka. Finally, this project also needed individuals who had the clout, connections, and persuasive abilities to find funding and convince others to support this effort. They are Gordon Square Arts District Board Chairman Larry Schultz, and Gordon Square Arts District Honorary Chairs Richard Pogue, Albert Ratner, Tom Sullivan Sr.
Martha Joseph Prize — Joanne Cohen
	As Executive Director of the Art & Medicine Institute's Art Program at the Cleveland Clinic, Joanne Cohen has assembled an extraordinary collection of museum-quality contemporary art and made it accessible to the general public. She places just the right piece in just the right spot of just the right building. Colleague Bellamy Printz said of her, “she has an encyclopedic mind for contemporary artists and their careers—she is able to spot an artist’s work at forty paces—easily--and can tell you what gallery they were at and the history of the gallery and why they left and who they are married to etc, etc.” The program itself has been described as the most innovative and extensive of its kind in the country. None of this work would have been possible without the support of the hospital’s president and CEO, Delos M. “Toby” Cosgrove.
Martha Joseph Prize — Trudy Wiesenberger
	The first time Trudy Wiesenberger visited Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, the lack of artwork struck her. So this artist and teacher approached the hospital with the idea of creating an art collection that would help in the healing process. The hospital agreed with her enthusiastically. Today, as curator of University Hospital’s art collection, she has assembled a collection of high-quality art work that comforts, encourages and distracts patients, visitors and employees. Her critical and highly-trained eye has identified a collection of art that will comfort people at a time of intense stress. Her work to incorporate so many art mediums – including prints, paintings, quilts and ceramics – has been recognized nationally. A dominant figure in Cleveland’s art circles, Wiesenberger has been involved with the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the museum’s Print Club. Of course, without the support of the hospital’s CEO Thomas F. Zenty III, this remarkable program would not exist.
Martha Joseph Prize — Mary Louise Hahn
	Two of Cleveland’s most prestigious arts awards organizations – The Cleveland Arts Prize and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award -- would not be what they are today if it were not for the vision and drive of Mary Louise Hahn. Hahn took the reins of the Cleveland Arts Prize from founder Martha Joseph. Over the course of her 10-year volunteer stint (1990-2000) as chair, Hahn grew the prize’s local and national image. She expanded the board, increasing the endowment and the award’s cash prizes, made the judging process more inclusive, launched college scholarships, and held the awards ceremonies at Cleveland’s cultural venues. At the Cleveland Foundation, she and Henry Louis Gates Jr., the jury chair, bolstered the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award jury with renowned intellectuals, increased the award’s prize to $10,000 and by making attendance a condition of winning, turned the awards ceremony into a compelling event that consistently sells out.
Martha Joseph Prize — Mickie McGraw
	Mickie McGraw has done so much more than co-found an organization that offers comprehensive art therapy for medically and emotionally injured children and adults. She has inspired a generation of artists. For McGraw, it was not enough to recruit artists to help the clients of Art Studio. She insisted they continue producing their own art and show it. Kathleen Kern-Pilch, who considers McGraw a mentor and now runs the Art Studio at MetroHealth Medical Center which McGraw co-founded, described her this way, “a feisty spirit nurtured by creativity while defining her sense of self post-Polio.” Clearly McGraw knew of the healing power of art and put it this way, “the action of art making gives forms to verbally inexpressible feelings.” And she passed that power on.

Emerging Artist Award —Phil Metres (Literature)
	When you read something written by poet Phil Metres, you’re reading the very best the language can offer now. A teacher, scholar, and translator of Russian poetry, Metres is one of the most accomplished and well-known poets in Ohio. He’s won national and state arts council grants, among other honors, and his work has been featured in Best American Poetry. His poems tackle tough subjects including his life-long effort to understand and articulate an opposition to war, his complicated history as a Lebanese writer and his experiences living in Russia trying to learn the language. The nominating committee called his work “beautiful, powerful and magnetically original.”
Mid Career AwardS — David Giffels (Literature) and Jamey Haddad (Music and Dance)
	For a guy whose career highlights were writing a few episodes of an MTV cartoon called Beavis and Butt-head and several historical books, including one about the band Devo, David Giffels has given Ohioans something to brag about. While a journalist at the Akron Beacon Journal daily newspaper, he turned down the chance to work at Newsday in New York because he felt journalism mattered more in Akron. Giffels has since made the difficult transition from journalism to creative writing with great success. His book, All the Way Home, aboutbuying a dilapidated old house in Akron and restoring it to its former glory for his young family has received enormous national attention. A former Beacon Journal colleague and himself a New York Times best selling author, Chuck Klosterman said, “Over the next two decades, he will become a very rare thing – a major writer who helps define a specific region on a national platform.”
	On any given night, you might find a full Middle-Eastern band in Jamey Haddad’s living room – usually a hot meal too. Haddad, born and raised in Cleveland, has recorded world music, jazz and popular music with industry greats including Paul Simon, Nancy Wilson, Yo Yo Ma, and Dawn Upshaw. He has traveled the world as a performer is considered an expert on indigenous instruments. In fact, the proposed Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, has tapped his expertise to build its collection. A professor of world music and jazz who has taught at Oberlin College and the Cleveland Institute of Music, Haddad inspires and guides the next generation of percussionists and improvisational musicians. The nominating committee said, “If the Cleveland Arts Prize is measure of local impact, excellence and the international spotlight, then Jamey is our man.”
Lifetime Achievement AwardS — Henry Adams (Literature), Audra Skuodas (Visual Arts)
	Fans of Henry Adams say he makes art come alive in your soul. They say he is profound, provocative, prolific, and popular. They can’t say enough about this art curator, art historian and powerful author. “His books and writings are artistic thrillers; once you pick them up they grab you by the heart and never let you go,” said Thomas Ball of Telos Productions in his support of Adams. This exceptional literary talent teaches art history at Case Western Reserve University. He has written formal academic studies, popular books about major artists, exhibition catalogs and several film scripts. His 2005 book Eakins Revealed: The Secret Life of an American Artist was praised by the New York Times and the artist Andrew Wyeth called it, “The most extraordinary biography I have ever read of an artist." Adams’ latest book, Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock is predicted to be his best work.
	Audra Skuodas uses visual art to express things that many people have trouble verbalizing. She uses illustrations of waves and patterns to express how energy is transmitted via “sensitive chaos.” She uses geometry and figuration to create universal figures. She said her art is the product of her private world, philosophical explorations and her experience of motherhood. Her 40-year body of work includes wall sculpture, book making, drawing, and writing. She focuses her attention on identical sets of problems such as yin and yang, spiritual and material, soul and body, good and evil. Her influence can be seen in the work of her husband, John Pearson, also a Cleveland Arts Prize winner.