2015 REPORT FROM THE COMMUNITY CONNECTION CREATIVITY & COMMUNITY DYNAMIC NEIGHBORHOODS. STRONG CULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. A DESTINATION FOR ARTISTS. PAGE PAGE PAGE PAGE PAGE PAGE 2 4 5 6 7 9 ABOUT CUYAHOGA ARTS & CULTURE CAC is the region’s public arts and culture agency, helping hundreds 2015 Cuyahoga Arts & Culture Finances of organizations connect residents and visitors to millions of cultural REFLECTS AUDITED FINANCIALS FOR 2015 experiences each year – in museums and performance halls, in nature Revenues $16,133,646 and public spaces, in neighborhoods and online. Through grants, CAC supports the arts and culture organizations that give our community Expenses Arts and Cultural Grantmaking $15,666,393 a unique identity and make it an enjoyable place to work, live and visit. General and Administrative $596,461 CAC is a responsible steward of public funds, investing more than TOTAL EXPENSES $16,262,854 $140 million in more than 300 organizations since 2008. Change in Net Position ($129,208) Net Position Beginning of Year $21,941,100 ADDITIONAL BOARD OF TRUSTEES IMAGE CREDITS Mark Avsec Steven Minter NET POSITION END OF YEAR $21,811,892 Imagery courtesy of featured Gwendolyn Garth Charna Sherman institutions unless noted here. Joseph P. Gibbons PAGE THREE About the Data STAFF Roger Mastroianni The fiscal year 2014 data used for this report was provided by DataArts The Cleveland Orchestra Karen Gahl-Mills CEO + EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (previously known as the Cultural Data Project), a nonprofit organization Anita T. Orenick Great Lakes Science Center Roshi Ahmadian that empowers the arts and cultural sector with high-quality data and ASSOCIATE - COMMUNICATIONS & GRANT PROGRAMS Brian Fyfe resources in order to strengthen its vitality, performance, and public Doan Brook Watershed Partnership Meg Harris impact. Any interpretation of the data is that of Cuyahoga Arts & DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION PAGE FOUR Culture, not DataArts. For more information, visit www.culturaldata.org. Jessica Kayse Wetzler Studios MANAGER - RESIDENT ENGAGEMENT Beck Center Additional data provided by grant recipients to Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. Dan McLaughlin Beth Segal MANAGER - PROJECT SUPPORT Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage Jill Paulsen PAGE SEVEN DEPUTY DIRECTOR COVER Omid Tavakoli, Waterloo Sculpture Garden, Cleveland. Elisha Cerino Jake Sinatra BACKGROUND Spoken word artist Donté Clark discusses his role in Verb Ballet MANAGER - SPECIAL PROJECTS & COMMUNICATIONS the filmRomeo is Bleeding with Cleveland Heights High students. Nicole Thomas MANAGER - GENERAL OPERATING SUPPORT PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CLEVELAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL When 12-year-old Ata Farah, a student at Buhrer Dual Language Academy in Cleveland, heard he was going to a museum for a field trip, he had one thought: BORING! That was until he stepped foot into the Crawford Auto-Aviation Collection Museum, with two floors of classic cars, planes and the Goodyear blimp. DEAR RESIDENTS OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY, ARTS IN OUR COMMUNITY When we think of all of the attributes that make our community CONNECTIONS an attractive place to work, live and visit, our arts and culture KAREN GAHL-MILLS scene surely tops the list. Arts and culture experiences help us CEO + EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR form connections to people, places and things, and they help us My family moved to Westlake when I was in high define who we are, what we want to be, what we value, and what school, and from an early age, I got to experience the breadth of our region’s tremendous cultural memories we want to create for future generations. amenities. Whether through family visits to the 2015 Cuyahoga Arts & Culture Finances museums of University Circle, individual music For more than 100 years, our community We need to better understand how lessons at Baldwin Wallace, or school trips to REFLECTS AUDITED FINANCIALS FOR 2015 has made commitments to ensure we all can residents connect with arts and culture so experience live theater at Cleveland Play House, plug into arts and culture in that we can determine the my life was enriched by arts & culture nearly every ways that feel comfortable ISSUE 8 PASSES best way to serve you. day. Those early exposures led me to pursue the to us – or push us out of our Our connection to the arts as a career, and they built my expectation that comfort zones. THANK YOU, VOTERS! community and to each great cities are defined by the arts and cultural institutions – and artists – in their midst. I was drawn One of the largest other through arts and back to Cleveland to lead CAC so that I could give collective commitments to culture is undeniable, as Last year, Cuyahoga County something back to the community that helped mold arts in our community is again said “yes” to arts and you will see in the stories my understanding of what arts and culture mean to through Cuyahoga Arts & culture by overwhelmingly on the following pages. a community’s well-being. Culture (CAC). Since 2008, supporting Issue 8 – sending Through your support, we a clear message that our CAC has supported more are able to continue our region values creativity and JOSEPH P. GIBBONS than 300 organizations with connection. This renewal support of arts and culture PRESIDENT, BOARD OF TRUSTEES $140 million in tax dollars. provides CAC with 10 more organizations in Cuyahoga In November 2015, voters years to invest millions in the County so they can help I’ve been a resident of Cuyahoga County for roughly renewed that support for local arts community while individuals reconnect with 50 years, and part of what my family and I love about an additional 10 years — supporting thousands of their pasts, reimagine living here is the variety of arts and culture activities cultural events each year. that are available throughout the year. Whether it’s but our work isn’t done. their futures, discover enjoying our world-class orchestra, museums or the As we move forward, something new about many wonderful theaters at Playhouse Square and we will focus our work on listening to themselves, and make the community a around the County; a gallery walk at the Studios residents throughout Cuyahoga County. better place for all of us. at 78th Street; or hearing children sing at a CAC Board meeting, the arts and culture experiences in Cuyahoga County are an important reason we have chosen to make our home in Lakewood. PRESIDENT, BOARD OF TRUSTEES BACKGROUND A high school musician finds the groove at Cleveland School of the Arts. PHOTO COURTESY OF CLEVELAND SCHOOL OF THE ARTS CEO + EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT FROM THE COMMUNITY 1 IT WAS AN ALL-OUT AMAZING JOURNEY – I NEVER THOUGHT A MUSEUM WOULD BE LIKE THIS. Ata Farah CLEVELAND When 12-year-old Ata Farah, a student at Buhrer Dual Language Academy in Cleveland, heard he was going to a museum for a field trip, he had one thought: BORING! That was until he stepped foot into the Crawford Auto-Aviation Collection Museum. The Museum features two floors of red Chevy Chevelle for a ride. It will entrepreneurs. Ata became Theodore classic cars, planes, and the gondola become Ata’s when he’s old enough Kundtz, the first entrepreneur to from a Goodyear blimp. His favorite to drive, and the pair have worked make car bodies, and put together a vehicle? The 1981 DeLorean DMC-12, together to restore it. The Crawford plan for a company he invented called the first DeLorean model produced. Museum’s Youth Entrepreneurship “Autobots.” The program allowed Ata “It was an all-out amazing journey program, supported by CAC, naturally to connect his family’s love of cars through the cars,” Ata says. “I never appealed to Ata’s interests. with a possible future career. thought a museum would be like this.” During the program, Ata’s “Not all kids can have this Ata’s love of cars runs deep, class learned about the economy, experience. The whole thing was thanks to his dad, Rod Farah. On Cleveland-made classic cars, the amazing. Now I know how the old the weekends, they go to classic car roots of the industry in Northeast days were,” Ata says. “I’m going to shows or take Rod’s 1975 fire-engine Ohio, and role-played as industrial era collect cars when I get older.” 2 CUYAHOGA ARTS & CULTURE ARTS IN OUR CREATIVE LEARNING COMMUNITY Funding from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture supports education and learning opportunities for all ages. From field trips to museums to student programming and distance learning at senior centers, CAC helps connect Cuyahoga County residents with programs that offer education for everyone. CHILDREN were served by CAC-supported 1,478,000 programming CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS offered throughout the 19,426 county in the past year INTERNSHIPS AND APPRENTICESHIPS made possible through support 647 from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture RESIDENTS attended classes and workshops in Cuyahoga County GREAT LAKES 366,192 SCIENCE CENTER CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART PICTURED ABOVE Ata’s letter to Jennifer Graham, a Museum Educator at the Western Reserve Historical Society. DOAN BROOK WATERSHED PHOTOS BY TIM HARRISON PARTNERSHIP THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA REPORT FROM THE COMMUNITY 3 ARTS IN OUR I tell the ladies that drumming and dancing are not actually ENRICHING LIVES COMMUNITY what I teach. I teach life. I teach it through the drums. Each year, Cuyahoga Arts & Culture connects SISTER YVETTA ELEY residents to tens of thousands of events and programs that take place throughout Cuyahoga County. These offerings enrich our quality of life by bringing people together to celebrate the things that make Cuyahoga County a unique place to live. For all the latest, visit ClevelandArtsEvents.com. PEOPLE SERVED by CAC-funded 6,866,305 organizations MORE VISITORS AND RESIDENTS reached by CAC groups than in the previous year 926,624 On Thursdays, a group of women at Community Assessment and Treatment FREE ADMISSION Services, Inc.