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By Elaine Guregian
Beacon Journal arts and culture critic
Published on Sunday, Oct 26, 2008
Not long ago I was talking with someone new to the area about the arts in Akron. What's the biggest strength here? he asked.
First I thought of the Akron Art Museum, where a stunning new building is fulfilling so much promise. The people who run the museum finally have enough space to properly show off its holdings, and the welcoming, user-friendly exhibition spaces have been a wonderful backdrop to visiting shows, like the gorgeous Art Nouveau exhibition from California.
As I thought about it, I realized there was a better answer than naming some of Akron's top cultural organizations. The answer is,
it's the people.
What makes Akron's cultural scene so strong is the cadre of arts lovers who will not take no for an answer. I'm talking about the people who go to arts events, volunteer for them and run the organizations. I have faith that in the economic hard times ahead, they will band together to keep putting on plays, art exhibitions and concerts.
When I moved to Akron in 1990 to work for the Beacon Journal, a pianist named Margaret Baxtresser invited me to her house one evening to meet the people who kept the arts running in Akron. She took it upon herself to make sure that I knew them, and they knew me. What a warm and gracious introduction that was.
Margaret Baxtresser is gone now. Although no one person could match her magic for connecting people, one group that began while she was still alive is vital in knitting together the arts community. The Akron Area Arts Alliance, run by Jessie Raynor, holds monthly meetings to let the people in the trenches exchange ideas, commiserate and form the bonds that get all of us through hard times.
Look at what else the arts in Akron have going for them.
We have major corporations and small businesses that support the arts, and we have vigorous foundations that fuel them. We have a mayor and deputy mayor who have made sure Lock 3 had a substantial summer arts program for students. Free summer concerts in the parks by the Akron Symphony Orchestra enhance the quality of life. And after the Ohio Ballet was gone, the city found a way to continue free outdoor dance concerts as a new entity, the Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival.
The University of Akron's state-of-the-art Dance Center is giving that art form a new chance to thrive, and UA's E.J. Thomas Hall offers everyone a place to gather.
Stalwart Akron organizations like Children's Concert Society and Tuesday Musical continue to spread classical music, largely through volunteer staff. So do Weathervane and Coach House, two community theaters that have gotten a boost of new energy from bright leaders at the top, John Hedges at Weathervane and Terry Burgler and Nancy Cates at Coach House.
I don't mean to leave out others. There are so many individuals doing important work, like Lesa Broadhead, who inspires high school girls to create and perform dance pieces on socially relevant topics.
I don't take any of these achievements for granted.
No arts institution is guaranteed survival. In the early years of this decade, when the Akron Symphony chose a music director who wasn't up to the job, I saw what a difference it makes to have a committed group of supporters. I wrote what I needed to, the board held things together and the orchestra eventually fixed the problem.
Now the ASO has a music director, Christopher Wilkins, who has a clear vision as well as musical experience and sophistication. The orchestra will have to work hard to find a worthy successor to its executive director, Margo Snider, who is leaving in June, but it has set itself on a steady and adventuresome course.
Akron is also lucky to have artists who want to pursue less mainstream routes. The Bang and the Clatter Theater Company, which began in Akron in a Summit County-subsidized building, has just announced a temporary home to use while it continues looking for a permanent space in Akron. We need groups like BNC, to keep things fresh.
It's time for me to try something new, too. After 18 years of covering the arts for the Beacon, I'm going to become a communications manager for the Cleveland Orchestra, starting next week. I'll be going back to my roots, since I was trained as an oboist and music historian.
I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed hearing from readers like the woman who wrote recently to ask me to recommend the best Metropolitan Opera movie broadcast for her to see with her granddaughter. Working in the arts community has been a privilege and a source of enormous pleasure to me.
So, please tell me to stop if you see me pulling out my pen to take notes next time we're at the same event. It's not going to be easy to curb that habit. But I will always keep the habit of participating in the arts, and I hope you will, too.
Contact the Beacon Journal features department at 330-996-3856 or lsherwin@thebeaconjournal.com.
Not long ago I was talking with someone new to the area about the arts in Akron. What's the biggest strength here? he asked.
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
Akron, OH
Posted 08:14 AM, 10/26/2008
Good job. I wouldn't have named the museum either as an attraction or strength of Akron.
Akron, OH
Posted 09:49 AM, 10/26/2008
So who will be reporting on the arts in our daily Beacon? Or will that job never be replaced?
Akron, Oh
Posted 02:03 PM, 10/26/2008
Glad to see after all these years Elaine finally recognizing that E.J. Thomas Hall is a University of Akron facility and not just an "affiliate" of UA. Now if we can only get a few other smug individuals employed by the Beacon and The University of Akron to honor this reality on a consistent basis.
akron, oh
Posted 02:07 PM, 10/26/2008
My guess is they will farm it out to a current employee with less credentials. this is the ABJ afterall.
Akron, Oh
Posted 12:05 AM, 10/27/2008
What's the difference tim? Elaine was not all that great to begin with. She is just anotehr ABJ wannabe snob just like the bulk of members in the Akron Arts Alliance.
WKSU = snobs
Dan Dahl of UA = snob
Weathervane Theater = snobs
Michell Kahn of Akron's Art Museum = snob
Posted 08:55 AM, 10/27/2008
Wow, Jake! Issues much?
Akron, Oh
Posted 10:05 AM, 10/27/2008
Wow, Mark! Issues much? I call a spade a spade. If it makes you feel better playing the clichéd "issues" card, then have at it.
Posted 02:23 PM, 10/27/2008
Seriously. You should find someone to talk to about these anger issues you obviously have.
Akron, Oh
Posted 08:38 PM, 10/27/2008
Mark, let it go. You are progecting and embarassing yourself. You do know what progecting means don't you?
Akron, Oh
Posted 09:23 PM, 10/27/2008
Hey Mark, You should start dealing with your issues of homosexuality which you obviously have. Your taunting passive aggression and anger at the world have given you away to most observers.
