Program Directory

Applause - The Akron Art Museum

Applause

Usually, when you visit an art museum, the focus is only on the visuals. Well, on view now at the Akron Art Museum is an exhibit that breaks that artistic sound barrier with gleeful energy and imagination. It's called Machines at Play, and the artist behind the show - Jean-Pierre Gauthier - has spent more than a decade turning cast-off objects into sculptural installations that clunk, chirp, sing, buzz, play musical notes... and move.

Just within earshot of Jean-Pierre Gauthier's techno-art installation at the Akron Art Museum is an exhibit that speaks volumes about the power of art. During World War II, German-born artist John Heartfield waged a one-man war against the Nazis risking life and limb portraying the German army as egotistical buffoons through an innovative technique at the time known as photo montage.

With travel time between University Circle and Public Square cut shorter by the new HealthLine and more businesses opening up along Euclid Avenue, riders of the Euclid Corridor bus line have plenty to cheer about, including several new pieces of public art. At one of RTA's busiest bus stops, the University Circle Station, just east of Euclid Avenue, riders are treated to a 200-foot mural that captures the vitality of the neighborhood thanks to artist Hector Vega and a few hundred of his friends.

And we'll hear from Cleveland's acclaimed Baroque Orchesta - Apollo's Fire - which stages its latest musical series, Pluckfest 2: Old World Meets New, November 12th through 16th. Recently Music Director Jeannette Sorrell brought her troupe to the Idea Center to record here in the Westfield Insurance Studio Theater for an upcoming television special, to be seen next year on WVIZ/PBS. We'll see some of that performance.

November 6, 2008