News

An exhibition at The Cleveland Institute of Art won praise from numerous environmental and community development groups when it was displayed in autumn 2006; now it has won a 2007 Award of Achievement in the Cultural Exhibitions category from Northern Ohio Live magazine. HOME House Project: The Future of Affordable Housing is a traveling exhibition of more than 100 inspiring designs for affordable and environmentally sustainable housing.

The exhibition grew out of a 2003 competition sponsored by SECCA (Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which challenged designers and architects to create appealing, affordable single-family house designs using Habitat for Humanity house plans as a starting point. The 440 entries originally submitted were judged on their design appeal, affordability and use of environmentally sustainable materials, technologies and techniques. The top 100 designs are circulating around the country as the HOME House Project.

Bruce Checefsky, director of the Institute's Reinberger Galleries, saw the potential for this exhibition to raise consciousness in Cleveland. He scheduled the exhibition for November and December 2006 and added numerous local connections for its duration in Cleveland, including books, a selection of environmentally sustainable building materials suitable for Cleveland weather, a cut-away section of a house built from "green" materials, and a roof featuring solar panels, shingles made of recyclable materials and a section of sod.

Most importantly, working closely with his colleague, Richard Konisiewicz, the Institute's director of corporate, foundation and government relations, Checefsky brought local environmentalists, fair housing advocates, community development activists, anti-poverty groups, builders, planners and architects together for two separate and well-attended panel discussions on sustainable affordable housing. Groups that collaborated on these discussions and helped to fund the exhibition were: The Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland; Sky Bank; Neighborhood Progress, Inc.; Enterprise Community Partners; Cleveland Housing Network; Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition; Cleveland Public Art; EcoCity Cleveland; Entrepreneurs for Sustainability; Habitat for Humanity; ParkWorks; and ShoreBank.

These activists and civic leaders had an opportunity to see - in the designs of HOME House Project - that good, community-oriented design can be affordable, green and aesthetically pleasing. Further, these stakeholders got to meet one another and, in some cases, make their first visit to The Cleveland Institute of Art, where good design is always viewed as a great value.

Northern Ohio Live also honored CIA alumnus and professor emeritus Viktor Schreckengost '29 and the Viktor Schreckengost Foundation with a Special Award of Achievement. A celebrated industrial designer, ceramicist, painter and sculptor, Schreckengost, 101, taught at the Institute for 70 years. Last year, President George W. Bush presented Schreckengost with the 2006 National Medal for the Arts. The medal is awarded to those who have made significant contributions to the creation, growth and support of the arts in the U.S.

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Cleveland won an Honorable Mention in Northern Ohio Live's Visual Arts category for a comprehensive solo museum exhibition of the works of painter Dana Schutz, CIA class of 2000. The magazine called Schutz "one of America's most sought-after young artists." MOCA presented the exhibition of her work in autumn 2006.