News

By Karen Sandstrom

Ten artists connected to the Cleveland Institute of Art will be part of the 2016 class of Creative Workforce Fellowship recipients, a taxpayer-funded program that supports and expands the work of Cuyahoga County artists.

The Community Partnership for Arts and Culture recently announced a total of 40 winners from the world of visual arts, media arts, design, craft, dance, literature, music and theater. Six CIA faculty members and four graduates will be among those who receive the $15,000 grants.

“Cleveland Institute of Art faculty and alumni contribute every day to the culture and economy of our region and our nation,” said CIA President and CEO Grafton Nunes. “It is enormously gratifying, and entirely appropriate, for their contributions to be recognized with these publicly funded fellowships. I couldn’t be more proud."

Faculty

• Professor Kathy Buszkiewicz (Jewelry + Metals) has taught at CIA since 1983. She received the 2005 Viktor Schreckengost Distinguished Teaching Award. Her work has been exhibited in hundreds of exhibitions nationally and internationally. She uses precious metals, U.S. currency, natural materials and found objects in her work to examine the concept of value.
• Associate Professor and Chair of Drawing Sarah Kabot creates installations, deconstructions and drawings that have been exhibited extensively across the U.S and internationally. Her work has appeared at MOCA Cleveland, the Akron Art Museum, the Tegnerforbundet in Oslo, Norway, and the Sculpture Center in Cleveland.
• Associate Professor Kevin Kautenburger (Sculpture + Expanded Media, Foundation) focuses on the natural environment and housing, and often includes substances collected from his bee yard, such as propolis, wax, and pollens.
  
  He is a recipient of a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, and has exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Allentown Museum of Art, among others.
• Assistant Professor Jimmy Kuehnle (Foundation) earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture, video and performance at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He has exhibited widely as a solo artist, including at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, N.Y., the Sculpture Center of Cleveland and Galerie Weissraum in Kyoto, Japan.
• Adjunct Faculty member Simone Barros (Photography + Video) has worked on a wide variety of projects, including the dynamic travel documentary series, "All the World Over," which explores the cultural diversity of the African Diaspora. She worked in New York for 11 years on the production and editing staff for film and television productions including A&E Television Networks, Comedy Central’s "Chappelle's Show," and Spike Lee’s film, "25th Hour.”
• Adjunct faculty member Bob Drake (Sculpture + Expanded Media) creates experimental music and electronic performances. He builds many of his own instruments. He has performed with Marina Rosenfeld's Sheer Frost Orchestra; Luciano Chessa's Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners, Cleveland Jazz Collective, and at festivals such as What You Will, International Noise Conferences, and Voice of the Valley.

Alumni

• Paul Sobota ’05 (Photography) blends fine art with his commercial photography. His work has appeared in Spin, Bon Appetit, Food and Wine and more. Clients include Michael Symon Restaurants, University Hospitals, and Metro Health System.
• Christi Birchfield ’06 (Printmaking) has work in the permanent print and drawing collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and the Westin Hotel in Cleveland. She has exhibited in New York, New Orleans, and Qijiang, China.
• Darius Steward ’08 (Drawing and Painting) has shown at the William Busta Gallery, Zygote Press and the Cleveland Clinic. His work is part of the collection of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Delaware.
• Nathan Ward ’14 (Illustration) is a comics artist and illustrator who has been published in Scene, the Plain Dealer, Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll and elsewhere.

Work by more than 400 artists was reviewed by a panel of professional artists from across the United States. The program is funded by Cuyahoga County taxpayers through Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. For more info, visit www.cultureforward.org.

Above (left to right): Paul Sobota '05, adjunct faculty member Bob Drake, Associate Professor Sarah Kabot, Professor Kathy Buszkiewicz, Christi Birchfield ’06, Associate Professor Kevin Kautenburger, Assistant Professor Jimmy Kuehnle, Darius Steward ’08. Not pictured: adjunct faculty member Simone Barros and Nathan Ward '14.