'Morganites: Fiber in Flux' at Heights Arts

Untitled, by Pam McKee.

On view through June 7 at Heights Arts Gallery, 2173 Lee Road, is Morganites: Fiber in Flux, a special exhibition curated by Tom Balbo, artist and artistic director of Cleveland’s Morgan Papermaking Conservatory. “We see it as an important service to our community to introduce and highlight the arts resources in our area that set our region apart," said Rachel Bernstein, Heights Arts executive director. "To that end, we are showcasing the Morgan Paper Conservatory and artists who have helped grow a local and thriving paper arts community.”

Guest curator Balbo elaborated, “The Morgan Conservatory is a place for discovery of hand-papermaking for both the professional and nonprofessional artist and craftsperson. The exhibition highlights many Morgan Conservatory artists of all levels and backgrounds that embrace the organization’s ethos of setting aside the ego for the sake of a collaborative effort of papermaking and the transference of craft, technique and ideas. Paper is so fundamental to our daily rituals despite the rise of e-technologies. The Morgan Papermaking Conservatory invites everyone to share in the preservation of the art of hand papermaking for its own sake and for the sake of its application to other fine art forms.”

The artists included are Jared Akerstrom, Margaret Bakke, Tom Balbo, Melissa Jay Craig, Yuko Kimura, Aimee Lee, Stephanie Lee, Pam McKee, Julie McLaughlin, Mason Milani, Victoria Pickett, Steve Pittelkow, Lauren Sammon, Tony Trausch, Susan Vincent, Kirstin Willders and Paula Zinsmeister.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Heights Arts will host papermaking workshops led by Morgan Conservatory experts on Saturday, May 3. Call 216-371-3457 for more information and registration. On Thursday, May 8 at 7 p.m., Balbo will give an informal talk about the Morgan Papermaking Conservatory and the artists represented in the show, followed by EKPHRASTACY, a new cross-pollinating program in which poets read new poems inspired by works in the exhibition. The poets reading include Bunny Breslin, John Burroughs, Jill Sell and Linda Tuthill.

Andrea Joki

Andrea Joki is an artist and staff member of Heights Arts.

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Volume 7, Issue 5, Posted 10:15 AM, 04.29.2014