Heights Arts Holiday Store offers special limited editions

Gallery-goers enjoy new displays at Heights Arts's 13th annual Holiday Store opening.

Heights Arts kicked off its annual Holiday Store on Nov. 7, with works from more than 80 Northeast Ohio artists and an energetic new vibe, thanks to colorful new displays and wall treatments created by Heights Arts volunteers, board members and staff.  

"This is a very exciting time for Heights Arts," said Rachel Bernstein, Heights Arts executive director. "Courtney Young, our new gallery manager, and CIA intern Julie Rauschenbach worked tirelessly to make this our most spectacular holiday artist showcase yet. In addition, artists we have shown in the past have been particularly prolific in providing us with new works and styles never before seen in our store."

More than a dozen Cleveland-area artists make their debut in the Holiday Store, including Gina DeSantis, ceramics; April Bleakney (Apemade), screen-printed wearables; Annette Poitau, abstract paintings; Denis Balogh, watercolors; Matt Fiorilli, glass sculpture; and Sandra Curry, jewelry. 

While all items in the gallery are handmade and one-of–a-kind, two works are truly unique: a limited-edition glass vase created by Sue Berry of Superior Hot Glass, and a limited-edition ceramic wall tile created collaboratively by painter Susan Danko and ceramic artist Andrea LeBlond. Both works are the result of Heights Arts’s new Working Artist Membership program, funded by the George Gund Foundation. The program offers unique opportunities for visual artists to produce new works, and incentives for gallery patrons to collect them. Working artist members are eligible to be selected by Heights Arts for its commissions of limited edition works and "artist of the month" acknowledgements. Up to three unique, limited-edition works are created each year, with Berry’s edition of 25 vases being the premiere edition.

Heights Arts's current limited-edition commission was awarded to artist members Danko and LeBlond, who are both previous recipients of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award. Danko is known for her semi-abstract landscape paintings with stylized natural forms and atmospheric washes of vibrant color. LeBlond, whose distinctive ceramic designs are available in the gallery year-round, provided expertise and guidance in translating Danko’s visual language to clay. Offered in a limited edition of 25, each ceramic wall tile varies slightly in composition and coloring.

As part of its “artist of the month” program, Heights Arts purchases an original artwork from one of its artist members each month. Everyone who visits the gallery is invited to enter Heights Arts’s free monthly drawings for a chance to win that month’s work of art. So far, five pieces have been given to gallery visitors, including a framed linoleum block print by Kate Snow of Zygote Press, in November. December’s artist of the month is cut-paper artist Ursula Korneitchouk.

The Holiday Store is open through Dec. 30 with expanded gallery hours: 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday; 1–5 p.m., Sunday. 

Mary Ryan

Mary Ryan is on staff at Heights Arts, a nonprofit community arts organization.

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Volume 7, Issue 12, Posted 5:58 PM, 12.01.2014