Foundation Blog

Cleveland Foundation Blog

Funny Names: A Curse Forever?

So Tom Hanks was just here and Cleveland basked in the glow of his attention, charm, and the loyalty he maintains to his professional roots here at the Great Lakes Theater Festival. We are proud he got his start here back in the ‘70s and that pride is...

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Cuba: the Artist as Political Hero

This past week the foundation was host to Helmo Hernandez, the president of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba, one of only six charitable foundations in that country.  The Ludwig Foundation is dedicated to the support of contemporary art in Cuba and of the...

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Fatalism in the Garden

The Anisfield-Wolf SAGES Lecture at Case this week was delivered by Jamaica Kincaid, a 1997 winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.  Ms Kincaid is known for her perceptive and thought-provoking writing on gardening as a metaphor for life. Her lecture is part...

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Open Season for the Artist

Please note I said open season FOR the artist.  The first round of Fellowship grants to 20 local visual artists was delivered recently by the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture.  The second round, for performing and literary artists, is now in the...

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A SmART Goodbye

The foundation just completed its third and final year of SmART in the City, a unique, comprehensive summer arts camp for urban pre-teens.  It is with both pride and sadness that I think back on the three summers past.  Pride, because the foundation created...

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A Conversation with Michael Kaiser

Last week the foundation hosted Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center, in a conversation with Cleveland’s cultural community about the challenges facing the arts in this cold economic climate.  Dubbed “the Turnaround King” for his successful...

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Stimulating Weakness?

Here’s a fact little known by the public but very well understood by everyone who works in the nonprofit sector:  Government funding can put programs and even nonprofit organizations themselves at risk.   How?  Kathleen Enright, executive director of...

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Capitalization in a Time of Crisis

For nearly 12 years the Cleveland Foundation has made a concerted effort to strengthen a group of cultural organizations that are important to the diverse quality of our cultural sector. But many have business models that carry a lot of risk and...

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Arts Prizes and Arts Departures

No matter how much we would like the value of the arts to be readily acknowledged and supported by the public, the reality is that art is not universally embraced as an intrinsic human value.  Art needs champions.  We need these champions at every level...

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