True Art Heist , North Collinwood revisited

Walking by the True Art Gallery in Cleveland's north Collinwood neighborhood this past Saturday evening , I was touched by the tiny child's bicycle locked onto an equally miniature tree in front of the now closed gallery space. The bike's bright purple color with the orange plastic chain that holding it in place served testimony to so much of what is wrong with the sad priorities that occur in the contemporary urban scheme of events today. The Cuyahoga County government sponsored and passed legislation under the aegis of " Arts and cultural initiative". What does it take for some of these funds to find there way to the street level , and help a marginal neighborhood like North Collinwood , retain the sweat equity that Ms. Deveney of True Art Gallery , has placed into the space with help of her partner in the past two years? As stated in the first post here discussing True Art gallery , had suffered an earlier break in in September 2007 . And that not being bad enough , to have to suffer the indignity of a second break in , this one at the hands of a Collinwood neighbor , who was apprehended in a police sting while selling the stolen paintings a few blocks from True Art Galleries boarded up storefront. Insult added to injury. And yes , not all of the paintings that were heisted from the gallery have been recovered as of yet.Those stolen painting that sold were at deep discounted street prices of a fraction of the arts sticker prices , it is not very likely that this stolen art will find it's way back to the members who exhibited at True Art , and became victims along with Ms. Deveney and her partner . Ms. Deveney in her true blue large hearted fashion is working on a benefit for the artists whose paintings were stolen and not recovered. The real victims here are the North Collinwood community which looses one of the start up business's that made an aesthetic difference to those who visited the area. Across East 156Th Street from True Art is the other new start up business Cafe Marika , another sweat equity project attempting to get a leg up in a marginal neighborhood, that has suffered more than it's share of street crime and bad luck recently . Cafe Marika has the old world charm of a cafe in Budapest or Prague , and the pastries , foodstuffs and strong coffee or drink to go along with it. It is the potential success of these start ups that will determine the future of the Waterloo business district and North Collinwood. Down the block from cafe Marika, and True Art exists the Waterloo areas anchor business , The world renowned Beachland Ballroom , ready to celebrate it's eighth year in another six weeks. A record store , Music Saves , and hipster retail shop Shoperooni are the other neighborhood attractions to date. I just can't get the picture out of my mind of the boarded up windows at True Art gallery , and the tiny child's bicycle tied up in front of the empty True Art storefront. Most of us remember our initial " art " attempts from our childhoods , and having had fun from our creative efforts , either set down the paints and brushes , or ran with them for the remainder of our days. In a small city like Cleveland , Ohio today , it appears that many young adults consider themselves " fine artists" , and let you know about their artworks in a variety of mannerisms that need no further explanation. Just have a walk or drive about the Tremont or Little Italy neighborhoods , and get a taste of this " art " flavor. North Collinwood , and Waterloo Road was looking for this sort of flavor with regards to True Art gallery. Shame that they did not have a better chance at success. Though I would imagine that if local Collinwood children were given the opportunity to just be kids working at their " art " projects after school , that a now empty storefront such as True Art would have great value as a community asset in serving as deterrent to the crime oriented streets that surround it. All those millions of dollars collected by Cuyahoga County for it's " Arts and Cultural initiative", do not appear to have found there way to the street level were they may do some real good in struggling communities such as North Collinwood , and it's culture of poverty and crime that victimize our children. Write to your County Commissioners and ask them how we can send our neighborhoods and children an arts lifeline? Book Selling Time! It is not nice to mix politics with anything as far as I am concerned , and when politics and art mix it is never very pleasant. We offer today a copy of Ralph Shikes , THE INDIGNANT EYE , The artist as social critic from the fifteenth century to Picasso. I only wish that more scrutiny was placed upon the dispersal of tax generated funds that's aim are to support an " arts and cultural initiative". Many artists goals throughout history have been aimed at skewering politicians at the end of their ink pens , and for damn good reasons. Art and politics do mix , and it is the artist who justly lampoons or kicks the politicos into the muck they crawl about in that get my vote any day of the week. Thomas Nast comes to mind as the nineteenth century American artist whose work best represents this form of satire that portrays the politicians in their most authentic form. Who is your favorite? Send along yours and we will print them here at a later date.

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