Applause is an Emmy award-winning locally produced TV show that celebrates artists and cultural groups around Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Each week this on-air arts magazine broadcasts a fresh half-hour of features, performances, on-location reports, and interviews from the studios of WVIZ/PBS ideastream. Special thanks to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College for the use of their Steinway Piano on Around Noon/Applause.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Topics: Arts
Short URL  Share Leave a Comment

Chances are you, or someone you know, has been on the campus of at least one of Cleveland's two largest medical facilities, University Hospital or the Cleveland Clinic. While there, you may have stopped in your tracks -- if only for a minute -- to enjoy the rich, diverse collection of art on view at these two institutions, which is precisely the effect the collections' curators were hoping for.

When Progressive Corporation CEO Peter Lewis decided to collect and display contemporary art at his company's new Mayfield Village headquarters in the 1970s, there was no blueprint to follow. By the mid 80s, the collection wasn't growing like the CEO wanted it to. So, Peter Lewis put out a call to his ex-wife Toby, who had thrown herself into the art world through studies, travel, and work in the field. And that's the short version of how one of the most impressive corporate collections of art in the world was born. You can find the long version in a recently released book by Toby Lewis, Artworks: The Progressive Collection. We'll welcome Toby to this edition of Applause.

Bluesman Austin "Walkin Cane" Charanghat shares selections from his latest CD, Murder of a Blues Singer, an album that grew out of a conversation with the late Robert Lockwood Jr. about the tragic murder of his mentor, Robert Johnson. On the album, Austin pays tribute to these two legendary bluesmen by putting a modern day spin on their old-style brand of blues. We'll have an interview with Austin, and a special live performance.

Leave a Comment

Please note that all comments must adhere to ideastream's discussion rules and terms of use. Name:

Email:

Comment:

Please enter the word you see in the image below:

Send questions and comments to applause@ideastream.org.

Production of Applause on WVIZ/PBS is made possible by grants from:

The Cleveland Foundation
The George Gund Foundation
The John P. Murphy Foundation

United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland, Inc.

The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this program with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.