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, March 26, 2009

Topics: Arts
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Happy belated New Year... Chinese New Year, that is! On this special edition of Applause as we say goodbye to the year of the rat and celebrate the year of the ox by spotlighting some of the art and culture from Northeast Ohio's Asian community.

In the nation of Japan, wearing a Kimono is a centuries-old tradition. Today however, the Kimono's not an everyday item, worn only for special occasions like weddings or tea ceremonies. Right now in Canton it's a very special occasion indeed, as the long-awaited exhibition - Kimono as Art - is on view at the Canton Museum of Art. It explores the artistic work of a modern master of the Kimono - the late Itchiku Kubota.

While most of us have bid farewell to 2008 and welcomed in 2009, not long ago, Asians across the city, and the globe only recently ushered in the new year by welcoming the strong and sturdy Ox, as the new emblem of the Chinese Zodiac. Not long ago we welcomed a contingent of musicians and scholars known as The Cleveland Chinese Music Ensemble into our KeyBank Studio to help us celebrate the occasion with music on Around Noon on 90.3 FM WCPN.

With everything from scrolls, sculptures to paintings and prints - The Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, Ohio houses one of the largest diverse collections of Asian art in the area. Just before the opening of their new exhibit Envisioning Edo's Splendor: The Floating World and Beyond, ideastream producer Dennis Knowles took a tour of this amazing collection that paints a picture of three centuries of Japanese society.

It's one of the cultural gems of Cleveland specializing in Asian art - The Verne Collection located in Little Italy opened for business in 1953. Inspired by Daniel and Mitzi Verne's passion for all things Asian. At the helm these days is the next generation of Vernes: son Michael who continues the family's love affair for Asian art.

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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.