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, November 20, 2008

Since 1974, The Lit - Cleveland's Literary Center - has provided support to aspiring writers, seasoned vets and just about anyone in Northeast Ohio with an interest in the literary arts. But now, there's something more. Recently, The Lit introduced MUSE: A Quarterly Journal to further serve writers in this area. Joining Dee Perry is Judith Mansour-Thomas, the executive director of The Lit and editor of MUSE.

While The Lit has served writers of all genres for over thirty years, as an outgrowth of the Poets and Writes League of Greater Cleveland, that's especially true when it comes to support of local poets. With more on that side of the story we'll be joined by long-time member of Cleveland's Literary Center and the Poetry Editor of MUSE, Ray McNiece.

Only on the big screen have man and machine managed to merge into some new form of artificial life. But in reality, that's not so far away as you might think. In the new exhibit Robots and Us: A World of Futuristic Fun, at the Great Lakes Science Center, you can discover how machines and humans are learning from each other. And here to lead us into this brave new world is the Director of Educational and Outreach for the Great Lakes Science Center, Dante Centuori.

When you go to the symphony, you expect a dramatic experience in terms of what you hear, as the musicians perform compositions, by the great masters of classical music. But later this month, Carl Topilow and the Cleveland Pops Orchestra are adding some visual drama to their latest performance - and we're not talking about the maestro's baton. You see, a group of international cirque performers and acrobats are joining the musicians onstage, in something called Cirque de La Symphony. Recently, one of these talented acrobats paid a visit to the Idea Center to give us a preview.

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