Schools interested in participating may register by printing out a registration form and mailing it to the Ohio Arts Council. After December 1, 2007, registration will be online. To help schools get started, a teacher workshop will be held Saturday, November 10, 2007, at the Vern Riffe Center for Government and the Arts in downtown Columbus on the 31st floor. The workshop will provide instruction on planning a school contest and how to coach and evaluate students. To register for the teacher workshop, click here.

Sinclair Community College celebrates the installation of Ode to Sinclair Symphony. The three-panel indoor mural was created by University of Cincinnati artist Tarrance Corbin as part of the Ohio Arts Council’s Percent for Art program.

Tarrence Corbin is an associate professor of fine arts at the University of Cincinnati. He earned his master of fine arts at the University of Cincinnati in 1975 and has taught at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Fayetteville University in North Carolina.

The Ohio Legislature recognized the state's responsibility to foster culture and the arts and to encourage the development of artists and craftspeople. The result of this was Ohio's Percent for Art legislation, effective July 1, 1990. The legislation provides funds for the acquisition, commissioning and installation of works of art for new or renovated public buildings with appropriations of more than $4 million. For these projects, the law provides that one percent of the total appropriation will be allocated for the acquisition, commissioning and installation of art work. Since the legislation went into effect, more than 100 projects have been completed bringing public art into many areas of the state.

The OAC administers the state's Percent for Art Program. Click here to visit a searchable directory of projects to help taxpayers discover how their funds have been invested in artwork that enhances public buildings. Sinclair Community College’s Percent for Art Committee was comprised of Jean Hale, Kevin Harris, Dodie Munn, Penny Stewart and Dr. Sally Struthers.

Ohio Arts Council To Receive Creative Leadership Award

The board of trustees of the Alliance of Artists Communities voted unanimously to award the Ohio Arts Council (OAC) with a Creative Leadership Award. The award honors the OAC’s long-standing support of individual artists and artists’ residencies.

Alliance members make nominations and award recipients are selected by an awards committee and the board of trustees. Alliance members are made up of a group of nearly 250 established and emerging residency programs, affiliated institutions and individuals.

The Alliance made note of the OAC’s commitment to artists’ residencies over the last two decades and its support to individual artists, organizations and opportunities worldwide. It also said the OAC’s values, expressed through its Individual Creativity program in particular, reflect the belief of the Alliance that supporting artists in the creation of new work is essential to our society’s success.

The Alliance Awards ceremony will be held Saturday, November 10, 2007 in Silver Springs, Maryland.

Three Artists From Easter Island Work With Inlet Dance Theatre

Three artists from Easter Island visited Cleveland in October to take part in a two-week international artist exchange. The visiting artists were Ana Maria Arrendondo, a headmaster of the municipal school of Easter Island as well as an artist and a printmaker; Juan Lucas (Aka) Rapu, a dance teacher and choreographer as well as the general coordinator for the catholic school of the island; and Joanna Pakomio, a tri-lingual journalist from Easter Island (Rapa Nui, Spanish, English) currently living in Santiago, Chile who recorded the event and served as a translator.

Children participating in Playhouse Square’s after-school program had the opportunity to learn more about the ancient culture Rapa Nui and will rehearse with Inlet Dance Theatre.

As part of the exchange, artists from the Cleveland area will visit Easter Island in Spring 2008 to participate in Rapa Nui cultural activities and share American culture and education resources. The research and results from both visits will be developed into a teaching and curriculum guide.

Years in Office: State Representative 1993-1999, State Senator 2004-present

Committees: Education (Chair), Agriculture (Vice Chair), Finance and Financial Institutions, Highways and Transportation (Vice Chair), Health, Human Services and Aging

Hometown: Coshocton

Education: B.S. in Education, Kent State University

Recent Honors: Bob Evans Appalachian Humanitarian Award, Muskingum Area Technical College Honorary Degree of Associate Public Service, Ohio Public Service Award for 30 years of service.

Age, Marital Status, Children: 59, married, one step-son

Arts Organizations belonged to or supported: Pomerene Arts Center, Coshocton Arts Guild, Roscoe Village Foundation, Coshocton Community Choir

Favorite Arts or Cultural Pastimes: Reading, attending plays, musicals

Favorite artist: I am very eclectic when it comes to favorite artists – “Soul Resonance” determines who it is on any given day!

Last good book you read: “The World Is Flat” by Thomas Friedman

Most memorable arts experience: Medieval tapestries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City

Last year four of us came to the theatre. It was a present to each other... a night out. The four of us were: My brother and I and our two spouses. The two couples are a bit like country mice and city mice, if you know what I mean. My husband and I are from north of Dayton - a town of 10,000. My brother and his wife are of the Cincinnati inner set. All of us are in our early 40s.

The other thing you should know about these sets of mice is that the country mice lean left while the city mice, well, they lean the other way on a lot of things. The play we chose to see was “In The Continuum”. It was the wives who chose the play; the guys didn't know anything about it until they were in their seats reading the playbill. The lights went out, the play moved back and forth between the two actresses like fast ping pong. The dialects, the emotion, the swift changes of cloth swatches from one character to another were fascinating.

Absolutely everything about the play held us. And it continued to hold us. Dinner conversation was entirely about the play, the talent, the dead-on accuracy of those emotional ranges, and of course, the quality of the writing and acting. We talked about it for about 3 months after that night.

Where did that play take us? It took us to a spot where we as brother - sister, city mice - country mice and right - left found something in common. A conversation where we each agreed on every aspect of the play, we empathized with the same things and had similar thoughts about our emotions that were stirred.