waterways to waterways

As part of the lead up to the 50th anniversary of the Cuyahoga River catching fire on June 22, 1969, the Cleveland Foundation’s Creative Fusion: Waterways to Waterways Edition will bring together a group of international and local artists to focus on projects that connect the regenerative efforts for the Cuyahoga to global waterways. Below are examples of how the Cleveland Print Room is getting involved.

crooked river - an exhibition by michael tsegaye

Ethiopian photographer and photojournalist Micheal Tsegaye is the Cleveland Print Room’s Creative Fusion International Artist-In-Residence for this project. Tsegaye will transform the Cleveland Print Room Gallery into the Cuyahoga River and its crooked bends from aerial photos and photographs from the riverbed. Crooked River opens Friday, June 21 at the Cleveland Print Room from 5-9pm, and will be on display until August 3.

Event link here.

Bridged - an exhibition by Sophie Schwartz

Schwartz' project will use the notion of a bridge to lead her exploration of the Cuyahoga River. As she juxtaposes her photographic survey of existing structures and those who use them, with archival images of bridges on the river, she melds and recontextualizes of the past and present to inform a larger historical perspective. Her exhibition will open at the River View Welcome Center Saturday, June 22, from 2-6 pm. Join the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Studio Go and make cyanotypes.

Event link here.

River Water soup

CPR’s Teen Institute In Transformation students will undertake a project in which they capture the traces of the overlooked and unseen along the Cuyahoga River. Using the alternative photographic cyanotype process, the students will create organic and conceptual results. By creating cyanotypes with water from the Cuyahoga River, it further adds to the mystery of the final outcome. Students will create a book that documents the experimental results.

See student work on display during Michael Tsegaye’s Crooked River Opening Friday, June 21 from 5-9pm.

Sacred river walk

The Cleveland Print Room, through the Cleveland Foundations’s Creative Fusion, is hosting a river walk along the Cuyahoga River led by Ojibwe elder, Sharon Day. The water walk will begin at the Cuyahoga’s headwaters and end four days later, in a process in which Day leads a group that carries sacred river water to the mouth of the Cuyahoga where it is emptied into Lake Erie. If you are interested in joining the walk, watch for community meetings around town or email info@clevelandprintroom.com. The walk will take place June 17 - 20. For questions, call Sally Winter at 440-666-5724.

For more information on Cleveland’s historical river fire and other current events, visit Cuyahoga 50 through the logo above.