Behind the Scenes: The Ames Family Atrium Celebration

The community celebration of the Ames [1] Family Atrium on Oct. 28 [2] is a time for everyone to come together to mark this important milestone in the life of the museum’s expansion and renovation project. We aim to fill the museum with life, laughter, and family fun on that day and have been working with groups throughout the community to do just that. Inspired by the banners created and used in Cleveland’s One World Day way back in 1996 and 1998, Community Arts [3] has once again reached out to various ethnic groups and communities to create banners that will be included in the celebration.

Groups were invited from Cleveland Cultural Gardens [4] as well as arts, neighborhood, and cultural organizations who have participated in Parade the Circle and other Community Arts event.

During workshops at the Community Arts Studio between August and October, artists gathered in the evenings and on the weekends to create their cotton batik banners and fill them with designs and color.

Among the participants:

African American Cultural Garden
Artistas Latinos Unidos
Arts Collinwood
Dance Israeli! (Hebrew Cultural Garden)
FICA (Federation of India Cultural Associations)
Hellenic Preservation Society (Greek Garden)
Polish Cultural Garden
Sankofa Fine Arts Plus
Tam Tam Magic
Chinese Garden
Slovak Cultural Garden

Here are a few shots of some of the work in process.

[gallery]

-- Kesha Williams [5]