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Midtown Brews Conversation TranscriptionThursday November 6, 2008

Branding Stories of Humanity: Art, Advocacy and Global

Networks

Illustration: advocacy, by Illustrator, Ralph Solonitz

Links:http://www.livestream.com/midtownbrews/video?clipId=flv_b019737c-3dcc-40c6-bfd7-bbca9f2a37d7

http://www.livestream.com/midtownbrews/video?clipId=flv_be9150a8-

5201-4831-9e00-723772d9d8e5

http://www.livestream.com/midtownbrews/video?clipId=flv_3519636086345409931

Gloria Ferris: I want to welcome everybody to Midtown Brewsconversation. There is somebody missing tonight and thats Georgewith his pod casting equipment so this one will not be pod cast tonighthe is working late on a project for his day job. So, were going to gostrictly with video tonight which is good, but you need to make sure to

project so that, remember Speech 101? Or your Drama classes, orwhatever, so that we can project. And before we start and talk aboutour topic tonight we usually talk a little bit about Midtown Brews andIm going to ask Dennis Coughlin, one of the Founders of I-Open to


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explain a little bit about why I-Open became a partner with MidtownBrews and how were all here tonight.

Dennis Coughlin: Good evening Im Dennis Coughlin from I-Open. I-Opens corporate name is Institute for Open Economic Networks.Were a non-profit corporation begun in 2005. And we startedbecause we believe there is a need for new behaviors in economicdevelopment in Cleveland, in particular and in the United States ingeneral. So, we are actually working across the United Statesteaching new behaviors such as collaborative behavior, talking witheach other and being open and honest and the like. But, we do teachwhats known as Open Source Economic Development, which isbased on sharing best practices, and open and honestcommunication with each other. Midtown Brews began and it grew

out of a program called Midtown Mornings. We were working withentrepreneurs in the Midtown area of Cleveland, which is Midtown-StClair-Superior, so we are sort of a parent of it, but actually its on itsown and does whatever it wants to do. Again, my analogy is its like achild, but actually its grown into something wonderful a grownupthat does whatever it wants to do. Were still associated with it andwe still think its one of ourand so anyway thats what we do and wedo work across the United States in Open Source EconomicDevelopment and helping entrepreneurs get started.

Gloria Ferris: Okay, well, thank you all for coming and this has beenkind of a stressful, hectic kind of week for a lot of people, in fact evenour featured guest tonight is coming off a one hundred page programreview so were going to give her a little bit of rest, but all of you,introduce yourselves as we always do. Now, the teacher in me, butour topic tonight is Branding Stories of Humanity: Art, Advocacy andGlobal Networks. So, I have three questions, you can answer anyone of them or just say, Hi, Im so and so and move on to the nextperson. Theres no pressure here. So, the first question is, think of an

example of a piece of art that has spoken to you, something that hasreally spoken to you and has an moral issue, or just a beauty issue,or however that would be. The other one was, Why did this MidtownBrews intrigue you and why did you come tonight? well, thats the


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third question Who are you and why did you come to the MidtownBrews? So, were going to start with our host, Andy Halko, thefounder of Insivia and whom we always thank for hosting thisMidtown Brews.

Andy Halko: Well, all right, youre putting me on the spot, thank youeverybody for coming to Midtown Brews. The topicI think its aninteresting one, Im not necessarily an expert in it, but obviously wedo marketing and branding, so I understand that part, but I think thatwere dealing with advocacy and social issues that branding is hugelyimportant because it can shape what that issue is. I dont know, Ithink our recent election is a pretty good example of a good brandand those sorts of issues so, thats really all I have to say.

Gloria Ferris: Thats a good point. [Unintelligible open discussion]Ralph? To you, Sir. Well, wait a minute, I want to do a little intro toRalph because Ralph is a cartoonist who, if you go to the MidtownBrews site you will often see the social commentary that he putsthere through his art works. Im interested to hear what you have tosay Ralph.

Ralph Solonitz: Well, I love doing the political cartoons but what youcall a branding or logo I have found to come up with an identity for an

event or an issue is very powerful and I have done a few of themwhere I dont think everybody remembers, Till They All ComeHome? During the Gulf war? With a double ribbon on that. But thatto me is a military support group button in front sort of symbolizesthat. When the Browns left Cleveland I had Dog Gone - that cameout of it. It seems like if you can come up with a visualafter doing alot of the Kent State commemorationsso, like the May 4 th TaskForce comes up with a theme and then Ill design something thatgoes with that theme. But the visual is something everybody identifieswith and I find that if you put it on a button, people put it on their

chest, they say, This is how I feel about this issue.

Dennis Althar: And, if you feel strongly you can get a tattoo.


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Ralph Solonitz: Exactly.

Dennis Althar: Its just a permanent button.

Gloria Ferris: Okay, Dennis, now would you like to introduceyourself?

Dennis Althar: My art piece is my speakersVirtual realityspeakers.

Gloria Ferris: This is Dennis Althar, the inventor of the CopernicusSpeaker System.

Dennis Althar: Reach out, its real. Reach out and touch them. I

came because of the pizza.

Gloria Ferris: Okay. Sir?

Mark Kohn: My turn? Mark Kohn, with Hiram College and I co-foundedI talked to you? The Center for Literature, Medicine andBiomedical Humanities. So, I live here, I live in Shaker Heights, intown and interested in hearing what folks are doing, if anybody heardWCPN, the last two Friday nights, Radio Play was my most recent

project. Kurt Vonnegut play called, Fortitude thats some of thework Im doing. Im particularly interested in the intersection of thearts, bioethics and citizen engagement in terms of envisioning outbiotech and bioscience future.

Gloria Ferris: MaryBeth, Im going to hop over to you.

MaryBeth Mathews: Im MaryBeth Matthewsone of the things I do,Im a teacher for the Cleveland School District, I teach at Max HayesVocational High School, which is an industrial trade school in

Cleveland. Ive been teaching forever and something else Im alsoinvolved in and partner in a small manufacturing company calledWork Holding Tools and Work Holding Tools for C&C machines. Letssee artI think the most moved Ive ever been by any work of art


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was the Viet Nam Memorial. That moved me to tears and I could notstop.

Gloria Ferris: Laura?

Laura Wright: Hi, Im Laura Wright and Im a web designer here atInsivia and my brains been kind of going non stop since I startedthinking about this topicbut Id say that art that particularly movesme and its usually situated in a particular context so, right now Imthinking of listening to this one song driving through Ithacaand itwas just really pleasant, so its the relationship between where youare and place and where it is you are observing something and takingpart in something.

Gloria Ferris: Okay. Dennis, now Im going to come back to you andnow youre speaking as Dennis, an individual.

Dennis Coughlin: Hi, Im Dennis Coughlin and Im actually a seventhgeneration Clevelander and so I grew up living in the University Circlearea, so all the museums and all of that wonderful landscaping andbuildings and everything else, sculpture, so there isnt anyone thingthat I findbut I do like everything that goes on in University Circle,Parade the Circle is just such a wonderful thing to see. All the things

that are created there and the involvement of people and its that civicengagement piece in art that I find really quite moving.

Gloria Ferris: Susan?

Susan Altshuler: Im Susan Altshuler and Im also a Director of I-Open. Im here because, well, Im here because Im part of theprogram but I think, well we started this program to bring peopletogether to talk about creative industries, technology and energy, thatwas our first focus and since we began we get some many wonderful

programs and so many great people here and I think this is such awonderful place to learn new information and everyones been sogenerous to inform us about things theyre working on and we wouldlike people to continue coming to these programs but working outside


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of these programs to get things going where theyre interested andfind out what other people are interested in so they can start gettingprojects going so they can start building Northeast Ohio. So, I feelthat this is an important platform to have.

Gloria Ferris: Kevin?

Kevin Cronin: Kevin Cronin, lawyer in Midtown and active in theateras well as Cleveland Bikes, a small non-profit that works onpromoting cycling in Northeast Ohio as effective transportation,healthy recreation, as well as sports. For my art, Ill choose, Picassoand his Bull; which, if youve ever seen, all it is, is a bicycle seat andthe handlebars turned up from the horns and it was remarkable featof creativity to look at something so mundane and simple as a bicycle

seat and decide that what it really is a bulls head, but he anybodywho looks at it afterward realizes that he is obviously correct. So Iwas always amazed by that simple leap of creativity and think thatthat creativity that were all very capable of is a very beautiful thing.

Gloria Ferris: Thank you. Toni?

Toni Chanakas: Toni Chanakas. Graphic design. So, for me whenyou are talking about logo thats what I love to do and thats what

identifies people with a certain look. And I think of, go back to thecomputer, the Apple, the Mac, and FedEx are great logos. Artworkthat moves meagain, I think that Picasso, but I like the La Vie, theblue, the big bluebecause there are so many things, conceptswithin that piece. Thats what I like.

Gloria Ferris: The man sitting beside her?

Mark Batson: Mark Batson, I am a life long Clevelander, but Ivebeen engaged with I-Open since it first started about three, four years

ago. Ive been working in health care for the past four or five years,health care and technology. Right now I am Executive Director of thePolicy Bridge, a local public policy and think tank. When I think aboutart though, I think, in response to your questions about art, I think


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Renaissance artistsa friend and I just on Election Day, you canreally get some neat shots of Cleveland with 70 degree weather, fallcolors, t-shirt, sunshine. So, those were my treasure shots. You maynot get shots of people in shorts and all, but

Gloria Ferris: Frank?

Frank Mills: Hi, Im Frank Mills and I want to apologize for leavingearly but I have a meeting I have to go to. Im an urban psychologistslash psycho-geographer turned organizing. Im here because acertain young lady bugged me over there behind the camera.Actually, when I walked in the art it was interesting, because youasked the question, I was drawn to the picture up there of celebration for a number of weeks, Ive just kind of been in that kind of mood all

week so that just kind of

Gloria Ferris: Jon?

Jon Eckerle: My names Jon Eckerle and Im first a realtor part of theday and the other part I work on the Observer Project whichmanifests itself in the Heights Observer, Lakewood Observer. And,its really not a newspaper, its about some things that have beeninfluenced, this meeting itselfValdis Krebs, Ed Morrison, Hunter

Morrison, Richard Florida about developing communities throughsocial networking software and developing platforms andinfrastructure for people to interact on a hyper level and the passionis developing a sense of community, fighting sprawl and the tensionthat draws us all wonderfully in our world, makes it so that you dontknow that name on the street. And so what its all about is trying touse the facility of the local infrastructure on the web to influence reallife, communication, face-to-face things that are happening. Gettingout from behind the computer. And its just a fascinating concept thatis really just happening here. Its like an advertising agent target and

its just growing and growing to the point where were going to be ableto need a lot of input to be able to pull it off. But, about artwhat Iwant to say, you know like developing the artists XX17:46 tends to befragmented the art community, its the same thing, but what I


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particularly enjoy is, art like at Millennium Park in Chicago, they havegreat public works art, that you see kids running through water andthey have a giant, Im sorry the name escapes me, this giant egg that the Bean just a mere bean, looks like a mirrored brain thats abouttwo stories tall, and everyone who comes there theyre playing with itbut theyre also interacting with the person next to them. I think weneed to develop lots of different kinds of structures because the artthat comes between two people is really whats a lot times whatsprecious and whats missing in our local life.

Gloria Ferris: Bill?

Bill MacDermott: My names Bill MacDermott, Im an alternativeenergy crazy whose also interested in solar and wind. Art moves

me. I dont know to XX because I dont know how to answer, becauseI dont know where good design stops and art begins. Do we needartwork? Well? Do we need the computer? Well? Do we do graphicdesign? Well? All of it becomes art, and, Ive seen my share ofartwork. One of the ones that was most moving was when I wasrecently at Kentucky Knob, and thats famous and just a drive fromhere. Its one of the houses that my friend Lloyd Wight. The personwho owns it - and I dont know exactly who he is but he is agentleman, a person with some money, who lives, artistic, XX the

gentleman who owns it XXX20:05 acquired a bunch of pieces of art large art and put them in the XX so that when you come down fromseeing this XX you come down through the woods and theres somepieces of artwork along the way and then there is artwork up in thatXX. Some of the things I saw there were most of your XX so howthings work is just as interesting as the fact that they are there. Oneof the most interesting is the Rips sculpture, small XX and they go upabout six feet and they kind of touch each other because theyreanchored in theyre own special concrete, the resonance sets up, thetapping, the noise, sends a resonance like a sitar where you have all

those strings that resonate as the originals apply and you get thiswhole humm from the fact that some of these are touching. Theresalso a piece of the Berlin Wall there that wasnt just a piece thrownin, [mbrews nov pt2] XX because I have pictures of but the actual


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piece that XX and graffiti XX heres this that was part of the BerlinWall, now lets display this piece XX design, taking one thing that hadone function and turning it into another function. So, I was alsothinking that the art that was back in the 60s XX whole bunch ofpublic art there, and coming down here tonight I passed XX and toget on a soap box and XX art has a habit of pushing technology XXvarious things and what I would love to see XX but you really need tosee something XX Ill sponsor a competition, Ill give XX a number ofstudents XX Its just a suggestion.

Gloria: Tim?

Tim Ferris: Well, what a group. Its amazing, the depth and breadthwe have here. Im Tim Ferris and Im married to Gloria. By profession,

Im a broker and a planner, Im in the ultimate liberal art profession inthat I have to go with that and take money and life style and healthand integrate everything, connect everybody. And, its not just aboutmoney anymore, its not just about planning its about what youretalking about. And I get so much out of these sessions andeverybodys been so good the last two, just kind of blew me away Iwant to keep the rift going. I dont really know any art in particular thatmoves me but all art moves me I love graphic art. I remember in 2005before we were in competition, I was carrying around the Blue Robot

card the fabulous Blue Robot card and just in awe of the little dotsthat made this robot. How long did I carry it around? Half a year? Thesame thing: Look at this! Look at this! I love the XX stuff. Regularcommercial graph card. And Bill brings up a good point: Where doesthe commercial stuff end and the true art start? I think its interesting.When you talk about Denniss story with the speakers, those hugeseven-foot speakers and actual take the sound and Im not a musicor sound person, but they put the sound in the middle of your headsomewhere. But, as I said, what a bunch.

Dennis Althar: You know the best compliment they can make inelectronics? Is if your stuff is the state of the art.


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Gloria Ferris: Yes, thats true. How interesting. Technology, creativeindustries, kind of come togetherstate of the art. I mean to askMichael whom he is and then Im going to introduce our guest fortonight. And, she is going to introduce some of her students. But, Ithink Michael is a good segue into Pat, because he is a Professor atCIA, the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Michael Lehto: Thank you. My name is Michael Lehto. I teach at theInstitute of Art and I do teach communications now but one of myinterests in actually in fine art and particularly how I think some of theXX considerations are how art and advocacy really works becausethere are so much subtleties that came out of really the kind ofinterface art but also the subtle stuff that happen too and I think thatthat interplay between that of what is sort of shocking versus what is

so subtle of XX for instance, a very subtle piece that, but an amazingtemplate piece that you can enjoy on many levels. And thats where Ifind myself a lot, thinking about those things and trying to work at thatzone. A particular piece that really spoke to me was the Carl Polksocial XX that happened just this year, which was, if anybodyremembers it, was these bulletin boards, forty foot bulletin boards allover the city and it was created from public input and so the publiccame and gave ten words to describe the city and he chose out of arandom lottery he chose these things and he put the bulletin boards

up all over the City for a pretty measly $50,000 thats how much theproject cost to do and he made an impact all over the City and hada web technology presence as a part of it. So there were manycomponents that went into this thing to describe the City you need tolive here and to create a certain art space for that to live in around theCity.

Gloria Ferris: You know what, Betsey; Im sorry Pat I said I would goto you. Betsey, how about you stepping out from behind the cameraand I am sure you have an example of art. You may have one very

close to home to your heart.

Betsey Merkel: Hi, Im Betsey Merkel and Im with I-Open. Lets see,Im also a trained harpist and working for quite a long time in a


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different form of art performance art in music and did extensivework in working with small ensembles, touring. And so, my arts capeis really audio. But Im really, really intrigued with and really awed atthe awesome depth of knowledge, as Tim was saying, and diversityof knowledge thats here. I think that our opportunity as a region is toinvest in the exploration of the intersections of all of these differentwonderful sectors that come together, whether its art and technology,or if its visual arts, audio arts, interactive technologies with civicengagementto really more sharply and clearly define whatcommunity priorities are. What are they for a region? And Imconvinced that theyll be transformative and thats what we should allbe investing in.

Gloria Ferris: Im going to bring this over to Pat very quickly, but

theres one thing I saw today on one of our I think everybody herelooks at REALNEO at one time or another, and Laura posted todaythat our City is listed as the fourteenth best literate City in America, ofthe top Cities.

Tim Ferris: Is this Laura the librarian? Yes, but who posted it?

Gloria Ferris: Norm, didWhile, our library was rated number oneand we had three libraries in Ohio in the count. Cleveland, was

number one

Jon Eckerle: Lakewood?

Gloria Ferris: No, this was another study. Literacy. How literate a cityis. I think it was Cleveland the copulation of all the libraries. Toledowas number three and Cincinnati was number five. So, and I thinkliteracy comes you can tell the depth about knowledge about art.Because being a literate city does not mean you only read, you put itall in music, art, the visual arts and tonight we are very lucky to have

Pat Fallon, the head of the Art Department, shes the head of the ArtDepartment at Ursuline College. And, our topic, as I said before isBranding Stories of Humanity: Art, Advocacy and Global Networks.And I believe that Pat would first like to introduce her students who


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came with her to join in this conversation. And then I would like her totalk about why art and advocacy is important to her.

Pat Fallon: Well, Im really going to talk about what I just heard andrespond to youKristen [Baumlier], who spoke at the sameconference I was at in New York is kind of a mover and shaker and Ihave with me some students who I hope will also do some of thetalking. This is my mignon, my work study student, my advisee foryears, Stephanie Kasza, shes a big shot senior and next to her isJaime Hall who is a print maker, a painter, she does ceramics as well.And then next to her is Susan Gibbs who is a phenomenal artist andalso like myself a Grandmother, so, we run the gamut and were alldoing advocacy in our work in some way or another. I am amazed atthis group because one of the things that were really proud of at

Ursuline is that we do not define a line between what we view aspersonal art, commercial art and fine art its art, if its good its artand if its bad theres nothing worse than bad art. So, we are verystrong on that. I also believe, you were talking about literacy inCleveland, I think our library is the third largest, especially as aresearch library this is our downtown library. The next one isBoston, not New York, and then the next one is the Library ofCongress. We have a phenomenal library system, but literacy for usis visual and so I understand the button concept ofI believe strongly

that the image is extremely powerful. And I also believe that theimage can be word and be as powerful. Margaret Cooper doesincredible stuff with words that make you, that are juxtaposition, thatmake you think in a different way. I went to a conference of theCollege Arts Association in February in New York I go to anyconference in New York City and they, a gentleman was speaking we were supporting him with buttons, Im sorry I didnt wear mine, thisis Art is not Terrorism. Did I pronounce terrorism right? A longstory short, they were in California, and they were organic growers,they were trying to grow all of these plants to show that it is much

better than having tomatoes that you make perfect in little glasshouses or something, but anyway, on E-Bay he put all of this exoticequipment that he had in his house and his wife was working verylate one night and they were doing this to get it out and he gets in, in


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the morning and he goes to wake her up, and she fell asleep, andshe was a young woman and she was dead. And so he isshockedhe goes outEMS comes and they all come in and theysee all of these refrigerators with plants and they see all of thesethings going on and it was right after 9-11 and they have the FBI andeverybody in there and they are still in Court. He still has not got hiswifes body back. And this is because nobody wants to admit thatthere was an error here they were doing an art project of growingyour own food to be organic and they had all of thisso, they weresupporting themselves by going to conferences selling buttons to sayArt is Not Terrorism. So, I should have worn my button or soldsome. So words are powerful and scary and we put it in a degree inour school we have a BA with the requisite number of majors indesign, art history and studio art and we put it in a BFA. We applied

to the Ohio Regents for BFA Studio Art. And our gracious thing is thatwere within the confines of the liberal arts college and they came andthey were seeing all of the advocacy, which we do. Well, our artdepartment like most art departments in colleges and universities isway up and over the hill and as far away from the Deans office aspossible, so, we were trying to keep our advocacy sort of quietbecause Ursuline is a Catholic womens college were ladies andso, we were trying to tip toe around and the Regents were justappalled. They said, Well, look at what they are doing, this is terrific

and they asked us to do a course on art advocacy. So, I just XX whenSusan and Betsey came to an exhibit and we were talking about thisand thats what became this engagement. All of these students havebeen in this course, I think it has run twice now and they can talkabout it. What is interesting is they have been doing this with theirwork for some time. We do talk at Ursuline we have this mantra whichis here all the time and that is voice and vision and most people haveno XX15:51 but we do think its important to have voice, becausewere a womens college, when our voice is heard. However, in thevisual arts we think your voice is your product. Its your art and that I

put my art in service of- not all of the time - because when you doadvocacy work its generally brown, grey or bloody. Its not, the goalis not beauty. And every now and then, Im a colorist Im from theInstitute and color theorys big there and so right now Im doing


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apples but they are becoming metaphoric so we are getting intoadvocating for some odd things. But this is what these women havebeen doing and so I would like them to talk about their work, I can talkforever. I would like that, so, this is Stephanie Kasza and this is JaimeHall and this is Susan XX.

Stephanie Kasza: All right, Ill start off. Like she said, Im a senior andI focus on painting and drawing and what Im working on in my studionow is kind of like exposing the parallels of the hungry and the nonhungry. And how those of us who are not hungry dont even realizethat the hungry are ten feet away from us. This past summer I waswalking in a back alley with my brother and saw a man walking withgroceries, with arms full of grocery bags and not even ten feet in frontof him was a homeless man digging through a trash can. And I

stopped and watched it just because thats the world we live in. Thatman with the grocery bag, whether or not he was aware of it the manin thrash can, I dont know, but its just, that struck me. So thats whatIm focusing on in my studio. And I dont know, at Ursuline Collegeyoull advocate without realizing your advocating because its anunderlying theme in all the courses, not just the art courses but andyou know the Ursuline study courses of all of the things we learn,Use your voice, use your voice for those who cannot speak. So, itskind of whether the College realizes it or not they are almost teaching

everyone whether they are an art major to use your voice to speak upfor those who cannot speak up for themselves. So, this past yearbefore I had this experience I was kind of struggling with, Do I wantto advocate something specific, what am I drawing to, what do I feelstrongly about? But then when I actually sat down and realized thatIve been advocating all along in all my other art work and it was anamount of time before I realized that that was actually what I wasdoing and understanding where my art was going.

Gloria Ferris: Jamie?

Jamie: As far as advocating goes, I grew up in and doing my artworkfor a very long time. We actually had a show back in the spring, it wascalled Womens Watch- a freelance show and this painting, its one


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of my favorite paintings Ive ever done in my life. It was actually aself-portrait, it wasnt supposed to be a self-portrait but it turned out tobe one. It has a little finger going like this, in the background of it, ithad a bunch of little footprints on it and the message of the paintingwas dont tread on me. And what was so interesting about thispainting was that the little footprints were actually like a tornado in thebackground to the point where its like all around us and youve got tobe strong to be able to deflect things and I notice that in the art worlda lot of people are very crewel and its very cut throat. Were alwaysable to pass off images as, Oh, its garbage, or, thats really good.We find ourselves being extremely critical about something thatsomeone is willing to put their entire lives into and that kind of whatXX20: 13 speaking and talking about. But, as far as Ursuline Collegegoes we do a lot of stuff with advocating weve got the XX the

Womens Watch, a Show and we also do a demonstration every yearwhere we walk around with bodies of people that have actuallypassed away[group comments and questions about the literalimplication of carrying an actual dead body] but, its like you arecarrying a person and it actually has the name of a person who hasdied on it in the last year

Pat Fallon: These are all women, or children who have died byviolence. And so we keep track and we make these cut outs, were up

all night making red, sometimes large red, they used to stand, like theknight in the square, in Public Square. It started because one of ourNuns was murdered and raped by a man, a young boy who was sick,in our woods. At the same time a woman had died a very violentdeath in Cleveland, had been raped, but because this was a nun thepapers had this all over and nothing was ever said about this otherwoman and the Nuns got very upset about it. My two full timecolleagues are Ursuline Sisters and actually one of them wasnt eventhere yet and was beside herself. We decided first we had to takeback the woods because I used to take my classes there all the time

we thought we had to get the women back in the woods, to feel safethere. And second, we needed to make some kind of statement andthats where this began. And we just get these statistics every year.


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Gloria Ferris: If I could ask some questions, how many years haveyou been doing this, would you say?

Pat Fallon: Last year, it was maybe twelve, fourteen years.

Gloria Ferris: And how many bodies do you carry through the woods?

Pat Fallon: I dont know.

Stephanie Kasza: This past year we did eighty-six.

Pat Fallon: We do it every year.

Gloria Ferris: Is it for the area?

Stephanie Kasza: Its for Cuyahoga County, and what we do is weget in touch with the Coroners Office and she gives us a list ofwomen and children of the age of eighteen, male and female whohave died a violent death. We do this the end of March every year.

Tim Ferris: So, has it been more or less over the time youve beenthere?

Stephanie Kasza: More. This past year was the most figures thatweve painted and some people were carrying multiples.

Pat Fallon: It follows economics, the increase in violence; a lot ofdesperate people out there. Women and children in any society arethe most venerable. I remember sitting at a bar and I was really upsetbecause they were talking about - this was Bosnia -and how they hadthe rape camps and that they went in, I said that was terrible and thisvery calm lawyer sat next to me and said, Well, thats what Armiesdo in war time they rape the women to show that theyre, and

impregnate them to show since time and memorial and I thought well,thats true. I just never looked at it that way.

Gloria Ferris: Susan?


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Susan X: Hi, Im Susan and well, I have to say that the advocacyclass really opened my eyes, because I had been a homemaker formany years, and I escaped and came back to school. My goal rightnow is on women, not the general, but the roles that we playtherole as the wife, a mother, or a sister, or a daughter. And not onlythose roles but what we can be and that is where Im trying to get toin my heart and that is very tiring, I have to say. But the advocacyclass was really XX because it really made me realize how powerfulart can be not only advocating for things community service but eveninside your own heart. The other day I was given a hard time becausehe told me art was all I cared about and all I could do was agree. So,I love art, I love all forms of art and XX it is always right there in frontof my mind.

Gloria Ferris: So Susan, let me ask you a couple of questions, howdid you get in touch with Pat at Ursuline College and the art programthere that you said that she opened your heart to art?

Pat Fallon: Its a required course.

Gloria Ferris: You mean advocacy? [discussion]

Susan Gibbs: It was instructive after being so stuck in the house for

so many years you just dont think XX26:50 that you dont knowwhats going on

Gloria Ferris: Well, thatswhat brought you to Ursuline? TheCollege? The art program? You were a homemaker for all thoseyears and so how did you branch out and realize that art is everythingyou care about?

Susan Gibbs: Well, it always was but you know in just raising kidsand you have all of these responsibilities that really held me back and

then I just decided that, Im going to do it. And it was late, but betterlate than never. And when I walked into Ursuline, I was collegeshopping, I went to Tri-C, and it just felt right. Just being there wasright, I could hear my Mother say, Youre in the right place. Okay,


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Mother and then I met great instructors and it has been very, veryinspiring. They are taking me to another level, breaking me out of atraditional style Ive been in for so long and getting somewhere elseand I really feel like Im getting there.

Pat Fallon: Susan is a very strong artist and she has a lot to say andone of the fun things and in fact most of you are probably aware, youremember Guernica, Picassos, Guernica? And that was his responseto Francos fascist... And they had of course used blacks and graysand whites and the light was going out in Europe and there was thewonderful bull and all of this, and that came to the MetropolitanMuseum of Art because he didnt want it to go to Spain you knowwhen he died because Franco could go back to Spain, till Franco wasdead. So, I saw it and most of you saw it in New York City and in

1989 Ursuline gave the faculty money to go to Spain for two monthsXX and I wanted to go to Barcelona, which is the city of artists, andthere it was because they were carting out Francos statues andmaking the streets all over again and Guernica was back home. Andanother powerful piece is the Viet Nam Memorial, one of the videoswe watch is Maya Lins video on how she came to do it she was astudent and it was part of an assignment and she, but her process iswhat is so wonderful, she started by writing. She started by writingher thoughts and then I keep telling the students, artists are

supposed to look stupid and lie under trees with their arms undertheir heads, because that is where you become creative. You dontsay from nine to five Im going to be creative then Ill blow out in frontof the TV. Watch meritocracy, you have to have nothing to do for yourmind to wander and things to happen and make the connection of thebull and the bicycle, so thats where we get the reputation of lookingstupid and what Susan is saying I have to get rid of this and whatStephanie XX because Ive spent my entire life learning how not tomultitask. And my entire life has been to focus and now I focus so Ifall, I cant find my car keys, I cant find the front door, I cant, but boy

can I focus. It took almost a lifetime to unlearn that but they, and Ipride myself on that and I pride myself on looking stupid and in myhouse you only get in trouble if you interrupt somebody when they arenot talking because when people are not talking theyre thinking. And


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nobody in this culture right now hallows quiet thinking they think if youare sitting there not talking youre available. Right? And people whenthey want your cell phone number why should I be available to theworld? You know, once you leave your two year olds following yourskirt so you walk into a swamp and then your life is over, nice as itwasyou dont want to be available to the world at large night andday, are they nuts? And that they call your work? To talk about XXhow awful is that? Something about this society that feels that theysee and yet we dont communicate. So, advocacy has a lot of things itcan do and a lot of bridges it can build and this conference in NewYork that I was talking to XX about was all about graphic designers. Itwas put on by the School of Visual Art and it is called the Liberal Artsand the Education of the Visual Artist. This was a twenty-secondnational conference. There were one hundred and ninety-nine people

there representing every state and thirty-seven countries. They weregraphic designers and a few art historians. And there were peoplewho just came to listen, Steven Hiller, was the major speaker and Iunderstand he is a graphic design God or something, he wasspeaking about branding a totalitarian state and I was asked to speakon how do you teach students meaning. I was trying to say you dontteach them you give them the tools to de-cipher what we callspectacle the TV, the iPod, we all think that kids know everythingbecause now theyre plugged in and they are just getting it totally

unfiltered and they cant cope with it, theyre killing themselves,theyre killing everybody else, with the news theyre frantic and theyneed the tools to how do you filter this stuff? How do you functionwithin this? So, heres another way this XX 33:44 and then I presidedover a social responsibility, all I did was introduce graphic designerswhich is now visual communication design and one another and theywere all into building community through branding and that was thebig push. And it was amazing and it was at the Algonquin XX thatwas a very nice place to have a conference. Its going on, I thoughtthat we were like the little niche here and nobody knew it was going

on and its going on all over. And theyre all talking about it. So,youve got the, is it bull by the tail? Tiger A tiger by the tail.

Ralph Solonitz: Handle bars.


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Pat Fallon: So what is going on here? You know, you are anewspaper, but its a connection and its going on through graphicdesign. Design is the 21st Century.

Gloria Ferris: I would like to throw one of the thoughts that Pat hadabout, you know, dont interrupt me; Im quiet because thats whenIm thinking. And I just wonder what do other people think about that?Because on the bus, I see a woman with little kids and shes got theBlue Tooth and shes on the phone. And I think to myself that I usedto ride the bus with my daughters and thats when we, Look at this,look at that, theres the bridge going downtown, and theres just allthis noise and I think theyre missing the best days with your childbecause very soon theyre going to say, Dont bother me Imthinking. And will have nothing to do with you. But, were multi-

tasking and were so busy, but what are we really doing? And Iguess, what do other people think about that? Do you think thatsometimesJon? What do you think?

Jon: I think a couple of things which one is important. Advertisersknow how to overcome sensory overload. I have a degree inadvertising and the thing you end up saying is that, We know how todo this you dont have a chance. Theres a lot of money based ingetting information into your head and I think the illustration of this is,

of sensory overload at least, is that what happens when there isnothing, or the perception of nothing going on? How many times inyour modern life is there that you hear that XX its an exception ratherthan the rule. Theres a lot more times whenever there was inanything necessarily jimmying and jammed in your head, or therewas a special audio, were very visual now. The other thing I thoughtabout based on your comments was the branding of community,which is something XX that is really interesting like in the city ofCleveland, where people are talking about XX we want to be part ofour City, we want some sort of exchange going on and what I keep

trying to argue with the people in the City is that they need to, in fact,brand neighborhoods in a way that is from the bottom up sosuccessful neighborhoods are like Tremont, where people say Imfrom Tremont but its almost based on geography. Ohio City, but


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there are other neighborhoods W. 25th and Clark it has a hardtime coming up with what is the brand of this neighborhood? I thinkthat branding is really important. Im from

Tape Three.

Jon Eckerle: Im from Ohio City, Im from Lakewood, Im fromTremont, you need to have, in order to establish that base, you needthis concept of these are where my roots are, so that you have areference point, so you can be proud of that.

MaryBeth Matthews: One of the things that comes out branding theneighborhoods that are XX to brand is that they are evolving, they arechanging or evolving into what you would think would be the wrong

direction because they are becoming more impoverished or they aredisappearing. And other neighborhoods that have already hit thebottom are coming back, Waterloo, for example. Or, because thedemographic of the neighborhood is shifting. So, those are some ofthe, thats where Clevelands neighborhoods are having difficulty intrying to find their brand because Midtown, fifteen years ago, whatwould this area have been branded? A neighborhood of empty warehouses and abandon factories whereas now its become Chinatown.Midtown is Chinatown. Midtown is the place where the new cutting

edge businesses are moving to

Jon Eckerle: Without those words, Midtown, Midtown wouldnt havehappened, and I agree with you, whats happening with where theyare starting that new town, Collegetown, is that something they candevelop into a brand?

MaryBeth Matthews: But, is it always appropriate to brand anoutsider coming in and branding the neighborhood that because youwant to gentrify it? Thats a question; I am not being critical, Im

asking.

Tim Ferris: I have mixed emotions about branding because thatmeans and we talked about branding before, I think Gains had the


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ultimate brand you know one wears red and the other wears blue and then they go ahead and get contentious and thats a zero sumgame for turf and territory. If one wins, the other one looses. Andwhen I see the non profits in this town fighting for the same moneyfrom the Cleveland Foundation they try to go ahead and gerry theirbrand XX the best brand so we can go ahead and write a paper andget some money. Brands at that point become contentious and itsnot good, it doesnt feel good. If they write from the bottom andpercolate up and they come naturally out of the neighborhood thenthey may actually work, but the ones that are externally imposed wedont grow any B.S.

MaryBeth Matthews: Well, but then there is something wrong withthat. If you take a neighborhood thats branded for its violence and

poverty can you re-brand it and make it something else attractive?Attract something new? Something more?

Tim Ferris: Well, are you talking about lipstick on a pig? I think wehad this dialogue two months ago.

Gloria Ferris: Ralph? What were you going to say?

Ralph Solonitz: Change the name of East Cleveland to North Coast

City.

Bill MacDermott: Actually, I heard that for East Cleveland, its theportion closest to University Circle. Call it University Circle.

Tim Ferris: I like East Cleveland myself. John D. Rockefeller lovedEast Cleveland.

Gloria Ferris: What were you going to say Stephanie?

Stephanie Kasza: We have this organization at Ursuline; its theStudent Art Organization for Peace and Justice. Im co-President of itthis year and actually last year we went to Marion Sterling School,Elementary School, and Im sure you have all heard of it, they have


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problems with gangs, poverty and it was just so sad to go there andsee these children going through it. But our group actually went inand painted a mural in the rotunda of their school and it was, wedecided to focus on education, staying in school and theenvironment. Because we felt those were two things that were notnecessarily being taught to the kids and important. So, this imagewas huge, it was forty something feet and just seeing the kidsbehavior change the week we were there was actually incredible.These kids were, in this little area we worked, which is where thesuspended kids sit all day, or the kids who get kicked out of class goand they sit there, they sit there all day and they screw off with eachother theyre kind of running around causing a ruckus. The week thatwe were there, they sat there and watched and we talked with themand they were interacting with us on a totally different level. I totally

think you can almost change the branding of a bad neighborhood,maybe not necessarily that didnt change the whole outlook of MarionSterling but it helped make that week we were there XX and to thosekids, it may not have helped every single one of them but maybe ithelped this girl who sat there on her one day of suspension andtalked to this other girl and just learn about painting. So, I definitelythink you can start things, maybe not completely re-work it but youcan definitely start things.

Jamie Hall: But you dont have to change the name of the city toactually get more people involved, you actually do projects and getinvolved with youth groups

Pat Fallon: The people will change things.

Jamie Hall: Exactly. Working with the people will change it.

Pat Fallon: One of the things I believe is that the only way you canadvocate change is if you do it, if you do something. And I dont mean

like lead a parade down the street, just actually get up and dosomething. Its amazing what one person doing something otherpeople follow. They just


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Ralph Solonitz: Ive seen like a XX

Pat Fallon: It reminds people are just looking for someone to leadthem, to start. Theres a school XX7:22 our chemistry teacher is ontheir Board, they have no hope in their economic condition of I guessgoing to College, their parents didnt go to College, and they have noknowledge, of course, the secret of College is that everybody goes onfinancial aide. So, apply to Harvard because ninety percent of them atHarvard are on financial aide. We have Mark Lapos Day and we givethem a college day they come and they spend half an hour those whowant to take an art class and then we do the whole thing all over thecampus. They can see what its like, they go to the school store, theyhave a strip and buy whatever the supplies they need for that class,and they play college for a day. But it is at college and it is with our

classes. Its a small thing, but you should see those students, theyjust come alive. Just to know someone cares. And I think that is whatshocks me is that there is a level of uncaring. One of the wonderfulthings about New York City I like New York City is that when Iwas a student my first degree was from Antioch. And that was way inthe dark ages. I had a XX8:54 in New York and in New Yorkeveryone looked like they ate babies but they would help you in aminute. When I came to Cleveland as a transferred wife, everyonehad a smile on the street and no one would help you. And I was

stunned. I came in 1973 and I thought this is a beautiful city its asecret. I discovered you could go from Shaker all the way to the Westside by the lake, it was the most incredible city but I thought, Youknow, its not people friendly. I grew up in Washington, DC in the olddays when it was a small Southern town Im a war baby but NewYork after 9/11, who would have believed that the entire state wentnot smoking? Now in New York City you dont smoke anywhere andeverybody wears tennis shoes. And if you are lost, theyre all aroundyou, Can I help you? The tenor of the city, I had friends there whowere writing and sending me pictures, corporations were sending

their people to shrinks because for months they were bringing inbodies that stuff was all in the air the whole state, to respond tothat city, now thats community. Thats community.


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Gloria Ferris: And thats not branding that something that...but itbecomes a brand and thats what MaryBeth was talking about. Maybewhat comes first, but I think the community itself sometimes decidesits brand or a theme. I live in a city and we often talk, we live inBrooklyn Center, well, Ohio City has the oldest architecture in thecity, Tremont has the restaurants and the beautiful park, so we keptthinking what do we have? Because we cant compete with that,youve got to find your own thing. A bunch of us got together andsaid, we have more green space; weve got the Zoo, we have a hugecemetery, were a half-mile from the river, weve got the Big CreekWatershed, and we were the first suburb, we have garages and backalleys. So we decided, okay, we can be that, but the thing is we justkind of put it out there and we found all these people, we havesomebody who was the head of the Audubon Society of Ohio who

lives in our neighborhood, we have somebody whos a NationalWildlife Habitat Steward, so we didnt really do anything, but what dowe have? I think that, that is sometimes where branding brings, whatare your assets? And that was the Zoo guy, the head architect,engineer, for the Zoo, for the Metro Parks. We had a meeting withhim when they tore down the bridge in our neighborhood and hesays, you know what? He says, youre really a park neighborhood.Because both of the neighborhoods, Old Brooklyn and Brooklyn City,youre the uplands to our park, youre park neighborhood. So, we

started percolating that, but I agree that sometimes branding, well,Andy, what do you think with your marketing, dont you sometimes sitdown with a client and ask them, What are your strengths? Whatare your challenges? Where do you? and then thats when thebrand comes, its not this, lets put lipstick on a pigClevelands aPlum! That went over like a lead balloon. Because again, it wassomebody

[Group bantering]

Mark Kohn: Clevelands the best location in the nation. I just saw thatin the Cleveland Plain Dealer, there was a Downtown Alliance thing inthe PD today


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Andy Halko: Yeah, I think when we do branding were looking at whatis driving people and what interests them, what is going to affect thememotionally. I think that, listening to what everybody was saying, Ithink that weve each got these badges, these things we believe instrongly and those are the kinds of things you talk about and get yourheart behind. Depends what the neighborhoods are doing, they havethis thing that affects them and that becomes their brand. There arethese real internal drivers that everybody has, separate, and its fromtheir environment, their past experiences that makes them developtheir brand, develop their art and its the same thing in business; youhave these internal drivers that drive that brand. Thats interestingbecause everybody has that very specific thing that theyre reallyfocused on in conversations, its kind ofbut I was more sitting herethinking, where do people come up with these things? Where does

the drivewhere does the experiences did they have that drove themto get into this art, the homeless, the hunger, or violence, or bikes, orwhatever ideas, its interesting how everybodys kind of got this thingthats driving them, thats how they see the world.

Mark Kohn: It came back. They used the term, best mid-sized city.Ive been using middleweight champ. Which, we were a heavyweight champ, turn of the twentieth century, theres nothing wrongwith being a middle weight champ if you think of Floyd Paterson,

Sugar Ray Leonard, or whatever. I like that better than mid-sized cityor

Ralph Solonitz: Or, midget wrestling

MaryBeth Matthews: I have my own little name I thought of forCleveland, in manufacturing theres a term called leanmanufacturing, where you get rid of the superfluous nonsense, well,Clevelands becoming a very lean city. It doesnt mean that were lesseffective, it doesnt mean were less of anything, were less populace,

but weve become lean, production learn, were lean

Tim Ferris: Well, thats good because we still have all the moneyhere, we still have all the big houses and its just not as fat and now


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whats the matter with that? Its better on the freeway, its better if youwork at home, but the freeways not crowded

Gloria Ferris: Pat brought up a thing about coming here in the 70sand it wasnt a people friendly town. I came from a small town to thiscity and nobody was helpful and on the weekends I would hop on therapid and spend my time in downtown Cleveland. And so one day Igo to work and one of the gals says, So, what did you do thisweekend? And I thought to myself, well, I didnt spend it with youbecause nobody asked me to do anything but I said, Oh, I went tospend the day downtown Cleveland. And it was like, Oh, my God, byyourself? and I said, Well, I dont know anybody here. And Ithought to myself, well, none of you ever reached out, none of youever said, Come to dinner or anything. So, yeah, I go by myself and

Im here. But, I think were changing, I see people now in the city, youwalk downtown and youre looking at the buildings and people comeup to you and say, Could I help you find something? And I think partof it is that were changing, I think that maybe were becoming a leancity.

Ralph Solonitz: You remind me of me on Coventry in the 70s.Gloria Ferris: Well, I did move over there and I did find a whole groupof people. But it is a thingMaryBeth, what were you going to say?

MaryBeth Matthews: I just wanted to get back to the statement, and Iforget what it is, when you were talking about art enabling people tohave a voice, and you hoped that your advocacy would give a voiceto those who have no voice, one of the things that I, for those of youwho know me already know, but for those of you who dontI alwayssaid I was a teacher at Max Hayes High School, well, Im also thehead of the visual arts department, so I teach art. Because Imteaching art to a group of students who have absolutely no interestbecause all going to be mechanics and machinists, construction

workers and most of them dont, they dont want to be artists, theywant to take my class because its a required course. But, I teach itas visual communication, visual problem solving and one of thethings we talk about art as, and we dont talk about good art versus


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bad art, we talk about art that is successful and art that is successfulis when you have, it has a message. When youve communicatedsomething. And if your message can be, if youve articulated that,thats good art, thats successful art. So, even if you draw like a fiveyear old you can still have very successful art, as long as yourmessage is strong. So, I think that its very important for artists inCleveland, and anywhere, if you want, branding is about message.Neighborhoods in Cleveland that are looking to find their voice, findwho they are and so the artists become very, very important, in thatwhole regard. So, you can link the idea of Cleveland, and branding,and art as advocacy and arts as visual communication and how thearts can help Cleveland give it a voice and find out and define forourselves who we are.

Par Fallon: Id like to tag on to thatI had two thoughts, one, we talkabout making the things that people dont want to see visible, thatsone of the things; that, I did a sabbatical on the homeless and what Iwas trying to do was put this work in a gallery where people gobecause they sure werent going downtown and they were sure theywere going to get killed, and to understand what the homelesssituation was. And so making something visible that people dontwant to see is one thing. But theres something else about that whenyou come, when I came to Cleveland and went through this, I loved

downtown. I watched all these XX21:09 and the Plug and all that,and the buildings that keep going up, it struck me because I wasdoing a lot of work with NOVA at that time and having fun with anorganization for artists down at fourteenth street at PlayhouseSquare, we painted the walls, and I couldnt understand whyCleveland was letting the streets go. I had come as a transferred wifeand I thought youre not going to get anybody without schools. Butthat was still, that was the XX and Cleveland just never picked up.They let the schools go to hell. Its just incredible. And they are stillbuilding big buildings that are empty. But theyre not fixing the

schools; they have no textbooks and the rains coming in, in classes.To me thats amazing, these are public schools. So there is adisconnect somewhere in terms of children.


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MaryBeth Matthews: Children dont vote.

Ralph Solonitz: Yeah, theres an us and a them.

Pat Fallon: Well, thats the distain of, for women and children. I meanthere isXX23:34

Tim Ferris: Let me give you a XX24:16 and it doesnt take in thebanks and the developers and the unions. Thats a hard backgroundhere, were a, our prior generations built things they could use for along, long time and we wasted the assets because we want to movemoney and we want to do this

Gloria Ferris: But, you know what I think Pat speaks to and I think this

is probablywere wasting our human capital.

Dennis Althar: Its not the bricks and mortars

Gloria Ferris: At the real root, we are not investing in our children.And its national.

Ralph Solonitz: Its a statement of our society.

Gloria Ferris: Kids are difficult.

Pat Fallon: I was born a, glass is half full person and Im hoping itspassing. When I look at what happened with Wall Street, andFreddie, and I was part of that bubble. I was a single parent and Irefinanced my house so I could go to school, I got myself moredegrees and I knew my house wasnt worth that much, if anybodyknew. So, I was part of that bubble, but in a little tiny, tiny way. Buttheres a whole group of people that went up and I remember sittingat tables with people explain to me the benefit of the trickle down and

it used to make sense. I mean the very rich were the people that gaveus the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art. There was agive back.


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Ralph Solonitz: It never made sense to me.

Pat Fallon: But there is a whole group of people up there with Enronand everybody else, and AIG, that did not give back. They just tookmore. But those people are going. One of the wonderful, theres anorganization the National Association of Schools of Art and Designand they put out these great statistics which tell everybody what allthe teachers get XX 26:28 but one of those statistics is one of thelargest growing groups is Studio Art all across the country. So, thereis a rebellious group coming up that is not out there for themoney...so it is going to shift again, there you go, but theres going tobe a shift, and you need to be ready for itcommunicators. Becauseit is out there and these kids are growing up and they dont like whatwere giving them to inherit.

MaryBeth Matthews: Because we havent given them anything.Weve given them a big problem

Gloria Ferris: But I also think that it used to be that people moved fora job, transferred for a job, now, our daughter is a case in point andshes not like a lot of others in her school, her graduating class, theypicked where they wanted to live and then thats where they went andthen they found theyre jobs and then they went to college but they

didnt choose based on a job they chose on a sense of place. I dobelieve youre right, theres a whole shift in the way people arethinking.

Dennis Coughlin: One of the things we know, is we all move in thedirection of our conversations and so the question we need to keepasking ourselves is how do we keep this conversation going in thisgroup and in other groups we come in contact with and keep movingit forward? That is the thing we need to keep thinking about so thatwhen we do have something were passionate about, is how do you

keep those conversations going? In I-Open its not just talking headsand a video on the Internet its continuing conversations that are soimportant, the continuing advocacy in art is so important and thatsone of the things that the Midtown Brews website that is posted on


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and if you dont have it we can make sure you do get a copy of it. ItsMidtownBrews.net. Keep going with the conversations.

Gloria Ferris: Does anybody have any closing questions, comments?

Tim Ferris: I just wanted to get an academic distinction. Is there adistinction between advocacy in art and propaganda? Whatperspective is there, there?

Pat Fallon: Well, I suppose it depends on which side of the issue youstand. I advocate Obama, but if I were Bush or McCann, I would sayshes a propagandist. Steven Heller was doing a really nice talk,talking about branding the totalitarian states. From my point of view,Im always telling the students they dont like artists. You never want

to be an artist for a revolution because they dont like artists, theythrow you in XX or they try to kill you, they cant control artists they just show up and do their thingWell, no, thats not the same thingas a revolution. Once the state is established then they have theirartists, then they get the branding. One of the horrible things, well,there are a lot of horrible things about Nazi Germany but, as an artistone of the terrible things is that art deco and the incrediblearchitecture there and that was some of the most beautiful art and welost it because it was such a damned political nightmare. And some

really beautiful art was lost forever. So theres a problem involved,you dont want to take artists along, you dont want to be used for thewrong thing

Tim Ferris: Is advocacy seen as more pure?

Pat Fallon: Only if you think youre a purist. One persons advocacy isanother persons propaganda.

Tim Ferris: But, isnt propaganda perverting where youre actually

forcing something to do something you shouldnt?

Pat Fallon: Well, yes, and some people say advocacy is, it dependson how you advocate.


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Ralph Solonitz: Or advertising

Pat Fallon: Well, yeah.

Gloria Ferris: Bill?

Bill MacDermott: Theres a thread that runs through all of this fromthe comments made about advertising, the marketers knowing wherewe are to how to manipulate us, to the fact that you said somethingabout waking up the TV to mediocrity. I had a deprived childhood, myparents got sick of hearing children fighting over the television so theybroke it so we couldnt fix it. So my family had to grow upcommunicating with each other, my siblings learned musicalinstruments, we learned how to play games, we learned how to

communicate and we learned how to deal with each other. It was asoapbox, but I know people who have said, Oh, such and such wason last night and thats the episode I absolutely hate and it was onand I hated that! Excuse me, but XX32:03 The people that have thatconstantly thrown on, its a waste of electrons, we could be pollutingthe air with better things than the noise, youre asking, How will wefind time to think? Why were not allowed to think. My problem iswith that idiot box its an old term, brand, when that idiot box is on, Icant think. So, I turn it on for the news twice a day, I read and I blog,

I get involved in things, I draw, I do my little design art work

Mark Kohn: Of course the purpose of television is not the shows itsthe selling

Bill MacDermott: Thats where its going, okay? George XX was right;we are taught how to think by the television. We are manipulated, weare taught, we are told were inferior, this morning a great thing aboutObama, I was watching the newsbut there are people saying, nowyou no longer have the excuse you are the way you are and you are

not good because you didnt come XX32:26

Pat Fallon: Yes, I caught that, and do you know one of the things theTV has changed is magazines and newspapers? They have short


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sound bites, I mean some, and theyre all doing it. Theyre all shortbut were not on Ritalin, they are used to that three or four-minutetime, classes at school forty minutes, thirty kids in a class for fortyminutes? For a hands on class? How can you possibly teach? Howcan you possibly teach?

Tim Ferris: Ive been spending hours on those Architectural Digests,were actually getting five and six page articles, its getting better.

Gloria Ferris: Theyre changing. Dennis, you had something to say

Dennis Althar: Just an observation about branding, you were talkingabout branding. Branding, you think of the word and its whensomebody used to take a hot iron and make it a part of their property,

and have fear in you to where you obey them cause they own you. Asopposed to branding - submission in branding exactly. Its part of thepropaganda, so its the proper word but the wrong use. So theresbranding and theres part of a community, Id like to submit too thatback in the seventies I used to live here. I think if you seek out youllalways find community; I believe were the same everywhere on theplanet. You go to the Phillapeans, you go to New York, I rememberspending a month in New York City and for being an outsider andgetting on the trains and its just totally covered from top to bottom

with graffiti and you felt like you had your life in your hands, but thiswas like just solid layers of graffiti and it was dirty and nasty and Iremember, and the same in Washington, but if you see it everyday,you kind of get blinders to it because you are used to seeing it. Iremember being in Manhattan, at the big conference center andseven cops sitting at the door and some guy leaning in the doorwaypassed out and the cops two feet away from him. People are walkingover the top of this guy and going into a trade show and Im justtelling you looking at the other side. The two days I was there I saw atotal of eight people pissing down stairways, middle of the day with

people in suits and ties walking by but to mebut I really believe thatif you seek out people are the same everywhere.


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Gloria Ferris: We need to wrap up our conversation. But yeah its agood, I also think thats the difference in perception thats art, whatone person sees in a piece of art may mean something totallydifferent than someone else and what they see. And so with that Imgoing to thank Pat and the students for coming and sharing theirevening with us, it was very informative, it was very enlightening andagain thank you Brews crowd, I too, am a little overwhelmed at thedepth of comments as we go around, I just think it was really great.And we are starting to see some new faces and good; Im glad that ishappening. Im going to let Susan close our program and tell youwhats up next for the Midtown Brews crowd and some of the otherthings we have going for us.

Susan Altshuler: Look for updates on our MidtownBrew.net site.

Betseys going to start something called Community Watch and itsgoing to be news feeds from the Northeast Ohio Blogs and MidtownBrews News based around technology, creative industries andenergy. And the people who participated in our last month MidtownBrews on advocacy. That goes into our next update about the NEONext book, the idea is to take, and it came from last monthswonderful program on advocacy and all of the wonderfulconversations that developed out of that, but taking thoseconversations every month and publishing it and then over the year

well have twelve chapters and we can produce a book about all thewonderful conversations about how people think and feel and whattheyd like to see for the future. And it is for the future and it is aboutthe future of Northeast Ohio and moving Northeast Ohio forward.

Tim Ferris: Is it a print book or is it an online book?

Susan Altshuler: Yeah, and e-book, right?

Betsey Merkel: A community generated e-book. Lauras going to help

some with it too and if anyone else has any ideas about what kindof format it could take.


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Susan Altshuler: That brings us to November 19th where were goingto bring everybody together that was at the October program to followup with learning about social software technology and moving theirideas into projects. So, anybodys welcome, wed love to have you itsNovember 19th at the Cleveland Heights Library from 6:30 to 8:30 andBetsey will send you an email with all the details. The December topicis with Bruce Missig and Friends, they will be discussing how smallsteps from everyone of us can begin to reduce our carbon footprintand revitalize our communities, and he is going to be focusing on thequality of water. We have a lot of new programs already scheduledfor 2009, if you know of anybody who would like to host a MidtownBrews please let us know, any topics you would like to discuss justcall Betsey, Me, Gloria post to the Midtown Brews.net blog justtell us what you are interested in and also join the Midtown Brews

and go into the Midtown Brews and start posting to the blog, startgiving us all of your wonderful ideas and your information and withthat well use that to plan our next year.

Gloria Ferris: Its MidtownBrews.net and if everybody says oh, I donthave time to write, you cant think, cant write, a lot of us read. If yousee an article that you think pertains to something weve done here,please post it, call us, well help you post it, just start adding to ourknowledge base through that site.

Susan Altshuler: We encourage all people to go on it and just readthe information people put on it and this way well start coalescingpeople and getting the interests in each of the sectors that werepushing forward so that people can say, Oh, I want to work on that.And Im going to call this person.

Gloria Ferris: Were starting to see that happen, weve had a little bitof bubbling up that people are working on projects outside of themonthly meetings and starting on projects and starting to move

forward. A group of us from last month are going to start ontransportation. So, if anybody wants to work with us on that and Ihear that the new Transportation Secretary may be someone whobicycles to work everyday. So that will be new and different. First of


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all, thank you for coming. And, were done for this months Brews andwere off line.

midtown brews “branding stories of humanity: art, advocacy and global networks”

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