The Reverend Howard Finster once said that God commissioned him to create his “Paradise Garden,” a roadside attraction gone wild with angels and devils in a style that’s intricate and childlike at the same time. The outsider artist’s work is currently on view at the Akron Art Museum, a Knight Arts grantee, alongside a new […]

In Alexandria, Va., an old torpedo factory has been repurposed as a cooperative artist space. In Santa Cruz, Calif., the site of a former tannery was transformed into 100 live/work spaces for artists. There’s a common thread of urban redevelopment at work. The mission of Artspace, a non-profit real estate developer, is to help create […]

Way before The Black Keys, Akron gave birth to another pop culture icon: Chrissie Hynde. Last weekend, GroundWorks Dance Theater recharged the gritty ‘70s rock of Hynde and the Pretenders in “Hindsight,” an irresistible work by veteran choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett. GroundWorks rocked out in “Hindsight“ with a teasing bad-girl/bad-boy attitude that had the audience at […]

Joan Colbert isn’t hoping for familiar paintings of flowers for the upcoming “Fresh & Springy“ juried show at the Summit Artspace gallery — just the opposite. For the eighth year of the annual show, the artist/gallery coordinator has thrown down the gauntlet to Akron-area artists with this challenge: Get out of your comfort zone. Sometimes […]

It takes tremendous imagination to conceive a program like the one that the Calder Quartet and singer/violinist Iva Bittová presented in such satisfying style on the FUZE! series at the Akron Art Museum on Feb. 17.  The warmth of Hungarian/Czech/Moravian folk-infused writing miraculously folded into the rhythmic complexity and subtleties of a contemporary classical point […]

Nineteen years of following a dream of togetherness. That’s how co-chair and event coordinator Brenda Justice views the annual Gospel Meets Symphony concert by the Akron Symphony Orchestra, a Knight Arts grantee. On Saturday, Feb. 25, singers from 75 different area churches will coalesce into one powerful 200-voice choir to perform with the Akron Symphony […]

When Iva Bittová sings, her voice darts its way in and out of a melody like the needle of a mad embroidery master. To listen to this Czech singer is to be transported to a place where you don’t know what will happen next — but you want nothing more than to find out. Bittová, […]