2007 HeightsArts PTA Young Artists Exhibition

Look around Cleveland Heights – all over, outside. It’s almost impossible not to notice the proliferation of public art that has been appearing, with increasing frequency, over the past few years. There is the Peace Arch at the Coventry playground; murals on buildings in the Cedar-Lee and Cedar-Fairmount business districts; the whimsical wrought iron fences around all the storefront gardens, and the beautiful benches, both on Coventry Road; the colorful knitted “tree cozies” and sculptures on the road circling Severance Center; and more.

This is all the work of Heights Arts, a non-profit organization founded in 2000 by Peggy Spaeth and a handful of likeminded visionary Cleveland Heights residents. The idea came to Spaeth – who had already served as an arts activist, first in the schools and then in the community at large – when she realized that this city was home to a seemingly large percentage of artists, including visual artists of every genre, musicians of all kinds, dancers and choreographers, actors and directors, writers, filmmakers, and others.

Heights Arts has quickly grown into a major arts force in the area, with a 15-member board of trustees and two public locations – Heights Arts Gallery near the Cedar Lee Theater and Heights Arts Studio in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Library’s recent addition on the west side of Lee Road. The Gallery offers six annual exhibitions of regional art including a year-end holiday store featuring works for sale by dozens of area artists. The Studio also presents exhibitions, plus musical concerts and art classes and workshops for all ages after school, evenings and weekends.

Heights Arts presents house concerts as well, often featuring Cleveland Orchestra and other top classical musicians, playing chamber music in an intimate setting, offering a unique and thrilling opportunity to experience the music as it was originally heard. The organization also presents poetry slams and other written-word events, and, in fact, sponsors a Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate position, which it created – one of only a tiny number in the country.

Spaeth’s concept for Heights Arts was and is to "realize the potential of the arts to animate our community," with goals including inspiring all Heights citizens to participate in the arts; supporting the arts in K-12 education; expanding exhibition and performance opportunities; and fostering public appreciation for the arts in Cleveland Heights, thus enriching the quality of life in the Heights by cultivating a strong, diverse, and collaborative arts community.

Recently Heights Arts has initiated the discussion of the potential of the former Coventry School building – or another building – to become an arts center. "Our dream,” the organization wrote in an open letter to community leaders, “is a vibrant, multi-disciplinary arts center with galleries, theater, music, dance, community outreach activities, classes and more. This center would be a wonderful cultural, educational and economic asset for the neighborhood, the community and, indeed, the region."

You can visit Heights Arts’ website at www.heightsarts.org, or, for more information, call the Heights Arts office: 216-371-3457.