Performances and poetry accompany openings at Heights Arts

Cleveland chamber music ensemble Time Canvas.

Heights Arts has lined up a number of free events for arts lovers during the month of May. On Thursday, May 5, at 7 p.m., hear Cleveland-based chamber music ensemble Time Canvas present its third and final program of the 2015–16 concert season.

The program showcases 20th-century chamber music with strings, featuring Leo Brouwer’s Quintet for Guitar and String Quartet (1958). Other works on the program include Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata for Two Violins op. 56 (1932), and Allen Krantz’s Trio Op. 27 for violin, cello, and guitar (2003). The ensemble will be joined by special guests Aniela Eddy on violin and Sarah Poe on viola. 

Time Canvas’s musical curiosity has culminated in performances throughout Northeast Ohio, where its members reside, and in performance spaces across the East Coast of the United States and in Bangkok, Thailand. Music clips can be heard at www.timecanvasensemble.org.

A new exhibition of drawings by Cleveland Heights artist Linda Ayala opens on Friday, May 6, with a public reception 6–9 p.m. in the spotlight gallery. Ayala noted about her work, “A few years ago, I became more mindful of the food I ate. My everyday reading turned to nutrition, recipes, and food as medicine. My reading led me to herbs and I became fascinated by the testimonies and studies of their medicinal qualities. This series of work is a display of these qualities, but each drawing is like a page taken out of a storybook. In this world, plants visually tell you what they heal. Animals and insects make tinctures and teas. There’s a lovely symbiosis in nature and we are invited to take part.” Ayala’s delicate and detailed drawings will be exhibited through June 18.

Things That Fly continues on view in the main gallery space. Exhibition artists Stephanie Craig, Maggie Denk-Leigh, Lori Kella, Peter Larson, Lynne Norwood Lofton, Lynn O’Brien and Christopher Owen Smith will discuss the nature and evolution of their work in Ekphrastacy: Artists Talk + Poets Respond on May 19 at 7 p.m.

Christine Howey, Cleveland Heights poet laureate, has invited local poets AKeemjamal Rollins, Geoffrey Landis, Erin Gay, Azriel Johnson, Skylark Bruce and Terry Provost to respond with original poems inspired by select objects in the exhibition.

Rounding out the month is a special night just for the ladies, on Thursday, May 26. The Coventry Village and Cedar Lee shopping districts, along with Heights Arts, are planning an evening of food, fun, music, libation, fashion and activities to showcase the Heights's unique and vibrant neighborhoods. For more details, visit www.heightsarts.org, or call 216-371-3457.