The Connor Foundation
The Connor Foundation (established by Chris and Sara Connor and run by daughter Erin Connor Reif) supports organizations primarily in Northeast Ohio that align with four core pillars: Health & Wellness, Education, The Arts, and The Preservation of Nature. Their support of the arts by making the arts more accessible to the general public is […]
Barbara Stanczak
Working primarily in wood and stone, her sculptures explore the relationship between natural and crafted forms. They have been exhibited in more than 40 exhibitions across the country, including a solo exhibition at the Akron Museum of Art and the Medici Museum (formerly the Butler Institute Extension) in Warren. Born into a German family with […]
Terry Stewart
Serving as CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum from 1999 to 2013, he is a true community and civic champion. Through his leadership as CEO of the Rock Hall, Terry enhanced a strong relationship with the New York City-based Foundation which resulted in initiating the “every other year” location of […]
Chris Webb
Chris is a globally recognized spoken word artist, an Emmy-winning journalist, and a filmmaker from Cleveland, Ohio. From 2015 to 2020 he toured with the world’s largest spoken word tour, Poets in Autumn, where he performed original pieces annually for 50 U.S. cities and international dates, including London, Kenya, and the Caribbean. From 2020 to […]
Aimee Lee
Aimee Lee is a papermaking artist and culture bearer who advocates for Korean papermaking practices. Her initial Fulbright research helped her build the first hanji studio in North America here in Cleveland and write her award-winning book, Hanji Unfurled (The Legacy Press, 2012). She exhibits and is collected internationally; her work has shown at Allen […]
Dexter Lee Davis
Visual artist Dexter Lee Davis creates raucous collage-based works made by layering and combining fragments of hand-carved woodblock prints together with scraps of found paper. Recycling everything around him into something new, he transmutes the ordinary into something evocative, forcing us to reconsider the limits and possibilities of our material world. A survivor of multiple […]
Héctor Castellanos-Lara
Having collaborated extensively with the Cleveland Museum of Art for more than two decades through Parade the Circle, Chalk Festival, and Winter Lights, he now serves as the Artistic Director of Parade the Circle. He has also contributed to projects with Cleveland Public Theatre, MetroHealth, ArtHouse, Journey Center for Safety and Healing, the Allen Memorial […]
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation
In the summer of 1940, the Mandel brothers – Jack, Joseph and Morton – started their business born from the small auto parts company they had purchased from their Uncle Jacob for $900. Premier Automotive Supply began as a small venture that they gradually and assiduously built into a highly successful worldwide company. Just one […]
Jennie Jones
The tools she needed to build a multiple-decade career as an innovative and intrepid photographer started when Jennie Jones was growing up in the Denver area, where she often camped in the Rocky Mountains. Her father also fostered her love of the outdoors by teaching his young daughter how to hunt, fish, skeet-shoot and fix […]
Greg Peckham
For most of his life, Greg Peckham has always been up for a hike or a walk in the woods. Since June, his new job as President and CEO of the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park gives him daily access to the more than 33,000 acres of diverse ecosystems, including forests, rivers, historic farmlands and […]