fava – The Oberlin Review

Attendees at the FAVA gallery panel this Wednesday. The panel was part of the “E. Pluibus” exhibition, which will continue through Sunday.

“E. Pluribus” Recontextualizes 9/11 in Analysis of Conflict

September 13, 2019

Walking into the Firelands Association for Visual Arts gallery for a panel focusing on the 18th anniversary of 9/11, I expected tense silence. Instead, I was met with excited conversation and laughter between an intimate audience and the panelists. The mood didn’t match the somber nature of the day, but I sensed that this would inspire the crowd to continue the conversation after the event. The panel concluded the FAVA’s “E. Pluribus” exhibition, a collection of artworks depicting war fro...

FAVA Unveils Nature-Themed Exhibition

Kirsten Heuring

September 8, 2017

The Firelands Association for the Visual Arts is an integral part of the arts community at Oberlin, offering art classes for both children and adults as well as organizing curated invitational shows, photography shows, and off-site exhibits of area artists among many other events. This fall, FAVA is showcasing two Ohio artists, Martha Gallagher Michael and Lisa Schonberg, until Oct. 31. Both artists have been placed side-by-side in the exhibition for their shared representation of nature in their illustrations. While nature is a common motif between the two artists, the two creators bring their subject to life in distinct and unique ways. Martha Gallagher Michael is a professor of special education and art education at ...

Since 2002, the College and Conservatory, faculty members and the Oberlin community have received more than $3 million in federal funds from
the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library Services, as well as
funds from state affiliates, the Ohio Arts Council and Ohio Humanities Council.

Trump Administration Threatens Oberlin Arts Funding

March 10, 2017

Before President Trump took office in late January, multiple publications reported that his transition team had begun compiling a list of federal programs to eliminate in an effort to trim domestic spending. According to The New York Times, that list is expected to be finalized by the Office of Management and Budget next week as part of the President’s first federal budget proposal. According to ABC News, the forthcoming budget draws heavily on budget outlines produced by the Heritage Foundation,...

Feature Photo: Nature Revealed

October 2, 2015

Through Nov. 8, the gallery at Firelands Association for the Visual Arts will display papercut art by regional artist Julie Friedman. Founded in 1979, the nonprofit organization located in the heart of Oberlin strives to enhance accessibility to the visual arts by holding various art exhibitions and community programming. Friedman, a graduate of Kent State University, studied under book artist Walter Hamady while pursuing a Master’s of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin and now focuses...

Creative Writing Professor Sylvia Watanabe speaks at the opening ceremony of Sadako: In the Spirit of Peace at the Firelands Association for the Visual Arts. Sylvia joined Green Legacy Hiroshima initative founder Tomoko Watanabe and others to help kick off the exhibit, which honors victims of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Community Artists Pay Tribute to Radiation Victim

September 18, 2015

70 years ago this month, a 2-year-old Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which killed 80,000 people instantly and at least 70,000 more due to radiation poisoning within a year. She died of radiation-contracted leukemia 10 years after the 1945 bombing, but not before attempting to fold 1,000 origami paper cranes that represented her wish for peace and wellness. According to Japanese folklore, a crane will grant the wish of anyone who completes a senbazuru, or ...

Powell and Glaser Flex Poetic Muscles at Reading

Logan Buckley, Staff Writer

October 4, 2013

The Main Street Readings series featured an unusual treat this weekend, as Oberlin Professor of Creative Writing Lynn Powell and her friend and fellow poet Elton Glaser read from their new work in the FAVA Gallery. Glaser, distinguished professor emeritus of English at the University of Akron, read from two books of poetry he published this year, Translations from the Flesh and The Law of Falling Bodies. Powell read “new and new-ish” poems from a collection with the working title A Scherzo for Sadness. As Powell stepped up to the podium to read, she described her recent work as “trying to sidle my way back to poetry,” after having spent the past several years at work on a nonfiction book called Framing Innoc...

Beyond Paint Values Process Over Product

Michelle Polyak, Staff Writer

May 3, 2013

The focus on the process of creating a product of art was the central theme of Becca Kahn-Bloch’s and Samuel Wechsler’s Senior Studio and Thesis show titled Beyond Paint, shown at FAVA gallery on April 26. As one of the smallest Senior Studio shows, the duo collaboratively organized their work so that it was complementary. Kahn-Bloch works in series. Her primary artistic practice is printmaking, though it was difficult at first to distinguish how her pieces incorporated this medium. Her color palette of opaque shades of grey, purple and beige stayed constant throughout her collection, as did her use of masking tape. Kahn-Bloch prints on Plexiglas and vellum paper, creating ephemeral landscape sites interrupted b...

What I Love About Concrete

Logan Buckley, Staff Writer

May 3, 2013

Bad weather on Sunday didn’t stop the Rolling Cinderblock tour from coming to Oberlin. Filmmakers Katherine Dohan, OC ’10, and Alana Stewart brought their film What I Love About Concrete to audiences at the Oberlin Public Library and the FAVA Gallery, where the planned outdoor screening was moved due to the rain. Stewart, Dohan and assistant director Brett Hanover are touring much of the country to screen their film, hoping to raise awareness and publicity for the independent production. After the screening, the filmmakers answered questions from the audience and talked about the filmmaking process. What I Love About Concrete could be described as a surrealist film or a high school comedy, but at heart it is r...

With a whopping four senior studio shows last weekend, artists treated the student body to a cultural extravaganza of sculpture, performance, musical composition video and mixed-media forms.

Senior Extravaganza: Four Art Shows, One Weekend

April 27, 2012

Every now and then, Oberlin students are treated to overwhelmingly stimulating weekends. By some cosmic misalignment in scheduling, this past Friday and Saturday saw three senior studio shows and one individual Honors art show take place. College senior Allison Fontaine-Capel’s show, Despierta, was an interactive performance art show that took place in Fisher Gallery. Working with Royal Thread Collective — an Oberlin-based, student-run production company — and in collaboration with Col...

3 Door Studios Invigorates Town’s Art Scene

Peter Meckel, Staff Writer

September 23, 2011

You can find the 3 Door Studios art collective located in the old, Victorian-style house on 121 South Main Street. In the year since renovation began, 3 Door's five resident artists have transformed the house from a dilapidated party center into an attractive workshop, boasting four individual art studios and a community gallery. The interior walls are painted bright, inviting colors, and found-art sculptures decorate the first floor; the atmosphere is inviting and the creativity in the air is almost palpable. The residents of 3 Door hail from diverse backgrounds, each with their own story to tell. Haley Heidemann, who comes from a lumber farm in Elyria, is someone whose contribution to the art scene you already know:...