Steeltown Anthem's Mundania Horvath co-hosts panel @ Cleveland's Weapons of Mass Creation Design Festival

A huge problem with Pittsburgh and many other art & music scenes, is the lack of opportunities to interact with emerging artists from outside the region.

For the last few years, Cleveland has hosted a low key design festival called Weapons of Mass Creation that mixes creatives from across the country with talks, workshops and exhibitions. The event which started at a local bar (Happy Dog) has grown, to include artists, designers, web creatives, musicians and almost anybody involved in the arts.

WMC fest also includes a pretty huge helping of live music acts by emerging artists.

A few examples of the diverse breadth.

Speakers

Martine Syms (Los Angeles)

"Lessons of the Tradition" is close read of a Most Days, a Mundane Afrofuturist sound work." 

Veronica Corzo-Duchardt (Chicago)

Cuban-American Designer/ artist behind Chicago based design studio, Winterbureau 

Raymond Bobgan (Cleveland) 

Executive Artistic Director, Cleveland Public Theater

Melody Kramer 

Digital Strategist- NPR, in Washington DC. Former associate producer of "Fresh Air"

Rusty Cook (Chicago)

Chicago, based designer & illustrator 

Donald Wooten (Pikesville, Maryland) 

Screenprinter, designer for Stolen Outfitters brand

Luis Cabrera (Cleveland)

Multi-Media designer for Forest City Communications Group

Kumar Arora (Cleveland) 

Serial entrepreneuar, angel investor 

Keenan Cummings  (NYC) 

Product Designer, Founder- Wander (acquired by Yahoo)

Designers

Two Arms Inc. (Brooklyn)

Husband & Wife design team specializing in custom illustration & typography 

Little Friends of Printmaking

Acclaimed designers & printers of screenprint posters and other stuff.

Anthony Simpson

Founder & Creative Director of Random Objects- Screenprint design

Oliver Barrett

Artist/ Designer

Landland (Minneapolis) 

Small  graphic design & illustration studio- screenprint workshop

The Bubble Process (Cleveland & Brooklyn, NY)

Two person, design & illustration firm  

Valerie Jar (Salt Lake City)

Freelance designer & illustrator 

April Bleakney (Cleveland)  

Screen printer, founder Ape Made, printed art & apparel company.

Scott Williams (Chicago)

Designer, musician 

Ariel Cotton (Brooklyn)

Artist, inventor, interaction designer 

Bands


Mr. Gnome (Cleveland) 

Hawkeye (Cleveland)

Black Puddle Noise (Lakewood, Ohio)

Briar Rabbit   

Urbindex 

Ashley Brooke Toussant 

Additional events include a comedy showcase,  a live black marker drawing faceoff ; breakdance battle & an exhibition of 300 hand printed posters.

A lot of the tickets are gone but I would love for someone to post a report from this event.

Weapons of Mass Creation Festival
August 15-17
Cleveland Public Theater 

See complete schedule 

Paul Thek @ Carnegie Museum Closes May 1: Great Post by Steeltown Anthem

Wow, time has flown and the Paul Thek show is nearing it's end. I saw it once and have to get back again. Mysterious, quirky, visceral and in my opinion often beautiful, this is a must see show.

Steeltown Anthem has a post with her thoughts and lots of images.

Saturday Benefit for Dara Greenwald: Print Sale at Just Seeds & Dancing at Brillobox

This is likely a case of the broke helping the broke but A young creative person has cancer and you can help out by checking out a bunch of great prints, zines and other stuff for sale at Just Seeds (free admission) and or showing up for a dance benefit at Brillobox later.

"This Saturday, Mary Tremonte (aka Mary Mack) has helped organize a 3-tiered event to raise money for her friend and cohort Dara Greenwald, who has been working through cancer alongside her partner Josh MacPhee since this past summer. Josh and Dara are important creative forces within the Justseeds Collective. These events are apart of a series happening around the US and are a local effort to lend them a financial hand in their time of great need. People are also encouraged to have a fun time while helping out!"

Full details here on SteeltownAnthem

1-5 PM poster sale at Just Seeds3410 Penn Ave

Video screening and dance party at Brillobox 8--whenever