It all started in England

Molly Gallery began in Liverpool, England for it was there that it's keeper, Jere Hinton, a scruffy "yank" student, met and married Molly Mulhern. Five years later they nested in Strongsville, Ohio at 19483 Lunn Road.

Molly died without warning in 1998. Shortly afterwards, she inspired Jere to turn their home into an Art Center. So the Gallery was born.

Friends of Gallery (FOG)

Looking for wisdom, Jere asked Molly: "How should I find artists?" "Pick ones who's works are beautiful, ones you like," she began. He interrupted, "That's too subjective." Molly continued: "Ask them two questions: why do you make art? and, why do you want it in our gallery? Their answers will tell you who our Friends are."

All was not roses. In 2003-05 the City of Strongsville, concocted a legal sham to shut Molly Galley down; and it took attorneys James Hinton and Collin Sammon, Plain Dealer reporter Mark Rollenhagen, Channel 19 Action News, Cleveland Magazine reporter Michael von Glahn, and the Eighth District Court of Appeals to restore our rights and move on.

But from it's inception, Molly was Jere's real inspiration:

  .....And I was barefoot
Faced the tides of some void dreaming
Slipping up like velum from her velvet song:
"Keep writing plays."


 

Winter Solstice was celebrated in 2005 with the art show, FOG. Springtides bore another show, Kim & FOG, headlining the unique talent of artist Kim Wolf, and the Gallery's 10th play, Appeals Revisited:

MOLLY: (To Crossroads): Admit that you may be wrong.

CROSSROADS: (Chorus): NEVER!

JERE: You've never even visited Molly Gallery.

CROSSROADS: We don't have to; we've been told what goes on there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going Back Aways

 

In July, 2007 Molly Gallery offered to stage it's 11th play What Women Really Want at the Day at the Chalet art show run by Arts in Strongsville (AIS), Crossroads censor tribunal. They spurned our offer. So the play with three others including Thank Ya Cain, a history of Crossroad's censorship, were performed at the Galleria in September.

Thank Ya Cain begins by stressing that it really happened. Arthur Cain, a born again Zealot, and arrogant lawyer, got elected to Strongsville's School Board in 1970, and all Hell broke loose. Three years later the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the Board, and Cain was voted out. Yet it took three more years for U.S. Judge Blanche Krupansky to declare that banning books in public schools was illegal under The Constitution. "The lone and level sands stretch far away." (Shelley, Ozymandias).

Crossroad's censorship did not vanish. Molly had inspired Jere to turn their home into an Art Center. Here, memories of Cain and AIS's inquisition fell like gethsemane shadows across the wooded paths of Molly's garden called Serenety Walk, and she echoed: "Move on! Those who think they know, do not know. Those who know they do not know, know." Just so, our 18th play, Crossing Over, was premiered in December 2010, at the Gallery.

Crossroads Revisited

At the same time Thank Ya Cain was staged at the Galleria, Plain Dealer Reporter Mark Puente's article, "Strongsville mayor sent letter about nurse........." came out in the PD. According to this article, on May 6, 2007 a Southwest General Hospital nurse, Karla Lucas and her husband, Tony, were caring for their niece when the child's mother somehow duped Crossroad's police into returning the child to her, no questions asked. As they did so, Lucas warned them that the girl might be put in a dangerous situation and became agitated.

One of the officers, Tom O'Deens, said in a letter he wrote to Police Chief C.W. Gross that Lucas had "threatened" him. But no charges were filed against her. Chief Gross passed the letter onto Mayor Thomas Perciak who called Lucas' actions offensive and degrading, and forwarded it to Hospital President Gary Rowe on June 8. The Hospital fired her a week later. She had worked there for 17 years. Susan Scheutzow, a Hospital attorney, said administrators spoke to O'Deens and gave more credibility to his statement than hers. "Her issue is with the police, not us," Scheutzow said.

Kenneth Kraus, Strongsville's Law Director, said the incident could be a potential legal matter and declined to comment. Eric Tayfel, Lucas' attorney, said she never threatened O'Deens and his letter was filled with inaccurate statements...."it's unconscionable that the mayor involved himself in this," Tayfel added.

In his September 14, 2007 article Puente suggested that because Mayor Perciak was chairman of the Hospital's fund-raising board his political influence may have led to the firing of Lucas. She and her husband sued Perciak et al on May 2, 2008. But no media coverage seems to have followed; even though Sun News Executive Editor, Linda Kinsey, gave her readers this promise: "My first editor told me that newspapers are the watchdogs of City Hall. I believed it then and I still do..., count on us to monitor the goings-on at City Hall".

Whatever Happened to Lucas vs Perciak?

The vast paper shamble that began in May, 2007 perhaps sparked the Sun News to promise to monitor the goings-on at City Hall. A jury trial was scheduled by common pleas judge Michael P. Donnelly, but cancelled. Defendant Depositions were filed in June, 2009; and Lucas' Notice of Dismissal Without Prejudice was accepted by the court a month later. The case was refiled on April 19, 2010. A Case Management Cconference held in December, all parties present seem to have concluded that there should be a discovery cut-off in July, 2011, a final pretrial in August and a jury trial might begin in September. (Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, Docket Information, Case CV-10-724487, 12/20/2010).

On January 4, 2010, a kindred case, Janet E. Smith vs City of Strongsville et al, was filed with Cuyahoga County court of common pleas, judge Joseph D. Russo (Case CV-10-714581). A pretrial on June 8, 2011 was set, counsel only required to appear. Molly echoed, "Keep writing plays".

 

 

 

In light of Strongsville's ongoing trials and tribulations Molly Gallery went parabolic in 2010. FOG Art Shows were dovetailed with the following plays at the Gallery:

 

 

 

 

Prologue: The Tree of Life

Act 1: Jesus' Parable, The Samaritan

Act 2: Kafka's Parable, Before the Law

Act 3: Crossroads Preview:

CROSSROADS: (To Jere) You're a bulldog with lockjaw, the Sun News has promised to be our watchdog.

JERE: When?

CROSSROADS: When Justice is served.

JERE: Let's see, a nurse who had worked for 17 years at Southwest
Hospital may have "threatened" a Strongsville patrolman in her
home on May 6, 2007. She was not arrested, but when Mayor
Perciak, chairman of the Hospital's fund-raising board, got
involved, she was fired a week later.

CROSSROADS: You don't know THE WHOLE STORY.

JERE: That's for sure. Pray tell us what that might be...

 

See this Web site's following 2011 Calendar of Events.