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It all started in England
Molly Gallery began in Liverpool, England for it was there that it's keeper, Jere Hinton, met and married Molly Mulhern. Five years later they settled 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 whose 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 the City of Strongsville concocted a legal sham to shut Molly Galley down; and it took Plain Dealer reporter Mark Rollenhagen, Channel 19 Action News, Cleveland Magazine and the Eighth District Court of Appeals to restore its rights. This inspired the Gallery to 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. |
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!
In
June the opening reception of the art show, Women Et Al,
embraced the premiere of our play, What Women Really Want, a
version of Chaucer's "Wife of Bath" at the Gallery:
WIFE (To Knight): Choose now
what you want, My Love.
KNIGHT: (Scratching his head) Beats me. You decide what
would be the most fun and honorable for us both.
WIFE : You're giving me the power to choose?
KNIGHT: You're the boss.
WIFE: Then come in here and see what you've got.
What Women Really Want was such a smashing success that Molly Gallery offered to stage it at a September 2006 art show, Day at the Chalet run by Arts in Strongsville (AIS), the City's censor tribunal. However, at their July inquisition of the Gallery, our offer was spurned; and, instead, the play was put on in September at The Greater Cleveland Art and Gallery Festival at the Galleria at Erieview, in downtown Cleveland. AIS's arrogance inspired the October art show, Marco & FOG, featuring Marco Vaccher, the "famous unknown artist"; and the premiere at the Gallery of Thank Ya, Cain, a history of Crossroad's censorship.
MOLLY (To
Crossroads): Bloody Vultures! Think that you may be wrong?
CROSSROADS (Chorus): NEVER!....
MOLLY: (To Jere) Move on. Thank Ya, Cain is our best play so far. The next ones will be even better...
JERE: Ya can't out piss a skunk.
MOLLY (Laughing): Sleep sweet, My Love.
| Forget
thyself and all the world, put out each garish light: The stars are shining overhead - Sleep sweet! Good night! Goodnight! |
||
| - (Ellen M. Huntington Gates) |
A Holiday Art Show was Molly Gallery's last one in 2006. Dan Taddeo's new books, Matters That Matter were nigh sold out; and Alice Hill Seifullah added music to our souls.
Winter
Solstice & Springtides
Earth wobbles to a low ebb of light around Christmas hereabouts. Strongsville
Community Theatre (SCT), a star of hope, announced its
upcoming production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest;
and The Sun Star, our Cultural Desert's messenger, promoted
a new "history" of Strongsville. Molly Gallery was inspired:
(January 16, 2007 Letter to The Sun Star)
To the Editor:
No doubt Strongsville Community Theatre’s upcoming production of The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde will be entertaining, but as Paul Harvey used to say, “Now for the rest of the story”. In 1895 when the play was tickling the ribs of Wilde’s culture he was imprisoned for being “The center of a circle of extensive corruption of the most hideous kind among young men”. So I began writing Molly Gallery’s fourteenth play, Symposium.
The real “kicker” though was your December 21, 2006 article, “Author Showcases City’s Past”. According to the article, the author Bruce Courey traces our history and development in his book, Strongsville. For example he says Mayor Ehrnfelt began his political career when he won a school board seat in 1973 against an incumbent member who was leading a fight to ban books and dismiss teachers. Ironically just before the book came out Molly Gallery had staged What Women Really Want, a version of Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath” and Thank Ya, Cain, a history of censorship in Crossroads. Was I discouraged when its censor tribunal, Arts in Strongsville, proclaimed that Chaucer’s double-barreled love tale would corrupt family values? A bit, but then came your article and Courey’s hope that his book would be a catalyst for young and old to discover and rediscover the past. That was what I needed to get on with Symposium.
Thanks,
Jere Hinton, Molly Gallery
Work on Symposium, from Plato to Oscar Wilde and our cultural deserts nowadays, continues.
Night seemed darkest ere the dawn. In March, The Sun Star issued a generic "review" of SCT's brilliant production of Wilde's genius; AIS proclaimed its ongoing mission of censorship; and Molly Gallery answered with its first 2007 art show, March Madness, orchestrated by Alice Hill Seifullah in concert with our 13th play, Wreck of the Hesperus, a dramatization of Longfellow's epic and Dante's dream, at the Gallery.
LONGFELLOW:
Such was the wreck of the Hesperus in the midnight and the snow.
SKIPPER: Christ save us all from a death like this, on the reef of Norman's Woe!
CAST (Chorus, with music crescendo): Ave
Maria, gratia plena.
MOLLY: Only Love is real!
An encore
performance of Wreck of the Hesperus, following What
Woman Really Want, banned in Strongsville a year before, were
staged at Jack Hamilton's June Art Review (JAR), uncorking
greater Cleveland's art and talent at the Galleria at Erieview.
On September 14-16 Molly Gallery showcased its best artists, and latest plays at the Greater Cleveland Art and Gallery Festival at the Galleria. With the Festival's "Best of Show" (Scott Baggett) and award winners (Jerry Schmidt & Son), and the audience acclaim, the art show Fog Anew, and 14th play, Shooting of Dan McGrew, were uncorked back at the Gallery in October.
| FOG ANEW | ||
 |
Twenty six top notch Friends Of Gallery artists:
|
|
SHOOTING
OF DAN McGREW
Dramatizion
of Robert Service's love tale:
Cast of Characters: Janette Britt (Molly), Tim Green
(Stranger), Dan Grossman (Bartender), Jere Hinton (Service), Rosie Jaegar
(Lady That's Known as Lou), Don Cox (Dangerous Dan McGrew), Jerry Schmidt
(Rag-Time Kid), John Fielding (One of the boys), John Von Duhn (Music)
and Audience (Saloon Crowd).
Backstage: Bonnie Forrest, Cleveland Costume & Display (Costumes), Dave Peck (Stage Manager), Karl Schmidt, Web Page Creators (Production), John Von Duhn (Music), Kim Wolf (Production and Special Affects) and Dave Yettke, Big Productions (Filming).
| SERVICE: | The lights went out, and two guns blazed in the dark; A woman screamed, and the lights went out, and two men lay stiff and start. Pitched on his head, and pumped full of lead was Dangerous Dan McGrew (Audience applause) while the Man From the Creeks lay clutched to the breast of the Lady That's Known as Lou....
|
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| MOLLY: | (Offstage) ONLY LOVE IS REAL!
|
Enough is Enough!
We
cannot do great things, |
||
| -- Mother Teresa |
Since 2001 Molly Gallery has evolved with great love, but it's zeal to nurture local artists and art lovers has not changed. Financially, 10% of the sales of exhibited works (pictures, photos, sculpture, poetry, books and scripts) and proceeds from the Gallery's 78 free events have been contributed to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. However, after accounting for the victory over Strongsville's 2003-05 legal sham against us, our net loss over the last seven years was at least $44,075; and Molly harkened, Enough is Enough!.
Still,
the Gallery's December Art Show, FOG Anew, dovetailed
to our 15th play, Cremation of Sam McGee, gave us new
hope.
FOG ANEW & FREE ART RAFFLE
Of the 26 exhibiting artists, 17 raffled 45 of their works, totaling $3,730 in value, free:
R. Colosimo (Portraits), G. Conrad (Cards), D. Cox (Painting), B. Decker (Poetry), J. Hinton (Scripts), E. Jackson (Hands), R. Jaegar (Picture), R. Jenkins (Photo), C. Pinkney (Picture), L. Sayner (Photo), K. Schmidt (Artwork), V. Swirysky (Poetry), D. Taddeo (Books), C. Trunko (Sculpture), M. Turzillo (Poetry), M. Vaccher (Sculpture), J. Von Duhn (Painting) and Kim Wolf (Paintings).
An Audience of some 50 artists and art lovers echoed Molly's inspiration that Cremation of Sam McGee was our best play so far. Unfortunately, it was not captured on a DVD. So it was staged again on March 7, 2008 at the Gallery.
CREMATION OF SAM McGEE
A
10 minute dramatization of R. Service's spiritual dilemma:
Cast of Characters: Tim
Green (Sam McGee), Jere. Hinton (Cap), Debbie Ogle (Lead Dog) and Audience
(Huskies).
Backstage: Jere Hinton (Director), Mozart (Requiem), Bob Ogle (Props and Stage Manager), Bill Wachtel (Usher) and Dave Yettke, Big Productions (Filming).
Despite
the threat of a blizzard (literally), the crowd of theater buffs nigh
brought the house down. The Art Show did not fair as well, although all
18 exhibiting artists raffled 34 of their works, totaling $830 in value,
free.
What's Next:
June Art Review (JAR)
For three years this annual event at the Galleria at Erieview has blown the lid off the art and talent of Greater Cleveland. It is our region's first truly integrated art experience. Molly Gallery felt honored to perform What Women Really Want and the Cremation of Sam McGee at JAR's last kick-off party, June 6th.
See this Web site's 2008 Calendar of Events.
Please report any errors on this Web site
to our WebMaster.