Fairmount Pulls Back Curtain on Speaker Series

August 1, 2024 by Staff Report

Fairmount Center for the Arts in Russell Township recently announced eight professionals who will be featured in its 2024-2025 Pull Back the Curtain Speaker Series.

Members of the visual arts, culinary, theater, dance and music worlds will offer insight into their field and engage in dialogue with participants during these free, one-hour talks, FCFA said in a press release, adding these monthly events will be offered from September through April 2025.

“The speaker series offers a wonderful way to spend your Sunday afternoon, engaging with interesting speakers on varied topics,” said FCFA Executive Director Elizabeth Bolander in a statement. “We look forward to reconnecting with everyone and can’t wait to meet new friends.”

Light refreshments will be served. Advance reservations are recommended for the lectures and registration is open for the fall 2024 talks and can be completed at fairmountcenter.org/speakerseries or by calling 440-338-3171.

Speaker programs include the following:

• Art Meets Technology with Rachel Smith, artist and fabrication manager at Sears think[box], Sept. 15, 3-4 p.m. Smith will take the audience behind-the-scenes of her work at Sears think[box], an innovative makerspace and entrepreneurial center located within Case Western Reserve University. She will also share how modern technologies are influencing her own artistic practice in metalsmithing;
• The Chokolatine Story: Where Art Meets Chocolate with Ines Rehner, founding and owner of Sweet Design Chocolatier in Lakewood, Oct. 13, 3-4 p.m. The audience will get the inside story on Chokolatine, hand-painted, gourmet chocolates. It’s the crowning achievement of Rehner’s lifelong dream of creating a line of chocolate that’s as beautiful as it is delicious. Inspired by the masters of the art world, Rehner and her team spent five years developing this new line to ensure this marriage of art, beauty and chocolate delights all the senses;
• Through the Eyes of the Artist: Mary Cassatt with art historian Felicia Zavarella Stadelman Nov. 3, 3-4 p.m. Cassatt was responsible for introducing the paintings of the French Impressionists to the United States. Her paintings of women and children focused on a gaze or gesture, encouraging a bond between model and viewer;
• The Care and Handling of Treasures at Home with Holly Witchey, executive director of the Intermuseum Conservation Association, Dec. 8, 3-4 p.m. Witchey will hold an afternoon discussion on how to handle, care for and eventually pass on family treasures. Attendees are encouraged to bring a small object, photograph, document or item that is meaningful to exhibit in a “Pop-Up Museum” of family treasures.

Upcoming 2025 speakers include:

• Jeremy Umansky, owner/chef at Larder, Jan. 19;
• Sandra Bohl, director of the Spanish Dance Company at FCFA, Feb. 23;
• Destinee Siebe, musicologist and arts administrator, March 9;
• A speaker from Dobama Theater, April 27.