We asked Heirloom chef John Skaggs to write about his café, which opened inside the Wexner Center in September. His thoughts about the past, present, and future of Heirloom:

On our way to a softball game on a beautiful Ohio summer day in June, we receive a phone call: Kimberly and I have been awarded the bid for the café space at the Wexner Center. My niece, Deonna, says, “We have a restaurant?”

Fast forward 10 weeks until September 12, 2012 (opening day). The restaurant is called Heirloom. Our menu is made from scratch with a core focus on seasonal ingredients creatively prepared. We somehow managed to gather and hire an inspired group of food and service specialists. Grower, farmer, purveyor, and other artisan relationships of our combined restaurant management experience were combined and rekindled. With personal investment and family support, we gathered the funds to develop the concept, test menu items, assemble and train a team to complement our vision. Our guests to Heirloom include students, faculty, staff, and the many visitors to the Wexner Center and Ohio State campus.

We have a restaurant?!

Fast-fast-forward to January 15, 2012:  our first 100 days and counting:

Our menu is still made from scratch and newly revised with an ever-growing accent on local and sustainable sources. Our café staff is continuing to exceed expectations.  New relationships combined with past ones have fruited many new sourcing opportunities including collaborating our efforts with Ecological Engineering Society on our own Wexner Center Chef’s Garden.  We are defining our success, thus far, by purchasing quality ingredients and continuing to employ our talented staff. Our guests have expressed much gratitude for the delicious food served in a timely manner, all facets echoed by local positive media support. Perhaps the greatest reward for us in this business is that we can often forget that this is a business, in the way an artist might get lost in art. Hospitality happens.

We have more than a restaurant.

On the horizon:

February 17:

Dinner premiere at Heirloom in a special event preceding the films Truck Farm and The City Dark, both introduced by director Ian Cheney.

Now thru April:

As part of Ohio State’s SENR (School of Environment and Natural Resources) MENR (Masters in Environment and Natural Resources) project, graduate student Bob Fitchko is evaluating Heirloom and comparing overall site and operations against industry standards for optimal sustainable practices.

By June:

A chef’s garden. Heirloom, an eco-conscious restaurant, will start a garden later this year outside the Wexner Center, providing Heirloom visitors with local, sustainably grown fare. Stay tuned for more information on this garden, which will complement the Wexner Center’s “Green Mission Statement” and its “green” programs focused on sustainability and reduction of environmental impact.

And so much more to come.

John and Kimberly Skaggs
Heirloom
wexarts.org/cafe
twitter @HeirloomCafe

The Builders Association, Sontag: Reborn (photo: James Gibbs)

Just after the new year, while most humans were recovering from excess, starting diets, and/or breaking resolutions, thousands of performing arts professionals along with hordes of agents, musicians, dancers, and theater folk from around the globe gathered in New York City for the annual Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) convention, centered at the Hilton midtown. Taken on one level, the insanity of APAP can amount to a glorified outlet mall, with artists and agents plying their wares in hotel conference rooms lit by fluorescent light in front of programmers with empty shopping carts, looking to book their venue’s next season. While there are many redeeming opportunities to be found within APAP, that aspect of it (to me) can seem especially soul crushing. Thankfully, though, there is a parallel universe that operates at the same time as APAP, largely centered much farther downtown at venues like PS122, the Public Theater, LaMaMa, Abrons Arts Center, and Le Poisson Rouge, with mini-festivals like COIL, Under the Radar, American Realness, and Winter Jazzfest staging a plethora of experimental dance, theater, music, and various performative hybrids. Wexner Center Director of Performing Arts Chuck Helm is of course there seeing work; meeting with agents, managers, and artists to plan upcoming residencies and performances; as well as networking with peers on future plans and issues of the field. I attended this year, partially to see new work and partially to see and meet colleagues as part of the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) program I’m involved with at Wesleyan University.

From Friday through Monday afternoon I saw roughly 18 different works, bands, and 1 film(!), as well as taking quick trips to MoMA and the Guggenheim before the de Kooning and Cattelan exhibitions closed. Performance highlights included the Builders Association’s Sontag: Reborn at the very-under-construction Public Theater, Tere O’Connor’s Cover Boy at Danspace, Yasuko Yokoshi’s Bell at New York Live Arts, violinist Jenny Scheinman and Nels Cline at Le Poisson Rouge, an excerpt of Bebe Miller’s History (world premiere at the Wex in September), Big Art Group’s Broke House, Cynthia Hopkins’s work in progress of This Clement World, and Jennifer Lacey and Wally Cardona’s Tool Is Loot. I purposefully didn’t see John Jaspers’s Canyon and Mariano Pensotti’s El pasado es un animal grotesco (The past is a grotesque animal), as both are coming to the Wexner Center very soon. While much I saw could safely fall within the category “needs an editor,” and scheduling conflicts made it a physical impossibility to get to some events (Gob Squad, Trajal Harrell), there were several transformative moments throughout the weekend. (Though not live performance, Wim Wenders’s Pina 3D film Monday morning at the IFC was certainly one.) The (sad to me) fact is that while I had to leave to return to Ohio and to work at the Wexner Center, the festivals continued through a second weekend, with highly anticipated work from Meg Stuart, Young Jean Lee, and chelfitsch still on tap. It’s an embarrassment of riches, if you know where to look and can quickly navigate the wilds of the Lower East Side.

– Jerry Dannemiller

Here’s a list of the top ten bestsellers at the Wexner Center Store in the past month. Not seeing your favorite merchandise? You can always vote with your wallet (in the Store or online) or tell us your picks on the Facebook page.

1. WEX “I’m not a papercup” (Currently on sale!)
2. Marcel the Shell With Shoes On: Things About Me
3. Earth Sticker
4. XX XY Blocks
5. The Indie Cred Test
6. Chris Marker: Coreennes
7. Earth shirt
8. Keel’s Simple Diary Volume Two
9. Buckycubes
10. David Smith | Cubes and Anarchy

Kristen Harris and Catherine Lang-Cline.

The creative staff and associates of Portfolio Creative, the nation’s fastest-growing creative staffing and recruiting firm, find much to enjoy at the Wexner Center, including the Off the Grid fundraiser presented by our GenWex group. In this donor profile, Kristen Harris and Catherine Lang-Cline, co-owners and founders of Portfolio Creative, answered questions from Corporate Giving Manager Chris Koenig. This is an expanded version of the conversation that appears in the January/February 2012 issue of the Wexner Center’s calendar of events.

Many people may not know what Portfolio Creative is. Can you briefly explain?

Portfolio Creative’s mission is to make big and small differences in the lives of our talent and clients. We also hope that we can make a difference in the creative community. We connect clients with creative talent in all areas of design, marketing, communications, and advertising. In addition, we provide executive recruiting, payroll, and direct hire services. Every role in marketing or advertising is as unique as the individual who fills it. Speaking the language of the industry and knowing who would be the best fit for a company or project is our specialty—we work every day to connect talented creative people with companies who need their services. We help individuals find work that fits their skills, experience, and goals, and we help our clients accomplish their own goals and succeed in their own careers. That is all a very satisfying way to spend the day!

Portfolio Creative has been featured on Business First’s Fast Fifty list of the community’s fastest growing companies three times now. As a relatively new but rapidly expanding company, how do you balance maintaining your bottom line and giving back in the community?

Giving back provides opportunity and builds a strong community. We actually see the work that we do every day as a way to give back and support our community—when people are working, the economy is strong and businesses can thrive. In addition, it’s always been very important to us to support local organizations, causes, and events, especially within the creative community. If people are able to see something creative, something beautiful, then their minds can be opened to amazing things. From the start we have viewed giving back as an investment in creating and supporting the kind of community where we want to live. We started that investment in year one of our business, albeit on a smaller scale, and plan to keep doing more as our business continues to grows.

Portfolio Creative has many creative employees and contract associates. Can you discuss employee engagement and how that aligns with your philanthropic motivations?

It’s important to support things you believe in, and we believe in creativity. It’s the thread that joins all of our employees, the thing that everyone has in common regardless of position or role. When employees, talent, or clients see our company supporting something they believe in so strongly, it means a lot to them. They understand that we all care about the same things, that we’re all working towards the same cause. That is true engagement.

Your company sponsored Off the Grid in 2011 and plans to sponsor the event again in 2012, when it will take place on April 14. Off the Grid is an opportunity for young professionals to get a taste of what the Wex has to offer. Can you talk about why you have chosen to support the Wex and specifically Off the Grid?

The Wex is an amazing place to see some really incredible art in all forms and mediums. We have always considered it as one of the highlights of the Ohio State campus and a jewel for the city of Columbus. As former employees of Limited Brands, Inc., we completely understand the hopes that Les Wexner had in mind when he helped launch the center, and are honored that we can help support a facility that celebrates art. Off the Grid is the perfect event for us to sponsor because it is a way to celebrate the Wex, art in every form, and the many talented people we work with. And we’ve enjoyed participating in Wexner Center Business Casual Trivia Nights so much, that we’ve recently decided to sponsor the next one.

Do you have any other favorite experiences with Wex programming, past or present?

We each love different things, which is what’s so great about the Wex—there is so much variety and something for everyone. Between the two of us, some favorites have been the Andy Warhol and William Wegman exhibitions, the Double Take gallery talk series, the Paula Hayes and Alexis Rockman exhibitions that just closed at the end of December. We both appreciate exposure to artists we’re not familiar with—it can be so inspiring to discover something new. And we can’t forget the cartoons and pajama party during Zoom. That’s a special favorite for the under-five set!

Anything else you would like to share about the Wexner Center and Portfolio Creative?

The Wex is a true asset to the community in the way that it exposes Columbus and our visitors to a different way of thinking, seeing, and feeling. We’re very fortunate to have something like this in our community, and we are thrilled to be able to support it in whatever way we can.

Le Quattro Volte (Michelangelo Frammartino, 2010)

With 2011 slowly receding into the memory banks and year-end lists filling up websites, newspapers, and blogs, our Director of Film/Video David Filipi and Associate Curator of Film/Video Chris Stults have thrown their hats in the ring and have given us their year-end picks for 2011.

These are films that were released in Columbus, Ohio, during the 2011 calendar year, so if you see a few stragglers from 2010 that’s why.

Have a list of your own? Post it on the Film/Video Facebook page.

Without further ado: (more…)

Follow the links below for in-depth film criticism of our upcoming films. Compiled so you can see what critics are saying about select films playing at the Wex through the end of February. You can also click through to each event for trailers. Want more film discussion? Like us on Facebook for curator features, trailers, commentary, contests, and more.

Medianeras (Jan 6)
New York Times

Octubre (Jan 7)
National Public Radio

In Between Days (Jan 12)
New York Times

A Useful Life (Jan 13- 14)
New York Times

Man Push Cart (Jan 19)
Roger Ebert

Granito: How to Nail a Dictator (Jan 20- 21)
About.com

Silent Souls (Jan 21)
New York Times
National Public Radio

Weekend (Jan 24)
New York Times

Lamerica (Jan 26)
New York Times

Chico & Rita (Jan 28)
The Guardian
Hollywood Reporter

House of Pleasures (Feb 2)
New York Times

Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Feb 4)
Roger Ebert

Wanda (Feb 9)
New York Times

The Forgotten Village (Feb 9)
New York Times

Milk and the Land (Feb 11)
New York Times

Earthwork (Feb 11)
National Public Radio

El Bulli: Cooking in Progress (Feb 14)
New York Times

The Crusades (Feb 16)
New York Times

Sleep, My Love (Feb 18)
New York Times

Letters from the Big Man (Feb 24- 25)
New York Times

Red Desert (Feb 28)
Village Voice

The end of the year means many things to many people, but most of all it means lists. We aren’t immune to list-making, and starting today our curators will be taking a look back at 2011 and picking a few of their favorite things. Today we kick things off with Director of Film/Video David Filipi’s and Associate Film/Video Curator Chris Stults’s selections of notable DVDs and books. We’ll be posting more lists as the year draws to a close, so keep your eyes on the blog and our Facebook page for updates.

(more…)

(Pictured: Shelly Casto’s daughter, petting Jesse)

Artist Michael Mercil’s Virtual Pasture will be coming to an end this Monday, December 5 in a brief closing ceremony, weather permitting, at 3 PM in the meadow outside the center, featuring all 13 sheep in the flock. (That’s up from three sheep when the project started two years ago.) The free public event will also include music (Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze, of course), an auctioneer performance, and refreshments. Laptop “sweaters” and iPad “mittens” from the wool of the sheep will be available soon in the Wexner Center Store. Shelly Casto, the Wexner Center’s director of education, weighs in about her (very personal) experiences with the project:

It has been my honor over the past few years to help artist Michael Mercil realize his vision to bring a discussion of the pastoral back to this profoundly urban portion of Ohio State’s campus. Over the course of this project, he has raised his family of petite Shetlands on a bucolic organic farm and treated his charges to monthly outings to Columbus and the Wexner Center in order to help educate visitors, students, staff, and faculty about our relationship to the natural world, a relationship we tend to forget we’re a part of. The sheep always seemed to take these outings in stride: munching on the lush grass happily and nonchalantly nuzzling Michael’s giant television screen, which broadcasted their home farm live, 24 hours a day, winter, summer, spring, and fall.

In my personal life, Michael’s project has introduced my own little family into a closer relationship with that bucolic organic farm (a k a Stratford Ecological Center). My husband and I had been aware of Stratford, but we had not properly treasured this place before Michael’s sheep moved in, and we had the impetus to follow along.  Since that time, my son has spent two summers at Stratford’s farm camp and has declared it one of his favorite places. It’s quite a compliment when a 10-year-old boy chooses a second week of farm camp over the Wexner Center’s highly coveted Animated Game Design course! He frequently talks about one of the matrons in Michael’s flock (Jesse) who grew up as a house pet and is particularly comfortable with human interaction. When I attended farm camp this past summer with my 5-year-old daughter, this particular sheep was set up in a pen close to the entrance area of the farm as a sort of welcoming committee. Unlike her daughters who would run from and bleat at anyone entering the pen, Jesse would patiently enjoy the eager pats of the no fewer than 40 preschoolers in our group. I realized that not only had Michael’s project provided education to those students on campus who had never seen a sheep before, but it had also provided a very valuable entry point of human-animal connection for visitors to Stratford. From Jesse, they move on to picking their own vegetables, milking the goats, feeding the pigs and turning the cows out to graze. Along with these chores, my daughter and I also enjoyed our “magic spot” in the woods, creeking, jumping on hay bales in the barn, picking blackberries, catching butterflies, baking bread, gathering eggs, and chasing down goat escapees. Definitely memories I’ll cherish.

Thank you, Michael, for bringing us a little closer to those agricultural roots that we all have in our ancestral past but that most of us have lost.

Zoom is fast approaching, bringing terrific all-ages films at incredibly affordable prices, free family activities, and much more. This year’s assortment of entertaining and acclaimed movies ranges from classic comedies to contemporary animation. On Saturday, Zoom goes to the zoo, with animals “starring” in all five film programs. In addition to the great films, kids and families can enjoy hands-on crafts, our free Saturday morning breakfast and pajama party, and a Saturday afternoon ice cream social. Check out the preview, made by our friends at Spacejunk Media, and mark your calendars for December 1-4.

Karen Lewis is an Assistant Professor in the Architecture Section of of Ohio State’s Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture.

Diller Scofido + Renfro’s practice operates at the intersection of technology and landscape. Their design work explores the tension between what we experience physically in space, versus what we perceive with our eyes. Views, media, and perspective work together in their design projects to challenge our preconceptions of what is architecture.

As an architect, I’ve studied Diller + Scoffidio’s projects throughout my career. As an undergraduate I was introduced to the Slow House, an unbuilt project sited on a dramatic cliff overlooking the ocean. The house simultaneously curves and rises through the landscape, slowly revealing the dramatic ocean view through a carefully curated procession of views.

This curiosity toward view, technology and landscape was further explored in their proposal for two projects that captured our imaginations in the early 2000’s. The Eyebeam Museum of Art & Technology, which uses a folded surface to separate and connect museum visitors from institutional operations. A large-scale monitoring “bug” climbs and scans the museum façade cycling information back into the museum’s ‘nervous system.’ In the Blur Building, Diller Scoffidio + Renfro move away from technology as a device that attaches to architecture, but instead leverage its abilities to create architecture. Rather than scan the surface, the Blur Building uses intricate technological detail to create the building envelope through a cloud of fog and water vapor that enshroud the visitor.

The Institute of Contemporary Art transforms the way we see Boston Harbor. The computer lab hangs precariously over the water, pitching the viewer down to the ocean below while the room-sized elevator lifts viewers through the mechanical operations of the building, changing the building façade as it rises and falls.

The High Line, a collaborative project with Field Operations, continues to intersect landscape, technology and view, developing curious moments of watching the city below, or hovering over the High Line’s constructed meadows and rain gardens.

Hear from architect Elizabeth Diller, a founding member of innovative and highly respected interdisciplinary design studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro, in the 2011 Glimcher Lecture, Monday, November 21.