Production of Broad & High is funded in part by the Greater Columbus Arts Council, supporting arts, advancing culture, and connecting the community to artists events.

And Classes at ColumbusmakesArt .com This time on Broad & High learn about an artist who finds his focus in a creative space for a diverse group of working artists.

Discover an immersive art and technology exhibition experience a famous violin's rare visit to Columbus and meet a folk artist who feels everyone has the power to make their surroundings more beautiful.

This and more right now on Broad & High Welcome to Broad & High Hi, I'm your host Kate Quickel.

Benjamin Legg only started attending Open Door Art Studio in Grandview a few years ago.

He finds the camaraderie and support there integral to his art practice.

We visited Ben at the studio to find out more about how he creates his inspired paintings.

I sometimes create all your pastel paintings and other paintings small being something that I creative have in my brain or something like that.

I sometimes get it from things I imagine and things that I create and things I design on my own and things I copy of birds and stuff and design how I feel about what painting and tell me really.

It tells a story about my life the art is on, you know, right now is a stormtrooper is a picture of me in a staunch of armor.

And the reason I chose this is because I am a huge fan of storm troopers and their armor and their costume and what we love doing I hope they see the talented expressions from their faces like, wow, this is a beautiful painting or wow, this thing is so realistic how you make this painting.

This painting is a piece of art that I adore and love and create.

And it's the dream of my life.

Usually if I wasn't here, I would just be sitting in my own room playing my toy.

Never can I play?

I'll play video games and just be bored the best part of come here is is to do the fun paintings.

I love dreaming of doing like paintings that I can create and do and things I know I'm really good at.

And that's the best thing I love about disaster is the inspiration and creativity that this artwork has created in my life is so inspired me with so many friends and teachers that taught me how to stay focused on the body, is to stay focused, be creative, and be more focused on your work.

And that's the thing.

I love doing it with my work, being focused and staying on top of my paintings.

One thing I do miss is a good girl named Gwendolyn.

She and I are good friends.

We talk sometimes on the phone, sometimes see each other once or twice, and she sometimes where I feel a little struggling with little upset.

She always comes to me, encourages me and wishes me and tells me to forget those things in the past and just be happy and thoughtful and proud of who I am.

And she really inspires my home.

And we appreciate Gwendolyn, I also love and inspire Haley and my other art teacher.

She has a creative to be my friend, my my teacher, my pal.

And she she's amazing.

And she has inspired a lot of things to me, my art I would say if you want to be honest with me, all you have to do is ask her to come to this studio for a year or two and see how you like it.

If you really do like it, you should come there and just focus on your painting and enjoy the love of all because that's what I enjoy blowing for, for one or two years ago because I enjoy all this place is so amazing because the whole exploration of this place is so wowee and exciting.

And even if I sell my paintings, I even bring my family to see my paintings and show everyone how I done and how I'm good at it.

And it's really fun and show people if they want to come to the studio saying like, how can we be artists like you've been?

And I'd say, Just be creative.

With your own ideas and have fun with the things you love doing.

Like free your ideas and be creative.

To see work from other artists and find out more about open door Studio.

Check out OpendoorColumbus.org Fairgrounds.

Saint Pete in Florida is not a normal art exhibition.

Over 60 local artists fill up a 15,000 square foot space with an experience described as stagecraft meets storytelling.

Let's check it out.

Well, first of all, you're about to leave reality walking through these doors is as a whole another dimension.

But it's up to you what kind of dimension that would be Hi, my name is John Michael Hines, and I'm the experience manager for Fairgrounds Safety.

So it's an immersive art experience, which means it's an entire world created by a bunch of artists, mainly local artists.

64 of them collaborating to create an entire world that we invite you in to come explore.

We're the anchor tenet of a larger cultural campus called The Factory.

And the factory is, you know, a six and a half acre big campus where there's many artists studios and creative companies, and we're sort of one of the big anchor tenants of the factory.

And so our exhibition is about 15,000 square feet.

Fairground St Pete is a time ticketed experience, so we encouraging guests to observe their time slot ahead of time.

Once you arrive, our guest experience guides will scan your ticket and give you a brief introduction about what you're about to experience.

And from there you will walk into the wonderful, weird, wacky world of fairgrounds.

What I think visitors don't realize yet is it's going to be so different than their normal art exhibition.

They're going to be walking in artwork everywhere from the ceiling to the walls to the floor.

Everything's going to be art, and it's going to be a totally immersive experience and a different magical place.

Early on, we really wanted to make a very tangible digital playground.

COVID really forced us to think differently and pivot, and so we started taking touchless sensors and creating our interpretation of what a button would be if you didn't touch a button.

So there are many aspects where you kind of hold your hand over something and you get lighting and sound feedback, but you don't physically make contact with something.

So it was a way to make things a bit safer we're also using things like foot pedals, kind of little surprises that you can kind of step on things and then something happens or activates sounds or lighting and so a lot of traditional theater and stagecraft meets art, needs storytelling.

And so the difference is, is that you don't just sit back as a passive audience member and watch things happen on a stage, you are on the stage and you are in the story.

So fairgrounds is a choose your own adventure type experience.

So there is a storyline underlying of why, you know, certain things are where they are.

It's up to you to experience that and try to find out the storyline or just walk around and enjoy yourself.

So, you know, that's part of our loose narrative is we're going for the old school a retro Florida motel vibe.

So we do have a 100% fairgrounds branded motel room with some some cool gadgets in there that you can you know, play with or experiment with or just, you know, try to help find the storyline with.

And then other rooms are nothing like a motel room because they've been taken over by an artist but they are still have a Florida theme to them or, you know, whatever kind of thing that you might think it is.

So Fairground Scene is a celebration of all weird, wacky, wonderful Florida.

And when we put out the open call to artists, we knew that what we wanted was for artists to celebrate the weird, wacky, wonderful world that we live in here in Florida.

I feel like fairgrounds gets me.

You know, they know that I'm more than just an artist.

Like, they know I love to collect seashells.

I like to just have, like, a vibe, you know?

So that's what it is.

Well, what stands out most to me is the floor drama room.

That's where we have our small, tiny worlds that artists have created based on our loose narrative that we provided for them.

So they all brought their individuality and their ideas, and they were able to put it in a little box.

I do these customized train cars, and I like the scale model train cars, and I'll paint them and make them look like they're grungy or like they have graffiti all over the side of them.

But this time I knew I was going to have this opportunity, so I didn't want to just put a train in the box.

So I made this entire almost a dream like landscape with this train going into this water and has a speaker and lights in it so you can change the mood of it.

So more 3D, more interactive artwork for sure.

So for a burger, I'm sleepy, I'm doing a large swipe specific installation.

It's going to be covering the whole ceiling.

It's going to be something you can walk under and truly feel immersed in the artwork.

I'm super excited to experience that myself as the artist.

I'm seeing it through everyone else's eyes.

I've heard the concept I have not seen it yet, but I know there's going to be a mermaid room and that's where my art will be used, and so I'm so excited to see it.

So you guys come out and see.

So our tagline is Art for all, play for all, joy for all.

So it's really about everyone coming to enjoy this weird, wacky, wonderful world that we've created.

With 64 artists.

And what we really are is a stage to just show a lot of the wonderful art in the artists and creative things that are happening here in Saint Pete.

It's really just playful and fun and there's a lot of humor and adventure, and I think it's a great place to just have fun with your family or on a date or just to go explore yourself as an artist and to see great works and to learn more about Fairgrounds Saint Pete, check out Fairgrounds.Art in 2019.

A violin considered by many to be one of the most famous violins in the world made a historic visit to Columbus.

Its name means the canon because of its ability to produce rich and powerful sounds.

The violin was owned and played by a 19th century virtuoso who was referred to as the devil's violinist.

Let's take a listen and learn more excuse us.

So this is Paganini.

He's famous, the world's most famous violin, the Cannone this violins only been in the United States, in San Francisco and New York City.

And the third time it comes is in Columbus, Ohio.

It's huge.

It's mostly that the instrument is so special and to the Genovese that they absolutely don't want anything to happen to it.

I mean, it's insured for about 35.

Million dollars right now.

And 2015, I led a delegation of young professionals and some other individuals to Genoa.

Genoa, Italy is our first and oldest sister city.

Obviously, Christopher Columbus was born there.

So it's the namesake of our city.

And so before I left, I told Tim, if I go on this trip, I want to make sure that it matters to the residents of Columbus.

We saw the violin played and we were all moved.

And some thinking, wouldn't this be great if we could come to Columbus, Ohio?

And so for the last almost three and a half, four years, we've been working to get this violin here.

It was given to the city gentleman bequeathed by Niccolo Paganini.

His death that was in 1840.

It lives in the city of Genoa in their city hall.

And people travel from all over the world just to see it.

Not, not even to hear it.

This is a very important piece of art.

We keep it under media control and temperature control because it's not.

If you want to maintain the music and the sound and everything, you got to be really careful about the wood and the wood.

It's all you know.

So we've got to preserve that it's still there.

It's most significant because, number one, it was played by Niccolo Paganini, Niccolo Paganini was a composer, violinist, guitarist, and he completely revolutionized the way the instruments were were played at the time.

Not only are these instruments really very rare and fine, but they also have this amazing history.

They're hundreds of years old, and they've been played by some of the best musicians that have ever lived, not to mention the fact that they were made by the best luthiers that ever lived.

The violin itself is made by one of the two most famous violin makers of all time, and both were from Cremona.

There was Antonio Stradivari and it was just a big one.

I don't Izu, you put these two things together with the aura of Niccolo Paganini and then Giuseppe Bernardo, the Jesu, the violin maker then it's the perfect combination.

One of the things we try to do, which is part of the conservation thing, is to make sure that who is playing the instrument is you know, really qualified to play the instrument, because I think we'd have a line outside of the door, if you will.

If we said that anybody could play it.

It does feel very sacred to kind of live up to the history of such a fine antique as the instrument has been titled by Paganini, the Canon Il Canon.

You just feel like with the slightest touch, the sound reverberates all over the room, into the hall, down the street, you just feel this unbridled power I was very grateful that I was allowed to bring the strings that I usually play on to the violin.

And then I was able to string the violin with the strings that I'm used to.

Really, violin hasn't changed that much even since 1550 when this first started making the instruments.

But the improvements that have been made on the violin over these years are only basically in the accessories because everything else on the instruments is as it was.

Tonight's program is designed to honor the heritage of the violin.

So most of the pieces on the concert are going to be composed by Italian composers It's just designed to showcase the uniqueness of the instrument and also to showcase the beautiful, versatile function that the violin could have in the context of the orchestra, both as an orchestral instrument and also as a solo And it's not just about a concert.

It's not just about a violin.

It's truly about an effort to connect Columbus to the world.

We believe a greater Columbus sister cities that the more people that know about the great things and people from Columbus, Ohio, the better off Columbus will be.

Heidi Wineland is a folk artist who lives in Lakeland, Florida.

When she's not teaching, she's creating from Rag Baskets, knitted Creatures and Academy Award action figures.

She strives to give materials a new life.

Let's learn more about Heidi's passion for creative experimentation.

My father was a painter and an advertising executive.

My mother was a professional seamstress and very much a folk artist and a needle worker herself.

And so I grew up just with everything all around all the time that it was just free to use.

And I also had a really good arts program in the school system where I was.

And so now that I'm an art teacher in the public schools, I'm really geared towards making sure my students have as much experience with as many materials as possible.

I'm Heidi Wineland, and I am a folk artist.

I make rag baskets.

I make something called Knitagains, which are made their little creatures made from recycled sweaters.

And they were made from knit fabrics.

So they were knit.

And now they are knit again.

I make a lot of jewelry.

I do some painting.

I do a lot of embroidery.

I'm very much into needlework.

And I'm always experimenting, trying new things.

Years ago, I was doing craft fairs, and I've always had a lot of odds and ends and different things.

But really struggling to find, you know, "The thing."

And there were a lot of people at that time who were knitting and felting, and that seemed really interesting.

But I didn't want to take the time to knit.

So I just went to the Goodwill and just bought the sweaters and felted those.

And I was making bags and hats But then one day I had a little scrap and I didn't want to waste it, and I just made it into a little oval and put eyes on it.

And suddenly there was my new friend.

And that took off as soon as I started selling those.

I just couldn't keep them in stock, even though they all had the same basic shape.

And they all have this, you know, very simple circle eyes.

They all have their own personalities.

And people are really strangely drawn to them.

I love seeing kids, adults, families.

Everyone sees her pieces.

They turn a corner and a smile just hits their face.

For 30 years, I've been working on a project I call the Academy Award Action Figures, which are miniature replicas of Oscar fashion.

I've always been interested in film history, but I'm also very interested in fashion and the cult of celebrity.

And then one night I couldn't sleep, and I had this idea that I could make these dresses in miniature.

Now, I'm not a doll person, didn't play with Barbies, didn't have any dolls.

The dolls are really just hangers for the clothes.

So I only do the Academy Awards because the Academy Awards is the highest pinnacle of celebrity.

What you wear to the Academy Awards, that photograph is the photograph that's going to be published over and over again.

It's the dress that people recognize the celebrity.

And so it's for me, it's both a critical commentary on the cult of celebrity, on how we make idols of movie stars and, you know, want to emulate what they wear.

And at the same time, I actually am making idols to, you know, celebrities so this I don't sell.

This is just for me, So the Knitagains and the Oscar dolls are really the two things I spend the most time on.

And they seem very different.

But they're both examples of their strange they're small.

I make them because they make me happy.

And I really pride myself on using scraps, leftover materials, for instance, for the dolls.

I never.

Other than that, that first one that I tried, I never buy new dolls.

So if you look closely, a lot of them have, you know, chewed on hands or, you know, some of them have stains on them.

It's just a matter of looking at something and seeing new life in it.

I've had the opportunity to have, you know, an actual away from home art studio before, and it's always seemed so appealing.

But then I think I would never go there.

I really like to work on my lab.

I like to work in small, comfortable spaces.

I like to watch television while I work.

And I think that's a reflection of how folk art has always been made.

It's always been made while you're rocking the baby.

Or, well, dinner is cooking.

I think folk art is more relevant today than it's ever been because the world is so complex.

Folk art brings us back to something simple.

It's very simple.

It's very nostalgic.

It's something that we can process pretty easily and add to our life as an artist and as a teacher.

I am really invested in the idea that art is not just painting and drawing.

And I've been teaching primarily adults for years, and I encounter people all the time who say, Oh, you made that.

I wish I could be an artist.

And I said, Well, of course you can It doesn't have to be oil painting on canvas.

It could be a doll, a basket, a quilt.

And to come to realize that they're really doing this already you know, even if it's cooking or decorating, that there's something in us that wants to make our surroundings nicer, more comfortable, more visually appealing.

And I want people, especially my students, to realize that's within their power Check out more of Heidi's work at HeidiWineland.com Well, that's our show.

Remember, you can find all of our stories online, at WOSU.org, as well as on our YouTube channel.

For all of us here at WOSU, I'm Kate Quickel Thanks for watching.

Freaking out all alone Don't know what to do with myself though Don't know what to do with myself though I'm givin' it a go Bitter goodbyes Bummer love souvenir Kill the sad vibes And a rainbow will appear Hit the lights for my solo Better be in the front row Stepping out of your shadow Breaking out on my own Now I know I’m ok by myself so I’m givin’ it a go Now I know I’m ok by myself so Production of Broad & High is funded in part by the Greater Columbus Arts Council supporting arts, advancing culture and connecting the community to artists events and classes at ColumbusMakesArt.com