Anna in Red, March 7, 2008

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, founder and artistic director of the Urban Bush Women by Anna Arnold, February 2008. Commissioned by Pam Young, executive director of DANCE Cleveland, Ohio. This mixed media painting was presented to Jawole the evening before "The Scales of Memory" dance performance featuring the Urban Bush Women and Compaigne Jant-Bi of Senegal was premiered at the Ohio Theater in Cleveland on March 1, 2008

Anna Arnold is a native Clevelander. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1983 and has exhibited in nearly 200 solo and group art exhibits throughout the United States and has taught hundreds of school children as a visiting artist. Anna is widely known for her vividly colorful expressive portraits, ceramics, masks, beads and painted furniture.

Highlights of Anna’s exhibitions are the Cleveland Museum of Art, Akron Art Museum, South Bend Regional Art Museum, Indiana, Center for Art and Religion, Washington, DC., Progressive Corp., Cleveland, Promega Corp. Gallery, Madison, WI., Western Reserve Historical Society and Wasmer Gallery at Ursuline College, Pepper Pike, OH,.

Her works are in the permanent collections of Progressive Corp., Kaiser Permanente, Metro Health Hospital, Ursuline College, the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland and the Cleveland Public Library. Noted commissions are "Angel On My Shoulder" (see above) for the 2006 American Cancer Society's Cattle Barron's Ball Live Auction created with children from the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, 2006 Martin Luther King Jr. Service to the Field Award, 2006 portrait of Garth Fagan, choreographer of the "Lion King" presented by DanceCleveland and the stunning mixed media stained glass and mosaic tile Globe for the Historic Cleveland Public Library in downtown and GuitarMania.

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Since 2004, Anna has been a full time art instructor with the City of Cleveland in the Division of Recreation. In 2006,  she became involved with the Bureau of Cultural Arts Department's Mural My Neighborhood, an arts-based mural training program for teens fom the Cleveland Municipal School District. The eastside team recently completed 4 dynamic murals that she helped to design and paint with Jerome White and Mural My Neighborhood students at locations in Cleveland's historic Glenville neighborhood. The second year of Mural My Neighborhood began in January 2007 and ended during the summer with the installation of  "the Keys to the Future" and "The Tribute", in honor of Ted Ginn Sr., legendary and influential football coach of the Glenville High School Titans of Cleveland. Mural My Neighborhood 3 began in February 2008.

Anna can be reached by email:  a.arnold9416@sbcglobal.net