Cleveland Artist to Cover Hough Building With Plastic to Raise Environmental Awareness


<a href="https://media2.clevescene.com/clevescene/imager/u/original/46591491/9.11.2024.webp" rel="contentImg_gal-46591245" title="Ron Shelton will affix plastic wafers, donated by the Cleveland Clinic, to the building in Hough – Courtesy Photo" data-caption="Ron Shelton will affix plastic wafers, donated by the Cleveland Clinic, to the building in Hough  
Courtesy Photo” class=”uk-display-block uk-position-relative uk-visible-toggle”>


click to enlarge

Ron Shelton will affix plastic wafers, donated by the Cleveland Clinic, to the building in Hough - Courtesy Photo

Courtesy Photo

Ron Shelton will affix plastic wafers, donated by the Cleveland Clinic, to the building in Hough

Cleveland artist Ron Shelton has been working with plastic for more than five years. His goal is to create beautiful artwork that also raises awareness of why plastic pollution is a problem for the environment. It’s all part of Cleveland’s growing circular economy movement, which aims to repurpose what’s typically thrown away into something that is economically viable.

Now, Shelton is taking what might be called his obsession with plastic to the next level by covering an entire building with it. The building is located in the heart of the Hough neighborhood, an area where there’s been a growing amount of investment with the addition of the Cleveland Foundation headquarters and other projects. This summer, Shelton plans to install what he calls a “floating plastic abstraction” on the exterior of the building at 6500 Hough Ave. The building, known as Invigorate Hough, has been used as an outdoor art gallery for the past several years.

About 50 percent of the plastic used in the display will be sourced locally from the Cleveland Clinic, highlighting the fact that hospitals are a major contributor to the plastic problem. Shelton, who is director of the nonprofit environmental art organization High Art Fridays, has already done this once at the Valley Arts Center in Chagrin Falls. He calls it his “cover a building project.”

“This is basically to address the impact plastic is having on our environment and how little we’re doing about it,” Shelton told the Cleveland Planning Commission at its meeting on Friday, May 2nd, where they approved the $11,000 project.

Shelton’s “cover a building” project is one of a number of major public art projects that are slated to break ground in Cleveland this year, many of them funded by Cleveland’s Transformative Art Fund, a $3 million fund created with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars. (Shelton’s project is not funded by this arts fund.) “Hopefully this will galvanize the community and local businesses,” Shelton added.

Shelton, who has been named one of Cleveland’s circular economy ambassadors by the Circular Cleveland initiative, said he wants to “keep plastics out of the waste stream as long as possible by creating these large scale works of art.” To those who argue it’s a drop in the proverbial bucket of plastic polluting our planet, Shelton said that’s exactly the point: “There’s an educational component. Even though people know the harm of plastic, this reminds us how ubiquitous plastic is in our society and how closely it is related to climate change and our health.”

The plastics donated by the Cleveland Clinic are actually DNA sampling trays. The brightly-colored DNA trays will be installed on 5×10 foot wire mesh grids, which will in turn be affixed to the sides of the building using braces and masonry screws. The overall effect is to make it look like the plastic is floating off the side of the building.

Shelton said that after his experience covering the Valley Art Center in Chagrin Falls, he wanted to make the project bigger. “This is probably two-thirds of the building I’m covering with this one,” he said. The artist explained that the DNA trays donated by the Clinic, which are called wafers, come in a variety of colors that will create an eye-catching scene once they’re installed. “It will make this project really pop,” he said. “The building is all black, which will really make the color come out.”

Hospitals in the U.S. generate 14,000 tons of waste per day and 20-25 percent of that is plastics, according to an article published in the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics. Shelton hopes his artwork raises awareness of the circular economy while creating a market for large-scale works of art made of plastic. “The whole idea is to create a larger scale or platform – the larger pieces are exhibited and sold, so we’re creating a circular economy,” he said.

Shelton has spent the past eight months assembling the project. However, he and building owner Antunesia Harris, who lives part time in Cleveland and part time in Washington D.C., are still raising funds to make the project happen this summer.

Harris bought the building in 2015 to combat disinvestment in the neighborhood. “Each time I would come home I would see all these vacant lots and abandoned buildings and it was really heartbreaking,” said the native eastsider. “It was a little bit like survivor’s guilt. It was painful. I had to pull over to catch my breath.”

After learning about Mansfield Frazier’s work to build a vineyard and urban winery in Hough, Harris immediately began looking for a property close by. She ended up buying the building directly across the street from the winery. While she tried to pull together funding for the renovation, she decided to create a pop-up art gallery on the outside of her building. “I came up with the idea of making it an outdoor art gallery, of allowing artists to use the building as a gallery that didn’t have walls that anyone could enjoy or see,” she said.

She knew she was onto something when she took down an art display, which consisted of signs and messages, and people complained. “They would drive by and stop me and say, ‘When is it going back up?’” she said with a laugh. “I said ‘OK, it’s working.’”

In addition to the art installation, Harris and Shelton intend to offer workshops that help people learn about sustainability. Shelton has recently done workshops at the Rainey Institute, PNC Fairfax Connection, and even as far away as Ghana. The artist has been teaching people how to reuse plastics by weaving plastic bags and other materials together on handmade looms, he said. Harris received a small grant from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) that allowed her to do some stormwater retention and green infrastructure in the empty lot next door. Now, she wants to teach others how to build rain gardens or install permeable pavers, as well.

Harris said the overall effect is to build a sense of community. “We’re showing artwork in a unique space, allowing it to be open to anyone who walks or goes by,” she said. “We’re also having conversations about what happens in a community. The artwork is the thing that pulls people in, but other conversations are what bind people closer and bring people back.”

Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *