The Artist”s Life

In Cleveland, a county cigarette tax generates money for arts organizations, many of which are facing budget shortfalls in the recession. Public art remains a main area of development, spurred by dedicated organizations such as Cleveland Public Art ( www.clevelandpublic art.org). “Art has really been a large component in many of the renovation projects in the city,” says Susan Vincent, a manager of SPACES, a nonprofit that supports experimental art in the city (www.spaces gallery.org). Vincent coordinates the gallery’s SPACELab initiative, which gives local artists a venue for large projects limited only by the artist’s imagination.

Cleveland’s lively art scene draws artists seeking a low cost of living, but also a fair share of tourists. “There are internationally recognized galleries like SPACES; locally driven galleries such as Asterisk and Doubting Thomas; collective studios like Zygote Press; and large, free institutions—the Cleveland Museum of Art,” Vincent says. “For a Rust Belt city, Cleveland has a lot to offer, and the only direction we have is up.”

An empty house on Heidelberg Street in Detroit became the OJ House, a statement about the notorious 1990s trial.

Spa ce Duet

Alan Bean has a stellar claim to fame as the first—and so far, only— artist to set foot on the moon. Painting Apollo documents Bean’s experience in the Apollo 12 mission and coincides with an exhibition of his work at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, which runs through January 13, 2010. Painting Apollo: First Artist on Another World by Alan Bean. Hardcover, 224 pages. $39.99. Smithsonian Books, 2009, www.smithsonianbooks.com.

Tom Sachs’s do-it-yourself ethic shines in Space Program. Sachs created the Lunar Module, NASA’s Mission Control Center and an Apollo space suit out of scavenged materials, and the result is a joyfully inventive tribute to America’s love affair with the Apollo program. Space Program by Tom Sachs. Paperback, 280 pages. $65. Gagosian Gallery, 2009, www.rizzoliusa.com.