Ohio Governor's Award Honors Lorain Arts Advocate Joan Perch

Joan Perch has spent over 30 years promoting the idea that there is more to the arts in Northeast Ohio than what’s hanging on museum walls. Through galleries, festivals and area schools, Perch champions local art as an economic engine that can help bring hard-pressed neighborhoods back to life. A longtime resident of Lorain, Perch is one of eight recipients of this year’s Ohio Governor’s Award for the Arts.

Her life as an arts advocate began as a gallery owner in 1987.

“At that point, we were all really talking about art and culture as economic development. Everything was kind of depressed, and if you could say that the artists were helping that and you could help them to survive, that was important,” she said. “But, I really like to go back now to the importance of just art for our soul and how important the arts are for every individual and in our schools. That really makes a rich community. So, it does connect to lively neighborhoods and economic development. But most importantly, the arts make life worth living for each of us.”

In more recent years, Perch has specifically focused on the connections between technology and the arts, though it’s a topic she’s long found interesting. 

“When we first opened our gallery in the Powerhouse [in Cleveland], computers were just really happening and people were talking about computer art. And there was huge, huge discussion about whether computer-generated art was going to be art or not,” she said. “It's another tool. It's media, social media, pens, pencils, it's all media. So if you put it in the hands of an artist, they're going to do really creative things.”

Artists can use a variety of mediums to create art, but many share a common challenge: using that art to keep food on the table. That’s another big focus for Joan Perch.

“My concern always is for artists to figure out a way to make impact in their communities and also be able to make a living and to be respected as professionals,” she said. “But I also think that with the emergence of all of these new technologies, artists can be really creative and they can they have great skills and they can make good money.”

Perch is working to connect artists to some of these high-tech tools in her current post as program and outreach coordinator for Lorain Community College’s Campana Center for Ideation and Invention. The facility is stocked with laser cutters, 3D printers, scanners and other equipment.  Access to such professional-grade gear draws everyone from workers looking to boost their manufacturing skills to painters and sculptors dabbling in new creative options.

Perch says the Campana Center is open to all community members. [David C. Barnett / ideastream]

Grooming new artists and makers can be tough in an era of arts funding cuts. Joan Perch thinks more work needs to be done to convince the lawmakers who control the purse strings.

“I think that when we work at the grassroots level and we make impact and it keeps growing and building, that's where the change is going to come,” she said. “I don't think it's going to come from the top down. It's the people who are the artists and the makers and the educators who then have to connect and collaborate with the people who have the kind of power and influence to help make things happen."