photo by Toni Searle

Arol Shack (right) has coordinated art exhibits at MSASS since the school's new building opened in 1990. Edythe Zimmerman (left), a social worker in the University Counseling Service, helped bring one of the currrent exhibits to the school -- photographs of gypsy life in pre-war Europe by Belgian photographer Jan Yoors.

CLEVELAND -- Since its opening in 1990, the building housing Case Western Reserve University's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences has become an important venue for exhibiting the works of new and established artists, both from the Cleveland area and elsewhere.

Currently on display are ceramic representations of faces from an exhibit titled "Please Don't Judge Me by my Face" by Lakewood artist and educator Mooneen Mourad; watercolors done by clients of PLAN, a Cleveland Heights organization which provides services and counseling to people with schizophrenia or mild mental retardation; and an exhibition of photographs of gypsy life in prewar Europe by Belgian photographer Jan Yoors.

In addition to these larger exhibits, the school has individual works of painting, watercolors, and photography on display by Gunter Schwegler, Ed Mieczkowski, Malcolm Brown, and Xu Jiangzhong, an artist from the People's Republic of China. The building is open to the public during regular business hours.

The coordinator and curator of the school's art exhibits is Arol Shack, department assistant in the school's doctoral program. "There was an art committee when the building first opened, but it gradually disappeared as people got busy with other things," Shack explains. "I continue to do it because I really enjoy it."

Shack gets ideas for exhibits by visiting local galleries and art shows, and getting recommendations from people familiar with the Cleveland arts scene. "A lot of it is word of mouth. I'm always asking if anyone knows of artists who'd like to display their works," she explains.

The Yoors photographs currently on display came to MSASS by way of Edythe Zimmerman, a social worker in the University Counseling Service, who learned of Yoors and his work in 1996 as the result of a chance encounter with a photojournalist. Yoors was born in Antwerp, Belgium, where he became friendly with some gypsy children. At the age of 12, he ran away to join the gypsies and came to know their way of life intimately.

The photos, which date from the 1930s to the 1960s, portray scenes of everyday life, as well as special occasions, such as weddings. The pictures, along with the books he has written about gypsy life, are considered among the definitive portrayals of that now all-but-vanished society. Yoors died in 1977.

Mourad's work, masks of women's faces in ceramics, stems from her own experiences. "As a child and female growing up in America, I quickly learned about prejudice and the meaning of being judged by color and beauty," she writes in a statement accompanying the exhibit. "This did not make sense to me, and it is a theme that has caused discontent for thousands of women over the years. I create faces and the human form in many shapes, colors, and sizes."

Darlyne Bailey, dean and professor of social work, said she has emphasized the importance of displaying art, particularly the work of local artists in the building since becoming dean in 1994. "I feel it is important because it's a way of bringing the community into the school," Bailey explained. "It's a way of our telling local folks that they are important to us, and we are part of the larger community."

Bailey added that having works of local artists adorn the school's walls is consistent with its community-based practice approach to education and research. "Our approach says that everything we do should be grounded in the needs of the community. Having local artwork on display reminds us, as a school, to be mindful of the needs of the community outside our walls."

As the school's one-person art committee, Shack has a lot of discretion in deciding what gets displayed. There are only two hard-and-fast rules she must observe: No nudity, and no religious artwork.

Most of the work displayed can be purchased. "Because we're not a gallery we don't take a commission, which means the artists can charge less than they would at a gallery," she adds.

The current exhibits will be on display until mid-November. For more information, call 216-368-2290.