BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
We can't decide what boggles us more -- that the wedding party has 38 people, that they and 750 guests are taking over Fountain Square for the ceremony or that it will be the first wedding on the square.
Turns out Frank Rosiello and Terry Arviv, a mid-30s couple with a zillion friends, will marry Oct. 4. Because of the zillion friends, they had trouble narrowing down the wedding party. "Terry was going to, no matter how it hurt, but I said why bother?" Rosiello says. "We have all these friends, let's ask them all."
Problem No. 1: Most church altars can't accommodate 18 bridesmaids, 18 groomsmen, one bride and one groom. So they decided on Fountain Square and began gathering the required permits. (That's when they found out theirs would be a landmark wedding.)
Problem No. 2: The square looks like a war zone, with wooden walls hiding renovation work. "We'll camouflage with white columns and other decorations," Rosiello says
And the square's pigeons? The couple is actually adding more birds: 50 white doves (and a flock of butterflies) will be released at the end of the 5:30 p.m. ceremony.
That's followed by dinner and dancing at the Omni, which is where the ceremony moves if it rains. Without doves, we trust.
YOUNG MASTERS: OK, we give up. What is conductor Keith Lockhart doing smack in the middle of a Watteau painting?
The painting, "Pierrot," hangs in the Louvre. Yeah, in France. But now, thanks to local artist Jan Brown Checco, a likeness of it adorns the cover of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra's season brochure.
The idea, adapting a classic, is an extension of an idea she had last year, when she also created the artwork for the cover of the CCO program. That one was a collage of works by Picasso, Velazquez, Bosch, Botticelli and Breugel.
Concert-goers loved the artwork enough to buy up hundreds of posters when they were published.
So why not try again? This year's version, Checco says, is 14-inches by 17-inches, done in gouache (opaque watercolor) and basic watercolor over ink. It's taken from several Lockhart photos she studied before beginning six weeks of painting. The brochure was mailed a week ago.
Brown has the original painting. "My hope is that someone will buy it and give it to Keith as a parting gift," when he leaves his CCO music director job at the end of the season.
She expects it to fetch $1,500. Last year's was bought by CCO board member Cort Meader, who has it hanging in his private collection.
ART OF THINGS PAST: So why, you were wondering, is the Cleveland arts community applauding a Cincinnati videographer?
Because he birthed something important up there, that's why. Specifically, James Rosenberger was a founder and first director of Spaces, Ohio's oldest alternative arts center. He also made the first video shown there.
The Cleveland institution hasn't forgotten. It recognized Rosenberger Saturday, when it celebrated its 20th year with a party and exhibit.
Said exhibit is showing two Rosenberger works, and that's quite the accomplishment, 'cause the retrospective covers Spaces' 20 years with 50 artists selected from 4,000 submissions.
The Rosenberger films: Crackers!, the 8-minute work Spaces opened with in '78, and A Fugu for Spaces, a work he shot in Japan. Rosenberger left Spaces in '79 to work for Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center and to open a production house, Performance Resources. The CAC job is long gone, but PR is going strong.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
KNIPPENBERG ARCHIVE
