Excerpts from conversations with the Kristin & Lyz Bly at their home/gallery
Don Harvey, Artist/Activist/Civic Leader

Inspiring greatness is just a fraction of Don Harvey's civic contribution to our city. This humbly prolific artist/activist has a rap sheet of social engagement that gives new meaning to the term "Greater Cleveland." With his steadfast commitment to community involvement and outspoken persistence for art's public presence, Cleveland is truly greater for the actions and insights of Don Harvey. He was the co-founder of dialogue magazine, and founding board president for the Cleveland Public Art. He is currently spearheading the creative and pragmatic design management for the bike path planned for the Detroit/Superior Bridge. In his free time, he and his wife Susan organize salon discussion groups where the collaborative spirit and partnership opportunities are forged with cordial determination.

LB: So, what's your take on the whole art's levy/convention center issue?

DH: I read a poll recently that indicated people would be more inclined to support an arts tax if it were separated from the convention center. Truthfully, I don't know how I really feel about the convention center, but I'd hate to see something good [a tax levy to support the arts] tacked on to make an unpopular idea like the convention center more palatable and wind up sinking them both.

KB: What's the update on the Detroit/Superior Bridge project?

DH: Well, the County Commissioners voted two weeks ago to approve it, and to go out for bids. ODOT (Ohio Department of Transportation) reviewed the plan and said they had no problems. I'm not sure if there are any other wrinkles to iron, but providing nothing jumps up to stall the project, construction could begin within a year of this autumn.

LB: I think a really great thing about your personality is how you can be such an originator of great things, and then be able to just let go and move on to new projects.

DH: Well, ideas change, and you can't keep going back to compare what your doing now with what you did thirty years ago - saying, "I gotta hang-on." You don't go anywhere. I've always thought that if you know something needs to be done, and nobody else is doing it, then either you can't complain that it's not happening, or you go out and make it happen. But I guess, just because you give something a life doesn't necessarily mean you have permanent ownership. If a project is going to have a continued life, then other people will give it a life. If they're not interested then I guess the idea was never that durable.

KB: What do you think the art community's role should be in the affairs of civic leadership?

DH: I think we can't always be preoccupied with staying underground or buying in to the establishment. To make distinctions like that can freeze progress. You live in the community as you find it, and if you want to do things, then you have to work with the community as you find it.

 (:divend:)