It’s no secret that Toledo is an artsy town. The city— quite rightfully— wears it with pride. You’ll find everything from gallery showings to theatrical productions and musical performances.
A recent addition to the artistic community, the Art and Performance Center of West Toledo, opened on March 25, 2017. With a career of experience, Miriam Wagoner, founder and creative director of APCWT, opened the doors for community-minded artistic collaboration.
Collaboration station
“I want to be a hub,” Wagoner said. “I opened the Center to bring to fruition my thirty years of experience with performance and art and my desire for people to have a space for collaboration. A lot of people don’t have an environment to share what they do.”
Events like the Art Commission’s third Thursday Art Loop facilitate movement between the makers and doers downtown, but Toledo’s creativity is not limited to the downtown business district.
Not ten minutes from downtown, on Sylvania Ave., APCWT offers all of Toledo’s creative efforts. You can catch literary readings— fiction to poetry to fairy tales and everything in between; concerts— ambient instrumentals to folk to rock and roll; theatrical performances— one-act dramas to musicals; dance performances— tango to interpretive; fine art exhibitions from artists of all mediums, all within a week’s time and all in one place.
Collaborative happenings, like the APCWT’s Raw Art Interpretation, allow poets and songwriters to create works based on visual pieces submitted by local artists. It’s all here.
Mixed media
If you’re thinking “I’d like to get involved in a more hands on way but I don’t know much about art and arting”, a vast array of classes are available to learn the basics or to hone and fine tune a craft. Learn— or perfect— fused glass jewelry making, hand drumming, dance, creative movement for kids, mindful movement for adults, yoga, multifarious styles of painting, pottery, sculpting, and songwriting, with new classes introduced each month.
“I’m just a conduit. I’m here to offer people a place to collaborate and pass through,” Wagoner said. “I’ve always been a collaborative artist. A lot of my work, when I was younger, was integrated arts: film, dance, and art productions.”
If you’re looking to collaborate with Miriam and the APCWT, the space is available to rent for performances and events, public or private at $25 an hour for private events not in sponsorship with APCWT. To work in partnership with the center, a lesser rate can be negotiated.
2702 W. Sylvania Ave.
419-913-9010
facebook.com/apcwesttoledo
