- [Announcer] Funding for The Art Show is made possible by the L&L Nippert Charitable Foundation, Montgomery County, The Virginia W. Kettering Foundation, The Sutphin Family Foundation, The Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation.

Additional funding provided by, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

- In this edition of The Art Show, a sculpture soars to freedom.

(upbeat music) Welcome bags go global.

(upbeat music) Storefronts become galleries.

(upbeat music) And a musician carries Dayton's rhythm to the world.

(upbeat music) It's all ahead on this special edition of The Art Show.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) Hi, I'm Rodney Veal and welcome to The Art Show, where each week we provide access to local, regional, and national artists and arts organizations.

Today we are coming to you from the Dayton International Peace Museum, a space dedicated to dialogue, understanding, and the power of peace, located right in downtown Dayton.

In this special episode, we highlight cultural offerings from the NATO Parliamentary Assembly held here in Dayton in the spring of 2025.

These segments are a part of our ongoing coverage, Dayton City of Peace, which will feature extended interviews with key figures from the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords that you can watch on air or through our online services.

Our first story is set in the heart of downtown Dayton, where the historic Arcade rotunda was transformed by Sarajevo born artist, Edina Seleskovic.

Her international installation, Think Freedom, took flight in the United States for the very first time, filling the space with thousands of sculpted birds carrying messages of hope.

For Edina, who was displaced by war in the Balkans as a teenager, Dayton, the City of Peace, is a poignant setting for a story of resilience, creativity, and freedom.

- I grew up in Bosnia in actually small industrial town called Tuzla.

And the one thing I always kind of knew was that I wanted to explore the world and the opportunity showed itself when I realized that there's such a thing as a high school exchange program to United States.

I was 17 years old when my parents said yes to this idea of me going abroad for a year.

So that's how I came to United States.

Former Yugoslavia at the time was going through lots of problems and conflicts, but nobody in Bosnia believed, at least nobody I knew, believed that there was ever gonna be a war.

I fully came to realize that my town and my country is in a major war.

My parents pretty much insisted that I stay.

And now looking back, it's almost difficult to digest the fact I had a passport of a country that no longer existed.

Everything I imagined my future was gonna be is also gone.

And my present is non-existent.

For a while, I was waiting for the war to end so I can go back home, but then I also realized that I maybe should find also ways to kind of immerse myself in the life in United States, and Corcoran School of Art was really crucial.

That was really important to me to really find a place to belong to.

It's really about a place where you can find that sense of belonging on a deeper level.

The great thing about moving to New York in 1999, which now seems so far away, we had this incredible creative energy with artists of so many different art disciplines.

From filmmakers to musicians, to visual artists, and we all kind of tried to find ways to work together and to create this energy together.

Being an artist in New York for a long time, I really had that like one great mission that we all kind of dream of while being in art school, which is to live off your art, and to exhibit at galleries, and for people to wanna purchase your work.

But once you accomplish that, you realize that art can have even a stronger message and can be even more powerful than just being a commodity.

So I designed a postage stamp that was really about celebrating peace.

So it was a bird of freedom painted over the view of Sarajevo from above.

And everybody loved the stamp.

The mayor loved the stamp, the postmaster loved the stamp.

And then I got a phone call that the postage stamp was censored, that it was banned.

But I realized, at first, I mean I was upset, obviously, but then that censorship actually answered the question that I've been asking myself ever since I graduated art school, which is, is visual art still important?

So I decided to create a sculpture of this bird that was painted because I wanted an object in space.

And I really wanna extend kind of my hand to the public and really speak the language that the public will understand.

I designed the sculpture as just two strips of metal that are shaped into a stylized bird, like two messages or two hands connecting.

Let's talk about this thing called freedom.

Let's have this conversation as people who have experienced war and who know what turmoil is and who know what it feels or looks like to lose your freedom.

And the first installation, Think Freedom, was actually presented at the Sarajevo City Hall in 2015.

It was just newly rebuilt city hall that was burned down in the war.

So after the first installation of Think Freedom in 2015, for me that opening that evening was really gonna be it, that was gonna be like, you know, mine and a statement from those kids that worked with me about how we felt about our, you know, our world and ourselves and everything that was going on around us.

But the next morning I woke up and Associated Press actually published the photograph from the installation as the global image of the day.

And then another amazing thing happened, which is that the Vatican Embassy asked me to donate one sculpture so they can gift it to the Pope as their present as the Pope Francis was coming to Serajevo for the first time in 2015.

And maybe the power of this piece is really about connecting all those pieces from different cities and messages from different cities into one.

So we've been in now 26 cities.

Now, 10 years later, we're in Dayton, Ohio.

- Bringing this installation to the Dayton Arcade is sort of a match made in the heavens, if you will, because we have all been very excited about the renovation of this historic building.

And when you think about the architecture of that dome in the rotunda and all the light that floods in and the reflections across the room, you can just envision these birds installed and seeing the shadows and the light dancing.

- [Edina] Think Freedom is a site-specific installation and I started working with young architects and architecture students in each city that I go to, and students of fine arts and design, because I really don't see myself as the sole author of this installation.

Being in Dayton in this moment is really special to me because it is happening, not just on the 10th anniversary of Think Freedom, but also on the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accord.

- I know that for me personally, there's that initial awestruck moment, you know, where, wow, this is just incredible.

It's different than looking at even a beautiful, flat, visual piece of art, because it's 3D and it has movement and it changes with light and it's so grand in its scope.

And I think that we should go internally and think about what freedom means to us, especially during a time where that comes into question.

- I think it's incredible to understand that not every peace agreement has lasted 30 years.

Not every peace agreement and peace accord has had that, that kind of impact on not just one nation, but the whole region.

As like this Bosnian who's also American and who's also Bosnian and also American, I think it's wonderful to maybe for the first time in my life, have those two things completely connected, like these sculptures are connected with higher, and to have this understanding where both worlds are coming together.

- Nearly a decade ago, The Art Show introduced you to the Dayton Sewing Collaborative, a grassroots nonprofit with a big idea.

Today they've grown into a creative force with an international reach.

The Collaborative designed and produced more than 600 handcrafted messenger bags for NATO delegates who visited Dayton this past spring.

From repurposed fabric to Wright Brothers inspired linings, each bag is a testament to ingenuity and Dayton pride.

Take a look.

- When I first heard the NATO conference was coming to Dayton on the news, like everybody else said, I said, "Oh wow, I would love for the Sewing Collaborative to be involved in this in some way."

And then in January of 2025, I received an email from Andy Schwartz from The Lion Group.

The Lion was tied up with production sewing and they said, "Hey, you might wanna talk to the Sewing Collaborative."

The initial meetings, it was kind of chaotic.

We knew what the end goal was.

But how do we design a bag that everyone would like to have?

On the bags themselves, the external fabric, the outer shell, is made from firefighter fabric.

The basis that this one collaborative operates under is we try to nurture the environment.

We are really big on recycling, upcycling, reusing fabric.

As we were designing the bag, we wanted it to represent, you know, who Dayton is and the history of Dayton.

So adding in the aviation components wasn't anything that the client necessarily asked for.

It was something that we said, hey, how about this?

From the day that we received that first email to when we had to have the 660 bags done was 156 days.

And so, as you can imagine, everything was warp speed.

It took us about 30 days to source everything and get it.

So, you know, at that point we're looking at a little over, I think it was 70 days to create 660 bags.

And we had about 40 people that worked on making the bags, and that represents, I think it was about 3,300 hours of sewing and cutting and, you know, prepping the material.

So we designed the bag, they set up the digital pattern so that they could cut the fabric for us on their large cutting machines.

So I think one of the things that would be surprising about the construction of the bag is the number of steps it takes to construct it, but also just the number of parts and pieces that go into that.

I think all up and in the end was like 18 pieces for each bag.

Bag to bag, they're exactly the same.

That is a lot of complexity to get there and a lot of skill obviously from the sewists.

So it really came together really nicely, and we're really proud.

- Dayton is innovative and we're collaborative, so we knew it would be a big partnership with different partners in the community coming together to make this happen.

There really was no other way for us to present Dayton than having actual people in Dayton creating these bags.

You know, people loved, you know, how it really told a story of Dayton, you know.

As I mentioned, our innovation, our aviation history, and just the community coming together.

You know, I had known about our history with the Dayton Peace Accords and how meaningful that was, but it wasn't until I'm sitting in the room with all of these delegates and you're just seeing that this, this is so special and it is so meaningful.

So for me, I got emotional then, just like I got emotional now because when I think about it, talking to some of the leaders who, you know, are from the Bosnia region, they teach Dayton in their schools, of what happened here.

And I think that will continue because those leaders came back 30 years later to talk peace again.

So, I think that is what meant the most to me, and the pride in our community, to be able to pull this off.

- When world leaders arrived for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in May of 2025, artists transformed Dayton streets into a canvas of welcome.

Through the Sidewalk Art Studio Project, local artists transformed storefronts and walkways with bold designs and vibrant imagery.

Their transformative works offered an introduction to Dayton's art scene and shared messages of peace, invention of flight, and unity with a visiting global audience.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - My piece for the NATO Village like window activation is, it's called "Red Earth Golem (Held in Truth)".

It's a larger than life golem made out of fabric, including bedsheets.

I tried to use a lot of recycled material because that's a part of my ethos and approach to art.

Inside of it, like, it has an open body with a mirror so that viewers can be contained and protected within the being.

So that you can be sort of held and protected in truth and love from this being that represents, in Jewish folklore, protection of the Jewish people for a really long time.

- When I thought of doing this piece, my inspiration came from going to the Air Force Museum, and I wanted to take a look at all the different planes there, of course the Wright Flyer and biplanes, and I wanted to check out the struts that are in the wings of the plane, and the wooden structure.

I wanted to make it Dayton-centric.

That was a concept that I got for that and the inspiration.

- I love DCDC's work.

I think they're the best representation of what Dayton has to offer.

Absolutely world class talent and skill and artistry that unfortunately sometimes isn't even appreciated at home as much as it is in other cities and internationally.

- I really wanted something that represented the story of women in Dayton.

There was a lady, Ida Holdgreve, who worked for the Wright Brothers.

She was the first female to be employed in the field of aviation.

She was a seamstress and answered an advertisement asking for a plane seamstress.

And she thought they just wanted someone to whip up boring dresses.

And when she went to the interview she realized, oh, that's not what they meant.

So she really was the first woman in aviation history and I wanted to represent her story and try to gather and represent a lot of other women here in Dayton throughout history.

- [Briana] The most fun parts of this process was right as the installations were complete, before the city got kind of shut down for NATO, like security protocols, there was a press conference and all the artists gathered, and we kind of went from piece to piece to piece, walk around, with each artist got to kind of explain their work a little bit.

- [Samantha] It was almost emotional because being an expat and knowing all these other countries were coming to Dayton, it felt good to know that we are being recognized as a city that will welcome international guests and showcase what we can offer them, because this to me is home now.

I was so excited seeing the flags and knowing that they were gonna experience what Dayton can offer.

- And now we close with the universal language of music, led by Dayton's own Deron Bell.

As music director for the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Bell's artistry stretches from funk and gospel to orchestral scores.

A Dayton original and cultural ambassador, Deron reminds us that music isn't something you just hear, it's something that moves you to rise, connect, heal, and bring about peace.

- When did my relationship with music begin?

I was told it began when I crawled up under the Hammond B-3 organ on top of the bass foot pedals and began hearing the sounds of the bass tones from the pedals.

(light music) My father's relationship was very serious with music, coming up in the musical household.

I witnessed, you know, multiple bands that he worked with.

One of the, if not the first, you know, founders of funk music and funk bands in Dayton, Ohio, The Moroccos.

(upbeat music) He even wrote the theme song 30 years ago at the NATO Peace Corps Conference that was held at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

It was a children's song of peace.

♪ We are the world ♪ ♪ We are the love ♪ I grew up in and out of the recording studio with him, you know?

Way back in the day it was called Cyberteknics Recording Studios, where even some Dayton hits were created out of watching what he modeled, projects that I was personally a part of, learning to produce under him, sparked in me and also inspired me to work with youth how I do today.

You know, I could almost describe this as sustaining the Bell legacy and community impact.

The Deron Bell Band came to exist from, there was a very popular jazz nightclub, downtown Dayton, called Gilly's.

Everybody knows about Gilly's from back in the day, and Jerry Gilloti took me under his wing.

The clubs were great.

You know, they were fun.

They were learning opportunities, but I had already saw people making records, right?

I had already worked under a couple different managers, like Ron Patterson who were working with groups like Cameo and The Deal and the SOS Band.

So I had saw a lot prior to getting into the club scene, if you will.

Reflecting back on my teenage years, it was inspiration.

It was a lot of mentoring, you know, during that time in my life.

And seeing, you know, seeing their success.

You know, you mentioned being around Roger and Zapp.

You know, seeing the limos, seeing the tour buses, seeing the recording studios.

But at the end of the day, what I saw most of all was adults pouring into us neighborhood youth at the time, being inspired.

You know, do your best in school, tap into your creative side, you know, but stay focused through the process.

So moving into, you know, adulthood, having the opportunities to play with Shirley Murdock at church or with her husband, Pastor Dale, you know, who's still the music director of Zapp.

- I watched like Roger.

I watched him, you know, kind of do projects with the kids in the neighborhoods to keep 'em out of the streets.

They were in the streets originally and that's where he found them.

And he would give them a drum or a Sugarfoot.

I watched him give a little boy, just went and bought him a guitar.

I'm a lead singer.

I play no instrument, and I'm okay with that.

I may play a cabasa.

That's about all they gonna get outta me.

But singing and kind of helping Deron keep things in line is my role.

- What's it like to lead a band?

The relationships, for me as a leader, is the most important.

When I really look at the time that's spent on stage, it's very minimal compared to the time that we spend in rehearsals, the time that we spend in encouraging one another in this thing called life.

So as a band leader, I would say being in tune with where everyone is relationship-wise is the key.

- Working with Deron is easy and I've been in a number of bands.

You have that one person that is in charge and some people can take it overboard or too extreme and talk to you like you're a child.

Deron talks to us like we are equals, and everybody's opinion matters.

- My Music ED was developed around 2015.

Y'all ready?

Here we go.

Music, music, music.

Go.

Music, music, music.

Go.

Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm.

Go.

Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm.

Go.

It was an app that I was blessed with the opportunity to create because, a lot like my father, I was in schools going classroom to classroom mentoring.

The base of my partnerships are at City Day Community School, downtown Dayton, Ohio.

It's a pre-K to 8 grade school and they use the app in all grade levels.

And just as well as the mentors and the interns that come from Central State University and they're social work majors.

I wanted the app not necessarily to be centered around what I could do with it, but what could a non-musician do or use as a tool to connect with young people?

My.

- My.

- Music.

- Music.

- ED.

- ED.

- All right, lemme do a rhythm check.

A rhythm check real quick.

Through instruments, making beats.

Playing musical games, learning sounds, and also being able to circle up and have conversations about life.

- Some of the changes that I saw, students were a lot more comfortable with being able to come to teachers and let them know that they're having issues or they're having struggles.

More community has been built on the more positive side of things.

(Emmanuel hyping up shouting) (students shouting) Harambe is a Swahili word that actually means to come together.

So it literally means synergy, but it means to come together in the sense where we sing, we dance, we cheer, we chant, we have fun, we recognize the kids, we recognize the staff for their accomplishments.

One of the big things is is that it's just a big cultural piece where we try to make things positive.

Healing in the sense, I think that school is a place of healing.

For a lot of our students and a lot of students in the United States of America, school might be their safe space - And it's something about the way he talks to the kids and the way he loves the kids, they draw to him.

He sees what the world is giving them and he tries to give them something different through music.

- It teaches them how to interact with each other in a positive way and even when you have issues.

When I got to this school, that year, I suspended 70 kids.

We only had 108 kids in the building.

Last year I suspended two, and the year before that we had none.

- Deron uses exactly the same tactic that his father used.

Deron is very charismatic.

He pushes his way into the hearts of the staff, the students, and brings the funk to City Day.

I was here when Deron's father was here.

He was our music director, and I started out as a teacher here at City Day, and I was a middle school math teacher, and he had a keyboard and he would come in to all of our classrooms and just bring music and joy into each classroom.

- He made and created multiple children's learning activity books.

His company was called Home-Based Arts 'cause he did all his work at home, but he made many books and there are hundreds of thousands of them that have already been distributed.

His legendary work still lives on to this day.

(light music) - And that wraps it up for the special edition of The Art Show.

Our thanks to the good people here at Dayton's International Peace Museum for hosting us.

Until next time, I'm Rodney Veal.

Thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for The Art Show is made possible by the L&L Nippert Charitable Foundation, Montgomery County, The Virginia W. Kettering Foundation, The Sutphin Family Foundation, The Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation.

Additional funding provided by, and viewers like you.

Closed captioning, in part, has been made possible through a grant from the Bahmann Foundation.

Thank you.