Category: Renaissance Box

The Art of SHOWING UP

6/21/2026

How Tanya Kaiser Found Community — and Helped Build It — Through Cleveland’s Arts Scene

BY ELIZABETH WEINSTEIN
Read the original article on CanvasCle.com
(Spring/Summer 2026 | Canvas )

When Tanya Kaiser arrived in Cleveland in November 2019, she didn’t know anyone. She’d moved from Long Island, New York, to start a job at Case Western Reserve University, but before she could fully get her bearings, COVID shut everything down. Kaiser is an artist, curator and arts administrator, and she likes to stay busy. So in the quiet early days of the pandemic, she decided to fi nd community the only way she knew how — through the local arts scene, which was still new to her.

“I like to network, so I went online and started looking up Cleveland arts organizations,” she says. “I went through their board directories and started cold-emailing people, saying, ‘Hey, can we have a Zoom call?’ And because of the madness and surrealism of COVID, a lot of them said yes. So I was able to connect in a very authentic way during a very troubling time.” During each call, she asked for the names of other people she should meet, and her days became filled with conversations about art and community.

Those connections proved fruitful. She had long dreamed of opening her own gallery, and by late 2020 she’d left her day job, signed a lease on a Tremont storefront and launched Kaiser Gallery — a gallery space with a cocktail lounge that showcased contemporary international artists and hosted poetry open mic nights, artist talks and interdisciplinary programming. “It was magical,” she says of the community she built there over four years. When the gallery closed in 2024, that community didn’t disappear; it expanded in new directions.

Today, Kaiser runs Renaissance Box, a residency initiative that pairs artists with STEM professionals for three-month collaborative projects — past participants have investigated microplastics and explored augmented reality.

She also serves as assistant director of Summer on the Cuyahoga, which brings college students from around the country to Cleveland for paid internships with free housing. The program offers around 40 events each summer — chamber music, breakdancing, brewery tours and even surf lessons on Lake Erie — all designed to make students fall in love with the city. This summer’s public capstone event, the Collegiate Career and Community Leader Mixer, takes place July 22 at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in downtown Cleveland.

Kaiser also sits on the board of the Collective Arts Network (CAN) Journal — a quarterly magazine with independent reporting and commentary on art, artists, their exhibits and related issues — and serves as exhibitions chair for the Women’s Caucus for Art, where she is tasked with helping to bring the organization’s national conference to town in 2027.

Kaiser pitched Cleveland for 2027, making the case that the city has a long history of women building their own arts spaces when none existed. In 1912, for example, a group of 25 women founded what became known as the Women’s Art Club of Cleveland in response to limited opportunities for women in existing arts institutions. BAYarts, founded in 1948 by Bay Village women to support arts and culture on Cleveland’s west side, carries that thread forward.

To Kaiser, Cleveland already had the infrastructure and spirit the organization was looking for. It was an easy sell. “Cleveland is overdue,” she says. “There’s a lot of talent here.”

In addition to her work in community programming, Kaiser is devoted to her own art practice. She studied sculpture at Mount St. Joseph University, in Cincinnati, and later at Stony Brook University, where she earned her MFA, and has a studio with a kiln in her Rocky River home, where she works in sculpture, installation and mixed media.

“In my own art I investigate a lot about censorship, systems of control and the experience of being a woman,” she says. As someone who grew up Puerto Rican and Catholic, she uses art to critique how politics and religion are used as excuses to police bodies and rights.

Her current series, “Crystallized Innocence,” involves submerging childhood artifacts in sugar water. The crystallizing sugar is corrosive, preserving and destroying these relics at the same time. “Whenever I do it, I feel very mournful,” she says, “as if I’m mourning a part of my childhood or my own children’s childhood.” Her first communion gown, handmade by her mother and now completely encased in crystal, will be among the works on view in an upcoming show in July (see sidebar below for details).

“What I love about the Cleveland art scene is that it’s accessible, it’s welcoming and there are a lot of opportunities,” she says. “I think artists get really comfortable in their silos, and it’s okay to break out — go to new spaces, introduce yourself, really just put yourself out there. If someone doesn’t like your work, then it just wasn’t for them. The best way is just to get out there. If they see you, they’re going to think of you for opportunities. If they don’t see you, they’re not thinking of you.”

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Meet Tanya Kaiser

12/17/2025

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Stories & Insights
December 17, 2025
Read This Article on CanvasRebel

"Could artists and STEM professionals truly collaborate as equals? Would interdisciplinary work dilute creativity rather than strengthen it? I realized I had to unlearn the very thing I had been conditioned to protect. The notion that art needed to exist apart in order to stay authentic."

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tanya Kaiser. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tanya below.

Hi Tanya, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

Renaissance Box began as an idea that first emerged during my MFA, when I was teaching art at a university defined by science and engineering. My classrooms were filled with students who approached creativity through experimentation and analysis, and witnessing how naturally they combined technical thinking with artistic inquiry made a strong impression on me. Even after graduating, I kept returning to the question of what could happen if interdisciplinary collaboration wasn’t incidental, but intentionally created.

For a long time, the idea lived in notebooks and conversations. I researched programs around the country and saw a clear gap: few spaces truly supported artists and STEM practitioners as equal creative partners. The concept had potential, but it needed a catalyst.

That catalyst came when I was selected to pitch the idea at Accelerate 2024. Preparing for that moment required me to crystallize the vision—to articulate not only what Renaissance Box could be, but why it mattered and how it could function as a program under Kaiser Studios. Presenting it publicly shifted everything. The response validated the need for a space like this and gave me the momentum to move from imagining to building.

Shortly after, Kaiser Studios received the Ingenuity Impact Award from Ingenuity Cleveland, which further propelled the idea forward. The recognition opened doors, strengthened community support, and created the foundation for a partnership with IngenuityLabs. Their environment aligned seamlessly with the residency’s mission, and together we began shaping the program’s structure, refining its goals, and preparing it for launch.

From there, Renaissance Box developed quickly. I formalized the framework, built the operational infrastructure, and piloted early collaborative experiences to ensure the residency was responsive and meaningful. By the time the first cohort arrived, the program had transformed into a functioning interdisciplinary residency rooted in curiosity, dialogue, and shared exploration.

Renaissance Box continues to grow, but its origins remain at the heart of it: an idea sparked in a cross-disciplinary classroom, accelerated by the opportunity to pitch at Accelerate 2024, and made real through the support and recognition of the Ingenuity Impact Award.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Kaiser Studios grew out of my work as an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and curator. My background in installation and sculptural practice taught me how deeply creativity intersects with memory, identity, and the structures that shape our lives. During my MFA, I taught art at a university centered around science and engineering, and witnessing how naturally STEM students engaged with creative inquiry sparked the earliest ideas for what would eventually become Renaissance Box.

Kaiser Studios began as a way to support artists through exhibitions, programming, and community engagement. Over time, it evolved into a nonprofit dedicated to fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. Our flagship program, Renaissance Box, brings together artists and STEM professionals to explore ideas collectively. We provide residents with a space to experiment, think across disciplines, and develop new work by bridging a gap in the creative ecosystem where these kinds of collaborations rarely have structured support.

What sets us apart is our belief that art and science are not separate worlds, but parallel ways of questioning and understanding. Renaissance Box offers an environment where those methods can meet, challenge one another, and expand what’s possible. Our work helps artists gain access to new tools and perspectives while giving STEM partners a creative framework for exploration. For the community, we create points of connection through exhibitions, talks, and public programming.

I’m proud of the impact we’ve made, including receiving the Ingenuity Impact Award from Ingenuity Cleveland, which recognized the importance of this interdisciplinary vision. More than anything, I want people to know that Kaiser Studios is built on curiosity, collaboration, and the belief that creativity thrives when we break out of silos. Our mission is to support artists, spark innovation, and create spaces where ideas can evolve into something meaningful and unexpected.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

One thing non-creatives often struggle to understand is how fluid and expansive a creative journey can be. Especially when it leads into interdisciplinary work like Renaissance Box. For many people, creativity is seen as something separate from science, engineering, or research, but my path has shown me that these boundaries are far more porous than they seem. Renaissance Box was born from recognizing that creativity isn’t limited to the arts; it’s also present in experimentation, problem-solving, and the curiosity that drives scientific inquiry.

Non-creatives might also be surprised by how much structure and strategic thinking go into building a program like this. Renaissance Box isn’t just about inspiration—it’s about creating a system where collaboration can thrive, where artists and STEM professionals can trust the process enough to take risks and explore unknown territory. That requires planning, facilitation, adaptability, and a willingness to step into ambiguity and build something new from it.

If there’s insight I can offer, it’s that creativity is not the opposite of logic or research; it’s a parallel language. What sets Renaissance Box apart is the belief that when those languages meet, something powerful happens. My journey reflects that intersection: art shaped how I see the world, and interdisciplinary collaboration expanded what I believed was possible. That blend is what fuels the program, and it’s what I hope others, creative or not, will recognize as a valuable way of thinking and working.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn while building Renaissance Box was the idea that disciplines need to stay in their own lanes. That artists should think like artists and scientists should think like scientists. This belief is subtle, but it’s deeply woven into how many of us are trained. In schools, in museums, in labs, we’re often taught that creativity and research belong to separate worlds, each with its own boundaries and expectations.

The backstory goes back to my MFA years, when I was teaching art at a university shaped by science and engineering. Even though I was immersed in a creative program, the wider environment operated on a very different set of assumptions. I carried the quiet belief that I needed to protect my creative identity, keep it pure, keep it separate from fields that felt too structured or analytical. But in the classroom, I watched STEM students approach creative work with an openness and inventiveness that challenged that belief. Their curiosity wasn’t separate from their technical mindset. It enhanced it. That was the first crack in the idea that creative disciplines should remain neatly divided.

When I began developing Renaissance Box, that old belief resurfaced as hesitation. Could artists and STEM professionals truly collaborate as equals? Would interdisciplinary work dilute creativity rather than strengthen it? I realized I had to unlearn the very thing I had been conditioned to protect. The notion that art needed to exist apart in order to stay authentic.

Letting go of that belief changed everything. It opened the door for Renaissance Box to become what it is now: a residency built on the shared power of different ways of thinking. Unlearning that boundary allowed me to see collaboration not as a compromise, but as a catalyst. And now, watching residents discover new forms of creativity together confirms that the most meaningful innovation often happens in the space where old assumptions are finally released.

Contact Info:

Website: https://www.renaissancebox.org
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaisergallery
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kaiserstudiosinc
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanyakaiser

Image Credits: Kaiser Studios

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Cool Cleveland: Kaiser Studios’ Renaissance Box Connects Science and Art in Project Addressing Waste and the Environment

1/21/2025

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By Anastasia Pantsios
Read full article on Cool Cleveland

Late last year Tanya Kaiser sold her groundbreaking Tremont gallery, Kaiser Gallery and Cocktail Bar, to artist and Tremont Sam Skelton after she took a job at Heights Arts. But she’s continuing her work supporting the arts community through her nonprofit, Kaiser Studios.

She already promised to continue some of the programs she established at the gallery, such as her spoken word and poetry open mics. In addition, she’s launching a new program called Renaissance Box, which provides an opportunity for collaborations between the arts and sciences, supported by Ingenuity Cleveland’s Ingenuity Impact Award.

The first collaboration, taking place from January through March, will be between sculptor Jonah Jacobs and neurologist Dr. Connie Pieper, who is now working for her BFA at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Their project revolves around the monstrous amount of trash Americans generate and its cost to the environment on both ends of its cycle, springboarding off Jacobs’ long-time interest in upcycling discarded materials into art. Pieper contributes scientific insights into the costs and potential this waste stream offers.

Jacobs and Pieper work together in a space at Ingenuity Labs at the Hamilton collaborative, tour various local cultural and scientific institutions and mentor high school interns who will participate in the final project the duo creates. Once the project is complete, they will host an exhibition and community engagement event.

Learn more and follow the progress of the project at kaiserstudios.org or renaissancebox.org.

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Cleveland Leadership Center: Initiative to create educational comics wins 10th annual Accelerate competition

2/22/2024

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Ingenuity Cleveland provided special Impact Awards, which they grant to budding entrepreneurs and creatives promoting social impact through creativity and the arts. Winners were Coggin, Jamison and Aguilar, Trayvon Porter, and Tanya Kaiser.

Read the full article on Cleveleads.org

February 22, 2024

Mayor Bibb presents anniversary proclamation
CLEVELAND – Laura Balliett’s idea to make science more accessible to students by using captivating cartoons won the 10th annual Accelerate: Citizens Make Change civic pitch competition Thursday night (February 22, 2024).

Nearly 750 people were part of the event presented by the Cleveland Leadership Center in partnership with Citizens and more than 100 other corporate, foundation, and individual supporters.

Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb, Honorary Chair of the event, presented a 10th Anniversary proclamation at the event to recognize the impact it has had over the years. “Accelerate has been a catalyst for projects that have transformed lives in Cleveland,” the proclamation read.

Accelerate 2024 brought to light 26 initiatives pitched by a diverse group of individuals from across northeast Ohio at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland.

“Accelerate pitches remind us how individuals can create the best possible tomorrow for our community – and how each of us can be part of strengthening our community,” said event Co-Chair Jim Malz, President of Citizens, Ohio, which has been Accelerate’s Presenting Sponsor since 2016. “Through our commitment to foster strong communities, we are honored to be a part of this competition and know that we will feel the ripple effect of the lasting impact tonight’s initiatives will have for many years to come.”

The audience voted Balliett’s pitch, “Cool School Comics” as the winner from among five finalists. She received $5,000 for the pitch in the Education category presented in partnership with Nordson. Balliett, a former Lakewood teacher, saw students shut down when presented with large blocks of text. She saw a huge difference when she turned lessons into comic-like graphics.
“Comics have the ability to break down barriers and make learning accessible,” she said. Her creations are not just comics, she explained; they are one-page infographics backed by lessons plans and animated slide shows that use a comics format to convey lessons. Balliett had pitched in the first Accelerate competition, in 2015, with a similar idea.

The other finalists, who each received $2,000, were:

Johnathan Jamison and Heavenly Aguilar, who pitched an idea of “Reel People, Real Legacies” to gather unique stories for communities that are unheard or overlooked and share and archive the stories. “Without Reel People, Real Legacies, our stories will continue to die generation after generation,” Aguilar said. The pitch was in the Arts & Culture category presented in partnership with Oswald Companies and Westfield.
Ariana Smith, who pitched “M.H.M. Youth Summit” to empower students by addressing their mental health concerns. “The sustainability of our community depends on the mental health of our community,” she said, adding that she hopes to launch the summit this fall. The pitch was in the Health & Well-being category presented in partnership with MAGNET: The Manufacturing and Advocacy Growth Network and The MetroHealth System.
Nicholas “Moses” Ngong and Luciana Salles who pitched “Culture.CLE” to create a curated dining experience that partners with immigrant-owned and operated restaurants. Ngong, who is Cameroonian, and Salles, who is Brazilian, want participants to meet with chefs and learn about their culture while they dine. The pitch was in the Social Change category presented in partnership with Centric Consulting.
Paula Coggins, whose pitch, “Sew City Quilts,” is about creating an indoor quilt trail that will bring hope to the Lee-Harvard neighborhood. “I believe in the potential of our collaborative minds to pull us up from our bootstraps,” she said of the project, which will foster artistic expression and community building. The pitch was in the Thriving Neighborhoods category presented in partnership with Growth Opps.

Sara Kidner won a special Technovation competition with an initiative called “Micro Scholarship Mentor Match” to help first -generation college students stay in school. Each year, she noted, many drop out because of balances of less than $2,000. “First-generation students need a way to quickly navigate and rebound from this situation,” she said, noting that the project would also help build a community around the student.

Kidner received $3,500 for the Technovation win, as the competition marked its third year at Accelerate in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation. Kidner, Principal of the John Marshall School of Civic and Business Leadership in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, was the overall winner of Accelerate 2021 with a pitch, “Read Like Me,” to improve literacy among young Black males and promote teaching as a career field for Black males. She has since launched that project and created a pipeline from CMSD to John Carroll University for students who participate and seek careers in education.

In addition to the cash prizes, all five finalists will receive a spot in the 2024 NEO SEA Change cohort for social entrepreneurs and a one-year membership in ECDI, which offers support, resources, and connections. The four runner-up finalists received vouchers for a Flawless Planning Live Workshop.

Ingenuity Cleveland provided special Impact Awards, which they grant to budding entrepreneurs and creatives promoting social impact through creativity and the arts. Winners were Coggin, Jamison and Aguilar, Trayvon Porter, and Tanya Kaiser.

Teen involvement
Lilly Moran and Gabby Ransom of Hathaway Brown School won a special Teen Accelerate competition with an initiative, “Growing Hope,” to provide gardening kits to children in foster care or long-term hospitalization to bring them the joy of nature. They see the kits as a way to give children who might feel hopeless something they can call their own. They received $1,000 and the support of a mentor to help launch the initiative.

Carter Black, Grady Miller, Jack Shaffer, and Tess Bucher of North Canton Hoover High School were the Teen Accelerate runners up and received $500. Their pitch, “Mission Monarch,” is to help stem the population decline of Monarch butterflies. They want to make it easy for people to plant milkweed, a food source for the butterflies and where they lay eggs, and sell plush toys to raise awareness.

Teen Accelerate: Students Make Change, offered in partnership with the Young Entrepreneur Institute, marked its second year as part of Accelerate and featured 10 pitches from students in grades 9-12 across Cuyahoga and neighboring counties. Runners up each received $250. The competition was supported by Burton D. Morgan Foundation.

Teens also had a visible Accelerate presence at the Teen Entrepreneur Showcase and Pop-Up Shop also sponsored by Burton D. Morgan Foundation. It featured four businesses created by youth. In addition to selling their products, they shared their stories.

The Teen Pop-Up Shop was developed after the winning Accelerate 2018 pitch to support the endeavors of young business people, and has been featured at Accelerate each year since then.

10 years of success
A special 10th Anniversary Gallery, along with a Past Presenters Showcase, offered highlights of successful initiatives that Accelerate has launched over the past decade. The gallery, as well as creative elements that enlivened the Convention Center, were sponsored by Lubrizol and Thompson Hine LLP.

CLC President & CEO Marianne Crosley said that most of the 273 initiatives pitched at Accelerate the past 10 years did not come to the competition with a business plan and timeline and were able to launch because of the connections and collaboration that Accelerate fosters.

“We have had more than 5,000 people involved in the event over the years – individuals who are inspired by what they hear and want to help the presenters bring their ideas to reality,” she said. “Accelerate has touched literally tens of thousands of lives and made Cleveland stronger in so many ways.”

To celebrate the anniversary, CLC engaged a prior Accelerate winner to create a video highlighting just some of the many successes over the decade. Digital storyteller Jing Lauengco, who won the Technovation category in 2021, interviewed several other past presenters – all the way back to 2015 – who shared how Accelerated helped launch their projects, and the lives those initiatives have touched.

Cleveland Leadership Center launched Accelerate in 2015 as its signature annual event to support the Center and to promote social innovation. Presenters have represented a broad diversity of age, race, gender identity, and background. Among this year’s presenters, 58% are women, 61% are people of color, and 7% identify as LGBTQ+.

Accelerate 2024 featured a digital program book, video screens with category updates, and additional technology to ensure a more effective and sustainable experience. Technology needs were sponsored by Adcom. The networking reception, during which guests could engage with current and past Accelerate presenters and make other connections, was sponsored by The NRP Group. Valet sponsors were KJK and PwC.

In the months leading up to Accelerate, presenters received training in presentation skills from Andrea Peck of Andrea Peck Communications and Michael Barakiva, Artistic Director of the Cleveland Play House. Notre Dame College hosted presenters for a practice session, and ioby, a grassroots crowdfunding platform, provided its platform for presenters.

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Background and links to full descriptions of all pitches: www.cleveleads.org/Accelerate

Media contact
Michael E. Bennett, VP of External Affairs, C: (216) 408-3874, O: (216) 592-2426, [email protected]

Tags: awards, Cleveland, collaboration, community change, educating for tomorrow, health & wellness, quality of life, social entrepreneurship, transformative arts & culture

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The Art of SHOWING UP

How Tanya Kaiser Found Community — and Helped Build It — Through Cleveland’s Arts Scene

Meet Tanya Kaiser

Cool Cleveland: Kaiser Studios’ Renaissance Box Connects Science and Art in Project Addressing Waste and the Environment

Cleveland Leadership Center: Initiative to create educational comics wins 10th annual Accelerate competition

Tanya Kaiser

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