- [Announcer] Funding for "The Art Show" is made possible by The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. U.S. Bank Foundation, and the Virginia W. Kettering Foundation, proud supporter of the arts in our community.

Additional funding provided by... And viewers like you.

Thank you.

- [Rodney] In this edition of "The Art Show", meet an avant-garde artist whose shop was a staple in Cincinnati.

(cheerful music) During the pandemic, a man shares his love of music with porchside concerts.

And creating jewelry from graffiti while empowering women.

It's all ahead on this edition of "The Art Show".

(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.

Tilly Berghege moved from Holland to Cincinnati in 1965.

In 1983, she opened a store, selling clown dolls, clothes, sculptures, and paintings.

Here is her story.

- This is, well, (soft music) she looks funny now because she's not complete anymore.

Maybe don't take her body, okay?

She lost her body.

But the face, look, she has her little tongue sticking out.

So I call them my sophisticated bitches, which is a compliment to her, yeah.

- Ladies and Gentlemen, let's have a big round of applause for Tilly.

Without her, (audience applauds) it couldn't be possible.

- [Tilly] My name is Tilly Berghege.

I'm born in Holland, the Netherlands in 1946, and I came here as a young bride in 1965.

- I kind of think the whole making the dolls started 'cause yoh-SAY, her sister, sent over a little, - [Melissa] Pierrot.

- [Sharon] a little stuffed gesture doll.

And I don't know how mom really got... Was it the clothes first - Wait, - or the dolls first?

- don't you remember?

- No, she made us a Christmas gift.

- Uh-huh.

- And she made us dolls.

So dad was on strike, and she was making things.

- And, - Yeah.

- [Melissa] I got a clown with red and white checkered flat, and then you got, I can't remember what you got.

But- - [Sharon] Her memory is better than mine.

(Melissa and Sharon laugh) - So, that's where it started.

It started on a Christmas, where we didn't have enough, so my mom made something for us.

- [Tilly] My daughters helped me a lot because we had made a mime outfit, and they would paint their faces white with the little cross and the tear.

And when I did a show or set up my booth somewhere, either in malls or outdoor shows, they would mime right outside my booth.

They would just stand very pose, and stand really still.

When I opened my store in '83, you cannot describe that feeling.

You're so bombarded with work and you want it to be right, but you're so excited.

And the best part was then when people would walk in, start talking to you and looking at the stuff that you actually made and created.

I think, yeah, even growing up, I think I was unique, I think I can call unique.

Part of it is probably I'm born in '46, right after the war.

So, I always jokingly said I was created jumping with joy.

So, when I was born, I mean, I kept on jumping and couldn't sit still, I had to do something.

There.

I've had it ever since I was young, I used to alter my clothes back home before I came over here, to the point they would sometime laugh and say, "What the heck is that?"

But I loved it, it was different and I think I just always was a little different, didn't want to be just anybody, I don't know how to explain it.

- The other thing I appreciate about my mom, she was always redesigning the house.

I would come home and the couch would be on the other side.

She just couldn't sit still, but she should have been an interior designer, she was amazing.

I think she had so much creativity, it was just spilling out everywhere.

And I think that's why she started the store and she wanted to meet people 'cause she's a foreigner and she came here and our neighborhood was stifled with older people, older Americans.

- Yeah.

- So, meeting other people was really important to my mom.

- Well, the cute thing is when I told my family back home that I was opening a shop to they went like, "What?"

Because back home in Holland, that is before you open up a shop, you need certain diplomas in order to be allowed to open a shop, and that made me laugh and I said, "This is what I love about America."

You pay a $10, what do you call it, a permit?

And as long as you pay your taxes, you can do what you want.

You know?

(laughs) - I feel extremely lucky to have Tilly as my mom.

I really do, I think I am who I am because of her.

I'm so grateful, aren't you?

- Oh, that's really sweet of you to say.

- [Melissa] But it's the truth, right?

- [Sharon] Yes, I've not met anybody else's mother that is even remotely like my mom.

I know that sounds like, my kids are great, you know?

- Of course, - No.

- [Sharon] you're kind of biased but truly- - [Melissa] I know people that don't have an experience we've had and can't really say that they love their parents.

- A lot of our friends would call my mom, Mom.

You know- - That's the truth.

- [Sharon] That is true.

- [Melissa] She's one of a kind.

- [Tilly] I've been very lucky that my children are creative also.

So when they went to school in the art academy, they made some unique painting and art work, which mostly hangs on my wall now.

I used to draw, but I'm more knitting and be creative that way in embroidery doing...

I love cooking and yard work.

So, I guess my palate is my garden now.

(laughs) All right, Melissa.

(mellow music) Always happy to have my daughter with me.

One of these days, I'm gonna (audio fading drowns out speaker).

Thank you for coming out here.

- [Rodney] If you'd like to learn more about this or any other story on today's show, visit us online at cetconnect.org or thinktv.org.

With so many venues and performance spaces still closed, many local artists have found innovative ways to share their talent with their communities, all from a safe distance, of course.

In Columbus, Thom McCain is sharing his favorite Irish folk songs from his porch.

Here's his story.

(water flows) ("There's a Meetin' Here Tonight" music) - [Thom] We live in this really incredible house on the edge of Overbrook Ravine, and across the ravine is a city park.

Crisis came and I think I, like everybody wanted to, what can I do?

♪ Some come to play ♪ I had remembered the Italians out singing, you know?

And New York city, there were people out singing, and I said, "Well, I got a porch."

♪ To sing ♪ It's too far for anything they throw to hit me, (laughs) you know?

I'll just see what happens.

And that was the middle of March, and I've pretty much played everyday.

♪ There's a meeting here tonight ♪ ♪ Great God, I'm glad you came along ♪ ♪ Hope all your brothers and your sisters ♪ ♪ Here can help me sing this song ♪ I'm playing an autoharp.

I was totally self-taught.

It is probably the easiest instrument to play immediately because the chords, you just push a button, and you get an A or a C. Let's hear it!

♪ Meeting here tonight ♪ ♪ I know you by your friendly face ♪ ♪ There's a meeting here tonight ♪ ♪ There's a meeting here tonight ♪ Whoo!

(audience applauds) Hi, guys, "Meeting Here Tonight".

I'm Thom on the porch.

When you make your list when you retire, the things you want to do, and one of the was, I really wanted to get to play the thing well.

And so, I went and found Brian Bowers, who's the world's greatest autoharpist, and he invited me to come out, ("City of New Orleans" music) and stayed with him for a week and it really changed.

(laughs) Oh, I was playing the thing wrong.

♪ And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ♪ ♪ They ride their father's magic carpet made of steel ♪ ♪ Mothers with their babes asleep ♪ ♪ Rocking to that gentle beat ♪ ♪ The rhythm of the rails is all they feel ♪ ♪ Oh, good morning, America ♪ ♪ How are you ♪ ♪ Hey, don't you know me, I'm your native son ♪ ♪ I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans ♪ ♪ I'll be gone 500 miles when the day is done ♪ ♪ Oh Danny boy ♪ ("Danny Boy" music) ♪ The pipes, the pipes are calling ♪ ♪ From glen to glen and down the mountain side ♪ Got to Ireland and started reading about its history.

And as an Irish-American, we used to sing, "Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder" and those kinds of things.

But the more you learn about the history of the place and realize what poets and song-writers, they have been in that country forever.

You really get attracted to it, and Ireland was occupied for 800 years by some other invader, essentially.

And they've only been a country since 1931.

Lots of troubles, lots of war songs, lots of immigration songs out of the famine.

(water flows) So I started learning a lot of the repertoire and I fell in love with both the sad songs, as well as songs about the trauma of becoming a country, and of becoming a rural, agrarian place, into being one of the really successful countries in the European Union now.

Well, one of the songs that I really love in the Irish repertoire is called "Come by the Hills".

We have a friend, Harry Long, he took me to one of these passage tombs in the north of Ireland.

There are 400 of these, they're sort of Stonehenge, is a passage tomb, it has the lighting up the interior, and all of that stuff and the astronomer, as well.

Ireland has tons of these, mostly across the middle-northern part of the country.

Our friend took us to this passage tomb, and he went to the farmer's house and he got the key, and we went and climbed up a little hill, and got into this ancient place that was like a temple.

We don't quite know how old the one I was in was, but it could've been 4,000 years old because they were made before the pyramids of Egypt.

The sound was perfect, and I'd heard him sing this song, "Come by the Hills", to his daughter the night before, and I said, "Lets play it."

So he starts playing it, and I started playing along, and I learned the song there after about an hour, hour and a half.

It also has, oh, just the best line about Ireland.

"The cares of tomorrow must wait 'til this day is done."

Isn't that nice?

♪ And the cares of tomorrow must wait 'til this day is done ♪ Isn't that a nice sentiment, huh?

(audience applauds) You just feel being in Ireland there.

(dog barks) ("Those were the Days" music) ♪ Once upon a time, there was a tavern ♪ ♪ Where we used to raise a glass or two ♪ ♪ Remember how we laughed away the hours ♪ ♪ And dreamed of all those great things we would do ♪ Just when I think I'm lonely, I'm there all by myself, somebody comes by and waves and keeps on going, or a family comes and starts to play in the creek or horns start honking.

I remember one time, a car went by and it had a sun roof and four hands came up and waved at that.

♪ Oh yes, those were the days ♪ - We all have this difficult time now, where we're all, I think, becoming to realize, at least I have and most of my friends, that it will never be the same again.

We can't go back any place, 'cause back is gone.

So I've been opening up and being a different person during this process, and I've seen the people who come, the regulars who are changing, and have a little lighter load.

And I just recommend that people do something, that they can share and maybe brighten somebody else's life.

We need it.

♪ La, la, la, la, la, la ♪ ♪ La, la, la, la, la, la ♪ ♪ Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days ♪ (audience applauds) Meh, meh, meh, mehw!

That's all, folks!

Thanks for coming.

See you tomorrow.

(music) - [Rodney] Did you miss an episode of The Art Show?

No problem!

You can watch it on demand at cetconnect.org and thinktv.org.

You'll find all the previous episodes, as well as current episodes, and links to the artists we feature.

Rebel Nell is a social enterprise that creates jewelry from fallen graffiti, but it is so much more than that!

The organization also empowers the women they employ.

Here is their story.

(mellow jazz music) - [Amy] One of our number one rules at Rebel Nell is that you never fall in love with the top layer.

It's really what's underneath that's important.

- [Nechelle] Graffiti is just paint over, painted over, painted over, and you have these layers.

And everyone has these layers, and once you peel them back, you see different sides of people, different backgrounds, different things that they've been through.

- Whoever touched it had her own mind and train of thought when she put it together, so each piece is uniquely different, and I think that's our style.

- Rebel Nell started around March of 2013.

Where I was living in Detroit, it was right next door to COTS.

COTS is an amazing organization in the city, which is abbreviated for the Coalition on Temporary Shelter.

It's a women and family-only shelter.

And I would have conversations with the women, and I learned that these are incredible women who, so often left to challenging situations in search of a better opportunity, even if it meant going to the shelter.

This was my sort of aha moment.

And I asked my business partner at the time, I said what if we could provide all the wraparound services, sort of a teach a woman to fish concept.

And then, what if we could come up with a product that we could employ them, that we could sell, that would then provide all the wraparound services.

And then, really, that concept for Rebel Nell was born then.

My business partner and I, Diana, we both had some jewelry-making background, and so we thought what if we could create some Detroit-centric jewelry that would really pay tribute to the city that we live in and also become something cool to wear.

And then, it wasn't until a run on the Dequindre Cut, when I saw some graffiti on the ground, and that was the light bulb moment for the jewelry.

- With every piece of jewelry I create, I put love, energy, affection.

- [Amy] The evolution of Rebel Nell is so much credit, is with the actual design team, and taking their thoughts and considerations into how we've changed or evolved our process.

They're really to be credited for the quality that it is today.

- You actually have creative control.

So you can choose your piece of graffiti, and it's all about the person who's making it because each one is different and it's based on our personality.

- [Brenda] We start off with metal sheet, and we draw our shapes on it.

After we cut that out, we put our graffiti on.

And that's another part that I'm not able to say how we get that graffiti to pop so beautiful, but we get it on there as pretty as we can get and then, we actually cut, shape, glue, bind.

Then after we get all that part processed, we put this resin on it, which makes it shine.

Then, we sand our edges, clip our piece, make the back, polish it, pop it, and then we drill this hole in it to put the chains on or do our earrings.

We do French hook earrings.

Post drop earrings, which is the one with the ball, and they also dangle.

These signature pendants.

This is a large piece, we have medium pieces, and then, we have really small pieces.

- [Amy] You're wearing a piece of Detroit.

There's a piece of history that we've done a great job of being able to encapsulate and preserve.

And most of the time, it's on silver or brass, depending on your price point, your interest.

But you certainly will have a piece that will last you, that you could pass down for generations to come and share in that piece of Detroit.

Our true mission of why we do Rebel Nell is to provide a transitional opportunity for the women that we hire.

We are looking for women who have a desire to change their situation, can work well with others, and a willingness to learn.

One of the things I've learned about running Rebel Nell and interacting with all of our incredible employees is just how broken the system really is, and especially the challenges if you are a single mother in trying to maintain a job, right?

And you don't have that support system.

- [Brenda] I ended up at COTS because unemployment said they overpaid me four and a half thousand dollars.

They garnished me for all of my income taxes, including the unemployment which I was receiving, which led to my homelessness.

Brenda is a blessing for this planet.

There's nobody who has had a more optimistic and positive attitude, even when life hands her a lot of challenges, and we've experienced quite a few of those with her.

And just to see her put on that face of perseverance.

- Sometimes, just the thought of where I come from and to where I'm going can bring a tear to my eye, but it's a positive tear.

- [Amy] Nechelle.

She is the little spark plug that we have here at Rebel.

She's hilarious, she's gonna go very far.

This is just a stepping stone for her.

- I seriously am a lot better now than I was.

- [Brenda] We have this TEA program, which to teach, educate and achieve.

I didn't consider about credit scores, fixing my accounts, what kind of accounts I could have, secure loans, and all of those kinds of things were taught to me through the TEA program.

I'll be working on home ownership, which is another thing that the TEA program, working here just opened my eyes to a lot.

So I'll be a homeowner really soon.

- They really helped me become more self-sufficient and lead me on a correct path and stay on it.

This is more like a family setting more than anything, and that's why I love it here.

- [Amy] We also think that the women we employ are really rebelling against what life's dealt to them, and we're dealing with graffiti, which is rebellious in and of itself.

And we also wanted to pay tribute to a woman who was a trailblazer before us, Eleanor Roosevelt, and everything she stood for.

Her nickname that her dad gave her was Little Nell.

We think she is certainly worthy of a stronger nickname, and that's how we came up with Rebel Nell.

- [Brenda] Everybody who does graffiti all throughout the city of Detroit, before they had these projects was considered rebels.

People do look at me, who went through homelessness, "Oh, she was rebellious, she didn't follow the rules, she didn't do what she was supposed to do to get there."

So when I get that graffiti, I get to change it into something awesome that you never knew somebody that was a rebel could do something so great.

- [Nechelle] When you look forward to going to work, that's when you know you've found your niche.

You come in, and we're just happy.

- We're cousins, I tell everybody that.

That's really what I say, "We are all cousins here, and we share food, ideas, thoughts, it's a plus."

- [Amy] I know that most of the purchasers understand how special a piece of Rebel Nell really is.

And again, going back to not only because it's one of a kind and through the cross section of graffiti, but also because of the woman who made it, and what that really is doing to make a difference is really powerful.

It stands that you believe in empowering women, it stands for you believe in promoting equality and making a difference in this world.

- [Nechelle] We show people that we're women transitioning out of homelessness, and we can do this.

It's never too late to focus on your dreams and do whatever it is you feel like you want to do.

(music) - [Rodney] The Art Show is gonna be traveling around southwest Ohio.

You might see this logo in your neighborhood.

Follow the travels of The Art Show on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at thinktv and cetconnect.

And check out TheArtShow hashtag.

And that wraps it up for this edition of "The Art Show".

Until next time, I'm Rodney Veal.

Thanks for watching.

- [Announcer] Funding for "The Art Show" is made possible by The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. U.S. Bank Foundation, and the Virginia W. Kettering Foundation, proud supporter of the arts in our community.

Additional funding provided by... And viewers like you.

Close captioning in part has been made possible through a grant from The Bahmann Foundation.

Thank you.