What Do I Want to Live With?

By Jennifer Steyer Kinley

I opened the year months ago with a resolution to selectively curate my life going forward. This decision was five decades in the making. Space and time are limited and extremely valuable. I don’t want to fill mine with filler any longer. Other than the people important in my life, I only want real things surrounding me that are meaningful, embody quality, or bring purpose or joy.

Some things earn a place in our lives; others simply occupy space. What am I surrounding myself with? Are they objects and items that hold meaning and value, or is it essentially clutter?

And then there are objects, stories, and creative lives whose significance we may not even recognize—that are worth preserving, holding, and remembering.

Enter Watershed Archive.

Art and writing have always been part of my life, even when they weren’t my profession. I married a professional artist, and together we have operated an art studio and gallery for more than twenty years. We have encountered remarkable people and work that deserve greater recognition. Watershed grew from a desire to give that work another place to be seen, appreciated, and collected.

Over the course, we have braved the elements at countless art shows across Ohio, traveled and assembled displays for weekend exhibitions, partnered with galleries in different cities, navigated the online marketplace, and eventually established a studio and gallery at 78th Street Studios. Through all of it, the people we’ve met are what mean the most. Watershed Archive is a way to connect some of those people and provide another platform for the work being created within this art ecosystem.

Watershed begins here in Cleveland and extends outward through Ohio and into the greater Midwest. This is where we are rooted and growing. This is who we are. We have a dual industrial and agricultural core, cities and open land, and the Great Lakes. Its culture and character inevitably find their way into the things made here. In an art world that can feel increasingly global and placeless, I believe there is value in paying attention to work that carries a sense of where it comes from. Watershed Archive represents this. It is a carefully selected collection of what I want to live with. Perhaps others do as well.

We are just starting. This small conduit will converge with others. I look forward to seeing where Watershed flows.