Each issue of CAN Journal, Northeast Ohio’s premiere visual arts quarterly magazine, seems to get bigger and better. Be the first to pick up a copy of the latest CAN Journal during a Spring Issue Launch Party at MOCA Cleveland from 6 to 8 p.m. this Friday, March 3. The night includes free admission to MOCA Cleveland’s current exhibitions, and features a Cuban theme thanks to the Cleveland Foundation’s new Creative Fusion international resident artists (check out the new issue of CAN for more information). Enjoy mojitos, beer, wine and food, as well as live Afro Cuban music from the Neil Chastain trio.

“CAN is a kind of mirror of the local arts community, and this issue is a great illustration of that,” says CAN Journal editor, publisher and executive director Michael Gill. “On the one hand, it previews dozens of shows coming up in the next three months: it’s a reflection of all that activity. On the other, it has reported features that help connect dots and dig deeper.”

The cover of CAN’s Spring 2017 issue features a watercolor flower by renowned local artist and professor/former chair of Cleveland State University’s Art Department George Mauersberger. (And check out this week’s Scene for more on his work, too.) The issue includes feature stories on Mauersberger by Douglas Max Utter, legendary gallerist William Busta’s advice for artists (first in a new series), Donald Black Jr. on individual artist grants, Henry Adams on William Robinson and Brittany Mariel Hudak on the national dialogue surrounding the NEA/NEH, as well as the first in a new series of stories about efforts to bring art patrons to Cleveland. The Spring 2017 issue also includes CAN’s Speak Up Guide to Arts Advocacy and 15 bilingual pages featuring the aforementioned Creative Fusion Cuban artists.

“We’ve included a cut-out guide to arts activism, which has contact info for administrators and elected officials at all levels—the county (CAC and county council reps, plus CPAC) the state (OAC, Ohio Citizens for the Arts, and state reps) and federal (NEA, Americans for the Arts, and House and Senate Reps),” says Gill. “CAN‘s SPEAK UP guide to arts activism is of course printed in every copy, and therefore will be distributed to more than 10,000 people.”

Shifting to discussing the magazine’s first bilingual features, Gill says, “The Spanish-speaking writers include familiar artists Claudio Orso and Augusto Bordelois, among others. The section is supported with Spanish-language editing and translation by Damaris Punales Alpizar, who is a professor of Spanish and Caribbean culture at CWRU. Cleveland is going to see a whole lot of Cubanismo in the coming months, and the Spring issue of CAN provides a great overview.”

If you can’t make the Spring Issue Launch Party, CAN Journal will be distributed in the coming days to more than 200 locations throughout Cuyahoga County, such as member galleries, coffee shops, restaurants, libraries, as well as every Heinen’s location and select locations in Akron and Medina. For more information on CAN Journal, visit canjournal.org.

(MOCA Cleveland) 11400 Euclid Ave., 216-421-8671, mocacleveland.org

This article appears in Feb 22-28, 2017.