James C. Kulhanek

Václav Kulhánek and Anna Kulhánek, née Veleba, the parents of James C. Kulhanek, were born in Bohemia within Austria-Hungary and settled in Cleveland in the 1900s. James C. Kulhanek was born there on April 23, 1908.[1]

Kulhanek was a student of Henry Keller at the Cleveland School of Art.[2]

In 1938, Kulhanek was a witness to an incident at Brookside Zoo where Judy Zemnick, another WPA artist, was pulled into a polar bear enclosure and clawed. Kulhanek and another artist called for help and tried to drive the bear away from Ms. Zemnick.[3] The incident received extensive press coverage at the time and for two years following.

Between 1935 and 1942, Kulhanek received Federal Art Project commissions through New Deal Works Progress Administration- sponsored art projects, such as the rendering of several prints of elks, great horned owls,[4] and reindeer, now in the collection of Case Western University.[5][6] He also painted panels to be installed in the hallways of Collinwood[2] and Lincoln High Schools as well as the Federal Courthouse. Shortly before Kulhanek's death, the artist painted a portrait of former Cleveland mayor Dennis Kucinich, who actually sat for Kulhanek, although the portrait was never displayed in Cleveland City Hall.[7]