Groundworks Dance Theater recently presented an original work choreographed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett that featured rousing Broadway-style choreography set to the music of the 80s band the Pretenders.

The show wasn't exactly what comes to mind when one thinks of contemporary dance, and audiences loved it. Groundworks General Manager Beth Rutkowski says her organization is using performances like this to reach new audiences in Cleveland.

"There are a lot of people who say, 'I'm not really a modern dance person and modern dance is weird,'" says Rutkowski. "Yet if we're able to get them in the door, they find our work is extremely accessible. It's getting past that barrier."

Connecting diverse, new audiences to Cleveland's rich arts and culture groups is the purpose of Engaging the Future, an initiative by the Cleveland Foundation to help arts organizations think differently about how to grow their audiences.

"It's about more than just putting butts in seats," says Rutkowski. "We're looking at ways to engage different people and a more diverse audience. Audiences for many arts organizations in Cleveland are getting older and are for the most part white. We want to look at new ways of thinking and share best practices."

Some of the new ideas Groundworks is considering include collaborating with other groups; stressing a more interactive relationship with its audience; offering performances online for younger audiences that want to "self-curate"; hosting evening gatherings of creative individuals, including entrepreneurs, to explore the relationship between art and creativity; and developing a series of videos called "It's Your Move" that connect dance to regular, everyday body movements.

Engaging the Future recently released a survey and hopes to glean audience information from it that will help organizations to chart a course in the future.


Source: Beth Rutkowski, Kristin Puch
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Before a packed house at Severance Hall, Cleveland Foundation President Ronn Richard touted the city's accomplishments in becoming a hub of innovation and taking bold steps to address big problems at the foundation's annual meeting this Tuesday.

Waxing poetic on the gilded stage for a moment, Richard harkened back to the foundation's early days in the 1910's as a time of tremendous innovation in Cleveland. "I still wonder if the past might be prologue," he mused, noting that the foundation's centennial is just two years away. "Can we envision the spirit of a second renaissance in Cleveland?"

Richard also posed a challenge to civic leaders to remain focused on true economic development and social change within the city. "Physical development, as wonderful as it is, must be coupled with investment in people and placemaking," he said, noting that the building spree of the 1990s was too focused on bricks and mortar projects. "We need to invest in connecting communities."

Among the foundation's projects, Richard touted the Cleveland schools plan that recently passed the state legislature, ongoing investments in high quality urban education, economic development programs such as the HealthTech Corridor and the Evergreen Cooperatives, and programs to connect new audiences to the arts.

Richard also told the audience that later this year the Cleveland Foundation will unveil a new microlending program for entrepreneurs seeking loans under $50,000 to help spur job creation and assist the creation of startups.


Source: Ronn Richard
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The Cleveland Carbon Fund has announced three grant awards totaling $15,000 for 2012, including an ambitious effort to increase the number of bike commuters in Cleveland, a backyard composting initiative in Tremont, and a project to make homes in the Central neighborhood more energy-efficient.

Bike Cleveland's project, Creating a Mode Shift, will provide riders with the tools, tips and advice on how to commute to work in Cleveland. The effort includes a commuter challenge in which individuals and teams can compete and win prizes, a guide to navigating bike commuting, and outreach to employers to help incentivize more employees to ride to work.

Tremont West Development Corporation will initiate a Residential Composting Program that will distribute bins to local residents, encourage participants to reduce their waste, and track how much is saved from landfills. The program is offered in partnership with the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District.

Burton Bell Carr Development Corporation's project, Heritage View Model Block Sustainability Program, will make homes in the Central neighborhood more energy-efficient by switching out incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs, adding sink aerators, and installing low-flow shower heads.

The Cleveland Carbon Fund was created in 2009 by the City of Cleveland, Green City Blue Lake Institute at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Gund Foundation, Cleveland Foundation and Cleveland Clinic. Its goal, as Carbon Fund Fellow Joanne Neugebauer puts it, is to "think globally, green locally." The Carbon Fund is the first community-based, open-access fund in the U.S.


Source: Joanne Neugebauer
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Santina Protopapa is a self-professed high school "band nerd" who learned about hip hop while organizing a Rock Hall conference, then used it as a launching bad to start her own arts nonprofit.

Ten years later, the Progressive Arts Alliance (PAA) serves more than 1,000 students across Northeast Ohio every week through hip hop arts education.

"Our students have really grown to be leaders through hip hop," says Protopapa, a percussionist and DJ who teaches rap, hip hop, dance, film and animation. "Teachers are excited because they have no way to present this stuff in a meaningful way to their kids. They tell us, 'We could never have done this without you.'"

Last month, the PA All-Stars, a group of five high school and college students who write and perform their own original hip hop tunes, had a chance to perform on stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. The event was part of a program called "What's Going on Now" which celebrated the 40th anniversary of Marvin Gaye's famous album. The PA All-Stars also ended up on PBS News Hour.

"It was really cool to have the opportunity to present their work to a larger audience," says Protopapa. "Normally our shows are attended by parents."

On August 11th, PAA will celebrate its 10th anniversary with an event called Ten Years of Rhapsody at the House of Blues in Cleveland. The fundraiser will feature a tribute to Cleveland break dancing legends Project Five featuring Councilman Matt Zone, the Corporate Cleveland's Best Dance Crew crew competition, live dance performances and hands-on art experiences for people of all ages.


Source: Santina Protopapa
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Spice of Life, the umbrella group that includes a restaurant, catering company, and farm-to-table garden plots, is installing new raised beds and a high tunnel hoop house behind its restaurant and offices at W. 58th and Detroit Avenue to satisfy demand for local food in its operations.

"I like the idea of people being seated on the patio and seeing chefs pick herbs, go back to the kitchen and make things out of them," says chef and owner Ben Bebenroth, who also has 10,000 square feet of gardens behind his home. Additional food is sourced on a weekly basis from 30 to 60 Northeast Ohio farms. The food is used at Spice Kitchen + Bar as well as for catering jobs. "My focus now is on transforming ornamentals into edible ornamentals."

Bebenroth, who says that he's always thinking about "what's in season," is building the hoop house to extend his growing season to nearly 10 months out of the year. He is now growing quick crops such as lettuces that he can replant every 45 days.

"I think it's really important to have a hoop house for the neighborhood and the neighborhood kids to see," he says. "It's a shining example of what's possible."

Bebenroth's main motivation for expanding his gardens is that regional farms often have trouble keeping up with Spice of Life's demands for top quality, locally grown foods. By hiring a farm manager and sourcing as much food from his own farms as possible, Bebenroth is better able to keep up with growing demand.


Source: Ben Bebenroth
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The term "Rust Belt Chic" has been bandied about in urban journalism circles for over a decade. But lately, the connotation and import of that catchy phrase seem to be taking on a welcome new identity. A book in progress from Cleveland-based writers aims to take ownership of the phrase and help define what it truly means to live in a recovering Rust Belt city.

Megan Meister chuckles as she thinks of the unlikely collision of worlds involved in planting four eat-everything-in-sight goats in the midst of Stockyards -- a neighborhood that long ago shed its past as the home of the city's slaughterhouses.

Yet to Meister, the ebullient director of the Stockyards, Clark Fulton and Brooklyn Centre Community Development Organization, the area's new "Mow Goats" program is about the re-greening of the neighborhood, teaching kids and families about urban agriculture, and possibly even saving the city some money.

"Kids in urban areas don't get the opportunity to be around farm animals very often," says Meister, who worked with residents, The County Line Farm in Geneva, Ohio and the City of Cleveland to pioneer the 25-day program. "This is a creative way to address the problem of vacant lots in our neighborhood."

The "ladies," as they're known at the office, have a regular 9-to-5 job mowing a lot at W. 61st and Frontier Avenue. When they're done with that -- soon, based on their seemingly unstoppable appetite for anything leafy and green -- they'll be rotated to another lot. Meister hired a full-time goat herder for the project.

The Stockyards office receives a slew of calls every season about mowing lots. The City of Cleveland mows lots a few times per year and attempts to collect from property owners, but lacks the resources to mow them more regularly.

Meister hopes the project can be replicated elsewhere. She estimates that it would cost about $9,000 to $10,000 per six-month season to rent four goats, which is actually cheaper than what the city typically charges property owners to mow lots. The excess goat poop is being used to fertilize neighborhood gardens.


Source: Megan Meister
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Communities in Cuyahoga County are recycling about 50 percent of their waste on average, Diane Bickett, Executive Director of the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District, told the audience at the recent Cleveland Composting and Recycling Forum.

Austin, Texas has an ambitious goal of reaching zero waste by 2040, which means reducing the amount of trash sent to landfills by 90 percent.

The question now becomes: How does our region advance those goals while encouraging communities with dismal levels of recycling to raise the bar? That was the question that Bickett posed to the crowd during the one-day examination of recycling and composting in our region.

The City of Cleveland has one of the lowest levels of recycling in Cuyahoga County at about seven percent. Cleveland Heights and Lakewood hover around 60 percent, and Pepper Pike is over 70 percent. Bickett said that Cleveland and other cities could improve recycling rates by focusing on new, automated technologies, expanding organic collection, adding more recycling in public spaces, making citywide policy changes, and better educating residents and businesses.

Beyond the sustainability benefits, recycling also creates jobs. "For every job in the disposal industry, 17 are created in the recycling industry," Bickett said.

Given the prowess of the local food and urban agriculture movements in Cleveland, Bickett cited an opportunity to create composting facilities run by volunteers and community organizations that generate nutrient-rich soil.

Councilman Brian Cummins criticized the city's one-size-fits-all disposal fee and unambitious recycling goals (the city aims to recycle up to 25 percent of its waste by building a waste-to-energy facility and rolling out curbside recycling citywide). 

Cummins also promoted the idea that recycling could generate local jobs, although he and Bickett acknowledged that recycling programs actually cost cities money.

City of Cleveland representatives were invited to attend the forum but declined.


Source: Diane Bickett, Brian Cummins
Writer: Lee Chilcote

When the Broadway Farmers Market in Slavic Village piloted a new program to offer a dollar-for-dollar match to Ohio Direction Card customers who purchase produce, it experienced a 191-percent increase in Direction Card sales in one year.

By offering incentives, the Produce Perks program helps to ensure that fresh, locally grown produce gets into low-income households where it's needed most. Many city residents do not have a grocery store with fresh produce within walking distance of their home. The program offers a dollar-for-dollar match up to $10.

This summer, the Produce Perks program is being expanded to 17 local farmers markets throughout Cuyahoga County. The program has been successful at helping lower-income residents to overcome obstacles that inhibit them from shopping at farmers markets and boosting their produce purchasing power, organizers say.

"We know that there are more people using local food assistance programs due to the economy, so how do we get them to local farmers markets?" says Erika Meschkat, Program Coordinator with the Ohio State University Extension. "This is about improving public health, boosting local food production and creating economic development opportunities at neighborhood farmers markets."

Meschkat says that the Produce Perks program helps farmers markets to profit from an untapped market. While many suburban market managers are shocked to realize that they have customers on food assistance, too, it benefits them as well.

The program is part of a regional push to address healthy food gaps by helping low-income residents to take advantage of farmers markets. Produce Perks is coordinated by the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition with the support of several area foundations and Wholesome Wave, a national nonprofit organization focused on access to healthy, affordable foods in poor communities.


Source: Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition
Writer: Lee Chilcote

In April, 51 volunteers picked up more than 500 pounds of trash at Edgewater Park as part of an effort to revitalize our city's beaches and reconnect Clevelanders to our lakefront parks.

Among the items that were collected at Edgewater that day were more than 3,000 cigar tips that had washed up in Edgewater cove.

Cleveland has the dubious distinction of being a leader in cigar tip pollution in the Great Lakes region, says Erin Huber of Drink Local Drink Tap. Currently, Huber has the cigar tips soaking in soapy water in her basement. She plans to complete an art project with them in order to raise awareness about pollution in Lake Erie.

Huber says that the beach cleanups help to improve the city's neglected system of lakefront parks. "It makes me absolutely furious, because the state park staff are basically glorified garbage people who hardly even have time to replace broken light bulbs," she says. "The state parks don't have any money, but all of the volunteer hours we log can be used to apply for funding for the park."

Although Huber believes that the long-term solution for the lakefront parks is for the City of Cleveland to hire the Metroparks to more effectively manage them, she is encouraged by the diverse array of beach lovers that have pitched in to help so far. These events help to build an active constituency for the parks, she says.

The Friends of Edgewater Park, the nonprofit group that partners with Drink Local Drink Tap on the cleanups, is focusing its efforts on supporting Ohio Department of Natural Resources staff through a range of activities.

The next "Pancakes and Trash" beach cleanup, which is cosponsored by Friends of Edgewater Park, the Ohio Sierra Club, Cleveland Lakefront State Parks and 106.5 The Lake, takes place on Saturday, June 2nd from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The Ohio Sierra Club is hosting a free pancake breakfast that begins at 9 a.m.


Source: Erin Huber
Writer: Lee Chilcote

As Yelp Cleveland community manager, native Northeast Ohioan Cara Lageson is a pro-Cleveland powerhouse. When she's not busy penning reviews -- she has logged in about 400 -- she connects "Yelpers" and local businesses by coordinating marketing outreach that extends well beyond the digital realm.

Last fall, when the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency held a hearing on the City of Cleveland's proposed waste-to-energy plant, hundreds of protesters turned out to decry the plans.

The gasification plant, which would turn trash into energy to be used by Cleveland Public Power, would result in unacceptable levels of pollution in urban neighborhoods, environmental groups said.

Since then, the city has terminated its agreement with its controversial consultant, Peter Tien. However, CPP says that it is still studying the waste-to-energy plant as well as other options to increase recycling, reduce costs and generate electricity.

To capitalize on the renewed interest in recycling and composting generated by the public meetings earlier this year, environmental groups are now pressing the city to develop a more comprehensive plan. Ohio Citizen Action, Earthday Coalition and other groups have organized the Cleveland Composting and Recycling Forum on Saturday, June 2nd at the downtown YMCA.

“Clevelanders have said loud and clear that they want stronger recycling programs,” commented Chris Trepal, Executive Director of Earth Day Coalition, in a news release. “The urban gardening and local food community in Cleveland creates hundreds of opportunities for the productive use of compost.”

"We're hoping to bring in good ideas from other cities," adds Sandy Buchanan, Executive Director of Ohio Citizen Action, who says that the local and national speakers attending the event will provide a litany of successful models.

The public forum takes place at a crucial time, as the city is gearing up to roll out its recycling program to additional neighborhoods over the course of the summer.

Brian Cummins, a Cleveland Councilman who represents the Brooklyn Centre, Clark-Fulton and Stockyards neighborhoods adjacent to the proposed gasification plant, says that the city's recycling program needs improvement.

"The city claims this is a comprehensive system, but they haven't been able to roll it out citywide due to budget problems," he says. "We need to look at incentives to recycle, such as 'pay as you throw' fees that other cities are now using."

The City of Cleveland has stated that its goal in the next few years is to roll out its recycling program to all neighborhoods. No composting program currently exists.


Source: Chris Trepal, Brian Cummins
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Thanks to game-changing, large-scale architectural efforts largely absent during the recession, Cleveland steadily is catching up to other similarly sized cities in terms of design. Long known as a "brick city," Cleveland's recent and forthcoming high-profile projects are adding progressive new materials to the mix.

This month Cleveland welcomes Great Lakes Courier, a high-energy free monthly paper that caters to Northeast Ohio's enthusiastic cycling community. "One of the things we hope to provide is a place for different groups of cyclists to tell stories and interact," says editor Michael Gill.