Arts + Culture

baltimore sun salutes symphony's new initiative
Last week we helped spread the word about the Cleveland Orchestra's new Center for Future Audiences, launched with a gift of $20 million from the Maltz Family Foundation. This week, it seems, word is spreading across the national classical music landscape.

Writing in the Baltimore Sun, classical music critic Tim Smith reports, "There's enough bad news in the classical music business that any good news seems extra good. So it is with word from the Cleveland Orchestra, which has launched something called the Center for Future Audiences, an initiative that aims to put into real action what so many people just talk about -- getting new and younger audiences into the concert hall."

The Center for Future Audiences, he explains to his readers, will attack the problem of skyrocketing admission prices with heavily subsidized tickets: deep discounts for the 18-34 set, free tickets to lots of events for children under 18. The orchestra will also arrange for free bus service from some suburbs to the concert hall, a terrific gesture, Smith adds.

"Every step that any orchestra makes to connect to the disconnected is obviously valuable, potentially invaluable," Smith explains. "Orchestras that don't try new things, bold new things, are likely to find themselves not just out of touch, but out of business, in the years ahead."

Read the rest of the sheet music here.
landmark detroit shoreway building gets second chance thanks to keen developer
When it comes to real estate, Howard Grandon believes in second chances. That's why he's transforming a former illicit nightclub in Detroit Shoreway into market-rate apartments and storefronts, which he hopes will continue to breathe new life into an old neighborhood.
with a roll of the dice, lakewood company adds jobs
Nine square dice adds up to 54 sides, making them ideal for displaying a full deck of cards: 52 regular cards plus two jokers. Lakewood's Heartland Consumer Products is betting that its unique new dice/card game, Square Shooters, will be a hit when it is finally unveiled before this year's holiday season.

The award-winning Square Shooters uses the dice as a twist on traditional card games, including poker, rummy and a bevy of original and challenging games. Heartland Consumer Products, which markets playing cards and games, has designed Square Shooters as a family game for ages seven through adult. Square Shooters earned the coveted "Dr. Toy's Best Picks Children's Products" seal of approval.

Heartland Consumer Products set a modest goal of selling Square Shooters to 20 retail stores around the country, explains Tom Donelan, CEO. "Instead, we sold to 180 stores," including Discount Drug Mart, Okay Let's Play, Pat Catan's and Recess.

This is precisely the type of game launch that Donelan had hoped for two years ago when he led a group of investors to acquire the game marketer Harbro LLC. A little over a year ago, he moved the company headquarters from Brighton, Michigan to Lakewood, bringing nearly a dozen jobs with him. Donelan says that number will increase in the near future.

"This is going to be a catalyst for our company," Donelan says. "We're in business to grow."

Look for additional dice-based games from Heartland Consumer Products in the future.


SOURCE: Heartland Consumer Products
WRITER: Diane DiPiero

hot wax: how cleveland's gotta groove records is riding the vinyl wave
Despite the unstoppable march of progress from analogue to digital, vinyl records are making an undeniable comeback. And catering to that expanding market is Cleveland's own Gotta Groove Records, one of only a handful of existing vinyl pressing plants in the United States. Make that, the world.
‘last place’ is best place for fledgling clothing company
Cleveland has long been a struggling kind of place -- even when the steel mills were smoking or the Browns were winning, and especially when the river was burning or LeBron was bolting. It's that constant struggle to keep going even when failure looms that gives the city its edge.

That's the gritty, hip, survivor-type message thrust on the front of T-shirts and hoodies created by fledgling clothing company Last Place. The bold designs and short, witty sayings graphically depict the impressions of young people who call this fair city home.

"Last Place represents the creative individuals everywhere that are making things happen by challenging mediocre," says Irwan Awalludin, who came up with the brand as a project for his senior BFA. The idea took off, and Awalludin joined forces with three other Cleveland Institute of Art students to take Last Place from senior project to legitimate clothing line.

Last Place has an online catalog; the clothing is also on sale at Heart and Sole in Cleveland Heights. Prices range from $24 for a pre-shrunk, heavy-weight cotton tee to $64 for a sweatshirt. The fall lineup officially launched in October, and there's more planned.

"Regardless of where you stand, the garments serve as a symbol that you're on your way, or as a badge worn with pride showing that you were able to overcome your circumstances," according to the Last Place website. Awalludin and his cohorts hope that Last Place represents the beginning of a bright future amid the ongoing struggles.


SOURCE: Irwan Awalludin
WRITER: Diane DiPiero
extraordinary gift to cleveland orchestra is extraordinary gift to future music fans
Thanks to an extraordinary financial gift from the Maltz Family Foundation in the amount of $20M, the Cleveland Orchestra has announced the formation of the Center for Future Audiences.

With the stated goal of having the youngest orchestra audience in the country by 2018, the symphony's centennial, the endowment will remove the financial barrier standing in the way of Cleveland's youth by subsidizing or offering free admission to young concert-goers.

"It's incomprehensible to think of Cleveland losing this Orchestra," said Milton Maltz, President of the Maltz Family Foundation. "This would be equivalent to stopping the heartbeat of this great city. Over the decades there have been many contributors to our Orchestra. It is now this generation's turn to continue to uphold the tradition. It's the right thing to do. It's our responsibility."

"The Maltz Family's extraordinary generosity is deeply appreciated," added Gary Hanson, the Orchestra's Executive Director. "The Foundation's philanthropy is a vote of confidence in the future of the Orchestra and will be an inspiration to others who care deeply about our community."

Read the Orchestra' official release here.

cleveland be smart, according to daily beast
In its second annual ranking of "America's Smartest (and Dumbest) Cities," the Daily Beast website credits Cleveland as the 17th smartest big city with one million people or more. That puts us ahead of Chicago (#24), Atlanta (#28), Dallas (#41), and Las Vegas (#55).

Crunching figures that take into account per-capita numbers of libraries, residents with bachelor's and graduate degrees, nonfiction book sales, and institutions of higher education, the survey determined the comparative IQs of America's metropolitans.

The CLE+ numbers:

Metropolitan area population: 2,091,286

Bachelor's degrees: 17%

Graduate degrees: 10%

Year-to-date adult nonfiction book sales: 2,024,000

Thanks to a reworked formula, Cleveland jumped from its last-year position of #31.

See the other smart (and not-so-smart) cities here.
ohio launches website to lure more in-state film production
The location search tool on the Ohio Film Office's new web site is a fun way to peruse some of the most scenic sites in the state. Choosing category "Industrial," subcategory "Factories/Plants/Mills," and region "Northern" will lead you to dozens of photos of the Flats, in all its Rust Belt glory. You don't have to be a filmmaker to enjoy it; the scenes almost start to write themselves.

But producers and directors are the intended users of the site, which was launched earlier this month in hopes of luring more production work to the state. "Ohio can work as a backdrop for any place or time period a producer is looking to capture," says Jeremy Henthorn, director of the Ohio Film Office.

The site also provides information on tax incentives available to productions that shoot here, and a data base of experienced crew. Need a Steadicam operator in Cleveland? A special effects coordinator willing to travel around the state? The data base also accept registrations from Ohioans looking for work.

In September the Plain Dealer reported that in its first year, the state's film tax credit has attracted nine productions that will spend a combined $33 million. They include 25 Hill, about a soap-box derby driver whose father dies in Afghanistan, which shot in Akron, and Unstoppable, the Denzel Washington action movie that opens November 12.




Source: Ohio Department of Development
Writer: Frank W. Lewis

cleveland public library earns top spot in library journal index
Boasting the highest score and largest circulation in its expenditure category, the Cleveland Public Library snagged top honors in the annual Library Journal Index of Public Library Service (LJ Index). Crunching numbers in the categories of library visits, circulation, program attendance, and public Internet usage, the index ranks more than 7,400 library systems around the nation.

"This is great news for our Cleveland community," said Felton Thomas, director of Cleveland Public Library. "Our goal is to provide our patrons easy access to our collections, programs, and computers, and we're honored to receive this recognition."

In the liner notes, however, the Journal warns that recent cuts in state library funding will doubtless impact the standing of Ohio libraries in future rounds of the LJ Index.

Check out all the winners here.
npr and new york times say happy dog/cle orchestra mash-up is music to their ears
The avant-garde mash-up of two radically different Cleveland legends -- the Happy Dog Saloon and the Cleveland Orchestra -- has been garnering big props, both locally and nationally.

In addition to a widely aired shout-out on NPR's Weekend Edition, the Happy Dog's recent classical music experiments, where chamber music pros take to the very small stage, caught the attention of the New York Times.

In an article titled, "The Key Was B Flat; the Beer Wasn't," the Old Gray Lady praises the Cleveland Orchestra's unconventional method of winning new fans.

"Anyone popping in for a quick beer at the Happy Dog bar in Cleveland on Wednesday night and expecting the usual fare -- polka, country or indie rock -- would have been surprised," the reporter writes.

Read the liner notes here.

To listen to David C. Barnett's NPR piece, click here.

'flee to the cleve' deemed an award-winning campaign
Turns out that Positively Cleveland's popular "Flee to the Cleve" Twitter posts are more than good-natured bits of information -- they are award-winning nuggets.

Positively Cleveland, the Convention and Visitors Bureau office for our fair city, recently snagged three RUBY Awards from the Ohio Travel Association. Shorthand for Recognizing Uncommon Brilliance in the Travel and Tourism Industry, the RUBYs recognize outstanding advertising, marketing and public relations efforts.

This year's competition took place during the Ohio Conference on Tourism, with nearly 130 entries submitted by 40 businesses and organizations.

Positively Cleveland won three RUBY Awards for its work in the categories of Website Design, Electronic Media, and Social Networking Campaign.

Check out the complete list of winners here.

wall street journal critic says 'bravo' to great lakes theater festival
It was Oscar Wilde who penned the phrase, "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."

Only a fool would protest that that very phrase is the raison d'être behind this very section. So it's fitting that this item from the Wall Street Journal deals with the Great Lakes Theater Festival's repertory production of Wilde's "An Ideal Husband" and Shakespeare's "Othello."

Written by WSJ drama critic Terry Teachout, the review glowingly covers recent productions of the plays at Cleveland's Hanna Theatre in PlayhouseSquare.

"Cleveland's Great Lakes Theater Festival is mounting handsome stagings of both plays in collaboration with the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, where the two productions originated this summer, and as I watched them in close succession earlier this week, I was struck by how smoothly they fit together."

Of the Shakespeare production, Teachout wrote, "This is a blood-and-thunder "Othello" that roars down the track at several hundred miles an hour, and though it's short on poetry, it lacks nothing in the way of thrills and chills."

In addition to singling out set designer Nayna Ramey, the critic goes on to wax poetic about the theater itself.

"Built in 1921, the Hanna Theatre was taken over two years ago by the Great Lakes Theater Festival. The original 1,421-seat proscenium-arch house has now been turned into a fully up-to-date 548-seat thrust-stage theater whose performing space and public areas flow together seamlessly, thus encouraging audience members to show up early and use the theater as a meeting place. (They do, too.) Rarely have I seen a happier marriage of old and new."

Read the rest of the playbill here.
new york times touts upcoming CMA exhibit
Discussing a season of rarely travelled Vatican artifacts on tour throughout the nation, arts reporter Eve M. Kahn writes in the New York Times about an upcoming stop at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Here is an excerpt: "On Sunday [October 17] 'Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe' opens at the Cleveland Museum of Art, with a half-dozen Vatican loans. Displayed are marble sarcophagi and tomb fragments from the fourth century, a boxed collection of Holy Land souvenir rocks assembled around 500, and a ninth-century lidded silver vessel made to hold St. Sebastian's skull."

The exhibition, on view in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall until January 17, 2011, will provide American audiences with an unparalleled opportunity to see 135 extraordinary works of late antique, Byzantine, and Western medieval art, including precious metalwork objects, paintings, sculptures, and illuminated manuscripts, drawn from public and private collections as well as church treasuries across the United States and Europe. Several of these spectacular works have never been seen outside their home countries.

The Times quotes Holger A. Klein, a curator of the Cleveland show, as saying that the Vatican officials "were surprisingly open to the idea" of lending. "They are not sending the actual relics" of saints' bodies, he added. "They are not sending bones."

Unearth the whole story here.

cleveland institute of art prof kasumi snags vimeo award
While foodies were busy scarfing down burgers in Brooklyn, judges like David Lynch, Roman Coppola and Morgan Spurlock were in downtown Manhattan picking the winners of the very first Vimeo Awards ceremony at the SVA Visual Arts Theater in Chelsea. Just nine short films were selected out of 6,500 entries submitted from around the globe.

Snagging one of those nine prizes was local artist and Cleveland Institute of Art professor, Kasumi. Her short, "Breakdown the Video," which combines old footage from the 1940s and 1950s, snagged top honors in the Remix category.

Read about the other winners in the New York Times here.

Grab a small popcorn and check out Kasumi's short film here.

pittsburgh's pop city spreads the word about fresh water
In last week's issue of Pop City (yes, it's a sister IMG publication), writer Deb Smit reported on our dear publication.

"Fresh Water launches this month with the goods on Cleveland, news as it pertains to innovation, jobs, healthcare, lifestyle, design and arts and culture," she writes." The bubbly, blue homepage comes to life each Thursday with a fresh issue featuring vibrant photography and stories on the people shaking things up and the great places to visit."

Smit even encourages smitten Pittsburghers to subscribe. Thanks, Pop City!

Read all the news that's fit to pop here.
sculptor sees a future in the arts for former midtown car factory
Once upon a time, automobiles were built inside the 65,000-square-foot former factory at 6555 Carnegie Avenue. Or so current owner Giancarlo Calicchia surmises from elevators large enough to move finished cars from the upper levels to the parking lot outside.

Today Calicchia, an accomplished sculptor, sees a new use for the long-dormant building — a center for artists' workspaces and offices. He and architect Paul Beegan are busy designing that future, while preserving the towering columns, tall windows and "great views of Cleveland" left over form the building's industrial past.

"We're also looking for new companies that may be related to art or design and want to be closer to downtown," Calicchia adds. He's already talked with a book publisher and a film company, as well as many artists, and hopes to have at least portions of the building ready for use by next summer. He can be reached at 216-402-2009.

Calicchia's works can be found around the city and state, from the Cleveland Museum of Art and The Avenue at Tower City to Miami University. His Athleta & The Witnesses sculpture garden was installed at Kent State University in July.


Source: Giancarlo Calicchia
Writer: Frank W. Lewis
university circle's western reserve historical society opens hands-on family education center
It's all child's play, and that's okay. Within the newly opened Kidzibits Family Education Center at the Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS), toddlers to preteens can discover fun ways to learn about the history of the region.

"History is fun when offered to children in age-appropriate ways," says Janice Ziegler, vice president for education at WRHS. 

Part of the WRHS complex at University Circle, Kidzibits offers "Backyard of History," which is geared for children ages two to five. Interactive play includes dressing up in historical clothes, shopping at a mini-West Side Market and building Cleveland's Skyline. "Backyard of History" also involves cars in the Crawford Auto Aviation Museum.

The preschool section of Kidzibits was funded by the Hershey Foundation and created in collaboration with the Montessori High School at University Circle.

In 2011, WRHS will open two other sections of Kidzibits, one designed for six-to-nine-year-olds and the other for ten-to-12-year-olds.


Source: Janice Ziegler, WRHS
Writer: Diane DiPiero
former coventry elementary school may host arts education and performances
For almost two years, neighbors of the former Coventry School in Cleveland Heights looked forward to welcoming The Music Settlement to the community. The University Circle-based institution had planned to raze the Coventry building, which was closed in 2007, and build "a state-of-the-art early childhood learning center and training center."

That plan was abandoned in August, after Music Settlement concluded that it could not raise the $16 million to $19 million needed for the project. But the building — just off Coventry Road and adjacent to the popular Coventry Peace playground — won't necessary remain vacant forever. Nancy Peppler, president of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education, says that the school district and Music Settlement continue to discuss the latter's leasing space in the building.

Another possible tenant is Ensemble Theatre, which currently performs at Cleveland Play House. Managing Director Martin Cosentino says that Ensemble would like to use Coventry for shows and for classes, like the dramatic writing workshop that it now offers at Heights libraries.

The property is nearly surrounded by single-family homes, so zoning is an issue, Cosentino notes. Talks with the city and school board continue.

Ensemble is leaving the Playhouse next year, Cosentino says, adding, "We'd like to come back to the city. We're a Cleveland Heights company. It seems to me that [an arts center] is a use the neighbors could support. It's a win for us, a win for Music Settlement and a win for the neighborhood."



Source: Ensemble Theatre
Writer: Frank W. Lewis
washington post reporter steps outside the beltway, discovers cleveland
In a recent "Impulsive Traveler" article in the Washington Post, reporter Maryann Haggerty makes the short seven-hour drive to Cleveland, where she discovers that the city is no longer strangled by its "rust belt."

Using the Ohio City B&B J. Palen House as her home base, she beholds the glory that is Great Lakes Brewing Co., Flying Fig and the West Side Market. "It's huge," she notes, "vastly outsizing Capitol Hill's beloved Eastern Market. It's sparkling clean, putting Baltimore's Lexington Market to shame. And the variety! Pasta, sausage, cheese, pastry, pierogies, tamales, meat, meat, meat."

Other stops on the C-Land Express included the Bruce Springsteen exhibit at the Rock Hall and sloppy Polish Boy sandwiches at Freddie's Southern Style Rib House.

Breaking News: Haggerty enjoyed her visit so much that she rerouted her return trip to include another stop on the North Coast.

Read all the juicy details here.
cleveland-based eventworks becomes sole U.S partner for 3D design technology
Now it's cool to think inside the box.

EventWorks, Inc., a Greater Cleveland event-planning and audio-video production company, has become the sole U.S partner for a 3D design technology that has already taken Europe by storm. The technology combines holographic, free-floating images that are displayed with a physical product inside a glass case. The result is a unique and visually stunning way for companies to market their brand or product.

"We jumped into the technology because we thought it was really great," says Joel Solloway, owner of EventWorks. "We do large-scale events in terms of setting and lighting design, and we're always looking for something different." EventWorks formed a strategic partnership with Cleveland-based EDR Media to design custom animation.

As an authorized U.S. partner with Real Fiction, the Copenhagen-based developer of the holographic technology, EventWorks has been able to reach out to potential customers around the country and the globe. While large-scale holographic technology can be expensive, Real Fiction's products are highly affordable, with units ranging from around $6,000 to $15,000.

So far, EventWorks has added a salesperson to promote the technology and may soon add support staff. RubberMaid Commercial will be using the holographic tool for an upcoming trade show, and Coca-Cola has shown interest in using the technology for advertising and marketing.

Clevelanders can catch a glimpse of the holographic technology on November 6 at the SPACES Gallery in Cleveland. As part of the gallery's fundraiser, "App to the Future," EventWorks will be showing samples of work the company has done for Virgin Atlantic, BMW and other clients.


SOURCE: EventWorks, Inc.
WRITER: Diane DiPiero