In a New York Times Arts Beat post titled “Behind the Poster: Yentl”, writer Erik Piepenburg interviews Cleveland Play House creative director Brian Tatsumi and graphic designer Michelle Berki regarding the compelling artwork for the recent production of "Yentl."
 
Tatsumi shares his vision of keeping the posters stark and eye-catching with a pop of color while Berki wanted to touch upon some of the more gripping moments in the play.
 
“One of the defining moments is where she cuts off her braids and decides to live as a man, so we focused on that. We wanted to show both the male and female sides within one person. That’s where the braid and payos in one hat came from.”
 
Read more of the insightful interview here.

In an Eater.com post titled “Ohio’s Jonathon Sawyer to Launch Kickstarter for Trentina,” writer Hillary Dixler shares Greenhouse Tavern and Noodlecat chef-owner Jonathon Sawyer’s plans to use crowd funding in an effort to raise a little cash for his upcoming Italian eatery, Trentina.
 
Trentina will occupy the 36-seat space previously belonging to beloved Cleveland chef Sergio Abramof, who passed away in 2012. The new restaurant aims to open in May.
 
“[Sawyer] says he's attracted to the idea of a "city-based shareholder system" in which the best customers can really become "benefactors of the restaurant." To that end, he says that he will only be asking for a portion of his overhead costs, to keep the fundraising goal in line with what his Cleveland customers will be able to support.”
 
Check out the full story and Sawyer’s YouTube video about the project here.

GreenBiz, a publication devoted to helping companies integrate environmental responsibility into their operations, included Cleveland in a recent listing of "Top 10 U.S. Cities for Green Meetings in 2014."
 
Thanks to the massive environmental footprint of air travel, audiovisual equipment, food waste and more, the meetings and event industry is one of the most wasteful sectors in the US.
 
But the news is not all bad, states the article. "A handful of destinations recently debuted new or renovated meetings facilities with an environmental focus, making the new year a particularly exciting one for green meetings."
 
"These 10 cities in particular stand out as top choices for sustainable events in 2014:"
 
10. Cleveland
 
"Last year, Cleveland welcomed two neighboring meeting venues along its revitalized waterfront: the Cleveland Convention Center and Global Center for Health Innovation, which hosts medical events. Both were designed with an eye on sustainability; features include 138 bike racks, water-efficient landscaping, motion sensors and low-flow washroom fixtures. The convention center has a green roof with extensive plant life and soil materials, while the Global Center includes a white reflective roof. Half of the nearly nine-acre site used for the buildings has been preserved as open space, and 97 percent of debris was recycled during construction. The venues are currently seeking LEED Silver certification."
 
"Sustainability is not just addressed in the design of these venues -- sustainability is the design of these venues," says Sarah Blanchard, spokesperson for LMN architects, which designed the facilities. "Displaying the future of health and health care and welcoming visitors from across the globe to a state-of-the-art convention center are civic hallmarks that demand a design centered on efficiency and technology."
 
Read the rest of the green news here.

Gizmag, a long-running technology publication, recently highlighted PlayhouseSquare's forthcoming outdoor chandelier in a feature titled, "World's Largest Outdoor Chandelier to Illuminate Cleveland's PlayhouseSquare."
 
Writing for Gizmag, Brian Dodson states, "PlayhouseSquare in Cleveland's historic theater district is erecting what is claimed as the world's largest outdoor crystal chandelier. With a height of 20 ft (6 m) and comprising some 4,200 crystal pieces."
 
The 20-ft tall chandelier will contain 4,200 crystal pieces and tens of thousands of LED lights and lighting modules. The chandelier will be permanently suspended 44 ft (13.5 m) above the street from a special steel support system.
 
"The biggest surprise is that General Electric, which is designing the chandelier, believes it will stand up to Cleveland's extreme weather."
 
That includes temps that range from -20° F (-29° C) to 104° F (40° C), with winds as high as 85 mph (137 km/h) – not to mention the occasional severe thunderstorm, tornado, and roaming hurricane.
 
The unveiling is scheduled for May 2, 2014.
 
Read the rest of the story here.

In a Huffington Post blog post titled “Galvanized into Positive Action: This Week in Seeding the Change,” contributor Ari Nessel writes of the various projects taking place across the globe in an effort to create a more peaceful and sustainable world.
 
Cleveland gets a nod thanks to the work of Christopher Kennedy and Marilyn McHugh, who together created the Cleveland Seed Bank.
 
“Cleveland is home to a growing local food movement, including urban farms, but lacks a local resource to promote, grow and build a seed saver network. Working with the Cleveland Public Library, The Cleveland Seed Bank will host a number of 'seed libraries' around the city, as well as an extensive social media campaign to educate the public on these resources.”
 
Check out the rest of the post here.

In a Wall Street Journal article titled “Cleveland Gives Asia Its Due,” writer Lee Lawrence details the recently completed eight-year, $350 million renovation and expansion at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
 
Lawrence writes of Cleveland’s reputation for having one of the country’s finest Asian collections, while noting that many of the works were squeezed into less frequented spaces in the basement.
 
“The art now has the crowd-attracting galleries it deserves," he writes. "Taking up the entire west and half of the north wings, a suite of large, airy galleries accommodates close to 600 treasures, some 10 percent of the museum's Asian holdings.”
 
The piece goes on to detail various time periods and geographical locations of the vast Asian collection.
 
Check out the full story here.

This month, the Cleveland Foundation -- the world’s first community foundation -- officially kicked off its year-long centennial celebration by unveiling the first in a series of monthly “Cleveland Foundation Day” birthday gifts.
 
The foundation's first gift is a day of free ridership for all on the Greater Cleveland RTA, which takes place today, Thursday, Jan. 16.
 
“We feel the best way to honor our 100th birthday is to give back to Greater Cleveland, to celebrate the generations of donors who have supported us through the years and partnered with us to give $1.7 billion in grants to our community,” Ronald B. Richard, president and CEO of the Cleveland Foundation said in a statement. “Through the organizations involved in our monthly surprise gifts, we’ll be highlighting community assets the foundation and our donors have played a role in building or enhancing through the years.”
 
Upcoming “Cleveland Foundation Day” birthday gifts will be announced on or around the second of each month.
 
Established in 1914, the Cleveland Foundation is the world's first community foundation and one of the largest today, with assets of $1.86 billion and 2012 grants of $91 million.

In 2013, the 83-year-old Cleveland Botanical Garden attracted more people than ever to its University Circle properties. During the past 12 months, 188,669 people visited the Garden, marking a 17 percent increase over the prior year’s record attendance figure of 160,000. It marks the sixth straight year of attendance increases.
 
Garden President Natalie Ronayne attributes the growth to the success of two new seasonal events, Big Spring and the holiday spectacular Glow.
 
“It’s really great to see Northeast Ohioans embracing the Garden as relevant to their lives,” Ronayne says. “One of the most appealing things about the Garden is that it can be many different things to many different people -- a place of celebration, a place of solace, a place for making new family memories. I love that people are taking advantage of that.”
 
Next up on the schedule for the Garden is the 11th annual Orchid Mania, slated to run February 1 through March 9.

In a CNN Money feature titled "The Fortune Crystal Ball," the publication offers up its prognostications for the coming year, among them: Which cities will be the next Brooklyns, and which the next Detroits. Spoiler alert: Cleveland is pegged as a "Brooklyn."
 
"The American geography of prosperity has been driven by two big narratives in the past few years. On the one hand, there's Detroit, with its $18 billion in debt, pension mess, and population loss. On the other, there's Brooklyn, with its rocketing real estate prices, hip-luxe condos, and freshly foraged food stores," notes the money pub.
 
So, just what cities are deemed a "breakout town"?
 
New Brooklyns
 
Cleveland. The city is in the midst of a downtown revival that has seen not one, not two, but three Williamsburg-esque neighborhoods emerge: Tremont, Ohio City, and Gordon Square.
 
Odds of it becoming the "next Brooklyn" are placed at 63%.
 
Read the rest here.

In an Atlantic Cities end-of-year feature titled “The Best Thing My City Did This Year,” the editorial staff highlighted the Cleveland Museum of Art birthing a magnificent new atrium that doubles as public gathering space as one of the major highlights of the year for the city.
 
"My Cleveland 2013 was full of energy, risk-taking and community-based huzzahs. Culturally, high came to mass at both the Cleveland Museum of Art, where a stunning new atrium became our public gathering place, and the Cleveland Orchestra did a neighborhood-based residency,” shares Anne Trubek, founding editor of Belt magazine.
 
Other items of note mentioned include developments in Waterloo, St. Clair-Superior, and Detroit-Shoreway that will build the foundation for 2014.
 
Check out the full piece here.

Larry Olmsted, the weekly "Great American Bites" restaurant columnist for USA Today, eats out a lot, and his yearly Forbes list of standout restaurant meals from the past 12 months is filled with choice bites from around the globe. Two out of the 15 are meals in Cleveland spots.
 
"One reason these lists remain pertinent is because unlike most food publications, I don’t confuse 'new' with good, and just because I ate someplace this year for the first (or fifth) time doesn’t make the restaurant better or worse. What matters is simply how good the restaurant is," he writes.
 
Red, The Steakhouse
 
"Red succeeds at the high-end steakhouse game – where so many others fail -- by getting four key things right. 1. They make a great steak, using exclusively Certified Angus Beef that is mostly dry aged, and cooking it perfectly. 2. The appetizers are amazing, especially the Oysters Rockefeller and Red House Salad. 3. The classic steakhouse sides are perfected, like creamed corn and the only mac & cheese I have ever had that might actually be too rich, as the four cheese blend includes creamy Swiss raclette – and is offered with or without lobster. 4. The desserts are stunners and the Apple Pie Croissant bread pudding was OMG!"
 
Greenhouse Tavern
 
"Chef-owner Jonathon Sawyer is a hometown hero in Cleveland for his eateries, and if you visit his flagship Greenhouse Tavern it is easy to see why. He does many of the trends that are being embraced from Portland to Brooklyn, but he does them better: he makes an extensive array of his own vinegars, breaks down his own pigs and cows for snout to tail eating and completely embraces local farmers and ingredients. But while many pay lip service to these ideals he lives them, and the food shows. It is fun and wacky fine dining that puts twists on classics from around the world: his lunch menu includes a take on iconic Quebecois poutine called “gravy frites,” which covers a platter of fries with mozzarella curds, veal gravy and sometimes fried eggs. He has gotten a lot of press for his “Properly butchered rib steak,” cut in house of course, but the must-have signatures are the crispy chicken wings confit and roasted pig’s head served with little brioche buns to make your own pig’s head sliders.
 
Check out the entire list here.

Tongue firmly in cheek, Slate writer Matthew Yglesias offers up a solution to the rising tensions between tech giants like Google and Apple and the rest of the residents in San Francisco: relocate the companies to Cleveland.
 
"The Bay Area is sick and tired of the antics of entitled techies, and the nouveaux riches want a place where they’ll be appreciated. It’s time for federal authorities to step in and move the show someplace else. Cleveland, say," he writes.
 
"Cities such as Buffalo, N.Y., or Pittsburgh come to mind, although unlike Detroit and Cleveland, they lack a major airport. Plans to save Detroit, however, are a bit cliché at this point, and I worry that any tech hub you tried to build there would naturally drift over to Ann Arbor, Mich., anyway. But Cleveland’s got plenty of affordable housing, plenty of available office space, flights to every important North American city, and even its own Federal Reserve bank."
 
Read the rest of the article here.

In a Reuters announcement shared on Huffington Post titled “2014 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Inductees Include KISS, Peter Gabriel, Nirvana,” writer Mary Milliken shares the list of six new inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame chosen from 16 nominees.
 
“Nirvana, the influential Seattle grunge band founded by the late Kurt Cobain, and the flamboyant 1970s rockers from KISS were among six new inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the organization said on Tuesday.”

“British singers and songwriters Peter Gabriel and Cat Stevens, folk-pop singer Linda Ronstadt and rock and soul duo Hall and Oates completed the list of performer inductees to the prestigious Hall of Fame, chosen from 16 nominees.”
 
While the Museum is based in Cleveland, the induction ceremony will take place in New York City this year on April 10.
 
Read the full release here.

In an article titled "Rooftop Chef," Charlotte Observer writer Sarah Crosland interviews Cleveland chef Rocco Whalen as he prepares for the grand opening of his Fahrenheit export.
 
"When Food Network star chef Rocco Whalen announced that he was expanding his culinary empire from Cleveland, Ohio to Charlotte, local food lovers rejoiced. Not only is the enthusiastic chef bringing his beloved recipes south, but he’ll be serving them up from the roof of the 22-story Skye Condominiums in Uptown. The 4,000-square-foot Farenheit Restaurant features a pool, garden, and panoramic 360-degree views of Charlotte."
 
Asked if his celebrity clout will put the Charlotte food scene in the national spotlight, Whalen responds, "If being a celebrity chef means getting the opportunity to bring in Food Network friends to do some dinners, then that’s great -- we can have fun with that. And maybe we can have a Top Chef Charlotte. I’m sick of Charleston getting all the credit.”

Read the rest of the interview here.

In a hotel review in the travel section of the New York Times, writer Erik Piepenburg checks into the new Aloft hotel on the East Bank of the Flats and files a glowing review.
 
"The Aloft Downtown gives Cleveland a major boost of bright, colorful and contemporary hotel design in an area -- and a city -- not known for style-centric accommodations," he writes.
 
The article covers the rooms, amenities and available dining options. "A Saturday night meal at Willeyville included delicious vegetarian options for me (grilled sweet corn, baked gnocchi), plenty of meat for a friend and a mind-blowing fried peach pie," he notes.
 
The bottom line, concludes the author, the new Aloft is a "terrific place for design geeks, foodies and fans of rust-belt chic who like their boutique hotel on the industrial side."
 
Read the rest right here.

In the latest issue of Urban Velo, a magazine devoted to urban bike culture, writer Joe Baur covers the events leading up to the recent guerrilla striping incident along Detroit Avenue. The photographs in the piece were taken by Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski.
 
Because the officially sanctioned 1.7-mile bike lane along Detroit Avenue took a year longer than promised, local bike activists decided to get creative.
 
"The frustration became painfully public for city officials when a group of five 'guerrilla stripers' took it upon themselves to create a bike lane along a highly trafficked thoroughfare for cyclists in the near west side," Baur writes.
 
"Speaking under the condition of anonymity, one of the stripers explains that nobody even attempted to stop them during the hour they spent creating the lane."
 
Read the rest right here.

In a light-hearted feature titled, "Oh fudge! Cleveland celebrates 30 years of ‘A Christmas Story,’ NBC News contributor Rob Lovitt outlines the story of the film's popularity and the events surrounding its 30th anniversary.
 
"If you want to experience true fandom, consider a trip to Cleveland this weekend, where several thousand people are expected to gather to celebrate the 30th anniversary of that kitschy classic of holiday cheer and childhood trauma: 'A Christmas Story,'" he writes.
 
Friday and Saturday's anniversary celebration will feature tours, theatrical performances and appearances by cast members, including Ian Petrella (Ralphie’s brother Randy), Scott Schwartz (Flick the flagpole-licker) and Zack Ward (aka, neighborhood bully Scut Farkus).
 
Attendees will also be able to buy signed copies of Tyler Schwartz’ new book, “A Christmas Story Treasury,” attend a charity luncheon and see if they can avoid shooting an eye out with a genuine Red Ryder BB gun and target.
 
All told, Jones expects 4,000 to 5,000 people to attend the weekend festivities, which is certainly a testament to the movie’s continued appeal for both kids and adults.
 
Read all about it here.

In a feature titled "Three Lessons on Regionalism," Bill Bradley, writing for Next City, outlines the findings of a report recently released by Fund for Our Economic Future.
 
"Regionalism, from Paris to Portland, offers cities with closely woven outlying suburbs opportunities to broaden their tax bases, increase minimum wages and develop unified approaches to transit -- which could, in turn, give low-wage workers better access to jobs. Advocates have touted these benefits for years. Now, a new report explores how regional collaboration can help spur economic growth."
 
The Northeast Ohio-based Fund for Our Economic Future, which along with the Knight Foundation, released the report.
 
In sum: "Data is hugely important, investing in groups that find funding can enlarge your pools of grant money, and big thinkers must be instrumental in turning those grand ideas into reality."
 
Read the rest here.

In a Forbes feature titled “Beer Entrepreneurs Fuel Comeback of Struggling Cleveland Neighborhood,” staff writer Dan Alexander explores the history of Great Lakes Brewing Company and the birth of other small breweries in the area.
 
From humble beginnings to what the Ohio City neighborhood is today, Great Lakes Brewing Company has a lot to do with the area’s revival, the story confirms.
 
"Since 1986 the Conways have bought four buildings in the neighborhood, called Ohio City. They are the beer men who became unlikely leaders of the neighborhood’s revival. In the last decade, other entrepreneurs have joined the Conways in Ohio City. Since 2005, the crime rate in the neighborhood has plummeted 24%, and real estate values have more than doubled."
 
“It was a struggling neighborhood,” adds Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. “Twenty years later, you go over there, nighttime Friday or Saturday night, it’s going to be packed. Cars can’t move, people just everywhere.”
 
Alexander goes on to detail his meet-up with Sam McNulty, owner of six local establishments in the area. McNulty remains optimistic of the area, with everyone agreeing there is no reason he shouldn’t be.
 
Check out the full piece here.

In an Art Daily feature titled "MOCA Cleveland releases metrics of strong inaugural year in new building, Uptown," the art publication shares impressive numbers from the museum's first year in its new building.

"In the first year in their new building, MOCA delivered significantly expanded audiences and benefits," says the article.
 
Among them:
 
55,997 visitors took advantage of MOCA’s offerings, up 284 percent from recent years
 
650+ new members, tripling membership in MOCA’s new home
 
The numbers also show how MOCA’s impressive new building at the corner of Mayfield Road and Euclid Avenue acts as a beacon to draw people to University Circle and Uptown.
 
82 percent of MOCA’s visitors are coming to University Circle specifically to visit the Museum
 
70 percent of MOCA’s visitors are eating at a surrounding restaurant
 
24 percent are shopping while in the area
 
Read about the rest here.