On Tuesday, February 7, Global Cleveland opened the doors to its Public Square welcome center. The organization is tasked with attracting and retaining talent to the region from around the globe, with the goal of adding 100,000 people to the region. Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski was at the ribbon cutting.

Video games no longer are child's play. A multi-billion dollar industry, video game development seduces countless wannabes, each hoping to design the next Call of Duty. Helping to train those people is Cleveland Institute of Art, which recently launched its Game Design program. Combining classes in 3D modeling, game mapping, screenwriting and sound design, this challenging program is no child's play either.

The Fowler Center for Sustainable Value at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University has recently introduced a new form of sustainable consulting for small and medium-sized businesses.

In partnership with True Market Solutions, a San Francisco-based company, the Fowler Center introduced its Sustainability Circles initiative in October. The effort aims to help such businesses enhance their performance by fully integrating sustainable business practices into what they do.

The Fowler Center's Sustainability Circles include both peer-based learning and professional advising. The program brings up to nine organizations at a time into a peer learning community for one day a month for six months. Sustainable business practice topics range from the built environment to operational environments.

At the end of the process, Sustainability Circles participants walk away with specific outcomes that are intended to help them transition into more sustainable, effective businesses. Such results include a complete carbon footprint analysis, an initial project and a customized Sustainability Action Plan.

"This is about a whole new lens for business," says Beau Daane, Manager of the Fowler Center. "In a world with rising customer expectations and declining natural resources, businesses have to consider sustainable value or they'll be left in the dust. For us, this is where the scholarship meets the practice."


Source: Beau Daane
Writer: Lee Chilcote

CitizenGroove has changed the way music schools take applications. CEO John Knific and three CWRU classmates wanted to solve the paper problem involved with applying to music schools.

“We were initially inspired by the problem music school were having -- they were getting 1,500 to 3,000 DVDs with bundles of paper,” recalls Knific. “We thought, every kid who is applying to music school knows how to use YouTube and FaceBook and other social media.”
 
So, in 2010, CitizenGroove emerged as a streamlined way for students to upload auditions and present them to the schools they were applying to. The idea took off. The company of eight is split between New York and Cleveland -- four of which are located in Lakewood offices. Knific hopes to double his staff this year, and the company continues to launch new tools and improve on its product.
 
CitizenGroove is continuing to grow in popularity among music schools. “We went from 12 schools to 50 schools and we’re hoping for 100 schools by the end of the year,” says Knific. “We went from using arm wrestling maneuvers to get schools to choose us to now schools are calling us.”
 
CitizenGroove is a finalist in the Intel Innovation Awards. They are rallying people to vote for them on the company’s FaceBook page in hopes of winning the $100,000 prize.

 
Source: John Knific
Writer: Karin Connelly

Liz Maugins of Zygote Press remembers the moment in 2008 when she realized just how fragile her own organization's existence was in Cleveland's ever-shrinking nonprofit ecosystem. Like many nonprofit groups, she was looking at fewer philanthropic dollars during the worst recession in decades. Meanwhile, many foundations were stressing collaboration or proposing outright mergers.

"Like a lot of nonprofit leaders, I was freaking out and wondering what would come our way," recounts Maugins, who worried that her small nonprofit would be wiped out by the tidal wave of the national recession. "So I started sending out messages to other arts leaders to see if they were feeling the same thing."

Not surprisingly, other nonprofit leaders were losing sleep over their situations, too. Yet rather than retreating to their own private islands to struggle in maudlin isolation, Maugins and her colleagues banded together for survival.

"The number one challenge was that we had no exposure, especially with the dwindling arts coverage locally," says Maugins. "Yet we knew that our arts organizations were doing amazing things with education and other programming, and we're the economic engines of our neighborhoods."

Today, Zygote and 27 other groups in Northeast Ohio have banded together to form the Collective Arts Network (CAN), received a grant from the Ohio Arts Council, and produced a magazine-style journal touting their work. Ten thousand copies have been distributed to galleries and other hotspots in the city.

Next up, the CAN group is working on other kinds of collaboration, including programming, events and sustaining the journal as a quarterly publication.


Source: Liz Maugins
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Ever wanted to learn about how human beings all are just descendants of quantum flotsam? No? Well, how about the ways in which quantum mechanical jitterings in the universe helped create galaxies, stars, planets and people?

Even if you're not a science geek, you'll probably enjoy a new event at Happy Dog entitled "Life, the Universe and Hot Dogs," which takes place downstairs (Underdog) at 7:30 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of the month. After all, nothing brings the meaning of life into focus like a pint or two of hoppy IPA.

The series is the latest attempt by the entrepreneurial Gordon Square Arts District venue to spread its wings and form linkages between University Circle and the near west side. The Happy Dog also has partnered with the Cleveland Orchestra to shuttle westsiders to and from Severance Hall for concerts.

"The partnership was created when Happy Dog owner Sean Watterson contacted me," explains Glenn Starkman, Director of the Institute for the Science of Origins at Case Western Reserve University, a collaboration of faculty and researchers across scientific disciplines seeking to understand how complex systems emerge and evolve. "I went down there with a couple of friends and had a few hot dogs and a beer or two, and Sean said, 'How 'bout we do this next week?'"

Starkman is hoping to use the event series as an opportunity to bring scientific understanding to a wider audience. "People think, 'Oh, science is hard,' but so is playing basketball and we watch it without expecting to be able to dunk like Jordon," he says. "We want to increase people's comfort with science and teach them how it is useful in helping us to make decisions about the world."


Source: Glenn Starkman
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The New Music Program at Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), a two-year old initiative that pairs budding CIM composers with student artists from another discipline to create new work, plans to screen a series of short, original films featuring new music at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's Planetarium on Thursday, February 23rd.

"It's very important for students to collaborate with other artists outside of the school so they have that experience when they leave here," explains Keith Fitch, Head of the Composition Department at CIM and Director of the CIM New Music Ensemble. "I believe that students need to have as many tools as they can in their compositional toolbox."

The experience of creating a short film paired with original music is not unlike completing an internship in the commercial film industry, a business that many of his students are keenly interested in, Fitch says. "I've been lucky to find work as a composer, but the days when you get a job right out of school are over," he says. "As the world becomes more connected and the role of the composer changes, students need to have one foot in the concert world and one foot in the commercial world."

The Planetarium Project will be unveiled on Feb. 23rd in CMNH's planetarium dome. The filmmakers are students at the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA). The films will screen several times throughout the evening, and after the premiere, they will become a part of the planetarium's regular programming.


Source: Keith Fitch
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Last year, Kasumi, a local filmmaker, artist and associate professor at Cleveland Institute of Art, won a Vimeo award in the Remix category for her film short, “Breakdown, the Video,” which recasts old footage from the 1940s and 1950s. Since then, her career and reputation have soared. She returns to Vimeo this year as a judge.
 
“It was a total shift in how I thought about my work being online,” says Kasumi of winning the award. “Having my work online exponentially expands the audience. After winning the Vimeo Award, 'Breakdown' has been screened in scores of film festivals throughout the world, on countless blogs, and played almost 2.5 million times in 150 countries.”
 
Kasumi is now working on her next masterpiece, “Shockwaves.”  “'Shockwaves' is the impressionistic story of two lovers, both victims of traumatized childhoods,” she explains. “By weaving a unique cinematic tapestry out of archival found footage, modern cinematic techniques, and original dance choreography, the film follows the lovers’ journeys as each seeks answers to the origins of their abuse through a surrealistic Mobius strip of alternate realities, shifting times, and multiple dimensions.”
 
The Vimeo award has motivated Kasumi to keep exploring her distinctive approach to film. “It made me realize that my unique style was now in peoples' consciousness -- in a big way,” she says “It gave me the courage to forge ahead with more exciting work, knowing that there was a substantial audience for it.”

Image from Shockwaves ©kasumifilms

For more info, click here.

Source: Kasumi
Writer: Karin Connelly

ReImagining a More Sustainable Cleveland, a creative land reuse initiative to transform empty city lots into gardens, orchards and farms, has received the American Planning Association's National Planning Excellence Award for Innovation in Sustaining Places.

The program, which is led jointly by Neighborhood Progress (NPI), the City of Cleveland, Kent State University's Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative and LAND Studio, was first launched in 2010. In its first round, the program funded 56 vacant lot reuse projects, including 13 community gardens, 10 market gardens, six pocket parks and three vineyards.

Now in its second round, ReImagining Cleveland will spend $1 million in 2011-2012 to turn city-owned vacant lots into community green spaces and expanded side yards for residents. To date, nearly 60 homeowners have applied for side yard expansions and 16 green space projects are being implemented.

"ReImagining is an incredibly significant and collaborative effort that helps transform neighborhoods into safer and more stable communities," said Joel Ratner, President and CEO of Neighborhood Progress. "We are so proud that the program has received this honor from the American Planning Association."


Source: Neighborhood Progress
Writer: Lee Chilcote

What's the cumulative impact of Cleveland's 200-plus community gardens, 20-plus farmers markets and 60-odd acres of urban land that have been tilled and planted for a future harvest?

That's an as yet unanswered question, says the City of Cleveland's new Sustainability Chief, but one she hopes to glean serious answers to in the coming year. Billed "The Year of Local Food" by Sustainable Cleveland 2019, a grassroots, city-led movement to employ sustainability as an engine to grow the regional economy, 2012 is going to be a momentous year.

"Local food is exciting because it combines entrepreneurship and environmental benefits with making connections in the local community," says Jenita McGowan, who last week succeeded Andrew Watterson as the city's Sustainability Chief. "We're really hoping to better connect Cleveland residents with local food, since many people still don't know what is available and how to access it."

Other plans for 2012 include increasing the number of urban farmers in the city, tying into the West Side Market's centennial celebrations this fall, and garnering commitments from large institutions to buy more food locally.

"The Year of Local Food allows all local groups to co-market their work," says McGowan. "That helps them to tie into a larger movement."

Sustainable Cleveland 2019 will host a kick-off event for the Year of Local Food this Friday, Jan. 20th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Cleveland City Hall at 601 Lakeside.


Source: Jenita McGowan
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Two local student-led teams, NanoHarv Technologies and Amplified Wind solutions, have made it to the semifinals of the Clean Energy Trust’s Clean Energy Challenge.
 
NanoHarv Technologies, a group of graduate students in CWRU’s Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Program (STEP), investigates new techniques that could potentially deliver cost efficient methods for the production of algae biofuels and other valuable by-products.
 
Amplified Wind Solutions is a group of CSU students and professors who have developed a wind speed amplification system that, when installed on a cylindrical structure such as a silo or water tower, can provide three times the electricity production of a typical wind turbine in low or marginal wind areas.
 
“The quality of the applications was fantastic,” says Amy Francetic, executive director of the Clean Energy Trust. “We had over 100 applications.” Only 16 teams were chosen to move on to the finals and present their business plans in Chicago on February 29 and March 1.
 
“This is a great opportunity for us to gain insight into the challenges of business plan development and new venture creation,” says Justin Isaacs, co-founder of NanoHarv. The winners in Chicago will go on to the national competition in Washington, DC, this summer to compete for $150,000.

While Niki Zmij, CEO of Amplified Wind Solutions, would like the prize money to help bring her company to commercialization, she is also happy in the lessons she’s learning.
 
“Whether we win or not this competition has been an incredible lesson in entrepreneurship,” says Zmij. “I’m a firm believer that we all learn best by doing -- and this process has allowed me to gain a very clear picture of what it takes to develop a new technology, start up a company, and put forth the dedication and hard work that it takes to make it successful.”

 
Source: Amy Francetic, Justin Isaacs, Niki Zmij
Writer: Karin Connelly

Ian Wong, a medical student at CWRU, found through his studies that there was a real need for access to fresh, quality food in Cleveland’s high-density areas. His theory: If people have fresh produce, nutrition is second nature. So he and co-founder Max Wilberding started Freshbag, a grocery delivery service that debuted in 2010.
 
“The company was essentially started to improve wellness in Cleveland through nutrition,” Wong says. “Our point is if we make it so easy, you have no excuse not to do it. You can live healthier.”
 
The emphasis is on fresh. The food comes from distributors and Wong keeps a close eye on quality. “I never had fresh rye bread or fresh pasta before Freshbag,” he says. “Now I can’t go back.”
 
Customers order their food -- mostly a selection of fruits and vegetables -- through the Freshbag website. They can then pick up their groceries at one of Freshbag’s six pickup locations, primarily the front desks of apartment complexes, businesses or university campuses.
 
Wong is currently asking customers for input on where they should add additional pick-up locations. “All a company has to do is okay us to make deliveries to the front desk,” says Wong.
 
The Freshbag business model is based on an automated ordering system where customers can order exactly what they want with just-in-time ordering. Orders arrive at the pick-up location the next day after an order is placed.
 
Freshbag also is focusing on corporate wellness programs, working with nutritionists and chefs to teach their customers how to eat healthy and cook tasty food.
 
Wong and his partners have dreams to expand. “Hiring will be based on how rapidly we grow,” he says.

 
Source: Ian Wong
Writer: Karin Connelly

The prevailing impression of regionalism that has been bandied about Northeast Ohio for the better part of a decade is all wrong, says a collaborative group of area nonprofits. While the consolidation of countless municipalities is useful, it is not intrinsically regionalism. True regionalism, they argue, is defined by economic activity -- not political boundaries.

While we pride ourselves here at Fresh Water in having crisp, professional prose, the truth is, without art, a feature is just font on a page. Pictures tell a thousand words, we're told, but the best ones simply leave us speechless. Every masthead and feature image since we launched this pub over a year ago has been shot by Fresh Water shooter Bob Perkoski. Here is a collection of some of his finest work.

When Fresh Water launched in September 2010, we promised to highlight Cleveland's most progressive and creative people, businesses and organizations. But more importantly, we endeavored to place those subjects against the most compelling backdrop of all: Cleveland and its wonderful neighborhoods. Each Thursday, our readers are invited to dig a little deeper into this city we call home. What follows is a list of the 10 most-read features of the previous 12 months. Looking at the subject matter of those stories, it's clear that the most important topics to our readers include neighborhood development, sustainability and transportation, and, of course, food and booze.