This summer, the St. Clair Superior Development Corporation launched an initiative called "Retail Ready" with the objective of filling a slew of vacant storefronts along St. Clair Avenue. In partnership with local landlords, they offered enticements such as reduced rent, free buildout and marketing support. The goal was to create a "big bang" effect in which a number of shops opened simultaneously, bringing new life to this historic street.

Although the project has taken longer than anticipated, it has sparked a lot of fresh interest in the area, says St. Clair Superior Executive Director Michael Fleming. The faded strip also recently celebrated a new tenant, Nx Dance Studio, which opened its doors on Sunday with a room full of line dancers and music spilling out into the street. Three additional retailers are expected to open early next year.

Now, thanks to a $25,375 grant awarded by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, St. Clair Superior is gearing up for a major public art project this summer that will beautify the street between E. 62nd and Addison. "Hope-Sketch: St. Clair Avenue Reimagined" will create large-scale public art with community input.

"We've always known that a major component to the 'pop-up neighborhood' would be public art," Fleming says. "Hope-Sketch will involve neighborhood residents and businesses in working with an artist to put together ideas as to what their hopes are for the neighborhood. Then they'll create a temporary art installation for one weekend and the whole street will come alive. Afterwards, a professional design firm, Agnes Studio, will distill the concepts into permanent public art."

Hope-Sketch will be completed in summer of 2013. In February, St. Clair Superior is also planning to celebrate kurentovanje, a Slovenian carnival event that is based on Pagan tradition. By then, Fleming hopes that new retailers such as an art gallery, coffeeshop and bakery will be open, with more on the way.


Source: Michael Fleming
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Staying put in the 216 for the holidays has never been so easy -- nor so much fun. Thanks to a bevy of new attractions and eateries, combined with wonderful old traditions, locals and visitors alike will have no shortage of festive holiday fun. In this colorful slideshow, Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski highlights some of the season's best eats, treats, and places to be.

The national #GivingTuesday movement has a mission to create a day of giving at the start of the holiday season. The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is taking that one day and expanding it well beyond the holidays in support of the next generation of classical musicians.

On November 27, in conjunction with #GivingTuesday, CIM launched an eight-week campaign to fund the training of students at the Cleveland School of the Arts (CSA). The school enrolls over 700 students in grades sixth through 12. Part of the curriculum covers instrumental music, hence donors are encouraged to give not only monetary contributions, but also fulfill a "wish list" of much-needed musical instruments, accessories and books to the school and its students.

"We wanted to make this about giving, so there's no goal or amount we're looking for," says Karin Stone, CIM's vice president of institutional advancement.

The official campaign ends January 22, culminating with a Black Heritage Concert on January 27 at CIM's Kulas Hall. The music school will present CSA with the collected contributions during the concert event.

CIM staff, faculty and students regularly work with their peers at CSA, says Stone. Last spring, the schools combined their talents for a concert that was "an amazing experience" for both entities.

CIM's grassroots fundraising effort will ensure there will be more such concerts in the future, Stone says.

"Whatever we get the kids, they will be excited," she says. "We have a long-running relationship with CSA, and this is one more way to enhance it."

 
SOURCE: Karin Stone
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

To be truly successful at neighborhood redevelopment, CDCs must change how they do business, says Joel Ratner, president of Neighborhood Progress Inc. They must adopt a holistic strategy that combines bricks-and-mortar development with high-performing schools, social services, and other amenities that residents need and want. 

Local funny man Mike Polk Jr. has both enraged and delighted Clevelanders with his irreverent "tourism" videos, which have garnered more than 10 million views. He also created and starred in the HBO weekly web show The Man in the Box. For his latest effort, Polk leaves the Internet behind and dives into print with Damn Right I'm From Cleveland, which local publisher Gray & Co. debuted earlier this month.

The musCLE house may not be a gym or cable-access bodybuilding show, but it does give Cleveland students the opportunity to flex their musical talents in exchange for a bit of their free time.

Students taking part in the program receive one hour of free music lessons in exchange for volunteering one hour toward philanthropic involvement or community service, says musCLE house co-founder Eric Kogelschatz.

The Detroit native created the program with his wife Hallie Bram Kogelschatz and Cleveland Institute of Music alums Ariel Clayton and Carlos Javier. The musCLE house works with students from Cleveland Municipal School District, although its co-founder would like to expand the program to other districts.

"Music is a basic building block of intelligence," Kogelschatz explains. Due to school districts cutting music programs, "not enough young people have exposure to it."

The musCLE house launched its fundraising campaign this week. Kogelschatz aims to raise $55,000 over the next two months to finance more than 600 hours of music lessons from paid instructors, along with the procurement of instruments, sheet music and more.

With its volunteerism aspect, the program has the tenet of community building at its core, says Kogelschatz. Adding music to the mix is a bonus for the Shaker Heights resident, who grew up playing the saxophone and clarinet.

"We're encouraging kids to get involved with their communities," he says. "Students get to see the change taking place around them, and they're getting a reward."

 
SOURCE: Eric Kogelschatz
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

After 35 years producing theatrical performances in rented spaces, the Near West Theatre finally is getting its own place. The community theater broke ground on its first-ever permanent home on November 27, and its supporters are happily looking ahead to the first show at the stand-alone building.

It will be about two years before the Detroit-Shoreway theater opens at W. 67th Street, just north of Detroit, says chief operating officer Hans Holznagel. Until then, Near West Theatre will continue to operate out of its longtime rented home on the third floor of a hall owned by St. Patrick's Church at W. 38th Street and Bridge Avenue in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood.

The new 25,000-square-foot theater will have extra seating and increased stage space. It also will have rehearsal space and air conditioning, two amenities the current facility has done without for years.

"It opens up all kinds of possibilities for us," says Holznagel.

Hundreds of people from the Gordon Square Arts District, the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood and the local theater community were invited to celebrate the theater's groundbreaking. The project will cost nearly $7 million -- a portion of the $30 million Gordon Square Arts District campaign set aside to revitalize the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood using the arts as an economic catalyst.

A new space won't detract from the intimacy that Near West Theatre shows are known for, promises Holznagel. When it opens in fall 2014, the space will offer the professionally produced, large-scale shows long-time fans have grown to love.

 "We're excited to be part of a diverse, vibrant community that matches with the mission of our theater," Holznagel says.

 
SOURCE: Hans Holznagel
WRITER:  Douglas J. Guth

Caley Coleff first began collecting vintage furniture from flea markets with her grandfather when she was a little girl. Once the furniture was home, she'd watch her grandfather refinish it, absorbing his techniques even when he thought she wasn't paying attention.

This month, Coleff unveiled a vintage store that pays tribute to those early experiences while adding her own unique twist. Located at 11102 Detroit Avenue in Cudell, Heck's Revival is named after her grandfather, whose last name was Heck.

"I started doing stuff from my home because you can't afford nice, well-made furniture anymore," she explains. "If you buy something it's the cheapo [stuff] that falls apart. I had a lot, so I started doing custom orders and selling to friends. I never realized I was actually good at it, I was just making stuff that I liked."

Then Coleff met her business partner, Jill Krznaric ("It's Croatian, even though I'm not"), and a business idea was born. Krznaric is into retro items like old barstools, while Coleff likes to take French Provincial furniture and paint it with cool designs. Together, they found a space with hardwood floors that they liked and signed a lease.

"A lot of our stuff comes out of the trash," says Coleff, who is 26 years old and also tends bar. "It's beat up and broken and people think it's out of style. We stain it, prime it and put it back together. Then I paint it with cool colors and designs."

The most expensive item in Heck's Revival is a $400 dresser that Coleff painted with a white background and a black outline of Marilyn Monroe's face. The least expensive items are old retro kitchen stuff that sell for a buck apiece.

"As new as we are, I thought it would have taken a lot longer to pick up. We've been doing really, really well," effuses Coleff, who aims to create a younger, more accessible kind of vintage retailer. "People like it enough to tell their friends."

Heck's Revival, which opened in mid-November, has regular hours on Mondays from 12-7 p.m., Wednesdays-Fridays from 12-5 p.m. and Saturdays from 12-4 p.m.


Source: Caley Coleff
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Seven is a lucky number for North Collinwood's burgeoning arts community, as a like-numbered group of the neighborhood's creative thinkers recently received grants from the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC).

The seven artists, most working out of North Collinwood's Waterloo Arts and Entertainment District as part of CPAC's "Artists in Residence" initiative, will get a total of $45,000 in funding for projects including a music education series for local children and an "intergenerational story circle" starring some of the community elderly residents, says CPAC strategic initiative director Seth Beattie.

The grants will address community priorities through arts activities between this month and the end of March. Overarching themes of the grant cycle are residents, community assets and youth involvement. CPAC is awarding the grants in conjunction with the nonprofit Northeast Shores Development Corporation.

"We had 30 proposals this time around," says Beattie of CPAC's second of three grant periods; the third round will come next spring. "These particular ones rose to the top."

The grants are a component of the Artists in Residence program, which is using the North Collinwood neighborhood as "a laboratory" for increasing artists’ engagement with the population, says CPAC president and CEO Tom Schorgl. Area painters, sculptors, videographers and musicians are given perks like affordable housing with the hope they will be a major participant in neighborhood revitalization.

"Artists want communities where they can live affordably with a great quality of life," says Beattie. "They can be a tremendous force in absorbing space in the neighborhood. Collinwood is poised to see a dramatic turnaround in the coming years."

The Waterloo Road arts district can be part of that transformation, with CPAC's latest granting round a good beginning on getting that done, believe the organization's leaders.

"We're marrying strengths here," Beattie says. "It's about money and developing a system of support that helps artists build up projects now and in the future."

 
SOURCE: Tom Schorgl, Seth Beattie
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

Cleveland native Marcellus Nealy was "window shopping" for a camera on the Internet when he came across information about Canon’s Project Imaginat10n contest. The contest involves director Ron Howard selecting 91 photos in 10 categories to be made into films by celebrity directors. Nealy decided to enter, and his photo “Sharing a Smoke” was named a winner in the “relationship” category.
 
"While I was window shopping I stumbled on a site that mentioned last year's contest,” recalls Nealy. “That site made me want to know more about this year's contest. I Googled it, saw that they were still taking submissions, and sent in some photos. I never actually expected to be a winner.”
 
Nealy grew up on Scoville Avenue and the Lee Harvard neighborhoods of Cleveland and attended John Carroll. He now spends most of his time in Tokyo, or with his sister in Willoughby Hills.
 
Nealy’s photo is one of the 91 that celebrity directors -- Eva Longoria, Jamie Foxx, designer and co-founder of Marchesa Georgina Chapman and James Murphy -- will pick from to use for their short films.
 
Nealy shot the photo while on a shoot for a Tokyo-based band. Two of the band members were sharing a cigarette when the inspiration hit Nealy. “Suddenly, I had a vision of them exchanging souls or some cosmic energy or the spirit of creativity or Anima, or whatever you want to call it,” he says. “I thought the smoke would be the best way to express this vision in a tangible way.”
 
The first five films are scheduled to go into production later this year and early 2013, with five more celebrity directors to be named at a later date.

 
Source: Marcellus Nealy
Writer: Karin Connelly

Cleveland’s contemporary art scene is thriving and growing, serving as a magnet for tourism while proving an economic engine for revitalizing the region. Newly reenergized by momentous advancements at CMA and MOCA -- and nurtured along by CIA -- the progressive arts scene is enjoying a renaissance.