Gordon Square Offers Free Shuttle Service on Third Fridays
Trolley Buses Will Mobilize Visitors Though Neighborhood Hot Spots Starting April 20th
CLEVELAND – Every third Friday of the month, visitors of Gordon Square have been known to explore the art galleries of the 78th Street Studios, dine at eclectic restaurants, and hear music at cool night clubs found within this popular Cleveland arts district.
But on April 20th the public will find a whole new reason to marshal their friends to their favorite hot spots. From 6:00 pm – 11:00 pm, two trolley buses with tour guides will be mobilizing anyone who wants a free lift through eight different trolley stops in the area, making it easier for people to leave their cars in one place and discover exciting hangouts they may not have known about. Coined, the Gordon Square Loop, this one-night, free service will span from W. 58th Street to W. 78th Street along Lake and Detroit Roads, and will also go as far north as Battery Park. With two vehicles running simultaneously along a short route, riders are expected to wait no more than ten minutes from any given stop.
“In our district, there’s already a lot happening on Third Fridays, so we’re just connecting the dots and offering an easy way for visitors to get from here to there,” says Jeff Ramsey, Executive Director of Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, the entity that manages the greater Gordon Square area. “If all goes well, we plan to offer this again during Third Fridays in May and June.”
Gordon Square is an arts and cultural enclave on Cleveland’s West Side, where a powerful combination of housing, new businesses, arts destinations, and street beautification have infused more than $500 million in economic development to the surrounding community. More information about the area is found at gordonsquare.org
Lynn Ischay, The Plain DealerRaymond Bobgan, artistic director of Cleveland Public Theatre, on collaboration with Oberlin College: “This partnership benefits everyone. For students, there’s a real difference between working with other students in a university environment and working in a professional setting. It’s invaluable.”
CLEVELAND, Ohio — When college students study abroad, the journey takes them across foreign borders and always requires a passport.
Passports won’t be necessary for a group of Oberlin College students who will spend the winter term of 2013 working at Cleveland Public Theatre and, if all goes as planned, living in the Gordon Square neighborhood. But borders of a different kind will be crossed in the monthlong artistic residency, which CPT artistic director Raymond Bobgan is calling “study abroad in Cleveland.”
The pilot program will begin in the fall semester of 2012, when the group of about 20 students will stay in Oberlin to study with Oberlin faculty and CPT artists, Bobgan said. Then, in January 2013, they will move to the Gordon Square area and spend the month working on a CPT production.
The program is part of a newly formed arts-education collaboration of Oberlin and the Gordon Square Arts District’s three founding partners — CPT, Near West Theatre and the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization. It will kick off on Saturday, Oct.15, with a benefit for the arts district’s $30 million capital campaign.
The benefit begins at 6 p.m. in a pop-up art gallery in the Near West Lofts, 6710 Detroit Ave., with an exhibit by Oberlin art students. Their work will be for sale that night and for 10 days following. Works by Oberlin faculty will be auctioned during the benefit, which is followed by a gala at CPT’s Gordon Square Theatre, 6415 Detroit Ave. Tickets for the art-show portion are $100; for the gala, $50. Go to gordonsquare.org/oct15 or call 216-961-4242, Ext. 222.
Beyond the benefit, the collaborative plans at this point all involve Cleveland Public Theatre. In April 2012, Oberlin students and faculty will be part of a CPT production of “Iphigenia 2.0″ by Charles Mee. Matthew Wright, associate professor of theater at Oberlin, will direct a cast made up of Oberlin students and CPT professionals.
“This partnership benefits everyone,” Bobgan said. “For students, there’s a real difference between working with other students in a university environment and working in a professional setting. It’s invaluable.
“For us, it gives us a connection to the incredibly talented students at Oberlin. We want them to stay here, not go off to New York and other places. We want them to realize, ‘Wow, I can stay in Cleveland and work on my art and have a home.’ ”
The Happy Dog hosts Gordon Square Goes to the Art Museum!
This event was inspired by the fun trip to watch Third Friday’s at the Cleveland Orchestra. Where will Gordon Square go next? Stay tuned, or leave your suggestions in this posts comments! Enjoy the photos from the event!
Then there’s the bookseller I met one afternoon in a run-down section of the West Side that has recently transformed itself into the hopping Gordon Square Arts District. The shop (which has since closed) had an intriguing name—84 Charing Cross Bookstore. Inside, I discovered a wall of volumes devoted to Cleveland history: books about the Connecticut surveyor Moses Cleaveland who founded the city in 1796; the 19th-century colony of Shakers who imbued the region with its value of industriousness; and “Millionaire’s Row,” a stretch of 40 mansions along Euclid Avenue that once housed some of America’s richest industrialists, including John D. Rockefeller.
10:09 am, March 24, 2011
The already-bustling Gordon Square Arts District is getting a little busier with the addition of three new retail businesses.
Wednesday marked the official opening of Sweet Moses, a soda fountain and treat shop at 6800 Detroit Avenue, one block west of the Gordon Square Arcade.
The owner is Jeff Moreau, who’s offering a turn-of-the-century soda shop experience. Sweet Moses serves homemade ice cream dishes and handmade confections. Coming soon will be peanut butter sandwiches that can be topped with options including bacon, marshmallow cream, Nutella, sliced bananas and potato chips.
In addition, two women’s boutiques soon will open at the West 65th Street and Detroit Avenue intersection.
One of the businesses, Turnstyle, will sell a mix of vintage and contemporary items. The other business comes from “Project Runway” fashion designer Valerie Mayen, who is creating a “pop-up” store of her fashions next to the Capitol Theatre on West 65th Street.
Lynn Ischay, The Plain DealerRaymond Bobgan, artistic director of Cleveland Public Theatre, on collaboration with Oberlin College: “This partnership benefits everyone. For students, there’s a real difference between working with other students in a university environment and working in a professional setting. It’s invaluable.”
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