Published: Saturday, October 08, 2011, 6:30 AM     Updated: Saturday, October 08, 2011, 5:05 PM

By Joanna Connors, The Plain Dealer 

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.’ ”

[Original Cleveland.com Article]

[Original Article]

For more information regarding this weekend’s events please visit : discover.gordonsquare.org

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!

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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.

[Original Crain's Cleveland Business Article][PDF]

Published: Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 10:59 AM     Updated: Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 11:19 AM

By Joe Crea, The Plain Dealer

New enterprises keep adding to the unfolding tapestry of the Gordon Square Arts District. And it’s especially cool that the latest opening brings something sweet to the mix.

Sweet Moses Soda Fountain & Treat Shop, 6800 Detroit Ave., Cleveland, is holding its grand opening Saturday. And it is just the right addition to Gordon Square. Vanilla-colored walls hung with vintage posters and oversize postcards, handsomely restored booths and dozens of other old-time touches — including a vintage root-beer barrel and a grand 1940s-era Bastion-Blessings soda fountain fronted by a 16-foot marble counter — lend a welcoming throwback feeling to the place.

“I really wanted to create an experience here, and I knew the feeling I wanted guests to take away — a multigenerational experience,” says Jeff Moreau, who operates Sweet Moses with his wife, Ellen.

“I want people to walk in here and feel glad that it’s in the neighborhood, happy that it’s in the city,” says Moreau, a veteran of the advertising business who wanted to try his hand at something different. “I want my 83-year-old mother to walk in with her friends and say ‘Wow, this reminds me of my childhood,’ but also have a 20-year-old appreciate the fact that it’s cool, it’s not a chain and it’s not in a ‘lifestyle center.’ It’s something that a lot of them will be experiencing for the first time.”

With treats like these, there should be plenty of smiles and memories in the making. House-made classic flavors of ice cream, cookies, brownies and chocolates — barks, fudges and filled “cups” — made with Belgian dark, milk and white chocolate are among the treats. By the way, don’t miss the great white cheddar popcorn and caramel corn.

Those confections and others were showcased during a pre-opening party this past weekend. Guests were invited to sample traditional fountain fare that shares names with area landmarks, such as the Gordon Square (a large homemade brownie topped with house-made Bananas Foster ice cream, hot fudge and warm homemade real-butter caramel), the Shoreway Sundae (hot fudge-topped coffee ice cream showered with almonds and toffee pieces) and the $25 Terminal Tower (a scoop of each of Sweet Moses’ 10 classic flavors, draped in a landslide of marshmallow cream, hot fudge, warm caramel, pecans, candy sprinkles and cherries).

The Moreaus intend to eventually maintain late closing hours, making the shop a stop for after-theatergoers and others who “want something sweet but don’t want to eat it out of a cup in a parking lot,” Jeff says. If you want a sneak peek before Saturday, the shop will be open noon to 9 p.m. through Thursday, and noon to 5 p.m. Friday. 216-651-2202.

[Cleveland.com Article] [PDF]

[WKYC Posting]

Published: Tuesday, February 01, 2011, 3:59 PM     Updated: Tuesday, February 01, 2011, 4:14 PM

By Joe Crea, The Plain Dealer

Gus Chan, The Plain DealerThe Mad Stone, a bar/restaurant near Cleveland Public Theatre, on Cleveland’s West Side.

Big changes are in the wind for one of the West Side’s most remarkable spots. Stone Mad, the beautifully appointed restored house in Cleveland’s Gordon Square neighborhood, will have two new chefs at the helm — including Eric Williams, maestro behind mod-Mex Momocho.

“Actually, I’ll just be a hired hand for a couple of months,” says Williams, who’s being brought in by Stone Madd co-owner Eileen Sammon to tune up the operation. Together, Williams and Sammon worked to pinpoint problems and changes they thought necessary.

“We’re tweaking the menu to make it pub style — much smaller, showing a wider variety of ethnic pubs, not just Irish, but English, Italian, different styles,” Williams says. The new menu will include six appetizers, three sandwiches, three french-bread pizzas and four entrees, but there’ll be eight, scratch-made side dishes. So a guest can get curried corn succotash, brussels sprouts with cider vinegar and bacon, or green beans with browned butter and pine nuts, too.

“This way, the customer can pick and choose his plate,” Williams adds. Stone Mad’s popular handmade burgers will stay on the menu.

Mike Wyant is the other new chef in the equation. Former sous chef at Cabin Club in Westlake, he’ll work with Williams in making the transition then take over the new kitchen.

Expect Stone Mad to be closed Tuesday, Feb. 15. An army of chefs will descend on the restaurant, “and we’re going to do a 24-hour-marathon, kicking the dishes out and trying and retrying everything,” Williams says. After a soft opening, the public will be welcomed back on Friday, Feb. 18.

Stone Madd: 1306 West 65th St., Cleveland; 216-281-6500.

[Original Article on Cleveland.com][PDF]