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Published: Saturday, June 19, 2010, 11:59 PM     Updated: Monday, June 21, 2010, 10:59 AM

Julie Washington, The Plain Dealer

Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer “Sex and the City 2″ Girls Night Out party at the Capitol Theatre– a one-time silent-film theater that was renovated and reopened in 2009 — is an example of the vitality of the Gordon Square neighborhood. The Gordon Square Arts District capital campaign is the recipient of a 2010 Cleveland Arts Prize.

It took a small village to raise the Gordon Square Arts District capital campaign from toddler to noisy, energetic adolescent. It’s appropriate that the village will be among those honored Saturday as winners of the 2010 Cleveland Arts Prize.

It’s the first time in recent memory that a Cleveland Arts Prize has been awarded not to a person or an organization but to a neighborhood.

“No one person could have done what Gordon Square Arts District is doing,” said the district’s executive director, Joy Roller. “To give it to one person would be totally unfair. I congratulate the Arts Prize for getting it.”

The Cleveland Arts Prizes — given to creative artists whose work enriches Northeast Ohio and whose accomplishments set a standard of excellence — were announced in May. Artists will be honored at the annual awards event Saturday at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Gordon Square was awarded a Martha Joseph Prize for Distinguished Service to the Arts, given to an individual or organization whose vision or philanthropy has made a significant contribution to the arts in Northeast Ohio.

While only Cleveland City Councilman Matt Zone will go onstage to accept the prize on behalf of Gordon Square, nearly a dozen other civic leaders will receive an Arts Prize medal. They include Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization executive director Jeff Ramsey, Gordon Square Arts District executive director Joy Roller and Cleveland Public Theatre executive artistic director Raymond Bobgan.

The district is a collaboration among Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, Cleveland Public Theatre and the Near West Theatre.

Its capital campaign has set a goal of raising $30 million for five projects in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, involving the area’s theaters, streetscaping and parking, Roller said.

[Original Cleveland.com Article] [PDF]

Read the Original Article on Cool Cleveland.com

Gordon Square Arts District

Cleveland is alive with art. It’s one of our greatest strengths.

Would-be artists have been awed by The Cleveland Museum of Art with its world-renowned collection and free admission. Budding violinists have been inspired by the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom or a Celtic band in a local pub. Thespians have taken to local school productions after witnessing Shakespeare performed on Playhouse Square.

Great art, when combined with opportunities to create it, breeds new ideas, new art, innovation. Nonprofit organizations and community organizations provide instruction and incubation takes place in studios and backstage rehearsals.

In Cleveland, arts districts invigorate our neighborhoods. Gordon Square Arts District was born when $20 Million was spent to renovate the near west side surrounding the Capitol Theatre. Restoration of the Capitol Theatre, a throwback to the era of classic movies like “Gone with the Wind,” was just the beginning. The Cleveland Public Theatre got a facelift and the Near West Theatre was constructed, making Gordon Square a destination for film and live theatre http://gordonsquare.org/capitol.html. You can watch a video of CoolCleveland.com’s Thomas Mulready interviewing Joy Roller of the Gordon Square Arts District by clicking the image below or here. Also pictured are Gordon Square Arts District Executive Director Jeff Ramsey and Cleveland City Councilman Matt Zone.

The streets were enhanced by new street lights, wider sidewalks, and accessible parking in the highway-accessible Detroit Shoreway neighborhood. Long underutilized and not-so-well maintained, Detroit Shoreway now enjoys great restaurants, musicals, galleries, films, and dance, in a clean and comfortable urban environment.

I headed out there on a Sunday afternoon to catch “Alice in Wonderland” at the Capitol. Others had the same idea– there was a line. Inside the theater’s lobby, the shadowy wall-sconce light and dark wood against light walls created the feel of the 1920s, the time of silent movies. The old Vaudeville stage (yes, it IS that old) remains amongst the three screens with digital projection foreign and independent, and the latest pop-culture, films, like Alice. Check out their Classic Brunch and Movie Series: a classic movie followed brunch in the adjacent restaurant, for $25 (call 440-349-3306, ext. 111 for your reservation). Late Friday Shift Schedule includes films like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “The Room,” 6515 Detroit http://www.clevelandcinemas.com.

Cleveland Public Theatre has become the west side’s incubator for new talent. Dancers, choreographers, playwrights, musicians, and directors are encouraged to seek their muse and create art with the support of art professionals. Although students create raw material from inexperience, that doesn’t mean the show is deficient. The theatre has drawn a large audience from around the greater Cleveland area since 1983 http://www.cptonline.org.

Visual arts and design, including fashion, brighten 78th Street Studios a few blocks north on Lake Avenue. The Creative Arts Open House is the best way to see what the West Side’s art community has to offer. Check it out every third Friday, not the same weekend as the Tremont or Little Italy walks, which means you can walk and look at art on lots of Fridays. The hunger and thirst are staved off by light food and beverage every third weekend quarterly when the exhibits change, making it a happy hour experience from 5 until 9 http://www.78thstreetstudios.com. Music stirs in the Lava Room recording studios, and print media is alive and well at the Alternative Press.

After all that exploring, you’ll be hungry, and although Gypsy Beans & Baking Company is great for coffee and pastries, pasta at Luxe will taste heavenly after all that walking http://www.GypsyBeans.com. That’s what I plan to eat after I spend an evening with W.B. Yeats at Cleveland Public Theatre sometime between May 13 and June 5.

“The Secret Garden” is playing at the Near West Theatre Thursdays through Sundays from May 7 through May 23 at 3PM. The kid-friendly production costs just $8 for adults and $6 for children. Call 216-961-6391 to purchase tickets. The Near West Theatre is a grassroots theatre with a focus on educating the public and strengthening people of all ages, with an emphasis on youth. Its philosophy is rooted in the transformative power of theatrical arts http://nearwesttheatre.org.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia Taller, whose passion for words has led to creation of the Lakeside Word Lover’s Retreats, an outgrowth of her work with Skyline Writers.

Her favorite foods are red wine, salmon, ice cream, and chocolate. She loves to read, write, tour wineries, ride her bike, ease into yoga, and cook gourmet meals for friends. Find her at http://www.claudiatallermusings.blogspot.com.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 8th, 2010 at 3:54 pm and is filed under BizTech, Claudia Taller, Events, News, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Read the Original Article on Cool Cleveland.com

By Julie Washington, The Plain Dealer [Cleveland.com Original Article]

View full sizeThe Plain DealerThe Plain Dealer’s critic Steven Litt has won the Robert P. Bergman Prize as part of the 2010 Cleveland Arts Prize.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — In a rare move, a Cleveland Arts Prize has been awarded not to a person or an organization, but a neighborhood.

Gordon Square Arts District — a collection of theaters, restaurants and galleries clustered around West 65th Street and Detroit Avenue — and its leaders are being honored for having the vision and influence to revitalize a Cleveland neighborhood using the arts as an economic engine.

And among other winners of the arts prize is Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer’s art and architecture critic won the Robert P. Bergman Prize for leaders who are dedicated to a democratic vision of the arts.

Gordon Square leaders include Cleveland City Councilman Matt Zone, Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization executive director Jeff Ramsey, Gordon Square Arts District executive director Joy Roller, and Cleveland Public Theatre executive artistic director Raymond Bobgan.

Winners of the 2010 Cleveland Arts Prize — given to creative artists whose work enriches Northeast Ohio and whose accomplishments set a standard of excellence — will be announced today. They will be honored at the annual awards event Saturday, June 26, at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

“This crop of winners is broad-based and reflective of Cleveland today,” said arts prize executive director Marcie Bergman. “I find it thrilling to look at the people represented.”

Here are this year’s winners:

Lifetime Achievement Award in Visual Art: Artist Audra Skuodas spends so much time in her Oberlin studio, her husband jokes that she’ll grow roots there. Naturally a reclusive person, Skuodas has never done the kind of self-promotion that many artists do to goose their careers.

So it was a wonderful moment when she learned that she had received the Cleveland Arts Prize Lifetime Achievement Award in Visual Art.

“It’s just a beautiful reassurance,” said Skuodas, pronounced SKOO-dus. “I exist.”

Skuodas has spent 40 years building a body of work that includes wall sculpture, book making, drawing and writing.

Martha Joseph Prizes for Distinguished Service to the Arts: Honors an individual or organization whose vision or philanthropy has made a significant contribution to the arts in Northeast Ohio. It is being awarded to Gordon Square Arts District and its leaders.

Other winners include:

• Joanne Cohen, executive director of the Art and Medicine Institute’s Art Program at the Cleveland Clinic.

Harper Collins BooksFormer Akron Beacon Journal reporter and author David Giffels is the recipient of the 2010 Cleveland Arts Prize’s midcareer award.

• Trudy Wiesenberger, curator and creator of the Art Program at University Hospitals of Cleveland, a trustee at Cleveland Institute of Art and a co-founder of the institute’s craft council.

• Mary Louise Hahn, former chair of the Cleveland Arts Prize and consultant for the Cleveland Foundation, where she bolstered the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award jury, increased the awards prize to $10,000, and turned the awards ceremony into a compelling event.

• Mickie McGraw, co-founder of the Art Studio at MetroHealth Medical Center.

Emerging Artist Award in Literature: This prize, awarded to a promising artist living in Northeast Ohio, carries a $5,000 prize. Poet and author Phil Metres, an associate professor of English at John Carroll University, is the recipient.

Mid-Career Awards: This honor spotlights artists who have received national and regional recognition and have lived in this region. The literature award will go to David Giffels, former Akron Beacon Journal reporter and author of “All the Way Home.” Giffels is assistant professor of English at the University of Akron. The music and dance prize will go to world percussionist Jamey Haddad, visiting associate professor of percussion at Oberlin College. Giffels and Haddad each will receive $2,500.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Writer Henry Adams, professor of art history at Case Western Reserve University, is the author of “Eakins Revealed: The Secret Life of an American Artist.”

[PDF] [Original Cleveland.com Article]

CLEVELAND, OH–(Marketwire – April 8, 2010) – The Gordon Square Arts District in Cleveland’s Detroit Shoreway neighborhood is rewriting the way the arts can rapidly shape neighborhood redevelopment. It’s a unique economic dynamo, created by a team of innovative nonprofit organizations for this aging, historic working-class enclave on the bluff of Lake Erie.

Theaters and galleries help anchor the neighborhood, along with waves of new shops, restaurants and housing. Ultimately, $30 million in seminal projects is predicted to cash in at more than $400 million in commercial and residential real estate development, plus hundreds of permanent jobs and a projected $317 million of economic output in Cleveland by 2013. Here is how this came about:

The executive directors and boards of three participating non-profits — Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, Cleveland Public Theatre and Near West Theatre — displayed courage and vision to break the mold and create the Gordon Square Arts District. In doing so, they agreed to limit independent fund raising and make fund raising for the arts district a priority, delegate considerable governance to a board with a majority of independent directors and promote the betterment of the whole through other collaborations.

Other cities have employed the arts as a tool for development. But the Gordon Square Arts District is believed to be the first instance where existing nonprofits, already owners of established theaters and programming, have coalesced to do planning, fund raising, renovation, new construction and infrastructure improvements. Nearly sixty percent of the $30 million goal has already been raised from public and private donors.

The three participating nonprofits also have a common mission of social justice and working with underserved populations — demonstrated in part by a $1 million neighborhood responsibility fund. It will be used to give current residents and businesses advantages such as low- or no-interest loans, abated increases in property tax or business improvement district assessments, transportation and human services like day care and job placement.

Only three years old, the Gordon Square Arts District has attracted 33 new shops, restaurants, artists’ studios and other new businesses, resulting in a commercial vacancy rate of just 3 to 4 percent. A $3 million streetscape redesign dresses up 15 blocks of the main thoroughfare, Detroit Avenue, with new sidewalks, lighting and buried utility wires. The central eight blocks also have public art, benches, trees, pavers and wider sidewalks to encourage pedestrian traffic and outdoor dining.

The Capitol Theatre, a one-time vaudeville and silent film theater at W. 65^th and Detroit Avenue, has undergone a $7 million renovation. It opened last fall as an independent and specialty film house, also showing quality Hollywood features.

Plans are already being finalized for a new $5 million performance center for Near West Theatre, a community theater with an emphasis on youth, and the $9.4 million renovation of Cleveland Public Theatre, the oldest standing theater in Cleveland and one of the nation’s leading experimental & political performance venues, has begun. The sites of the Capitol, Near West and Cleveland Public theaters are within a two-minute walk of one another.

An analysis by Team NEO, an economic development clearinghouse for 16 Northeast Ohio counties, shows Gordon Square Arts District’s dramatic economic impact. It is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars in goods and services, personal income and tax revenues into Cleveland, across Northeast Ohio and even the rest of the state, while creating almost 800 jobs in Cleveland alone. The district will have created $317 million of economic output in Cleveland by 2013, when construction on its five major projects is to be completed. When the direct and supply-chain effects across Ohio are factored in, the impact rises to $436 million. » Read the rest of this entry «

Cleveland’s Hottest New Neighborhood?
Gordon Square reopens Capitol Theatre & unveils Streetscape.

Watch the Cool Cleveland Video with Thomas Mulready and Joy Roller.

Article from CoolCleveland.com

Joy Roller is at the center of the universe. As Executive Director of the Gordon Square Arts District, she is overseeing the complex and ongoing $30 million economic development project in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood that has already brought in over 25 new businesses, restaurants and retail outlets and made the neighborhood around Detroit & W. 65th one of the hottest in the region. Watch the video as Joy [shown here with Detroit Shoreway CDO director Jeff Ramsey & Cle City Councilman Matt Zone] talks about the restoration of the Capitol Theatre, which will be run by Jonathan Foreman’s Cleveland Cinemas running art & independent films (a Cedar-Lee West?), and the comprehensive Streetscape project, with cool bus shelters, new streetlamps and art by Cle-based environmental artist Susie Frazier Mueller. Next: more parking, plus a complete renovation of Cleveland Public Theatre, which started it all way back in the 1980′s, and a new theatre facility (finally!) for Near West Theatre. Ribbon cutting for the Streetscape is this Sat 9/26 and for the Capitol Theatre is Fri 10/2. Wow! http://www.GordonSquare.org