YOU’RE CORDIALLY INVITED
to an evening at XYZ & CPT to benefit GSAD
in the heart of the Gordon Square Arts District
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2010
The evening kicks off at the District’s newest establishment:
5:30 p.m. XYZ Tavern
6421 Detroit Avenue (next to CPT)
Cocktails & hors’ d’oeuvres
and continues to Cleveland Public Theatre
6:30 p.m. More cocktails and seating at CPT
7:00 p.m. “Connie’s Avant Garde Restaurant”
for a five-course dinner and theatre
This uproarious musical performance is a unique theatrical-culinary event mixing the ingredients of fine food, wine and ensemble theatre together in a hilarious parody of avant garde grandiosity. Comedy, death, violence and a five-course meal!
Individual tickets: $75
Reservations: Call Maria Asher @ 216.961.4242 x222 or masher@gordonsquare.org
RSVP: by Friday, December 3, 2010
Five-Course Menu
(With local produce subject to availability)
Roasted chestnuts and mushroom tartine
Curried butternut squash soup
Herbed apple and fennel salad
Maple-glazed ham with cranberry compote
Brown-buttered radishes
Sage-roasted sweet potatoes
Drunken chocolate Bundt cake
Dietary restrictions: Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant is able to accommodate food allergies and vegetarian needs. Please contact the box office to communicate dietary restrictions in your party. (216) 631-2727 or rcole@cptonline.org.
View full sizeGus Chan/The Plain DealerCars line up to be valet parked at the Capitol Theater for a “Sex and the City” Girls Night Out party and screening in May. The Gordon Square Arts District is being recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National League of Cities.
Gordon Square, the emerging art district in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood on Cleveland’s West Side, has won big time kudos from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National League of Cities.It has also pulled down $2.7 million in recent federal, state and local grants, which will be used to build or renovate community theaters that are central to its vision of using the arts to revive a city neighborhood. “Lots of good stuff is happening,” said Joy Roller, the district’s executive director. “To me, it’s an acknowledgement that what we’re doing is not only successful, but is a novel approach, a unique approach on how to revitalize an urban core.”
The NEA announced earlier this month that Gordon Square is one of 14 case studies in a new publication, “Creative Placemaking.”
Co-authored by arts advocates Ann Markusen and Ann Gadwa, the document is a project of the NEA’s Mayor’s Institute on City Design. The mission of the agency is to educate U.S. mayors to become the “chief urban designers” of their cities.
The case studies are intended to encourage mayors to think creatively about how everything from loft housing to art galleries can build economic value and encourage investment.
The chapter in the case study on Gordon Square praises the project for helping to leverage an estimated $500 million in related investments on the West Side of Cleveland over the past eight years, much of it in housing, even though Gordon Square is only halfway through a $30 million revitalization.
The goal of the district is to renovate two historic theaters — Cleveland Public and the Capitol — and to build a new home for Near West. By using the arts as an anchor for related retail, restaurant and housing development, the district is sparking new life in a 15-block corridor from W. 58th Street to West 73rd St., with Detroit Avenue as the spine.
The Capitol Theatre, located in the historic Gordon Square Arcade at W. 65th Street and Detroit Avenue, reopened in 2009 as a movie theater after a renovation. Work on Cleveland Public Theatre is ongoing. And the arts district has raised roughly half of the $6.5 million it needs to build a new Near West Theater, designed by Cleveland architect Richard Fleischman, Roller said.
“Creative Placemaking” said the district has ” revitalizing the area’s commercial core with arts offerings and new retail businesses while preserving and adding low-income housing units.”
Echoing the praise from the NEA, the National League of Cities has invited Roller to represent Gordon Square as one of 26 programs from the across the country that will be showcased in its upcoming National Congress of Cities in Denver, starting Tuesday.
In addition to the outside attention, Gordon Square announced it has received a $1 million matching grant from the Fowler Family Foundation and a $500,000 matching grant from the Gund Foundation, both for the Near West Theatre project. Roller said her organization has another $3.5 million to raise before it can build the theater.
“With Near West, we are inching closer to realizing our dream of building a new home for that theater,” Roller said.
A separate grant of $1 million in federal stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s State Energy Program will be used immediately to air condition Cleveland Public Theatre for the first time, which means it can be used year round, Roller said.
The State of Ohio has also kicked in $200,000 for asbestos removal at Cleveland Public, which will make the theater safer to use, Roller said.
The national attention focused on Gordon Square shouldn’t create the impression that the project has gone unnoticed locally. In June, the district won a Cleveland Arts Prize.
The national recognition for the district offers more proof that “Cleveland should be very proud of this model we’ve created in the Gordon Square Arts District,” Roller said. “It’s good news for Cleveland.”
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.
Gordon Square claims it has generated more than $500 million in economic development in the surrounding community near West 65th Street and Detroit Avenue.
“It’s using the arts for a catalyst for economic development,” Roller said. “The Gordon Square Arts District story is many layers deep.”
A ribbon-cutting for the first phase of Cleveland Public Theatre’s capital campaign was part of Gordon Square Arts District Day on June 12. The neighborhood celebrated with walking tours, music and classic cartoons at the Capitol Theatre.
Among the other prizes to be bestowed are the Robert P. Bergman Prize for leaders who are dedicated to a democratic vision of the arts as well as awards for emerging and midcareer artists, and lifetime achievement.
The Cleveland Arts Prize board of directors solicits nominations, and a jury chooses the winners, said executive director Marcie Bergman.
In Gordon Square’s case, the jury originally received a nomination for just two of the movers and shakers, but the jury felt more of the people involved also deserved recognition, Bergman said.
John Zayac, president of the Project Group, a Cleveland-based firm that manages capital projects, originally nominated Zone and Ramsey for their work with Gordon Square.
Zayac, who lives in Detroit-Shoreway, knew about the neighborhood’s transformation. The Project Group was project manager for the Capitol Theatre and Cleveland Public Theatre capitalprojects. The Project Group also served as fiscal agent for the district.
While serving as an arts-prize juror in 2009, Zayac noticed the nomination list was heavy with artists living or affiliated with organizations on the East Side. Determined to correct that, the following year he nominated Zone and Ramsey, and resigned as a juror to avoid conflict of interest.
As deliberations were under way, Zayac got a call from a jury chairman asking if Zayac would mind if the jury chose to honor Gordon Square instead of two individuals.
“It’s great the entire district is getting the award,” Zayac said. “Jeff and Matt are first among equals.”
WKYC Article: Cleveland: Governor praises Gordon Square Arts District economic investment
Kim WendelUpdated: 5/22/2010 7:51:02 AM Posted: 5/21/2010 3:23:46 PM
CLEVELAND — Governor Ted Strickland touted the Gordon Square Arts District when he addressed about 200 business and civic leaders gathered for a leadership breakfast Friday morning at the recently renovated Capitol Theatre.
Strickland said the District is a great example of how to create jobs and investment in a city neighborhood.
“You are creating long-term economic growth, and new jobs,” said Strickland. “In the short term, you are creating construction jobs. In fact, dollar for dollar, an investment in a building rehabilitation project creates more jobs than an investment even in a highway construction project.”
Team NEO, an economic clearinghouse for the 16 counties in Ohio’s northeast corner, has tracked the economic impact of the arts district as a dramatic $317 million in Cleveland alone through 2013.
In comparison, the five major projects of the arts district — three theatres, a stylish streetscape and added parking — represent a total investment of just $30 million.
The state of Ohio has invested $1.9 million in capital funds and provided leveraging for $4.4 million in federal tax credits.
Other funds have come from a variety of sources, including the city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, foundations and private contributions.
“Our urban agenda in Ohio is clear,” said Strickland. “We must build upon the great resources already existing within our cities, we must revitalize forgotten treasures and we must celebrate the cultural and economic vitality that pulses through our cities.”
“The Gordon Square Arts District serves as an example for cities across the nation of how to uncover a neighborhood’s assets, invest in them and watch it take off and deliver more than a tenfold return,” said Christopher M. Connor, chairman and CEO of Sherwin-Williams.
“The non-profits and civic leadership behind its revival have cleverly leveraged the arts into a newly revived, productive community.”
Connor is also chair of Team NEO.
The Gordon Square Arts District, a collaborative work of three nonprofits — the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, Cleveland Public Theatre and the Near West Theatre — is seen as a national model of how the arts can stimulate economic development.
The Team NEO study did not measure additional real estate and development activity, which is estimated by the Gordon Square Arts District and Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization at an additional $400 million or more.
Most of the restaurants, shops, galleries and other businesses are flourishing, with 33 new ones opening since 2006.
Housing ranging from live-work spaces for artists to spacious condominiums for successful entrepreneurs is in demand.
Additional components include streetscape improvements on Detroit Avenue between West 58th and West 73rd streets and new parking to accommodate residents and visitors.
The theatres provide unique entertainment to attract audiences from throughout the region.
For more information about Gordon Square, please contact 216-961-4242 or visit online www.gordonsquare.org
Project will add jobs and millions of dollars to the economy.
Friday, May 21, 2010
(Cleveland) – Local leaders met at the renovated Capital Theatre at West 65th and Detroit to talk about the success of the Gordon Square Arts District.
The $30 million revitalization program is expected to pump $317 million into the economy of the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood by 2017. Backers say the Gordon Square project has created 950 permanent jobs, plus 310 construction jobs.
Gordon Square Co-Chairman Dick Pogue says fundraising continues. Governor Strickland says the project is an amazing success. Chris Conner of Sherwin-Williams and team NEO agrees.
Plans are now underway to link Gordon Square to Lake Erie allowing residents to walk from the arts district to the shoreline.
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.
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.
Cleveland Arts Prize
What: The 50th annual prizes recognize artists with ties to Northeast Ohio who have made significant contributions in the arts.
When: Ceremony is Saturday, June 26.
Where: Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art.
Tickets: VIP tickets are $250, patron tickets are $100 and general admission tickets are $50.
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.”
Gordon Square Arts District. The Gordon Square Arts District is fast becoming Cleveland’s trendiest neighborhood. It’s on the city’s west side along Detroit Road (from about West 58th to West 73rd). The growing area has already attracted more than 30 new businesses! (2:33) » Read the rest of this entry «
View full sizeGus Chan/The Plain DealerCars line up to be valet parked at the Capitol Theater for a “Sex and the City” Girls Night Out party and screening in May. The Gordon Square Arts District is being recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National League of Cities.
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.
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 
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. 
Harper Collins BooksFormer Akron Beacon Journal reporter and author David Giffels is the recipient of the 2010 Cleveland Arts Prize’s midcareer award.
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