Wednesday, July 18, 2007 12:00 PM
The Changing Face of Cleveland: Getting a Lift in Arts Districts
Dan Cuffaro, Dr. Ned Hill, and Matt Zone

http://www.cityclub.org/content/speakers/SpeakerDetail.aspx?spkID=5497

Change may be inevitable, but all changes are not created equal. Three examples of our town’s changing face are presented in this two-part series. They demonstrate the commitment of leaders to the revitalization of the mother city, which, despite the abandonment of recent decades, is considered ripe for renewal. The initiatives featured are at the forefront of that renewal, not just for their economic impact but also for the imprint left on the social and cultural lives of its people. The geographic band, running from the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood to the West, through Midtown Cleveland, and terminating at our great cultural University Circle area, offers three clusters of community development that mark the fresh face of our urban landscape. Plain Dealer art & architecture critic Steve Litt will moderate.

A restored Capitol Theatre, a transplanted Near West Theatre, and a fresh new streetscape are just a few features of the renewal of the Detroit & W. 65th Street crossroads. Ward 17 councilman Matt Zone is the driving force behind the Gordon Square Cultural Arts District development. He will report on how the Arts District effort will bring excitement and a new prosperity to this historic neighborhood.

The Cleveland District of Design is an innovative development concept created by Dan Cuffaro, chair of the Department of Industrial Design at the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA), and Dr. Ned Hill, vice-president of economic development for Cleveland State University, to define Cleveland as the product design capital of the U.S.—The Milan of the Midwest. The concept is a natural for Cleveland, which has been a leader in industrial design dating back to the days when Viktor Shreckengost established the first such program in the country at CIA. With the Euclid Corridor as its core, the District will gather together the best consumer design talent of the region and beyond to provide a marketplace of showrooms displaying original consumer product design.