Rachel’s challenge

Attend a community activity or event everyday for $10 or less. Unplug from the outlet and plug into the community.

Activities for the week

Cedar Lee Movie Theater, Cleveland Heights: Mondays at Cleveland Cinemas there are $5 movies all day long, with additional deals on candy and fountain drinks. The Cedar Lee Theater is my favorite cinema in Cleveland. Like the new Capitol Theater, in Gordon Square Arts District, Cedar Lee Theater shows a mixed variety of independent and Hollywood films. Additionally, the cinema is situated nearby delicious restaurants like Dewey’s Pizza and Anatolia Café, making this the perfect spot to grab dinner and a movie. Monday evening, I went to a screening of Winter’s Bone—an Ozark odyssey that follows 17-year-old Ree Dolly on a quest to find her father. The movie was thrilling, shocking while being emotionally poignant. If you are interested in a more interactive experience, Cedar Lee also holds showings of cult movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Room (one of the best worst movies of all time) to packed theaters of yelling, cross-dressing movie nerds. Fess up, you are all movie nerds just like me.

Price: $5

Gallery hop: Mid-week I took an afternoon to explore four of Cleveland’s many unique art galleries. There are great shows coming up in each gallery for fall 2010 be sure to check them out!

• The Sculpture Center, Cleveland: The show I saw at The Sculpture Center, located on E. 123rd Street, was called “After the Pedestal: The Sixth Annual Exhibition of Small Sculpture from the Region.” The sculpture in the show ranged from one inch to three feet high. Many of the small pieces poke fun at the technological age in which we live. One of my favorite miniature pieces was called “Protection Piece After the Fall” by Gregory Steel. Steel’s sculpture shows two elderly couples being guarded by plastic military figurines who appear to be protecting the couples from a giant apple. The scene is a whimsical take on Apple’s presence in the information age.

• William Busta Gallery, Cleveland: The most dynamic pieces I saw all day were by an artist named Brinsley Tyrrell showcased in William Busta Gallery on Prospect Avenue. Tyrrell’s pieces are large landscape scenes, inspired by his rural home in Portage County. Tyrrell’s media is glass enamel on steel. Glass enameling is often seen in jewelry work but in large scale the colors become so vibrant and brushstrokes so fluid that you can’t help but stare. Tyrrell’s series called “Ohio Lands Forever” really captures the timelessness of the rural landscape and reminds you that Ohio is a beautiful place.

• Heights Arts Gallery, Cleveland Heights: The Heights Arts Gallery’s show “Lake Effects” is a collective body of work by several regional photographers. This show provided the most apparent intersection between art and sustainability by exhibiting the different ways Clevelanders interact with Lake Erie. Lori Kella photographically catalogued detritus and bits of discarded plastic from the Lake while Renee Psiakis created a photo journal of a childhood spent at Euclid Beach. I really enjoyed this show because it demonstrated that, as Clevelanders, we are constantly affected by Lake Erie whether we realize it or not.

• Arts Collinwood Gallery, Cleveland: I saw a small show at the Arts Collinwood Gallery located in the fledgling Waterloo Arts District. The featured artist was Katy Richards who painted different cuts of meats in her show called “Primal Cuts.” The pieces were provocative and touched on the primordial human urge to consume. An added bonus to the trip to Waterloo was that I was able to stop at my favorite local music store called Music Saves that has a wonderful variety of CDs and LPs.

Price: $0

Summer in the City Concert Series, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland: Summer in the City is a free live concert series right here in Cleveland. On Wednesday evening I had the pleasure of seeing a Philly based, pop-rock band called Free Energy (read a band review here) play on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame pavilion. A half-hour into the show I was gushing with Cleveland pride. I had gotten a $3 veggie taco from the new Dim and Den Sum food cart, watched a fantastic sunset over Lake Erie and sustained eye contact with Free Energy lead singer, Paul Spranger (who later told me he liked my hat). The mood was great and so were the tunes, I was happy to be in Cleveland.

Price: $0

Title TBD-Cleveland’s Only Improvised Musical, Bela Dubby Café, Lakewood: Bela Dubby is certainly a unique establishment. This café sells coffee, beer and pizza bagels but what really sets it apart from the average coffee shop is its variety of evening entertainment. For $5, on a Saturday evening I was able to see an entire improv musical, complete with a keyboardist. The tables were pushed out of the way to make room for the comedy troupe and around twenty-five people were seated to see the show. The musical began with a troupe member asking the audience “what is a theme of life?” to which someone promptly yelled “death!” and from there the troupe built a musical about a murder plot in a mortuary. I had never been to Bela Dubby before and thoroughly enjoyed my experience. Other evening entertainment includes, open-mic nights for comics, free improv workshops, local bands and more!

Price: $5

Lessons learned

On Monday I spoke with Seth Beattie, Program Manager at Cleveland Partnership for Arts and Culture. His Cleveland motto is “go out and do it!” Seth explained that Cleveland’s high quality of life and low cost of living reduces barriers to success and makes it easier to create projects, achieve goals and make change. Seth’s greatest example? An art gallery he opened in his own home. When I asked, “how did you go about doing that?” Seth simply responded “I wanted to do it and I just did it.” These kinds of ventures give Cleveland a distinctiveness of place. “Interaction with arts and culture” said Seth “opens your mind to sustainability and encourages people to examine their lives, question existing systems and think creatively.” 

Biggest thrill

Seeing the sunset over Lake Erie after the Summer in the City Concert Series.

Biggest disappointment

During my gallery hop I was hoping to check out Spaces Gallery on the Superior Viaduct.  Unfortunately, the gallery is closed completely until their fall exhibition opening on Friday September 10th, 2010.     

Quick tips from expert, Seth Beattie, Program Manager, Cleveland Partnership for Arts and Culture

On plugging into the arts community:

• Check out the blogs CoolCleveland.com and UrbanOhio.com
• Cuyahoga Arts and Culture's website provides a map that shows all of its grant recipients in the county.  Browsing through these organizations can be enlightening.

Resources for artists:

• COSE Arts Network
• Cleveland Patnership for Arts and Culture
• NoteWorthy, arts based credit union

Favorite spots in Cleveland:

• Cleveland Public Theater
• Zygote Press
• AsiaTown
• Great Lakes Science Center
• TerraVista Studios
• Front Room Gallery

Best advice for beginners

Blogs like CoolCleveland are great tools for getting tapped into the Cleveland arts scene but there is no better way of plugging in than getting out. “Go out and discover your city,” says Seth Beattie, “hop on a train, hop on a bike and see where you end up.”

How Cleveland can improve

Seth Beattie called Cleveland a place of “immense non-obvious beauty.” If we made this beauty a bit more obvious, Cleveland could become a destination for artists around the country.  Additionally, Cleveland does not have to hide from its industrial history.  Organizations like Pop Up City are working to take advantage of abandoned or underutilized, industrial spaces.  These initiatives can transform the Rust Belt.  

Helpful resources

• CoolCleveland.com
• Cleveland Partnership for Arts and Culture
• Cleveland Public Art
• Cleveland Public Theater
• NoteWorthy, arts based credit union
• COSE Arts Network
• Cleveland Cinemas 
• Cuyahoga Arts and Culture