Street Art Project In Cleveland Plays On Local History

From a distance, the main focus of the Art Collective, known as Cleveland SGS has been to document historic signs, and the unrecognised locals that make the city unique.

A recent project, took things a step further by covering a large building's windows with cryptic signs that reference a forgotten part of Cleveland's past.

From Vandalog: Cleveland SGS pays tribute to a neighborhood icon

The widely held belief is that this area, didn't have much of a past, or any prospects, until the Cleveland Foundation and The Cleveland Clinic, came along. The signs bring back the much more complex story of a highly successful local entrepreneur and a decades long fight to save his property.

From the Wikipedia

Winston Earl Willis (b. October 21, 1939) is a formerly successful American real estate developer who first came to local prominence in Cleveland, Ohio during the early 1960s. At the time, one of the most successful business owner/operators in the country, he created and controlled a corporation, University Circle Properties Development, Inc. (UCPD, Inc.) that owned one of the most strategic and valuable real estate parcels in Cleveland and was the largest employer of blacks in that part of the country. Under his solely-owned UCPD corporation at East 105th and Euclid, upwards of 23 successful businesses were running simultaneously and exhibiting tremendous success.

Winston was quick to see the opportunity to create businesses in the area near University Circle.

The acquired experience of having operated several successful small businesses led to a quick assessment of the local college community that would prove to have been very shrewd. After securing a lease on a building that was previously an automobile dealership showroom, 19-year-old Willis opened The Jazz Temple, a liquor-less coffeehouse/night club, to immediate success. Situated on a small triangular lot on Mayfield Road near Euclid Avenue and adjacent to the Western Reserve University campus, his institutional neighbors were the Cleveland Museum of Art, University Hospital, and Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Orchestra. The club also bordered the ethnic enclave known as Murray Hill/Little Italy.

Willis approached such legendary jazz artists as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzie Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Cannonball Adderley, The Ramsey Lewis Trio, and Dinah Washington and convinced them to come to Cleveland to appear at his club. Not only did they appear and perform before standing-room-only crowds, but such notable acts at the trendy establishment also attracted visits from Malcolm X, and Stokely Carmichael, and booked performances from other notables such as comedians Red Foxx, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor and Dick Gregory. The popular night spot, frequently referred to as “the Jazz Mecca”, was hugely successful and became a regular hang-out for college students from throughout and around the State of Ohio. But that success was short lived. As is typical of jazz establishments – there was much race-mixing and numerous interracial couples in attendance. This triggered community wide resentment in the racially polarized community, and after months of threats and intimidation, a vanguard of vengeful racists planted a bomb in the club, thereby ending the brief history of one of the most successful jazz spots of the region.

So anyway, as you might guess, the major power players like the universities, foundations and The Cleveland Clinic conspired to take his properties away.

Having found no support in the courts from a campaign of fines and other harassment. Winston turned desperately to putting up billboards.

I like the way, this project subtly brings up this injustice without being just angry and bombastic. It's a tribute to the man.

More about the project on Cleveland SGS

More

Blogging the Pittsburgh Literary Scene

Zine writer Artnoose reads to a crowd at Belvedere's, July 2011.

Over at my literary blog, Karen the Small Press Librarian, I am posting year-end Best of the Small Press lists (as I have for the past few years) from small press authors, editors, reading series hosts, and other indie lit movers and shakers. This year I did something different and chose participants from the many small press folks who visited or read in Pittsburgh in 2011. This gives me a chance to highlight the Pittsburgh literary scene along the way (on my normally-not-Pittsburgh-focused small press blog).

I am sometimes surprised by how little is known (outside of the literary scene) about Pittsburgh readings. I get the impression that some people think the sum total of Pittsburgh's literature is a number of colleges bringing in national writers, and maybe a few local poets scribbling things in isolation, plus Michael Chabon. But the city has a flourishing, supportive scene of small presses, reading series, literary magazines, bookstores, homegrown poets, transplanted writers, and visiting authors, unconnected to/in addition to the universities.

So check out the December posts at my blog to see just a small fraction of what went on in Pittsburgh letters in 2011. I may extend a few days into January, too, so check back if it interests you.

Poet Nick Demske reads at Lili Coffee Shop in Polish Hill, September.

Poet Bob Pajich reads at ModernFormations with The New Yinzer Presents reading series, March.

Fiction author Gary Lutz reads at Awesome Books on Penn Avenue, August.

Writer Lori Jakiela (R) and teammate won the Literary Death Match at Brillobox in November.

Fleeting Pages pop-up bookstore brought small press books to a former Borders space in East Liberty, May 2011.

ArtPrize Still Sparking Debate On Twitter

Sorry, I have a ton of posts I need to do.

Paddy Johnson of Art Fag city is getting feedback about listing ArtPrize as on her top shows list.

"Over at WNYC, Carolina Miranda takes issue with my naming of ArtPrize as one of the year’s best exhibitions. Frankly, I’m surprised it took this long for someone to say something. The contest doesn’t exactly meet the standard criteria us Chelsea folk use to evaluate art; experts (and collectors) do not determine the worth of a work but two rounds of public voting will. You can imagine the quality of these results. Plus, ArtPrize promotion is the hokiest of hokey. Using a formula that exalts the power of democracy by invoking both American-Idol and Internet 2.0 euphoria, the “radically open” contest rhetoric couldn’t be more grating."

Follow the talk on twitter by looking for the #Artprize hashtag. Likely that more than 80% of the commenters, including myself have never experienced the event.

Detritus - Tom Norulak solo at 709 Penn

I love those unanticipated hours, where you aren't committed to being somewhere or doing something. Last week, I happened to have one of those little schedule gaps while I was downtown. Putting the time to good use, I swung by 709 Penn Gallery, and I'm so glad that I did.

I very much admire Tom Norulak's work, and his solo, Detritus, provides an overview of his etchings over the last several years. The images are predominantly of industrial and consumer waste, abandoned and overtaken by nature. Not just the softly decayed and greyed flotsam of paper wrappers, though. This series concentrates on larger pieces of waste, like old tires and abandoned oil rigs, and sawblades.

Without exception, the images are in black and white. While the works are grounded in objective imagery, the prints have abstract qualities that show a sense of exploration beyond the immediate. The lighter textures seem gritty and grainy, but on closer examination have an almost crystalline structure. The very deep blacks seem to come away from the surface, or in some instances appear calligraphic. The prints bear up to close examination, providing a complex experience of subject and aesthetics.

I think you can bring your own thoughts to this exhibit; Mr. Norulak has provided the viewer with the information to draw their own conclusions without the condescension of an arts-based "teaching moment" and without brazenly dictating an agenda.

Detritus
Etchings by Tom Norulak
November 25, 2011 - January 8, 2012
709 Penn Gallery
The Trust’s Education & Community Engagement department
412-456-6666

Back In Youngstown For The Holidays? Tour The Thriving Tech Incubators!

The holidays can be a strange bittersweet time in cities in which so many have left.In both Cleveland and Pittsburgh,the diaspora swells The Warhol,Carnegie and Cleveland Museum after Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Recently, cities like Cleveland and Youngstown have made efforts to reach out, make connections and counter some of the negative opinions many who left may have had. Not an easy task, in a few short free days, most people are spending with their family.

Youngstown is providing tours of it's hot and rapidly growing, downtown technology incubators.

From I Will Shout Youngstown

Thursday, Dec 22
Tours from 9am to 5pm leave at the top of the hour, led by YBI Chief Evangelist Jim Cossler. RSVP needed.

Friday, Dec 23

Tours from 7am to 10am leave at the top of the hour, led by YBI Chief Evangelist Jim Cossler. RSVP needed.

Monday, Dec 26

Two tours at 11am and 1pm leave at the top of the hour, led by YBI staff.
Meet Dean Abraham of YSU's STEM College!
Check out the new OH WOW! Technology Museum!
Discounts for downtown eateries!

call 330-599-4583 to reserve a spot

City Of Asylum's Bookstore/Cultural Center Approved In Spite Of Insane Car Oriented Zoning

Sometimes, I think all the posts I do about urbanism and design are a boring distraction on a blog originally started to cover the exciting cultural scene in Pittsburgh. But I'm constantly reminded how important they can be.

You may have been really excited to hear about plans to create a small bookstore/cultural center a few steps away from The Mattress Factory.

After years of complaints from residents about criminal behavior surrounding the bar, the Manteca closed voluntarily in April 2008 under threat of action by the Allegheny County district attorney a month after two patrons were shot, one fatally, upon leaving the bar.

At the time, Mr. Reese had an option to buy the bar as one of three adjacent parcels he wanted for an expansion of City of Asylum's presence and mission.

As Literary Ventures LLC, he bought a house two addresses from the bar in 2006. In October 2008, he bought the vacant lot beside it and the Manteca beside the lot. The two buildings will be razed to accommodate a nearly 4,000-square-foot building with an interior, glassed-in courtyard. The center will house a bookstore, a cafe, a public gathering space for readings, performances and other events, and two upstairs apartments.

What's not to love? A dangerous, poorly kept up bar and small empty lot in a still struggling but improving part the city is replaced by a small cultural center, run by a respected non profit. People can come and listen to poetry and music, thumb through a diverse selection of books, perhaps attend a workshop or class?

Oooops--wait--how many people? WHAT ABOUT PARKING??!!!

From today's Post Gazette

Zoning requirements for the integrated uses -- a cafe, bookstore and two apartments -- required eight spaces.

Thankfully, in this case of a popular project, in a very historic and walkable part of the city-an adjustment to these rules was made-after a study showing peak use would be unlikely to cause problems.

You have to wonder how zoning codes like this effect the rest of the city since the easy, default option is always to make more space for cars and less for people.

2012 Whitney Biennial List Released: Includes Former Braddock Native LaToya Ruby Frazier

I still can never get, why this single show, in a moderately sized NY museum is still considered the standard survey of the new, cutting edge and important in what is now such a vast interconnected world.

"The Whitney Biennial is an exhibition held every two years in which the Museum gauges the current state of contemporary art in America." Fat chance. At best it' gives some insight into what the small clique of curators feel is hot.

Even so, here is the list of 2012 Biennial artists.

Kai Althoff
Thom Andersen
Charles Atlas
Lutz Bacher
Forrest Bess
(by Robert Gober)
Michael Clark
Dennis Cooper and
Gisèle Vienne
Cameron Crawford
Moyra Davey
Liz Deschenes
Nathaniel Dorsky
Nicole Eisenman
Kevin Jerome
Everson
Vincent Fecteau
Andrea Fraser
LaToya Ruby
Frazier
Vincent Gallo
K8 Hardy
Richard Hawkins
Werner Herzog
Jerome Hiler
Matt Hoyt
Dawn Kasper
Mike Kelley
John Kelsey
John Knight
Jutta Koether
George Kuchar
Laida Lertxundi
Kate Levant
Sam Lewitt
Joanna Malinowska
Andrew Masullo
Nick Mauss
Richard Maxwell
Sarah Michelson
Alicia Hall Moran and
Jason Moran
Laura Poitras
Matt Porterfield
Luther Price
Lucy Raven
The Red Krayola
Kelly Reichardt
Elaine Reichek
Michael Robinson
Georgia Sagri
Michael E. Smith
Tom Thayer
Wu Tsang
Oscar Tuazon
Frederick Wiseman

As usual, a few like Robert Gober, Mike Kelly and Nicole Eisenman are very established artists. The general flavor from what I have read and the few names, I recognize is a strong tilt towards work that blurs categories-lots of performance, film (Werner Herzog), photography, protest, etc...

LaToya Ruby Frazier, who for the last three years or so has lived in the NY area is on the list. It will be interesting to see what she does.

Nice Video About Creation Of Crop Bistro In A Classic Cleveland Building

 

I'm not a historic preservation nut-there sometimes are good reasons for radically changing or demolishing historic buildings.

That being said, they just don't make places of dignity and elegance like this Cleveland Landmark every day. Here is a great video I came across about the transformation of the ground floor space into a highly rated restaurant.

United Bank Building

The 9-story, 1.5 million dollar United Bank Building opened in 1925 as the tallest and largest commercial building on Cleveland's west side. It was one of the last of a series of classical bank buildings constructed in Cleveland during the 1910s and 1920s, a golden age for the city's banking industry. The selection of Cleveland in 1914 as one of twelve cities to house a branch of the new Federal Reserve Bank helped fuel this growth, as did the city's emergence as a major industrial center around the turn of the 20th-century. Many of the city's banks, however, did not make it through the stock market crash of October 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression. The United Banking & Trust Company, founded on Cleveland's west side in the 1880s, was a victim of the crash, and it merged with Central National Bank just a month afterwards in November 1929

Crop is on Lorain Ave in Ohio City, a few steps away from the landmark, West Side Market.

Follow the link to learn more.

The Dark Knight Rises Official Batman Trailer #2...Some Familar Scenes Here

Many cities in this trailer, I'm sure. But there are a lot of scenes of Pittsburgh. Fortunately, the atmosphere here in the Burgh isn't usually so dark and ominous. Unless, for example, the Steelers had a twenty point loss the night before and it is dark and rainy (like this past Tuesday).
Like so many others, I enjoyed seeing the movie being filmed here!!!! And I am looking forward to seeing it. For the trailer, go here

New to Cleveland: A Guide to Rediscovering the City: Review on Rustwire

If Cleveland is to have a bright future, it will have to appeal to people who didn't share the same kindergarten class. Good guides to help those newcomers are pretty rare.

Rust Wire reviewed a new one.

"I like that Justin focuses on quality-of-life amenities that are important to the young professional crowd. The stuff that makes Cleveland neighborhoods livable, this book emphasizes, are walkability, transit access, cultural amenities, recreational opportunities (like yoga studios), and even (and I really like this one) diversity.

In my view Justin’s appraisal of city neighborhoods is much more honest and thoughtful that the usual appraisals we get in Cleveland, e.g. Cleveland Magazine’s “rating the suburbs” which encourages readers to adopt lifestyle choices that are liable to have their spending all their free time sitting on the driver’s seat of a car or on the couch (while “saving” a few precious dollars on taxes)."

The HillVille Looks At A Big Placemaking Trend: Downtown Skating Rinks

The HillVille, is a new project aimed at creating dialog among Appalachian cities. I'm really digging it's positive vibes.

Cities On the Rink: Ice Skating Designed for Downtown.

"Greenville, S.C. and Lexington, Ky., opened rinks this November for the first time. Knoxville’s Holidays on Ice has been in Market Square since the mid-2000s, and a rink opened in Pittsburgh’s PPG Place in 2001.

While ice-skating is quintessential wintery fun, it also represents a movement by city leaders toward creating public spaces that are active, engaging destinations even in the coldest months.

Dana Souza, parks and recreation director for the city of Greenville, said Ice on Main, a 3,200 square foot rink surrounded by a hotel, city hall, offices and restaurants, is indicative of the city’s values."

Win Passes to Every 2012 Beachland Ballroom Show

OK, if you live around Cleveland, this is a pretty great prize to go for.

Pretty much, just what it says. You enter on their Facebook page. Deadline December 29th

The Hillville, Online Journal Looks at Appalachia's Urban Side

From The Hillville:

"Maybe it’s because we’re all attached to our region’s rural past, so imprinted are we with our grandparents stories, we can’t stop thinking or writing about it. Or, the issues that dominate conversation happen to be in our rural quarters, like mining, mountain top removal and ameliorating poverty."

A deeply flawed mythology, since Appalachia is increasingly an urban place, impacted by the role of cities in and around it.

"Almost 60 percent of the region’s 24.8 million people live in urbanized areas, and if current demographic trends hold, that number will increase. The feds define Appalachia as a 205,000-square-mile region that follows the spine of the Appalachian Mountains from southern New York to northern Mississippi. Within that span, there are larger cities with more than a 100,000 people, like Birmingham, Huntsville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Asheville and Pittsburgh. And, there are dozens of medium-size cities like Greenville, S.C., Charleston, W.V., and Scranton, Pa."

Surprise, but a careful look shows that the emerging, giant of Atlanta, is at the edge of the region.

Even more surprising at least to those who carry the old stereotypes, is how popular and successful many cities like Chattanooga, Asheville and now Pittsburgh have started to become.

So far, I see a very high level of quality in the posts.

The Hillville

Buzz from the Atlantic.

Best Holiday Desserts and Pastries in Pittsburgh (Susan on CBS Local)

I am sure this sugar plum mouse would be nibbling on these if she could.
A round up of the best sweet stuff for the holidays by Susan Constanse on CBS Local. For the round-up go here

Walking Tour of Johnstown's Amazing Architecture

I have still never visited Johnstown but it always looks fascinating from the train, dramatic, Western PA landscape, old steel mills, churches and even an incline!

The Johnstown Area Heritage Association (JAHA), has a very in depth walking tour of some of downtown's historic and diverse buildings.

Once again, I will plug the idea of hosting a single day or weekend of tours so people can really discover these buildings from the inside.

A Walking Tour of Johnstown

Organizations Plan to Give Cleveland Area Homes To Immigrants

I gotta admit to not knowing many details about this but I have a few thoughts, both positive and negative.

The solution is The Discovering Home Program, which is a joint effort by the Cuyahoga Land Bank and the International Services Center.

Together, they want to turn neighborhoods around by offering struggling immigrants housing. The refugees will have to agree to fix them up. The hope is that families will take great pride in their homes and help stabilize neighborhoods. Many believe it is a win-win situation

.

Right off the bat, I'm impressed by any efforts in the Cleveland area to not just obsess over everyone leaving, but attract new residents. Any thinking in that direction is a big plus.

I also, see that ownership is to be gained by fixing up the homes. Here, I have some pretty strong doubts. If no cash investment of any kind is made, one is likely to repeat the same kind of easy come-easy go buyers with no equity that helped create the housing mess. Remember that in many cases, you will be asking people to move into shaky and damaged communities in a region with abundant low cost housing.

I have doubts that incentives like this will draw people who find the homes and neighborhoods of real value since price alone is the main draw.

Contrast that, for example with efforts to attract artists who see the benefits of living in a place with lots of other creatives.

That being said, many larger immigrant families would fit well with single family housing stock.

Beautiful Letter From George Romero in Support of Chapel Restoration

Earlier, I posted about efforts to save the Evan's City Cemetery Chapel, one of the last remaining major artifacts featured in George Romero's iconic, low budget masterpiece, Night of The Living Dead.

$50,000 is needed in less than a year.

From The Post Gazette:

"They welcomed us, in some cases fed us, and occasionally even agreed to play small roles in the film. They gave us all their support and then some. In this way they became the first people to not only approve but endorse what we were attempting to do.

"It was as if, in accepting us, they were willing to accept the far-fetched idea that a film made by what could only be called 'amateurs' might just possibly have a chance at success. The people of Evans City in effect 'teamed up' with us, subscribed to our hopes and dreams as if they were their own.

"The film, 'Night of the Living Dead,' was, as its title suggests, a horror film, which further prejudiced its chance at any sort of lasting attention, but the people of Evans City knew nothing about box-office shares or audience-response polls.

"We believed, so they believed. And, in a hundred ways, they enabled us to complete the film."

A long article. Apparently, Romero had tried to contact the people behind the efforts and after some bounced emails, had to send..a letter.

http://www.fixthechapel.com/

ArtPrize Boosts It's Juried Prize: Is That a Good Thing?

Michigan's ArtPrize is an event that right off the bat combined creative placemaking, art, economic development and public interaction in ways that excited me.

Likewise, in spite of it's success,(and the fact it's not in NY or LA) the art establishment has mostly ignored or tried to look down on it. "Oh My God, they really voted a non ironic religious piece the top award!"

For better or worse, Artprize is tipping the scale away from public voting and more towards "expert jurors".

From Hyperallergic

The top public vote award will be a little smaller next year, $200,000 instead of the $250,000 offered this year, but the organization is adding a brand new juried award of $100,000, which puts it in the same monetary league at the Hugo Boss Prize (also $100,000) and considerably more than the Turner Prize with its £25,000 award (roughly $39,000).

Some facts about ArtPrize 2011:

-1,582 artists from 39 countries and 43 US states took part

-The participating artists installed their work at 164 venues in a three-square-mile district in Grand Rapids

-38,000 registered voters submitted 383,000 total votes for the public prize

-Smartphones increased voting 62%

Artprize 2011 Timelapse from Michael Cook on Vimeo.

In New York Region: Retailers Design More Around Transit

Urban Retailers Call For More Transit, Less Parking

Obviously the trend is stronger in the greater NY region, but a lot of talk at International Council of Shopping Centers conference in Manhattan seemed to be about adpting retail better to transit and denser urban design. Speakers included reps from Burlington Coat Factory, Sports Authority, BJ's Wholesale Club and a number of major real estate developers.

As retailers continue to weave suburban concepts into the urban fabric, more brands—and big-boxes—are going vertical. But as the pendulum swings in favor of transit-oriented development, the nation’s top retailers agreed that the need for mass transportation is beginning to outweigh the need for traditional parking design, according to speakers during day two of the International Council of Shopping Centers’ 2011 New York National Conference & Deal Making event. The convention closed out at the Sheraton New York and Hilton New York Hotels on Tuesday afternoon, where total attendance exceeded 6,000 each day.

During the general session, much of the discussion revolved around the challenges retailers face, running the gamut from site selection, obtaining local approvals, expansion concerns and store formats. The panelists also addressed the paradigm shift of retailers like wholesale clubs and supermarkets—two concepts borne out of the suburbs—that are finding equal strength in cities, especially near subway and bus lines.

An earlier post I did on urban retail formats in NYC

Pittsburgh Biennial @ Miller Gallery Reviewed in Hyperallergic

It's a bit strange that the awesome online art magazine, Hyperallergic only reviewed this one part of the multi venue Biennial. However, in some ways it's not that surprising since this show of artist collectives and collaborative projects might have the greatest relevance outside of Pittsburgh.

"The exhibition at Miller Gallery, curated by gallery director Astria Suparak, features five artist-teams, all with some connection to Pittsburgh. Although the Biennial’s publicity describes the show as an exploration of the art of collaboration, I found concern about space, place and the planet to be another significant thread weaving the works together.

Each collaborative asks the viewer to re-picture the interconnections that make up our experience of the world — to borrow Smith’s terminology. For Smith, this impulse involves the representation of cultural and economic networks on a global scale. The artists at Miller Gallery, however, focus on a wider range of intertwining relationships, spanning not only the global but also ecological, local, urban, public and domestic spaces."

An excellent, long review with a number of images.

The show ends, Sunday, Dec 12