Karin Connelly Rice
Stories by: Karin Connelly Rice
Karin Connelly Rice enjoys telling people's stories, whether it's a promising startup or a life's passion. Over the past 20 years she has reported on the local business community for publications such as Inside Business and Cleveland Magazine. She was editor of the Rocky River/Lakewood edition of In the Neighborhood and was a reporter and photographer for the Amherst News-Times. At Fresh Water she enjoys telling the stories of Clevelanders who are shaping and embracing the business and research climate in Cleveland.
The process of producing paintings, ceramics, and other art—as well as making music—isn’t just a creative skill. It’s a life skill. Cuyahoga Arts & Culture recognizes the importance of art and music therapy, supporting about 20 area organizations that offer such programming. FreshWater takes an inside look at their colorful and cathartic work.
For most people, mushrooms bring to mind a pizza topping or another culinary dish (or even an invasive lawn growth). But Chris Maurer, principal architect and founder for redhouse studio in Ohio City, sees mushrooms—or mycelium, the organism that sprouts to fruit mushrooms—and thinks building materials.
For the first time in Cleveland, two local female chefs have been named semifinalists for the James Beard Awards. Chef Karen Small, owner of The Flying Fig, and chef Jill Vedaa, co-owner of Salt, are two of 20 chefs in the Great Lakes division, having made it to the semifinals from 20,000 entries in 21 categories. Read more about how Vedaa and Small attained this culinary honor here.
Banking on the growing coworking trend, the hope is that when the MidTown Tech Hive opens on Thursday, March 1, it will become a cooperative gathering place for great minds to bring innovative ideas with a sense of community and an emphasis on tech education. Read more about what Tech Hive will offer here.
Fourteen years in, the Cleveland Bazaar has evolved from a one-day holiday sale at Derek Hess' studio into Cleveland’s longest-running independent craft show.
The historic 1904 mansion that overlooks University Circle and was home to the College Club of Cleveland for the past 61 years will soon be converted into 10 apartments, with an additional four apartments in the carriage house and 13 townhomes on the 1.8-acre property at 2348 Overlook Road in Cleveland Heights.
About two or three years ago, Cleveland Heights resident Mary Kelsey and some friends began talking about the concept of cohousing—a community of homes that are clustered around shared spaces like a common house and outdoor areas. While there are fewer than 200 cohousing communities across the U.S., Kelsey says there are “quite a few” are in progress, including right here in Northeast Ohio.
The Coventry P.E.A.C.E. Campus and the nonprofit groups working out of the building will remain in the former Coventry School building after Heights Libraries opts to buy the property from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District for $1, saving the grounds from possible commercial development.
As president of Berusch Development Partners, Russell Berusch converts college campuses into neighborhoods that are convenient and accessible for the typical college student, such as University Circle’s Uptown neighborhood and Euclid 116 student apartments.
Now Berusch is taking on an historic neighborhood on Hessler Road in University Circle.
Now Berusch is taking on an historic neighborhood on Hessler Road in University Circle.
For the first time, the city and the Greater Cleveland Food Bank have come together in a collaborative effort to get fresh produce to the seniors living in AsiaTown. On the first Wednesday of each month, the Food Bank comes out to Sterling Recreation Center for a Senior Produce Market. Find out when the next distribution is—and how to volunteer—here.
Nearly a dozen nature and science organizations receive support from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, and they provide an integral foundation for exploring the county’s rich variety of resources—from the Great Lakes Science Center on Lake Erie’s coast to suburban nature centers, downtown community gardens, and grassroots nonprofits.
While Matt and Trevor Gile and their father, Chuck, may have gone into the auto repair business three years ago with Cleveland Heights-based Motorcars Collision, the family has dreamt about donuts for at least seven years. Now the trio is realizing their dream with the opening of Daylight Donuts and Coffee (3077 Mayfield Road in Cleveland Heights) along with their newly-relocated Motorcars Collision.
When partners Jeff King and Brad Poe open the Kensington Pub in Cleveland Heights this spring, they promise to have something for everyone at the bar that has been known for decades as Tavern Company. See what's in store here.
The vision for Cuyahoga Greenways would connect every community in the county through a network of greenways, trails, parks, transportation routes, and neighborhoods. A joint plan between the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACCA), and the Cleveland Metroparks, the project has entered its second phase with officials asking for public input on the concept and initial plans.
Trey Kirchoff has a nose for good coffee and he seeks to spread his love of a good roast with the rest of Cleveland. This spring, Kirchoff will partner with Mason Adkins and Berto Huertas of Sixth City Cycles to open Coffee, Coffee, Coffee—a combination coffee shop and bike shop in Old Brooklyn. The new shop will open in the former Familyography space at 4193 Pearl Road.
Read more about this unique blend of coffee and bikes here.
Read more about this unique blend of coffee and bikes here.
Since 2015, the Beauty and Barber Empowerment Center has been a resource center in Shaker Square for beauty industry professionals. Now they're the recipients of a $6,000 grant from the United Black Fund of Great Cleveland to support people in transition, including formerly incarcerated individuals and displaced barbers and cosmetologists, in their career paths.
Feel like going for a hike? How about canoeing, horseback riding, or even a round of golf? Of all the natural resources available for play in Cleveland, residents are lucky enough to have one of 69 national parks right in their own backyard with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP).
All of these activities—and much more—can be found in the 33,000 acres that make up the park, which boasts the heart of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail, an area rich in industrial history and rife with natural wonder. The CVNP is the only national park in Ohio, with the closest national park at least a four-hour drive from Cleveland.
In early January, the CVNP will break ground on a new $5.9 million visitor center to welcome the two million people who visit the park annually. Get the details here.
A vintage blade sign that has been a landmark of Old Brooklyn since the 1940s is coming full circle. Having once marked the location of the old Atlas Furniture building at 4274 Pearl Road, it will soon become the marquee for the future Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation headquarters in the same location.
The historic sign will serve as the neighborhood’s centerpiece after it is restored and takes its place on Pearl Road in the summer of 2018, says Jason Powers, OBCDC director of marketing and development. “If you’re from Old Brooklyn, or you’re in one of the 20,000 cars that commute up Pearl Road, you know that sign,” he says. “This will add vibrancy to our Main Street. Old Brooklyn has always been amazing, but we never had that centerpiece.”
Read more about this vintage centerpiece here.
A 10-member team of artists and community leaders is helping to shape the next wave of individual support from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.