This roundup of unique gift shops on the doorsteps of your favorite museums and cultural centers is perfect for those seeking a truly alt-holiday shopping excursion.

Fresh off his success of "Selfies at the Clown Motel," Cleveland playwright Christopher Johnston recounts 25 years inside the local indie theatre scene and gives newbies tips on how to break into it.
 

Cleveland Institute of Art professor Doug Paige is showing students how to take a page out of Mother Nature's playbook when it comes to industrial design.

Dazzling images captured by Fresh Water managing photographer Bob Perkoski from "Day of the Dead" celebrations in Gordon Square.

Andria Hickey, MOCA's new senior curator, has "hit the ground running," coordinating an event apropos of the swirling political season - with a host of other exhibits to follow in 2017.

Whether it's a national design competition, kids making their own space or locals splashing color amid an active greenspace, Shaker Heights' Moreland district is alive with art and community collaboration.

From an anthropomorphic aardvark to a golden guy named Oscar, the venerable CIA is brimming with surprises of fine art, pop culture and a heaping helping of quirk.

With a new show at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, Cleveland Heights artist Seth Chwast further establishes himself in the local art scene. That he was diagnosed with autism when he was a toddler only underscores his achievements.

Years in the making, plans for La Villa Hispana – a center celebrating Latino heritage and commerce in the Clark Fulton neighborhood – will be unveiled next month at a City Planning Commission meeting.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA) reopened its doors last Friday after a short hiatus following the wildly successful Myopia exhibit. While completely different in tone from the Mark Mothersbaugh show, the new installations reflect a unique and unexpected study in contrast that stimulates every sense.
 
Visitors are well advised to start at the top, as it were, in MOCA's fourth floor galleries, wherein Wall to Wall: Carpets by Artists unfurls. The contents are aptly described by the title – these are carpets, which sounds mundane at first blush. The content is anything but, with lush and gorgeous images that are beautifully served by the textile medium.
 
A sampling of the 30 works: Faig Ahmed's Oiling (2012) literally melts the concept of a traditional middleeastern rug design while Deep Purple, Red Shoes (Polly Apfelbaum, 2015), invites visitors to walk upon it, provided they remove their shoes. Nautilus shells notwithstanding, Infinite Carpet (Pierre Bismuth, 2008) recalls the golden rectangle. And speaking of arithmetic, Joseph Kosuth's L.W. (Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics), 2015, will have viewers indeed believing that "2 + 2 + 2 are 4."
 
Traveling to the next component of the 2016 show sounds benign enough, but – as regular visitors have come to expect – MOCA's Stair A refracts the experience. While attendees navigate the twisting stairs, Anthony Discenza's audio installation A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats advises them thusly:
 
"Think Suicide Girls meets the Pillsbury Dough Boy."
 
"Think Baywatch meets the Cuban Missile Crisis."
 
"Think Jersey Shore meets Stephen King."
 
The deep resonant voice, which is fitting of any voice-over John Q. Public is fed by media sources at every turn, is so convincing, attendees may indeed be inclined to plop down and listen to every suggestion within the 23-minute installation.
 
"Think art deco meets Jurassic Park."

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