After 35 years producing theatrical performances in rented spaces, the Near West Theatre finally is getting its own place. The community theater broke ground on its first-ever permanent home on November 27, and its supporters are happily looking ahead to the first show at the stand-alone building.

It will be about two years before the Detroit-Shoreway theater opens at W. 67th Street, just north of Detroit, says chief operating officer Hans Holznagel. Until then, Near West Theatre will continue to operate out of its longtime rented home on the third floor of a hall owned by St. Patrick's Church at W. 38th Street and Bridge Avenue in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood.

The new 25,000-square-foot theater will have extra seating and increased stage space. It also will have rehearsal space and air conditioning, two amenities the current facility has done without for years.

"It opens up all kinds of possibilities for us," says Holznagel.

Hundreds of people from the Gordon Square Arts District, the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood and the local theater community were invited to celebrate the theater's groundbreaking. The project will cost nearly $7 million -- a portion of the $30 million Gordon Square Arts District campaign set aside to revitalize the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood using the arts as an economic catalyst.

A new space won't detract from the intimacy that Near West Theatre shows are known for, promises Holznagel. When it opens in fall 2014, the space will offer the professionally produced, large-scale shows long-time fans have grown to love.

 "We're excited to be part of a diverse, vibrant community that matches with the mission of our theater," Holznagel says.

 
SOURCE: Hans Holznagel
WRITER:  Douglas J. Guth

Caley Coleff first began collecting vintage furniture from flea markets with her grandfather when she was a little girl. Once the furniture was home, she'd watch her grandfather refinish it, absorbing his techniques even when he thought she wasn't paying attention.

This month, Coleff unveiled a vintage store that pays tribute to those early experiences while adding her own unique twist. Located at 11102 Detroit Avenue in Cudell, Heck's Revival is named after her grandfather, whose last name was Heck.

"I started doing stuff from my home because you can't afford nice, well-made furniture anymore," she explains. "If you buy something it's the cheapo [stuff] that falls apart. I had a lot, so I started doing custom orders and selling to friends. I never realized I was actually good at it, I was just making stuff that I liked."

Then Coleff met her business partner, Jill Krznaric ("It's Croatian, even though I'm not"), and a business idea was born. Krznaric is into retro items like old barstools, while Coleff likes to take French Provincial furniture and paint it with cool designs. Together, they found a space with hardwood floors that they liked and signed a lease.

"A lot of our stuff comes out of the trash," says Coleff, who is 26 years old and also tends bar. "It's beat up and broken and people think it's out of style. We stain it, prime it and put it back together. Then I paint it with cool colors and designs."

The most expensive item in Heck's Revival is a $400 dresser that Coleff painted with a white background and a black outline of Marilyn Monroe's face. The least expensive items are old retro kitchen stuff that sell for a buck apiece.

"As new as we are, I thought it would have taken a lot longer to pick up. We've been doing really, really well," effuses Coleff, who aims to create a younger, more accessible kind of vintage retailer. "People like it enough to tell their friends."

Heck's Revival, which opened in mid-November, has regular hours on Mondays from 12-7 p.m., Wednesdays-Fridays from 12-5 p.m. and Saturdays from 12-4 p.m.


Source: Caley Coleff
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Seven is a lucky number for North Collinwood's burgeoning arts community, as a like-numbered group of the neighborhood's creative thinkers recently received grants from the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC).

The seven artists, most working out of North Collinwood's Waterloo Arts and Entertainment District as part of CPAC's "Artists in Residence" initiative, will get a total of $45,000 in funding for projects including a music education series for local children and an "intergenerational story circle" starring some of the community elderly residents, says CPAC strategic initiative director Seth Beattie.

The grants will address community priorities through arts activities between this month and the end of March. Overarching themes of the grant cycle are residents, community assets and youth involvement. CPAC is awarding the grants in conjunction with the nonprofit Northeast Shores Development Corporation.

"We had 30 proposals this time around," says Beattie of CPAC's second of three grant periods; the third round will come next spring. "These particular ones rose to the top."

The grants are a component of the Artists in Residence program, which is using the North Collinwood neighborhood as "a laboratory" for increasing artists’ engagement with the population, says CPAC president and CEO Tom Schorgl. Area painters, sculptors, videographers and musicians are given perks like affordable housing with the hope they will be a major participant in neighborhood revitalization.

"Artists want communities where they can live affordably with a great quality of life," says Beattie. "They can be a tremendous force in absorbing space in the neighborhood. Collinwood is poised to see a dramatic turnaround in the coming years."

The Waterloo Road arts district can be part of that transformation, with CPAC's latest granting round a good beginning on getting that done, believe the organization's leaders.

"We're marrying strengths here," Beattie says. "It's about money and developing a system of support that helps artists build up projects now and in the future."

 
SOURCE: Tom Schorgl, Seth Beattie
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

Cleveland native Marcellus Nealy was "window shopping" for a camera on the Internet when he came across information about Canon’s Project Imaginat10n contest. The contest involves director Ron Howard selecting 91 photos in 10 categories to be made into films by celebrity directors. Nealy decided to enter, and his photo “Sharing a Smoke” was named a winner in the “relationship” category.
 
"While I was window shopping I stumbled on a site that mentioned last year's contest,” recalls Nealy. “That site made me want to know more about this year's contest. I Googled it, saw that they were still taking submissions, and sent in some photos. I never actually expected to be a winner.”
 
Nealy grew up on Scoville Avenue and the Lee Harvard neighborhoods of Cleveland and attended John Carroll. He now spends most of his time in Tokyo, or with his sister in Willoughby Hills.
 
Nealy’s photo is one of the 91 that celebrity directors -- Eva Longoria, Jamie Foxx, designer and co-founder of Marchesa Georgina Chapman and James Murphy -- will pick from to use for their short films.
 
Nealy shot the photo while on a shoot for a Tokyo-based band. Two of the band members were sharing a cigarette when the inspiration hit Nealy. “Suddenly, I had a vision of them exchanging souls or some cosmic energy or the spirit of creativity or Anima, or whatever you want to call it,” he says. “I thought the smoke would be the best way to express this vision in a tangible way.”
 
The first five films are scheduled to go into production later this year and early 2013, with five more celebrity directors to be named at a later date.

 
Source: Marcellus Nealy
Writer: Karin Connelly

Cleveland’s contemporary art scene is thriving and growing, serving as a magnet for tourism while proving an economic engine for revitalizing the region. Newly reenergized by momentous advancements at CMA and MOCA -- and nurtured along by CIA -- the progressive arts scene is enjoying a renaissance.

By design, the life of a celebrity looks effortless. But the engine that drives that lifestyle is a non-stop schedule that would sap the strength of far weaker men. I know, because I tried to keep up with celebrity chef Michael Symon during a recent visit home that included business meetings, book signings, restaurant visits and too-brief social get-togethers.

Daniel Cuffaro has been working in design for 20 years. He knows how an inspiring, eclectic workspace can act as fuel for creative minds, promoting interaction among those who essentially use their imagination for a living.

Such was the idea behind Cuffaro's founding of Abeo Design, a Lakewood-based company that builds aesthetically distinctive office/studio workstations with a sustainable bent. Unlike your typical office furniture, the spindly "Hive" workstations are designed with both functionality and adaptability in mind, Cuffaro says.

Each station is comprised of a work surface and storage shelf embedded with LED lighting. The entire unit is on wheels, making a studio or office easy to reconfigure as projects or teams change, notes Cuffaro. This is not something you could readily do with a set of hard-to-move cubicles.

"Our product is a dynamic and customizable alternative,” he says.

The workstations also fulfill a practical need. They are made of wood and other building materials reclaimed from abandoned Cleveland houses deconstructed during the foreclosure crisis. Cuffaro, head of the industrial design program at The Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA), first got the idea for Abeo in 2009 when he was developing the layout for the school's design studio. At the time, there was a growing market for raw materials harvested from foreclosed homes, so why not build CIA's studio furniture with those resources?

"I had a desire to turn a bad situation into something salvageable," Cuffaro says.

His first customer also happens to be his current employer. CIA recently purchased a handful of the $6,000-and-up workstations from Abeo, which works with Northeast Ohio companies A Piece of Cleveland and Benchmark Craftsmen to make the product a reality.

A portion of Abeo's profits will support CIA programs. Meanwhile, Cuffaro will continue to live by the company's name. In Latin, Abeo ( pronounced "a-bay-o") means "change" or "transformation." Turning trash into something of value is good for both the company and a sustainable Cleveland, he says.

 
SOURCE: Daniel Cuffaro
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

Patrick Ciamacco loves the theater scene in Cleveland. However, he sometime finds himself visiting a venue only once a season, as programming tends to run with similar themes to the point where if Ciamacco has seen one show, he's seen them all.

There's nothing inherently wrong with that approach, but the Brunswick native wanted something more out of the stage experience. Thus, the creation of Blank Canvas Theatre, a so-called "Theatre for the People," which is wrapping up its inaugural season on Cleveland's West Side.

Ciamacco, Blank Canvas' founder and artistic director, says that 2012 has been a fun if stressful year. The theater opened in January with The Texas Chainsaw Musical, and is closing the year with Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical.  In between all the blood-letting and singing were three additional shows, including the John Steinbeck classic, Of Mice and Men.

A wide range of shows available at affordable prices has attracted a young, diverse crowd to the new venue, says Ciamacco. "It takes years to build an audience, but with the quality of work we're doing, there's a kind of, 'If you build it, they will come' feeling," he says.

Ciamacco founded Blank Canvas partly as a performance space for The Laughter League, his Cleveland-based sketch-comedy group. The 78th Street Studios, an arts complex bustling with 40 galleries and studios, seemed like a great place to plant a new artistic foothold within the city.

The space is intimate, with no seat more than 15 feet from the stage. Starting off, Ciamacco received support from Cleveland's theater community in the form of tools, lighting and emotional support. The coming year will be spent improving the venue's infrastructure and bringing in a variety of new shows. There already are plans to bring back fan favorite Texas Chainsaw Musical next Halloween for a revival.

Eclectic programming will always be Blank Canvas Theatre's calling card, maintains Ciamacco. "We're going to have something to attract the atypical theater-goer, while trying to get the normal theater fan to go outside the box," he says.
 

SOURCE: Patrick Ciamacco
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

The iconic Sammy's Restaurant reigned over the Flats during the entertainment district's erstwhile heyday from 1980 through 2000. Now the venue is making a comeback in a new, transformed location at PlayhouseSquare that is set to open in December.

"We've always been restauranteurs at heart, and we wanted to get back to our roots," says Dena DiOrio of Sammy's, which has focused on catering and facility management for the past decade. "We're excited to bring more energy to a neighborhood that's really thriving."

The opportunity presented itself when the previous tenant, Star Restaurant, closed earlier this year. Sammy's is the caterer for PlayhouseSquare, so the choice was a logical one. The restaurant is being completely redesigned, DiOrio says.

"It will be a completely different storefront," she says. "You'll be able to see through the restaurant to the back wall, which was previously closed in. We're replacing it with a glass wall so visitors can see into the Ohio Theatre lobby."

The restaurant also will have a new entrance off Euclid Avenue, as well as a new layout with a "salon" in the front, bar in the middle and seating area in the back.

DiOrio says that Sammy's aim is to capitalize on PlayhouseSquare's identity as a 24/7 neighborhood and entertainment district whose vitality is fueled by its historic theatres. "We want to make it a destination restaurant."

Sammy's owner Denise Marie Fugo, who is DiOrio's mother, says that the new restaurant will perfectly blend the family's trifecta of experience in restaurants, catering and event management. "Most customers want us to do some kind of concession and banquet management. But we're restaurant people first."

The menu will feature modern American cuisine -- a mixture of small plates, classic Sammy's entrees and new signature entrees. Drink offerings include artisanal wines, microbrews, handcrafted spirits and signature cocktails.

Sammy's at PlayhouseSquare will be located at 1515 Euclid Avenue.


Source: Dena DiOrio
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Skull-faced children and adults danced through the streets of the Gordon Square Arts District last Saturday afternoon, followed by tall, cadaverous puppets and altars overflowing with flowers and other remembrances of those who have passed on to the next realm.

There was nothing to be afraid of, however; the macabre and colorful carrying-on was in celebration of the Day of the Dead, a Latin-American holiday that pays joyful homage to lost relatives. El Día de los Muertos is meant to be more reflective than sad or scary, says Hector Castellanos, the event's coordinator and artistic director.  

This year's Cleveland-centric Day of the Dead festival drew a large crowd to the arts district on a chilly fall afternoon. Attendees enjoyed a parade, music, folk art and food truck fare. Castellanos doesn't have attendance figures yet, but the event has drawn between 1,200 and 1,400 people each of the last two years.

"People came from all over the region,"  he says. "There was a lot of energy and passion."

Gordon Square has hosted the Day of the Dead celebration for five years, with the festival marching through Cleveland's East Side the three years before that. While Cleveland's Latino population was well represented last weekend, many non-Latinos came for the festivities as well. There were many hands involved in building floats and making puppets. Area businesses got in on the fun, too, decorating storefronts with skulls and other symbols of the ancient holiday.

"The whole neighborhood got involved," says Castellanos, a native of Guatemala. "It's a powerful event."

Cleveland artist Bruce Buchanan built an altar representing the surrounding West Side neighborhood and the people who once lived there. The shrine is decorated with rows of colorful houses fronted by abstract skeletons, while tiny flags scrawled with the names of deceased former residents are placed on the alter along with offerings of food, flowers and candles.

"We're helping to build the neighborhood now, but these people built the neighborhood in the first place," says Buchanan. "That's something we should respect."

Meanwhile, Castellanos already is planning to make next year's  celebration bigger and better. "It's spiritual and educational, with so much history behind it," he says. "It also brings the community together, and that's one of the most important aspects for me."

 
SOURCES: Hector Castellanos, Bruce Buchanan
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

There’s a new radio station in town, playing adult album alternative (AAA) music. Boasting that it's a local station for Clevelanders, by Clevelanders, WLFM 87.7 FM Cleveland’s Sound is independently owned and operated by Tom Wilson and his partners. The group has been buying low-power television stations for the past 12 years. In 2008, they ventured into the low end of the radio dial with a smooth jazz station in Chicago. As former president and general manager of two major Cleveland radio stations, Wilson is a Cleveland radio veteran as well as a native.
 
The Cleveland station has been in the works for about a year and finally went live on September 9. “Basically, it’s a station that delivers a need in the market," says Wilson. “There’s nothing in the Cleveland market, aside from college stations, that’s doing what we’re doing.”
 
Marketing director Kendall Embrescia is excited to bring an out-of-the-box approach to Cleveland radio. “We want to bring a fresh, edgy station to market that really serves a need,” she says. “Within eight weeks of being on the air, we’ve had an incredible response.”
 
The station is bringing back The Inner Sanctum, a weekly show that features only local artists and “is legendary around here,” says Embrescia.
 
Organizers held an open casting call at the Beachland Ballroom in July to staff 87.7, and collected more than 100 resumes. The station built offices and studios from scratch on the fourth floor of the Agora. There are 17 people on staff, plenty of whom are Cleveland radio veterans. Embrescia says they are working with local colleges to put together an internship program for spring.
 
But for Embrescia, it’s all about putting out great music. “We just want to give the listeners the best experience they can possibly have,” she says.
 
The station plans its official launch party on Friday, November 16 from 7-10 p.m. at the Barley House. The event is open to the public.

 
Sources: Tom Wilson and Kendall Embrescia
Writer: Karin Connelly

Doug Katz, chef-owner of Fire Food and Drink at Shaker Square, has partnered with Bon Appetit Management Company to open Provenance, a new restaurant and cafe at the Cleveland Museum of Art that blends locally sourced food with world cuisine.

"The name is so perfect for what I'm trying to create here," says Katz. The word provenance refers to the history of the ownership of an object. "We want to know where our food comes from just as the museum knows the lineage of its art, where it comes from and its authenticity."

Katz, whom museum head David Franklin calls CMA's "curator of food," says that Provenance actually is two venues in one. The 200-seat cafe offers quick service, while the 76-seat restaurant next door is a fine-dining establishment. Yet both offer made-to-order items carefully orchestrated by the celebrated chef.

The restaurant offers a limited menu of seven items emphasizing world cuisine. For instance, in tandem with CMA's exhibition "Wari: Lord of the Ancient Andes," Katz has designed a three-course prix fixe menu of Peruvian dishes. The cafe features world cuisine as well, but with a decidedly local flair. Right now, for example, visitors can order a Moroccan skewer platter with autumn vegetables. The chef makes a concerted effort to source much of his produce from area farmers.

The pastries are made from scratch by Luna Bakery, and Rising Star provides the coffee. "We're able to do all these things fresh, yet also support local businesses."

When asked about the source of his inspiration, Katz says, "We want it to be the quality of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, or of some European cafe somewhere. Yet I don't think there's a concept like this anywhere, to be honest."

The cafe's sleekly designed interior is attractive, but likely the best seats are at the tables near the museum's vast new atrium. "It's like a town center in University Circle. To see it come alive, it's such a great community spot."


Source: Doug Katz
Writer: Lee Chilcote