Sat Sat 5/4 The theme of this year’s big Ingenuity fundraise, the Ingenuity Bal, was Flights of Fancy, and evidence of that was everywhere in the elaborate costumes sported by members of the huge crowd that thronged Ingenuity’s space at the Hamilton Collaborative. They undoubtedly cost less but many would’ve rivaled those sported by celebrities at the Met Gala. Live music, circus performances, belly dancers and numerous workshop stations where guests could try their hand at soldering, jewelry making or mask creating were among the diversions offered. But undoubtedly the biggest hit was a brand ..read more

John Ewing has headed the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque for a looooong time — four decades to be exact. He co-founded the organization in 1984 with Ron Holloway and Gordon Gund III. It moved to CIA in 1986, first in its old building on East Boulevard and now in its Euclid Avenue theater. In that time, he’s programmed thousands of films, both classic and new, many of which would never be screened in any other venue in town and many seen for the first time in Cleveland. He’s shown restored prints of old films and brand-new foreign and experimental films. He’s done series devoted to di ..read more

Fri 4/3 This month’s Walk All Over Waterloo offered the chance to see several ongoing gallery shows and a couple of new ones. If you didn’t catch Jill Milenski’s oil pastel Colors of Europe at Article Gallery the previous month, you had a second chance this month, which included an artist talk by Jill. And Laura Ruth Bidwell was at Deep Dive Projects sharing Daily Vanitas, a large selection of her collages based on clippings from the New York Times. At Maria Neil Gallery, photographer Bryon Miller shared his project Mask 2020, a collaboration with mask-maker Adam Sheets. Down the hall at Will ..read more

Tue 5/14 @ 7:30PM If you’re an aspiring playwright or, in fact, a writer of any kind with some new material you’d like to give a public airing, then stop by Cleveland Public Theatre’s Parish Hall on the second Tuesday of the month for its writers’ open mic, the Dark Room. Writers may bring up to ten pages of work of any kind — a play scene, dialogue, poetry, essay, a novel excerpt. Their work is assigned to be read by whatever actors show up and sign up. You can also stop by just to listen and offer supportive and useful feedback — the works being read are sometimes a first step on the way to ..read more

Wed 5/15 @ 6PM The Beck Center for the Arts has been operating its youth theater for 75 (!) years, and in more recent years, has presented professional level theater as well, along with dance, music and visual arts programs for all ages and abilities. Its upcoming fundraiser celebrates its three-quarters-of-a-century of youth theater but it benefits all of its programs including classes, performances and exhibitions. It features a performance in the Senney Theater with both current Youth Theater students and alumni performing selections from various shows including The Wiz and The Wizard of O ..read more

Fri 5/10 @ 5-9PM May is the month that Walkabout Tremont’s outdoor celebration comes back with “Spring Fling.” The bars and restaurants will still be hosting specials, and galleries will be showing new art — catch printmaker Meryl Engler’s newly opened show I Had Been Young Vol. 4 at Kaiser Gallery and Cocktail Bar, and Aether, opening at Doubting Thomas, with the work of nearly two dozen artists, reflecting on “the fifth element or quintessence.” And stop in at Visible Voice Books at 7pm for a poetry reading by five of the area’s most productive poets: Dave Lucas, Philip Metres, Zach Savich ..read more

Sun 5/12 @ 1-3PM The Ingenuity festival organization has been spreading its reach out into the community with programs such as its Ignite! Neighbor Nights, and more recently, events at Mickey’s on the East Cleveland/University Circle border. It will be hosting one of the latter programs with East Cleveland Alive! to offer families something fun and low-cost to do on Mother’s Day. Terrific Terrariums, led by “Plant Man Dan” Meek, will offer a workshop in making a terrarium— a small glass container of house plants—and answer any houseplant questions you may have such as “Why don’t mine look as ..read more

Photographer Michael Loderstedt christened the ground floor gallery space in the newly restored “Gold Building” on the corner of Waterloo and East 156th when he opened his Photocentric Gallery in December 2019. He ran into the hurricane of the pandemic and closed in the spring of 2022. But the space was quickly occupied by KINK Contemporary, a gallery started in 2019 by McKenzie Beynon and Anna Young at 78th Street Studios. By the end of 2022 they had resettled on Waterloo, bringing their original mission to the new space: to showcase artists of all types but particularly to give young and e ..read more

Fri 5/10 @ 6-10PM If your mom loves to dance to “the happiest sound around” aka polka music, take her out to celebrate Mother’s Day a couple of days earlier when the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame hosts its Mother’s Day Polka Dance at Eastlake’s American Croatian Lodge. Sharon Staiduhar hosts an evening featuring the music of accordion player Frank Stanger and his orchestra pumping out the lively polkas and romantic waltzes. Dinners, sandwiches and ethnic treats will be available, catered by Dubrovnik Gardens. Tickets are just $12 in advance, $15 at the door and 18 and under are ..read more

Sat 5/11 @ 11AM-4PM Since 2008, the Morgan Conservatory on the east edge of AsiaTown has provided a space for both experienced artists and beginnings to learn about papermaking, letterpress, bookmaking and other creative practices that involve paper. It offers classes, residencies, gallery shows and artist talks, among other things. If you’d like to learn more about its activities, stop by its open house and community arts display on Saturday May 11. There’ll be papermaking, bookbinding, marbling and letterpress printing demonstrations and pulp painting outside in the garden, with opportuniti ..read more