A & E News

Cleveland Heights-based baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire is gearing up for its 31st season under founding Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell. The season comprises 26 subscription concerts, including seven in Cleveland Heights, and additional performances across Northeast Ohio. Apollo’s Fire is also planning robust education and outreach performances in the Heights. 

Highlights of the 2022–23 season include the return of Sorrell’s acclaimed version of Handel’s "Messiah"; a new program, “Exile,” focused on the music of displaced cultures; and a return of Monteverdi’s sumptuous "Vespers of 1610".

Heights High teacher Steve Warner has an enduring passion to get students learning, working, and playing outdoors. Warner has guided students through many outdoor projects, including building pollinator gardens. One of the highlights of this past summer occurred when he and students made s’mores in the cob oven at Gearity elementary school in University Heights.

“Cob” is a building technique that uses a mixture of mud and straw to make a weather- and fire-resistant structure. In 2015, Warner was part of the team that expanded Gearity’s outdoor learning spaces to include the cob pizza oven, a large high-tunnel greenhouse, and several outdoor classrooms.

Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate Raymond McNiece has been awarded a fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. McNiece is among 22 poets nationwide who will receive $50,000 each in recognition of their achievements, and who will complete proposed projects.  

Cleveland Heights holds the distinction of supporting the oldest poet laureateship in Ohio, through a partnership between Heights Arts and the city of Cleveland Heights. Every two years, Heights Arts’ volunteer community team, Heights Writes, reviews submissions and chooses a new poet laureate for a two-year position.

On Saturday, Aug. 20, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., ARTFUL will host the first Coventry PEACE Chalk Festival. (It's taking place the same day as the Harvey Pekar festival on Coventry.)

The community is invited to participate and celebrate the four-centuries-old Italian tradition of street painting, in which artists of all backgrounds and styles work side by side for a set amount of time to showcase their workmanship.

Unless artists opt to dampen their surface with mists of water, street painting involves no liquid. Instead, artists use paint in its solid form—soft pastels.

Music fans will want to mark their calendars for the 2022 Heights Music Hop, Sept. 9 and 10, showcasing musical talent from around the region.

The free music festival, now in its ninth year, will feature performances in three Cleveland Heights neighborhoods.

Shows are planned for Friday evening, Sept. 9, in the Cedar Fairmount Business District, and Saturday evening, Sept. 10, in the Cedar Lee Business District. This year, performances will also take place in the Noble neighborhood, at the Noble Gardeners' Market at the mini-park at Noble and Roanoke roads, on Saturday morning, 10 a.m. to noon.

Visual artists have long been fascinated by books, often because books provide a way to distribute reproductions of original works.

Impagination, a group exhibition at Heights Arts that will open Friday, Aug. 19, and run through Sunday, Oct. 16, is not about reproductions; in this show, books themselves are one-of-a-kind works of art, designed to be held in the hands and leafed through in a narrative sequence.

The Noble Cigar Box Guitar Project is back this summer, offering a free cigar box guitar workshop for middle schoolers.

The workshop consists of four sessions, Aug. 8–11, 1:30–3 p.m., at Disciples Church, 3663 Mayfield Road, in Cleveland Heights.

Workshop participants will build their own three-string box guitars from a kit that the organizers provide. They will also learn how a guitar makes music, the basics of playing the guitar, and where cigar box guitars originated. At the end of the workshop, participants will take home the guitars they each built.

In the hands of creative people, cigar box guitars demonstrate how commonplace, throwaway objects can be re-purposed into impressive musical instruments.

Heights Arts is emerging from two years of disrupted music programming with a new mix of offerings at community sites and in its gallery at 2175 Lee Road. Heights Arts musical events transform front yards into concert venues, and blend music with poetry in the new offering, ARTbar. 

When the pandemic made live music unavailable, listening trends changed. Before the pandemic, the classical genre wasn’t among the most popular music played by young people. But during the isolation of COVID-19, playlists for working, studying and relaxing that included classical music spiked more than any other genre, including among young audiences.

Antoine Dunn is a star. His singles and albums have charted high on Billboard. His songs, including “Can’t Forget” and “Miss My Love,” can be heard on SiriusXM, BET and MTV. The singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and record-label owner also happens to have grown up here. He went all through the CH-UH school system—Gearity, Wiley and Heights High—graduating in 2006.

Dunn, who now lives in Los Angeles, has toured nationally with other top R&B artists. He’ll be performing in Cleveland, at the House of Blues, on Sunday, Sept. 4, 7 p.m.

University Heights Symphonic Band (UHSB), a 50-piece concert band based in University Heights, announces the following line up of free summer concerts:

June 23 -  The Grove, Mayfield Village, 7 p.m.
June 30 -  John Carroll University, in front of the Dolan Center, 7 p.m.
July 2 -  Longwood Manor, Macedonia, 7:30 p.m.
July 28 -  John Carroll University, in front of the Dolan Center, 7 p.m.

Sponsored by the city of University Heights, UHSB started in the summer of 1970, under founder and first onductor Harvey Sisler. The band's repertoire of concert band music includes marches, show tunes, light classics, and contemporary selections. UHSB's current conductor is Devlin J. Pope.

At a home on Guilford Road in Cleveland Heights, a unique type of spring cleaning is taking place. The piano is being tuned, music stands are being dusted off and repaired, and the screened-in porch is being converted to a musicians' "green room."

The home's owners, Franklin Cohen, principal clarinet emeritus of The Cleveland Orchestra, and his wife, Marcia Kodish Cohen, are readying for the annual arrival of the 30-plus musicians who fly in from all parts of the globe and comprise the world-class roster of performers at ChamberFest Cleveland.

This annual festival of chamber music was co-founded by Franklin and his daughter, Diana, who grew up in the Heights and is today the concertmaster of the Calgary Philharmonic.

The Cohen family includes Diana's brother Alex, principal percussionist in Calgary; and Diana's husband, the noted pianist and visual artist Roman Rabinovich, who, alongside his wife and father-in-law, is an artistic director of ChamberFest.

The word is out about the University Heights Summer Concert Series—it’s been getting bigger and better over the last few years. Larger crowds have piqued the interest of popular bands, and those bands have thus drawn even more fans from University Heights and surrounding areas.

“University Heights has a nice vibe,” said Michael Weber, lead singer and guitar player of The Michael Weber Show. “The way University Heights supports the arts made me want to be a part of this.”

Yiddishe Pirat (“Jewish Pirate” in Yiddish) is an all-star klezmer band, featuring Jack Stratton (of Vulfpeck) on drums; Josh “Socalled” Dolgin on piano, accordion and vocals; and Michael Winograd on clarinet. Yiddishe Pirat will perform on Sunday, June 26, 7 p.m., at the 42nd annual free Yiddish Concert at Cain Park.

The concert is not a Vulfpeck show. (Vulfpeck is a funk-pop band that sold out Madison Square Garden in 2019.) Yiddishe Pirat is a straight-ahead klezmer band. Stratton, its bandleader, said, “Our show at Cain Park will be a klezmer-revival revival, meaning we will mostly play golden moldies from the 1990s klezmer revival.”

Heights Arts takes pride in the arts programs it offers, and in the exceptional community of volunteers, staff, board members, patrons and members—all of whom help keep the organization vital. Heights Arts presents a Members Show roughly every other year, to provide a showcase for the talents of its members. The 2022 Members Show opens Friday, June 17, 6–9 p.m., and runs through Sunday, Aug 14.

This year's show features art by all of the 38 Heights Arts members who submitted work, offering a diverse exhibition that embodies a rich and persevering collective identity.

This summer, Cleveland Heights' Cain Park Arts Festival celebrates 45 years. Admission will be free on all three days of the juried event, July 8, 9 and 10. In addition to the art exhibits, the festival will feature live entertainment, and food concessions will be available.

Cain Park's summer performance season will kick off on June 9, with "School of Rock the Musical," and will close on Aug. 21, with a free concert in Cain Park's Sunday Concert Series.

Residents Day, when the Cain Park Ticket Office opens for Cleveland Heights residents only, is Saturday, May 28, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (To purchase tickets, residents must have photo ID and show proof of residency. For information, visit www.cainpark.com/316/Residents-Day.)

The full summer lineup of musicals, dance, and concerts is below. For additional information, and tickets, visit www.cainpark.com.

The Cleveland Repertory Orchestra (CRO) will present its first-ever concert on Sunday, May 15, at 3 p.m., at First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland, 3630 Fairmount Blvd. The performance will be free and open to the public.

The concert will feature a new work by African American composer Kevin Day, the Flute Concerto by Christopher Rouse (featuring flutist Ian Wenz), and Antonín Dvorák’s Symphony No. 7.

Cleveland Heights’ resident international baroque orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, celebrates 30 years of music this spring. From its first performance, on June 11, 1992, the ensemble enjoyed immediate success, with sell-out concerts across the nation, international tours, and 29 acclaimed albums, one of which won a Grammy in 2019.

“We’re proud to make Cleveland Heights our home base,” said founder and Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell. “The community has always been incredibly supportive of classical music.”

The orchestra will celebrate this landmark anniversary with local concerts and events. The first, on April 30, will be a free family concert at the Lee Road Library, at 3 p.m. “Violinist & Swordsman: The Amazing Black Composer, Joseph Bologne,” will tell the story of an 18th-century French musician who, despite being born into slavery, became a knight, a fencing champion, and a great violinist.

On Sunday, May 15, 2 to 5 p.m., Coventry PEACE Campus (CPC) will host an afternoon of art, music and food, all to benefit the artists of Ukraine.

The concept for the benefit grew from the 30-plus-year friendship between Susie Porter, of Euclid, and Serhiy Savchenko, a well-known Ukrainian artist in Lviv, Ukraine.

As the war ramped up, Serhiy's daughter, Ulianka, also an artist, began making digital artwork depicting the various aspects of the war, rendering the unbelievable events in her vibrant, and politically pointed, poster art.

After a conversation between Porter, Lynn Ischay, a former Plain Dealer photographer; and [the writer of this article], it was agreed that Ulianka would send copies of her poster art to be sold here, to raise money for victims of the war in Ukraine.

Creature Creations, a Lake Erie Ink (LEI) Creative Expression summer day camp for youth throughout Northeast Ohio, begins as it always has—coming together under the big white tent set up right outside the Coventry PEACE campus building. The sun shines down as birds welcome the arrival of the campers right in the heart of the Cleveland Heights Coventry neighborhood. There is a notable rush of activity under the tent as first- and second-graders scramble to prepare their displays.

It is a big day for the kids. All week, they have been perfecting and fleshing out the lives of the creatures they have created. They’ve built environments where their creatures might live, and invented backstories to explain their personalities.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi once said, "The power of youth is the common wealth of the entire world. . . . No segment in society can match the power, idealism, enthusiasm and courage of young people."

As current events stream digitally throughout the consciousness of our youth, Heights Arts offers an open platform for Cleveland Heights High School students to amplify their voices through art in its annual student show. This year's exhibition, What a Time to Be Alive, is accompanied by a spotlight exhibition featuring works by senior intern Eryn Lawson and by junior intern Josie Naypaur, organizers of the larger student exhibition.

Just who is George Bristow? Choral Arts Cleveland, with director Brian Bailey, invites you to find out as it brings to life the Mass in C by 19th-century American composer George Bristow, in a world premiere of the composition. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m., on Wednesday, June 8, with a talk on Bristow and American classical music, followed by the choral performance. The venue is Fairmount Presbyterian Church, 2757 Fairmount Blvd. in Cleveland Heights.

The Mass in C (1884–1885) is filled with lush, romantic phrasings that segue into joyously spirited, energetic and robust movements. Its expressive text setting infuses movements, such as the Kyrie, with an evocative imploring quality, and the Credo, with moods of triumph. Other artistic assets of the Mass include its varied use of vocal solos, alternated with long choral sections and short instrumental interludes, and the use of bold homophonic styles.

Well into her 80s, and showing no signs of slowing down any time soon, Cleveland Heights resident Nina Freedlander Gibans has published her fourth book of poems—In the Garden of Old Age. The poems, and accompanying photographs by Abby Star, will be on exhibit at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes from an opening reception on Wednesday, May 25, through Aug. 15.

Gibans describes In the Garden of Old Age as a collection of poems about memories, “colliding daily in these summary years that pile up and tumble to the pages like leaves in fall.” The poems are richly illustrated—bright flowers giving way to autumn leaves.

Dobama Theatre will end its 2021–22 season with the award-winning comedy "Life Sucks," by Aaron Posner. This contemporary reworking of Chekhov’s classic "Uncle Vanya" won the Off-Broadway Alliance’s Best New Play of 2020. Dobama audiences may remember Posner’s adaptation of Chekhov’s "The Seagull"—"Stupid F*cking Bird"—which came to roost at Dobama in 2019. 

Chekhov’s themes of love, longing, and ennui are at the heart of this story, but Posner also highlights the humor and wit of his characters. In the play, Sonia and her Uncle Vanya are visited by her estranged father and his third wife, Ella. Their large house is also home to Babs and Pickles, and frequented by Vanya’s longtime friend, Dr. Aster. Rivalries and love triangles simmer among these passionate people, and tensions brew as personalities clash.

Heights Arts has decided to extend the two-year term of current Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate Ray McNiece for an additional year.

Rachel Bernstein, Heights Arts executive director, said, “Ray’s original appointment unfortunately corresponded directly with the onset of the pandemic. He, and therefore the community members, were deprived of his being able to fully participate in the position. We are very pleased that he has accepted our offer to serve for an additional year, and very much look forward to his contributions in the coming year."

In 2013, a group gathered at the home of Cynthia Larsen, co-director of Lake Erie Ink (LEI), to test a new game: Giant Bananagrams. It’s a game of nerves, wit and teamwork that appeals to word lovers everywhere. Later that year, the game made its debut as a fundraiser for LEI—a massive competitive tournament for both adults and youths, played on a 30-by-30-foot board. Since then, the Giant Bananagrams fundraiser has become an enduring tradition for LEI, drawing teams of word-game enthusiasts.

The fundraising tournament returns April 29 and 30, to spread the joy of wordplay and support writing programs for young people in our community.

The fundraising tournament returns April 29 and 30, to spread the joy of wordplay and support writing programs for young people in our community.

In 2013, shortly after Lake Erie Ink (LEI) opened its doors, co-founders Cynthia Larsen and Amy Rosenbluth set out to build a new creative expression community for youth. They knew Cleveland’s young people loved the rich comic culture in Northeast Ohio, and enjoyed creating their own comics. 

What if the robust comic talent in Cleveland could work directly with the next generation of comic creators? Several phone calls later, the LEI Kids’ Comic Con was scheduled, featuring workshops by Marc Sumerak, Derf Backderf, Martinez E-B, Karen Sandstrom, and more.

This year, as the Kids’ Comic Con celebrates its 10th birthday, Larsen reflects on its growth: “When we started, we had like 40 kids . . . not as many workshops, not as many artists. We pretty quickly doubled the number of kids participating in Comic Con.” 

Dobama Theatre’s 2021–22 season continues with "Kill Move Paradise," winner of the 2018 Kesselring Prize, March 4 through March 27. 

The play, by acclaimed playwright, actor, and director James Ijames, is a biting, funny, and hopeful requiem for Black lives that takes place in a waiting room to the afterlife. In this space, four Black men—Isa, Grif, Daz, and Tiny—search for peace and hope in the lives they leave behind.

Ijames likens it to the Bardo, a Tibetan Buddhist concept of the void between death and rebirth through which everyone must pass.

When Liza Grossman directed the Contemporary Youth Orchestra (CYO), she showed her young musicians many other ways in which they could use their talents in the musical world, beyond playing in orchestras and pit bands, and teaching. Those included playing for recording sessions; playing in studio orchestras for movie, TV, cartoon and game soundtracks; and playing behind rock (and other) musicians in concerts.

Grossman, who has lived in Cleveland Heights since 1992, stepped down as head of CYO in 2020 and, soon after, launched Kaboom Collective. Kaboom maintains a studio orchestra of about 40 members—the size of a standard Hollywood recording orchestra—which meets in person. And, small groups of students from all over the world, aged 15 to 25, can participate in online classes in a wide variety of music-related subjects, taught by industry experts.

Disciples Christian Church (DCC) invites the community to tour its newly renovated facility on Feb. 12, between noon and 4 p.m. Guided tours will be offered every half hour, starting at noon. 

The building and sanctuary have been remodeled to include a 500-seat performance space with great acoustics, flexible dance studio space, classrooms, teaching studios, and more. It is now home to a cultural arts center for young people and families. Visitors are invited to explore the space, and the many program offerings.

DCC is offering program space, free of charge, to artists and art organizations that make the arts accessible to youth in the community. In addition, part of DCCs mission is to provide reasonably priced rehearsal and performance spaces to Cleveland-area art organizations.

After a two-year, COVID-caused hiatus, Reaching Heights Summer Music Camp will return to Cleveland Heights High School, June 13–18. It is open to 85 young musicians, ages 10–15, who live in the CH-UH City School District, and who have at least two years of experience playing an instrument.

This one-week camp brings together local musicians and music educators to create a music-immersion experience. The camp fee is $200, with scholarship support available.

Each camp day runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Campers participate in two orchestra rehearsals, a master class and sectional rehearsal, and a chamber group rehearsal. They develop their understanding of music theory in small groups, and explore a new musical interest, such as jazz, percussion ensemble, ukulele or choir. Somehow, there is also time in each day for lunch, outdoor play time, and arts and crafts.

Beauty expresses itself in many ways, both at surface level and beneath. At Heights Arts this February, poets and artists will convene to respond to two current exhibitions: RUST, and Jesse Rhinehart's Spotlight show.

The event—Ekphrastacy: Artists Talk and Poets Respond—is one of Heights Arts' most popular recurring programs.

This month, on Feb. 17, at 7 p.m., four poets will respond to the shows on view with performances that combine sight, sound and the soul. Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate Ray McNiece will be the emcee.

ARTFUL is planning its first “Art for the Masses” event for Saturday, Feb. 26, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Coventry PEACE Campus.

Artists who create one-of-a-kind work, who are interested in clearing out older work, or offering less expensive versions of their art—such as prints and sketches—are invited to participate.

The event is intended to enable artists to connect with an audience that may not be experienced in art buying, or might think it cannot afford to collect art. Nothing will be priced over $200. 

Coventry PEACE Campus (CPC) will host its next PEACE Pops event on Friday, Jan. 28. The evening will feature open studios at ARTFUL, Lunar New Year Dragon Dance performances, a pop-up roller-skating rink, building tours, and a community conversation and question-and-answer session for those interested in learning more about what is happening at the campus.

PEACE Pops at CPC is a quarterly experience of art and community, held in partnership with Coventry Village Final Fridays. Visit www.coventryvillage.org to learn more.

In partnership with Dobama Theatre, Lake Erie Ink (LEI) will kick off the New Year with Playwriting, a workshop for writers at all levels, in grades two through 12. Participants will have the opportunity to work on their storytelling skills with support from local professionals. 

Julie Fisher, local playwright, director, and actor, will lead the workshops and help participants write their own original plays.

“This experience allows kids' imaginations to come to life,” Charisse Bailey, curriculum director at Lake Erie Ink, said of the workshops. “It’s a way for children from different backgrounds and different experiences to come together and share those experiences.”

Dobama Theatre’s 2021–22 Mainstage season continues with the Cleveland premiere of the 2019 Obie Award-winner "Hurricane Diane." The play, by Pulitzer finalist Madeleine George, will run from Jan. 21 through Feb. 13.

The Diane of the title is a permaculture gardener with supernatural abilities. Owing to her true identity—the Greek god Dionysus—she has returned to the modern world to gather mortal followers to restore the earth to its natural state. Where better to begin than by seducing four housewives in a suburban New Jersey cul-de-sac?

In this award-winning comedy with a twist, George pens a hilarious evisceration of the “blind eye” we all turn to climate change, and the impending storm of catharsis that awaits us all, even in our own backyards.

Heights Arts starts off 2022 a little bit rusty . . . 

Many current residents never saw the city of steel and industry that once drew people from all over the world to live and work in Greater Cleveland. Many of those facilities were already crumbling decades ago. The industrial era is unfamiliar to many, generations later. Instead, abandoned warehouses seem only lost ruins, housing mysterious corroded parts that may as well be artifacts from crashed UFOs. There’s a fascination with urban decay that lives in people from the industrial Midwest. It’s commonly characterized by an affinity for coarse textures and tarnished hues that hold decades of depth.

Author Janice Mitchell will be the guest at the P.E.O. International Cleveland Heights Chapter Q 10th Annual Author Event. The free, virtual event will take place on Saturday, Jan. 29, 1–2 p.m. 

Mitchell‘s memoir, My Ticket to Ride: How I Ran Away to England to Meet the Beatles and Got Rock and Roll Banned in Cleveland (A True Story From 1964), relates her adventures as a 16-year-old who, with a friend, ran away from Cleveland Heights and traveled to England at the beginning of Beatlemania.

Coventry PEACE Campus hosted a community celebration of light during the darkness of winter on Dec. 11. Earlier that day, Artful artists Jacqui Brown (Studio Cat) and Adam Brumma (Living Art), along with Art Acts artist Tanya Gonzalez, held a free lantern-making workshop for community members. Lake Erie Ink staff helped them write solstice-themed stories and winter-themed haiku. Then, at 5 p.m., participants joined in a lantern procession through Coventry PEACE Park and the Coventry Village Business District, led by illuminated musicians and dancers, and orchestrated by Robin Van Lear. Participants then headed back to Coventry PEACE Campus for cocoa and cookies, courtesy of FutureHeights and Reaching Heights, and caroling with the Singers Club of Cleveland. Learn more about Coventry PEACE Campus at www.coventrypeacecampus.org.

Elégie will present a live holiday concert at the Wiley building (2155 Miramar Blvd., University Heights) on Saturday, Dec. 18, at 7:30 p.m.

Founded in 2014, the male vocal quartet comprises four classically trained soloists and professional musicians who are Heights High alumni. Michael Hives (second from left in the photo) and Caleb Wright (at far right in the photo) graduated in 2009; Brian Barron (third from left in the photo) and Mist'a Craig (at far left in the photo) graduated in 2011. All were members of the Heights Acapella Choir, Heights Singers, Heights High Barbershoppers, Heights Gospel Choir, and Heights Honors Ensemble.

They have performed at some of Cleveland's most notable venues, including Karamu House, Cain Park, Nighttown, and Jacob's Pavilion.

Lake Erie Ink (LEI) believes it takes a community to foster a lifelong love of creative expression. This fall, as LEI cautiously restarted its programming for youth, the Cleveland Heights-based organization took steps to increase its community presence. LEI currently is partnering with more than 29 different community organizations, and is becoming involved with a total of 36 outreach and community programs, including local schools and libraries, and larger programs, such as the Maltz Museum’s “Stop the Hate” competition.

LEI hopes to continue this partnership trend by expanding relationships with other organizations to provide opportunities for creative expression and academic support for young people who may not otherwise have those opportunities.

Heights Arts will open its annual Holiday Store on Friday, Nov. 5.

Each year, as the holiday season nears, Heights Arts expands its Lee Road shop to fill its entire gallery space. Giving a gift from Heights Arts also gives back: Every gift purchased at the local arts’ hub helps support both the artist who created it, and the nonprofit Heights Arts.

Among the artists and items featured this holiday season are lithographic prints by Maggie Denk-Leigh, fine jewelry by Emily Joyce, prints on metal by Abby Star, hand-blown glass by Mark Sudduth, creative cards by Katie Ford, cyanotype prints by Paula Zinsmeister, wheel-thrown bowls by Marty Resnick, oil paintings by J. Allon Hall, and unique ceramic sculptures by Mark Yasenchack. 

University Heights Fall Fest, first held in 2019, returns to Walter Stinson Community Park on Sunday, Oct. 10, from 1 to 5 p.m.

The event will feature more than 50 artists and vendors from across Northeast Ohio, activities for the kids, circus performers, and a concert from '80s dance band Back 2 The Future. (And with the Cleveland Browns kicking off at 4:05 p.m. on Sunday, vs. the Los Angeles Chargers, one can attend all of Fall Fest and be back in plenty of time for the second half of the game.)

“Fall Fest is another way we are building a sense of community here in University Heights,” said Mayor Michael Dylan Brennan.

Cleveland Heights was at the center of one of the most unusual Beatles fan stories ever, although few people remember it today.

In September 1964, two 16-year-old Heights girls became international news for weeks when they ran away to London, England, in search of the Beatles. Eventually apprehended and returned for a public punishment, they never spoke of their adventure again. Until now.

Janice Mitchell tells her story in a new book, My Ticket to Ride: How I Ran Away to England to Meet the Beatles and Got Rock and Roll Banned in Cleveland. It’s a vivid, firsthand account of the early days of Beatlemania.

Enjoying nature in all forms became especially popular during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with folks getting out for walks, hikes and bike rides, even in the cold of winter.

To celebrate all that nature has to offer, Heights Arts now offers Haiku Hikes, led by Ray McNiece, Cleveland Heights poet laureate and Cleveland Arts Prize winner.

The art of haiku poetry dates back to ancient Japanese culture, where poems were written in three sentences, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third.

For more than a decade, Nighttown in Cleveland Heights was an important resource for Baldwin Wallace University’s (BW) music theater program, giving students the opportunity to perform in a nightclub setting similar to what they would experience as working artists.

When Nighttown closed last year, it looked as though these budding theater professionals might lose the opportunity to hone this aspect of their performance skills; but, luckily, those students have found a new venue at Beaumont School.

Is there an educational value to comic books? Lake Erie Ink thinks so. The Cleveland Heights-based writing space for youth has been working with aspiring comic book writers and illustrators for more than 10 years. This fall, Lake Erie Ink is running a Mini-Comics Fest on Sept. 25, as well as a weekly series of comic design workshops. 

While typically focused on other forms of writing, Lake Erie Ink has found that comic design is an educational, as well as popular, method of supporting creative expression and inspiring new narrative forms among youth.

When Lake Erie Ink started running its yearly spring Kids Comic Con (a convention focused on comic books and related forms of pop culture), the event’s overwhelming success led to an increased demand for comic-related programs.

Artist WRDSMTH has installed a mural on the Coventry PEACE Campus building, near the Lake Erie Ink entrance, as part of the “How Do I Love Thee" tour, hosted and produced by Graffiti HeArt. The tour is a series of 17 murals gifted by the artist to various spaces, walls and organizations installed throughout Cleveland, Lakewood and Cleveland Heights in August. All of the murals are in WRDSMTH’s signature style of typewriters with inspirational quotes. Learn more about the tour at www.graffitiheart.org.

Musicologie, a community music school owned and operated by Pat and Kevin Richards, will bring Musicologie Junior to their Cleveland Heights school this September.

This new, early-childhood music class for kids and their caregivers develops young minds through music using a research-based proprietary curriculum.

“Each class,” said Pat Richards, “is an action-packed musical journey that instills passion and excitement for music.” The program incorporates singing, melody, rhythm and movement to engage children and reinforce their natural musical instincts.

The eighth annual Heights Music Hop, a celebration of a diverse community through music, returns on Saturday, Sept. 18, from 5 to 11 p.m. This free music festival features a stellar lineup of artists on three outdoor community stages in the Cedar Lee Business District of Cleveland Heights.

The University Heights Symphonic Band, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, will open the festival at 5 p.m. on the Flaherty & Collins ~ City Architecture Mainstage @ Lee & Meadowbrook. The evening continues with music from acapella group Elegie (R&B, Soul, and Gospel), Ms. Reec Pearl and the Groovemasters (Jazz, Blues, and R&B), Top Hat Black (Blues and Rock), and Dan Bruce’s Beta Collective (Jazz). Apostle Jones (high-energy Rock and Soul) will cap off the evening.

The North Stage @ the Cedar Lee Mini-Park will feature performances by Jesse Jukebox (fun music for kids and adults), Kiss Me Deadly (Rock, Punk, and R&B), and OPUS 216 (classical).

When we think of art, we might think of a painting that hangs protected in a museum, or sculptures, ever-present in parks. But art comes in many forms, changing with the times. In a time like no other, to close out 2021, Heights Arts presents the Printers Select exhibition, running through Oct. 17. 

Curated by artist Liz Maugans, the show features work by six artists new to Heights Arts. They were each tasked with bringing in a second artist for the exhibition—someone who made a significant impact on their lives and studies.

The participating six artists and their six partners are Hannah Manocchio and Sampson the Artist, J. Leigh Garcia and Nina Battaglia, Orlando Caraballo and Ed Lugo, Anna Tararova and Amirah Cunningham, Shadi Ayoub and Bob Kelemen, and Omid Shekari and Kristina Paabus.

The eighth annual Heights Music Hop, a celebration of a diverse community through music, returns in 2021, from 5 to 11 p.m., on Saturday, Sept. 18. This free music festival features a stellar lineup of artists on three outdoor community stages in the Cedar Lee Business District of Cleveland Heights.

The University Heights Symphonic Band, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, will open the festival at 5 p.m. on the Flaherty & Collins ~ City Architecture Mainstage @ Lee & Meadowbrook. The evening continues with music from acapella group Elegie (R&B, Soul, and Gospel); Ms. Reec Pearl and the Groovemasters (Jazz, Blues, and R&B), Top Hat Black (Blues and Rock), and Dan Bruce’s Beta Collective (Jazz). Apostle Jones (high-energy Rock and Soul) will cap off the evening.

Dobama Theatre will reopen on Oct. 29 with a four-show season and a new look, including an expanded staff, a relaunched board of directors, and renovated seating to allow for the best possible audience experience. Part of the reopening campaign includes a full rebranding from Agnes Studio, the theatre’s graphic design partner, coming later this year.

The theatre’s 2021–22 season opens with"Airness" by Chelsea Marcantel, a high-energy comedy about a group of competitive air guitarists who discover that they are one another’s chosen family.

Next is "Hurricane Diane" by Madeleine George, in which the Greek god Dionysus comes to Monmouth County, N.J., as a lesbian landscaper who seduces the housewives into creating more climate-friendly lawns.

Lake Erie Ink (LEI) is honored to have had the help of three creative individuals this summer. They are Melanie Moore, an AmeriCorps volunteer with the Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Centers Association; Sofia Ayres-Aronson, an intern for the Summer in the City program coordinated through John Carrol University’s Center for Service and Social Action; and Elana Pitts, a summer intern from Hiram Collage.

Asked why she chose to work with LEI, Ayres-Aronson cited the community, and “the atmosphere of optimism and collaboration."

Heights Arts has been working to connect its community with the many literary, visual, craft and musical artists who make Northeast Ohio rich with creative energy. Now, as it begins its 21st year, the organization is looking ahead to future decades. Over the last year, as Heights Arts and the rest of the world waited for a return to “normal,” its board of trustees assembled a group of stakeholders, comprising board members and respected community members, to create a Reimagination Task Force.

The task force engaged a consultant to assist with the process of reaching out to supporters and community members, to help determine the direction of future programming.

With its roots in public art, Heights Arts’ first project, the Coventry PEACE Arch, still stands today in Coventry PEACE park.

Since 1991, Friends of Cain Park (FCP) has donated nearly $200,000 in support of artists, actors, musicians and programming at Cain Park.

This year brings a shorter season and limited seating to Cain Park’s 2021 programming. FCP members will receive early access, special seating, and reduced ticket prices to performances at the Evans Ampitheater (with some restrictions for Tri-C Jazz Fest and Multi-Music Fest). Memberships can be purchased on Cain Park’s Residents Day, June 26th: at FCP’s booth at the Cain Park Arts Festival, July 9–11, or online at www.friendsofcainpark.com.    

 “The vision of our founder, Chessie Bleick, was to raise funds and awareness of Cain Park so that everyone could enjoy our local gem,” said Molly McGuigan, president of the board of directors of FCP. “We are in full swing this year, with a new website and added membership benefits.” 

Since last September, the Western Reserve Chorale’s (WRC) artistic director, and pianist Sara Smith, have been meeting in a large space at Church of the Saviour every Tuesday night. They are the only two in the room while all other WRC members tune in for rehearsal via Zoom.

While many music ensembles put their seasons on hiatus this past year, WRC found a way to continue to connect with one another and create music together. This effort is culminating in a virtual concert, available on YouTube June 4–6. Links for the concert can be found on the ensemble’s website, www.westernreservechorale.org.

WRC invites the community to listen to and watch its upcoming concert. “In Her Voice” celebrates the contributions of female poets, including Emily Bronte, Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Sara Teasdale, and Ysaye Barnwell.

Heights Arts is proud to announce the return of its Random Acts of Art LIVE! music program for this summer and fall. The concert series was born during the pandemic, when local musicians found that their usually steady summer work was no longer available due to the shutdown of many, if not all, performance opportunities. Concerts went virtual, and artists were inspired to write and create new music addressing current issues and challenges. The Random Acts of Art LIVE! series allowed for continued live performances, bringing friends and neighbors together, while remaining socially distanced.

"There is something magical about hyper-local pop-up events like this, especially after some of the isolation we felt in the last year,” said Arleigh Savage, music coordinator at Heights Arts. “I always witness spontaneous conversation and excitement shared with listeners at these concerts, with everyone walking away feeling energized with the connection the event fosters."

In 2019, Dobama Theatre was recognized for its efforts toward equity, diversity, and inclusion with the Kathryn V. Lamkey Award. On March 8, Dobama’s Board of Directors renewed the theater’s commitment [to those principles] when it unanimously adopted its Love and Respect document. In a statement, the Dobama Theatre team noted it was “continuing to learn about each other's life experiences, engaging with and supporting colleagues, and challenging injustice when we encounter it will help us create the community we seek."

The living document is a plan for anti-racist action, and building a culture of authentic inclusivity at Dobama Theatre, focusing on the intersections of race with sexuality, gender, disability, religion, and other oppressed identities.

As Lake Erie Ink (LEI) prepares for the start of in-person creative expression camps this summer, one cannot help but reflect back to last summer, when the idea of meeting in a physical space seemed impossible.

The story of LEI this past year is one of difficulty, as the entire organization scrambled to find ways to adapt.

Heights Arts is known for celebrating art in many forms at its longstanding Cleveland Heights gallery. That especially includes up-and-coming artists. This spring, Heights Arts presents Innate Environments, and a Spotlight showcase, both celebrating new talent. The concurrent exhibitions run Friday, May 21, through Sunday, June 13, at Heights Arts gallery, 2175 Lee Road.

Heights Arts interns Zelda Thayer-Hansen and Eryn Lawsonn curated Innate Environments. They created a show that acknowledges nature in its unsightly truths and inherent beauty, all while evaluating humanity’s existence within the natural world, through photography, graphic design, and mixed media. The two interns share the Spotlight showcase adjacent to the exhibition.