REVS Cleveland / Akron
Reopen Every Venue Safely – Cleveland Akron
Guidelines and best practices for live music venues in Cleveland/Akron as part of the national Reopen Every Venue Safely (REVS) campaign.
With COVID-19 came the shutdown of many businesses. While most places reopened late spring/early summer, live music venues remained closed. In the midst of COVID-19, live music venues have often been called the first to close and the last to open due to the many concerns around the safety of live music. To work towards reopening local live music venues safely, in May, Cleveland/Akron got involved in the Reopen Every Every Venue Safely (REVS) initiative launched by Music Cities Together. This initiative is focused on helping venues open as safely and as soon as possible by providing best practices and guidelines. The best practices and guidelines you will read below were built from meetings and discussions between Arts Cleveland and local music venue owners and directors, musicians, and public health professionals.
Data Brief - Dance in Cleveland
Dance In CLE
Cleveland’s dance industry, including both creative and non-creative jobs increased to 302 jobs in 2015. The industry analysis is made up of dance companies and promoters as well as fine arts schools.
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Rethinking Accessibility in Cleveland’s Arts and Culture. 2019.
In 2014, Arts Cleveland began a productive partnership with Art Possible Ohio (APO) and Services for Independent Living (SIL) and began to understand the gap in access for people with disabilities throughout the arts and culture sector.
Fast forward to January 2019, Arts Cleveland received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to execute on a research initiative focused on arts and culture accessibility for people with disabilities in the greater Cleveland region. In close communication with APO and SIL, Arts Cleveland led an assessment of the regional state of access to the arts. Through this research, we explored the Cuyahoga County landscape of arts and culture access and worked to identify and define barriers among individuals with varying abilities.
Inside the Margins
A Cleveland Literature Industry Study
Inside the Margins: A Cleveland Literature Industry Study was commissioned by Arts Cleveland—formerly the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture—and is the result of research conducted and analyzed by the Center for Economic Development at the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University (CSU). The report on the Cleveland Literature Sector is the fourth in a series of studies that explores the various artistic disciplines in Cuyahoga County.
For the study, the CSU research team acquired the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data for Cuyahoga County from 2005 to 2015, and used the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Standard Occupation Classification definitions. The team also gathered quantitative and qualitative data by conducting an online Survey of Literary Artists, one-on-one interviews and a focus group. The purpose of the data and their analysis is to provide a sense of the local sector’s advantages, challenges and economic impact.
Access the full report by CSU on their website.
At Its Very Best
At Its Very Best is a commissioned short documentary by local artist, Donald Black Jr. Interviews begin to illustrate the impact of violence and what the arts can do in the lives of those affected by trauma. In partnership with Arts Cleveland, he interviews youth, educators, healthcare providers and public safety experts.
After the 13-minute video was released in December of 2018, Black spoke on his experience creating the video and invited a conversation. Scroll down to watch the full video.
A woman in the audience recalled drawing quite a bit when she was growing up. The arts, she said, kept her and her friends, many of whom lived under the poverty line, out of trouble. As an adult, she was working with a group of kids who were labeled "troubled" or "bad." They were given paintbrushes and asked to paint a mural for a daycare center. She had her doubts that the project would be taken seriously, but something amazing happened. To her surprise, these kids, some from gangs, others from rough areas, and all from different backgrounds worked together on this project with a camaraderie she hadn't seen from them before.
It was a great example of what we are trying to say with the video. While editing the documentary, Black, who was himself defined by his art-making, was continuously listening for something to hit on a very personal level. What stood out, and ultimately became the title, was something said by Toni Starinsky late in the video. She was Black's photography teacher in high school who he describes as "a white person who has really been in the mud.” In her interview, she says, “If arts does anything, it should teach thinking, empathy, and give children hope. That’s what it does at its very best.” Throughout his life, art acted as the counterbalance to what violence did to Black. He didn’t realize at the time that he was healing himself with art because it was happening in a very subconscious way. But the longer he has created art, the more he has realized its impact on his life. “For Starinsky to say that at its very best, art can heal some simple ails, that’s what this is all about.”
As an adult and successful artist, Black wants to be in the neighborhood where he grew up for precisely this reason. He was being pulled in other directions including his life in New York and neighborhoods throughout Cleveland he called “white bubbles,” but he was committed to being present in his own community.
As a kid, Black grew up on the southeast side of Cleveland. From 7th grade on, he had to ride the RTA from his neighborhood to Cleveland School of the Arts, where he was a student. “There was a huge divide between what was going on where I was living and what was happening where I was going.” Black wants to make the community where he grew up a place for people visit to see artwork, and a place for black kids growing up in urban communities to see and experience artwork. His now owns a building on Kinsman. It allows him to be there when people want him, especially young people.
About his murals in the neighborhood that stand roughly 20 or 30 feet tall, Black adds that he wants his little cousin to feel as big and tall as those murals they see themselves in. “Kids say, 'That’s me in the mural.' There are lots of young people showing up,” and he and the art are there when they need him.
Elevating The Influence of Arts and Culture
A Cleveland Playbook
A history, of the tactics that contributed to successes in the Cleveland, Ohio, area to realize the fuller potential of arts and culture. You’ll also see call-out material with more concrete, universal lessons to help you apply those tactics in a variety of settings. 2018.
As a result of CPAC’s work:
- Tax money has been directed for arts and culture
- Facilities have been built or renovated
- Governments have become involved
- Creative businesses have merged or collaborated
- Innovative cross sector partnerships have emerged
Through CPAC’s process outlined in the playbook, organizations and communities anywhere can see what worked in Northeast Ohio and what did not. Any one of the strategies in this playbook could be beneficial, depending on a community’s vision and current situation. It is our hope that our story can provide other organizations with insight into how they might strengthen their own arts and culture sectors and thus their whole communities.
Spiral-bound print copies available by request.
Staging Cleveland
Staging Cleveland takes an in-depth look at the role greater Cleveland’s theater industries play in the regional economy. 2017.
The concentration of high-quality theaters and playwrights in the Cleveland region helps to make it a mid-sized city that has a disproportionally high level of national recognition. This is just one of the competitive advantages of Cleveland theater found in “Staging Cleveland: A Theater Industry Study.” The study shares the economic impact and ecosystem of Cuyahoga County’s theater industry.
Culture Pulse 2017
Culture Pulse
Examines financial trends, such as income and expenses, as well as participation, human resource and space trends. It also compares Cuyahoga County trends with national trends and is informed by a set of three focus groups. Dive deeper into the trends and health of arts and culture as a local asset by viewing both the visually dynamic report, and the full set of data tables. 2017.
Cuyahoga County’s nonprofit arts and cultural sector thrives along many dimensions. Throughout our discussions with local arts and cultural nonprofit leaders, we heard a common thread: Cuyahoga County’s arts ecosystem benefits from arts and cultural organizations’ being open to collaborating, the high number of free arts and cultural offerings, and generous public funding. Community members attend small festivals, tour large museums, and take art classes. Artists ranging from local painters to writers to dancers to designers live, work, and share their craft in Northeast Ohio. Creativity is in the water.
Culture Pulse 2015
Cuyahoga County residents have access to world-class arts and culture organizations and individual artists. Through classic and contemporary works, arts and culture is celebrating our heritage and imagining our future. Such great cultural production cannot happen without strong and well-resourced arts and culture organizations and individual artists.
The health of the arts and culture sector was the focus of Arts Cleveland’s annual snapshot of arts and culture nonprofits, Culture Pulse.
support
The data revealed contributed support has risen slightly, while larger gains were made in earned income for the sector. However, such revenue growth was offset sharply by declines in investment income. In light of growing endowments, being mindful of the impact of market fluctuations is one area to monitor moving forward. Foundation and government support remain critical components of the sector’s revenue.
employment
The sector’s workforce has experienced gains in terms of full-time and part-time employment. Salaries and fringe benefits have also increased. The sector is engaging more independent contractors as well, particularly artists and performers. Despite overall workforce growth, an area to monitor is an overall decline in the number of board members for the sector.
space
While more organizations report owning space, the overall square footage filled by arts and culture organizations has declined. This decline is largely driven by reductions in donated space.
Why arts and culture?
Arts and culture provokes contemplation on issues facing our community. It enhances critical thinking skills, encourages innovative thought and challenges us to see different perspectives.
As a partner in Cleveland’s resurgence, arts and culture’s impacts are far-reaching.
- Creative placemaking efforts are revitalizing neighborhoods and improving the quality of experiences for residents and tourists.
- Arts and culture practices are improving the health outcomes of patients and changing the design of healthcare facilities.
- Arts and culture is contributing to our economy through its businesses, employment and tax payments.
We could go on, but we’ll let you dive into the data to see for yourself.
About
The data used for this report was provided by the Cultural Data Project (CDP), an organization created to strengthen arts and culture by documenting and disseminating information on the arts and culture sector. Any interpretation of the data is the view of Arts Cleveland/CPAC and does not reflect the views of the Cultural Data Project.
Culture Pulse 2014
Culture Pulse 2014
In Culture Pulse 2014, Arts Cleveland/Community Partnership for Arts and Culture leveraged 2010-2012 data from the Cultural Data Project on a sample of 96 arts and culture nonprofits in Cuyahoga County. 2014.
Just as our pulse rates can be monitored as basic measures of health throughout our lifetimes, regular measurement of financial, human and infrastructure resources helps track our arts and culture sector’s health and momentum.
This report illuminates the ways arts and culture organizations are responding to, and evolving in light of, changing environmental factors. Understanding such trends is an important step in strengthening and sustaining this vital asset for generations to come.
CulturePulse 2014