DVA Architecture
The first floor of Cleveland State’s parking garage off East 13th Street is slated to turn into a dedicated art gallery come 2027.
By most estimates, either from Cleveland City Hall or the Parking Reform Network, about a good quarter of Downtown Cleveland is land dedicated to parking. That’s about 56,493 spaces, according to the city.
So, getting rid of 20 isn’t going to hurt.
That’s part of Cleveland State University’s general idea of converting some 4,000 square feet of their parking garage off East 13th and Chester into the CSU Galleries at East 13th Street.
Instead of dusty concrete for cars, the school’s planning to turn the street-facing part of its Middough Building into a white box gallery held up by fluted columns, around which will be pictures hung on matte grey walls, and a collection of sculptures.
It’s what Andy Kersten, CSU’s dean of arts and sciences, says will be a space that will further drive the local arts scene.
“One of the things we know about our young artist community, or our community of creatives in the Cleveland region, is that they’re really, really good,” he said. “And as they gain experience, they often go elsewhere.”
Mark Oprea
Cleveland State’s idea meshes nicely with that of Playhouse Square’s nearby: to try and create more active ground-floor spaces, with the hopes that a more walkable neighborhood might follow.
“So the question is: How are we gonna keep this homegrown talent here in the region in Cleveland?” Kersten added. “I think CSU galleries could could help with that.”
The collection of blocks that compose Playhouse Square and parts of Cleveland State are gradually seeing good changes on a ground-floor level, mostly the effect of Playhouse Square CEO Craig Hassal’s urge to try and create a walkable neighborhood where there wasn’t one previously.
The upcoming openings of Ben & Jerry’s, Encore and the Something Good Social Kitchen, along with the future makeover of the Greyhound Building, are notches in that direction.
But fine art-related openings in the city center are a little more scarce. Downtowners can stop by the Bonfoey Gallery on Euclid, or Yards Projects in the Warehouse District. (The latter has some six exhibits this year.) Tthe Harris Stanton or Shaheen galleries, to name two—have left Downtown for the east side in recent years.
But one’s hard-pressed to find a truly dedicated, always-open gallery space without being stymied by its banker’s hours. A premise that CSU’s space could potentially fulfill.
That is, if it can fund it.
In the past year or so, the school’s budget deficit has grown into a projected $150 million, a gap that’s seemed to warrant a list of cuts—from the CSU wrestling team to President Laura Bloomberg’s house in Cleveland Heights. (Though she’s still lined up for a three-percent raise this year, totaling $477,000, Crain’s reported.)
Kersten told Scene he’s not exactly sure how much converting the first floor of a parking garage into a gallery will cost, considering new flooring and a facade update, but said that a donation drive and foundational grants could cover a portion of it.
As for the art itself, Kersten’s mind is open. Anything from “two dimensional to three-dimensional art,” to film and wall-projections (like Von Gogh Experience), he said, are in the idea hopper. And not just art produced by students and faculty.
“I mean, we have 52 weeks of programming that we could invest into that space,” he said. Which entails “having shows that are, like, for many days, free and open to the public. And in a space that we own.”
After the design process wraps up this year, a request for proposal for construction will go out, Kersten said, next spring. The goal is to have a first official showing as early as spring of 2007.
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