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Ingenuity Fest is Cleveland at its coolest
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BY: Lila Hanft Freelance Writer
You hear a lot about the new “cool” Cleveland, but it can be hard to visualize the city’s anticipated transformation from a tired, Rust Belt town into a tech-savvy, prosperous and vibrant regional hub that will attract young people to its prosperous healthcare and biotech industries.
Fortunately, you can experience this bright vision of Cleveland’s future at the fourth annual Ingenuity Fest, which takes place July 25-27 in the Playhouse Square area of downtown.
Ingenuity Fest is Cleveland’s homegrown urban festival, now emulated in other cities. It brings together local and international artists, musicians, filmmakers, street performers, creators of video games, and rocket scientists n anyone whose work falls within the overlapping circles of science, technology and art.
The result is a busy, high-spirited “street scene” of interactive art, high-tech displays, music, performance, art, theater and family activities.
The concept of “transformation” is at the heart of this year’s festival, says James Levin, Ingenuity’s founder and executive artistic director. “Ingenuity urges you to rediscover our city, transformed into a ‘magical somewhere’ through a multi-faceted and layered event that many will remember as ‘the coolest of Cleveland.’”
The Idea Center will be transformed into the Family Village, “as if touched by a magic wand,” says Levin. The village contains 25 interactive exhibits, including the Mars flight simulator, virtual reality mazes, and larger-than-life-size games. The Allen Theatre, too, will be transformed into a “multi-venued sound installation using sounds collected form Iraq and Afghanistan.” The Halle Building will become “our tech center and gallery, featuring “massive robotics exhibits” and 3-D virtual reality experiences created by NASA and Kent State University.
“We are also transforming virtually every storefront and alley in the area into what we think will be mesmerizing installations, exhibits and performance,” Levin adds. (Download the complete program, learn more about the artists and performers, and print out a handy map at www.ingenuity
cleveland.com.)
Audience interactivity is a vital part of the Ingenuity experience, which is why Levin insists that “you have to see for yourself” how Ingenuity will transform these familiar public spaces.
This festival, he says, requires “not simply watching and listening, but moving, journeying into unknown urban spaces where you will find art and exhibits and performances different from anything that you have experienced before.”
Despite the high-concept art and definite “cool factor,” Ingenuity Fest is very kid-friendly. In the Family Village, kids can get hands-on with experiments, games, and state-of the-art tech equipment in “a comfortable, safe and engaging place for families to explore their own connections with art and technology,” say festival organizers.
Family Village coordinator Julie Goldstein says that kids will love “the Metafield Maze, a virtual, room-sized re-creation of the traditional marble maze game.” Players take steps inside a projected 3-D model of the game; when the player steps left or right, the model tips, and the ball moves accordingly.
Kids will also have the opportunity to design 3-D video games, program robots, conduct physics and chemistry experiments, make origami and other art projects, and record their own CDs in the Family Village. In conjunction with their upcoming exhibit on the golden age of comic books, the Maltz Museum of Jewish History will host a “design your own superhero emblem” station where kids can paint, color and sticker their own breastplate logos showing off their favorite superhero powers.
More than 200 projects and programs will take place during Ingenuity Fest, including an opening-day parade, film premières, interactive installations, and public participation in real-time art projects. The three outdoor stages are continuously programmed with “a multi-cultural mix of music, including opera, rock, hip-hop, jazz, gospel, electronic, blues and folk,” organizers say.
“It’s always really exciting right before the festival,” Goldstein explains. “There’s an enormous amount of collaboration and orchestration involved, and experiencing it coming together is truly amazing.”
What: The 4th annual Ingenuity Festival
When: July 25-27
Where: Playhouse Square area (Euclid Ave. from E. 13th to E. 17th Sts.).
Contact: www.ingenuitycleveland.com
or 216-241-6000.
$10 per day; $15 for weekend
Children under 12 are free
Fortunately, you can experience this bright vision of Cleveland’s future at the fourth annual Ingenuity Fest, which takes place July 25-27 in the Playhouse Square area of downtown.
Ingenuity Fest is Cleveland’s homegrown urban festival, now emulated in other cities. It brings together local and international artists, musicians, filmmakers, street performers, creators of video games, and rocket scientists n anyone whose work falls within the overlapping circles of science, technology and art.
The result is a busy, high-spirited “street scene” of interactive art, high-tech displays, music, performance, art, theater and family activities.
The concept of “transformation” is at the heart of this year’s festival, says James Levin, Ingenuity’s founder and executive artistic director. “Ingenuity urges you to rediscover our city, transformed into a ‘magical somewhere’ through a multi-faceted and layered event that many will remember as ‘the coolest of Cleveland.’”
The Idea Center will be transformed into the Family Village, “as if touched by a magic wand,” says Levin. The village contains 25 interactive exhibits, including the Mars flight simulator, virtual reality mazes, and larger-than-life-size games. The Allen Theatre, too, will be transformed into a “multi-venued sound installation using sounds collected form Iraq and Afghanistan.” The Halle Building will become “our tech center and gallery, featuring “massive robotics exhibits” and 3-D virtual reality experiences created by NASA and Kent State University.
“We are also transforming virtually every storefront and alley in the area into what we think will be mesmerizing installations, exhibits and performance,” Levin adds. (Download the complete program, learn more about the artists and performers, and print out a handy map at www.ingenuity
cleveland.com.)
Audience interactivity is a vital part of the Ingenuity experience, which is why Levin insists that “you have to see for yourself” how Ingenuity will transform these familiar public spaces.
This festival, he says, requires “not simply watching and listening, but moving, journeying into unknown urban spaces where you will find art and exhibits and performances different from anything that you have experienced before.”
Despite the high-concept art and definite “cool factor,” Ingenuity Fest is very kid-friendly. In the Family Village, kids can get hands-on with experiments, games, and state-of the-art tech equipment in “a comfortable, safe and engaging place for families to explore their own connections with art and technology,” say festival organizers.
Family Village coordinator Julie Goldstein says that kids will love “the Metafield Maze, a virtual, room-sized re-creation of the traditional marble maze game.” Players take steps inside a projected 3-D model of the game; when the player steps left or right, the model tips, and the ball moves accordingly.
Kids will also have the opportunity to design 3-D video games, program robots, conduct physics and chemistry experiments, make origami and other art projects, and record their own CDs in the Family Village. In conjunction with their upcoming exhibit on the golden age of comic books, the Maltz Museum of Jewish History will host a “design your own superhero emblem” station where kids can paint, color and sticker their own breastplate logos showing off their favorite superhero powers.
More than 200 projects and programs will take place during Ingenuity Fest, including an opening-day parade, film premières, interactive installations, and public participation in real-time art projects. The three outdoor stages are continuously programmed with “a multi-cultural mix of music, including opera, rock, hip-hop, jazz, gospel, electronic, blues and folk,” organizers say.
“It’s always really exciting right before the festival,” Goldstein explains. “There’s an enormous amount of collaboration and orchestration involved, and experiencing it coming together is truly amazing.”
What: The 4th annual Ingenuity Festival
When: July 25-27
Where: Playhouse Square area (Euclid Ave. from E. 13th to E. 17th Sts.).
Contact: www.ingenuitycleveland.com
or 216-241-6000.
$10 per day; $15 for weekend
Children under 12 are free
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