Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art and University Circle

Last Saturday Gina (my beautiful girlfriend) and I went to the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art in University Circle. For as much as I've read about the museum and geeked out over pictures, I have yet to go. So when Gina wanted to know what plans were for a rare Cleveland couple's weekend, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. 

I made Gina take a slight detour through Playhouse Square to see the new arches and signage that they are putting up. I was amazed! It's almost Vegas-like in its glitz and glamour. OK maybe old downtown Vegas but still place-making at its finest! Here's a pic of one of the arches. Just awesome!

We then traveled down the HealthLine to University Circle. Midtown is starting to fill in which is great! I can remember years ago taking a wrong turn after a Browns game and being at the intersection of E 55th and Euclid. The whole car full of us just prayed that the light would change fast so we could get the hell out. It seems like a completely different place now.

When we got into University Circle I bored poor Gina with stories I had read on Urban Ohio. If you want to know what projects are happening in Cleveland, I highly recommend you check it out. I do daily... not at work though. UC is a beautiful neighborhood dominated by the Cleveland Clinic (technically in Fairfax), University Hospital, Case Western Reserve University, and the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center not to mention all of the museums, parks, and the Uptown project. Once we parked I couldn't help but snap pictures like a tourist even though it was raining. Here's where we spent the afternoon:

This is the the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art. Pretty sweet looking huh? And it's not even the craziest looking building in the neighborhood (Peter B Lewis building) believe it or not! The views of UC alone were worth the price of admission. Up and down Euclid you can see what happens when the right mixture of jobs, money, population, art, and drive all come together and make urban progress. UC isn't downtown and they don't have to be either. 3-5 story buildings are just fine and in a lot of cases allow you to be creative and daring when it comes to design and use. This could have easily been a strip mall with a Walmart, a Target, and a Subway and it would have been hailed by onlookers as a triumph!... but it wasn't. It was daring and traditional at the same time. It's what urban living is all about. Beautiful, functional, and dense. Below is a picture of Uptown just on the east side of the museum. I love the look of the buildings, the density of the project on a main road, and the residential over retail design. Mixed use! Imagine looking out your weird sideways window every morning and seeing the glistening black shape of the museum across the street. Your minutes away from museums, 2 of the top healthcare facilities in the country, a great university, the city's best Italian food, and the country's best BRT (bus rapid transit) line. And there is so much more!!! Being just within this city block was quite an experience and I will definitely go back. 

Now back to the museum. The theme of one of the museum installations was death. It wasn't as morbid as what may be conjured up in your head at the moment. It was contemporary art... it took the topic from a whole different angle and ranged from painting with autopsy fluids to collages of life in memorial. My 2 favorite exhibits were both in this installation:

1. There was a list of sentences that chronicled a woman's life from birth to death. It was like someone took important passages from a diary and summarized them into individual sentences. You didn't know the woman's name or anything about her but after reading it you were able to say that you knew her. Very powerful.
2. You were to think about your life while laying on your back. When you were done you were to write your epitaph as you would have it appear on your grave stone. From there you took small individual letter stencils made of metal and pounded them with a hammer into (2) 3X5 cards. One you hung up on the wall representing a cemetery. One you kept. My read "He discovered is passion too late in life." It made me sad.

Oh and don't forget to go to the gift shop! There are tons of awesome souvenirs and they all stay close to the contemporary art thing. Gina and I are coming back for Christmas presents so get ready for weird gifts.

Then it snowed like crazy! Like really crazy. We went to Fuel Coffee Bar in the Little Italy neighborhood. We hoped that the snow would stop but it didn't. Great coffee though and great conversations with the baristas/coffee bartenders. It kept us warm and that's what we were looking for.

We spent the rest of the day in the Coventry neighborhood of Cleveland Heights. We met Gina's cousin Kerry and ate at BD's Mongolian Grill. I liked the food there but Kerry and Gina described it as the Walmart of Mongolian restaurants. A great idea that I like about that neighborhood is the parking garage. Every neighborhood should have one. Maybe not right on the main drag for everyone to see but boy is it great not having to park on the street and all of the headaches that come with that.

Check out some other events I've attended or places I've been by clicking on the links below:

• MOCA and University Circle
• NYE 2014
• The Cleveland Flea
• Dyngus Day
• Dazzle the District