Cleveland 101- Arts & Culture
Cleveland is famous for art and cultural institutions such as the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. But there are hundreds of hidden treasures you might not be aware of.
Betty Ott Talking Garden for the Blind. One of the few (and named one of the best) Gardens for the Blind features recorded messages at the entrance and at intervals along walkways to guide visitors through the garden.
Christmas Story House. “You’ll shoot your eye out.” Everyone remembers that famous warning from the 1983 Christmas movie. The movie was filmed in Cleveland and the House is open for visits and tours (leg lamp included).
Christopher Columbus Statue. A tribute to the explorer in the Little Italy neighborhood of Cleveland.
Cleveland Fire Fighters Memorial. Next to Cleveland Browns Stadium, this monument is to honor those firefighters who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Dante Alighieri statue. Italian Divine Comedy author honored in the Italian Cultural Garden.
Alan Freed Memorial. Alan Freed was a Cleveland disc jockey who has been called the “Father of Rock and Roll.” He coined and popularized the term “rock and roll” and produced the nation’s first rock concert in 1952. A jukebox monument is at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland
Free Stamp Sculpture. The ‘world’s largest rubber stamp’ sits next to Cleveland City Hall in Willard Park.
GE Chandelier. The world’s largest outdoor chandelier.
Helen Keller Statue. With working pump in the Betty Ott Talking Garden for the Blind.
Hungarian Freedom Fighter. The young freedom fighter in the statue is holding a Hungarian Flag with the symbol of the Soviet Union cut out – symbolizing the anti-Communist revolution.
Immigrant Mother Statue. In the Croatian Cultural Garden, the statue is dedicated to all the immigrant mothers who brought their families to America seeking freedom and a new life.
Jazz Man statue on Buckeye The 18 foot high, 3000 lb figure is a greenish trumpet player with his dog listening attentively at his side. The jazz motif is to honor the annual Jazz and Blues festival on Buckeye.
Judy’s Hand Statue Judy’s Hand Sculpture by Tony Tasset is a 7-ton, 21-foot-high sculpture of a hand that was part of Cleveland’s inaugural FRONT International Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art in the summer of 2018.
Karamu House – The oldest African-American theater in the US. Many of Langston Hughe’s plays were developed and premiered at the theater. Ruby Dee, Robert Guillaume and others performed there regularly.
Kings And Queens Of Lakeview Terrace Mural. The largest mural in the state of Ohio at 620′.
Leif Ericson bust. Viking Explorer Leif Ericson was honored by the local Scandinavian community with this bust.
North Point Public Art. “Musicians” being led by their conductor in front of the home of the law firm Jones Day.
Playhouse Square. The Theater District in downtown Cleveland is the largest performing arts center in the United States outside of New York.
The Politician: A Toy. The Politician A Toy is a sculpture by artist Billie Lawless now residing near the Monte Ahuja College of Business at Cleveland State University.
Polka Hall of Fame. The Cleveland-
Richard Wagner Statue. A gift from Cleveland’s Goethe-Schiller Society, made up of German immigrants and German-Americans (1911).
Ruby Dee Mural. A 40′ mural on an outside wall of Karamu House was unveiled in 2013 to honor one of Karamu House’s most successful alums, actress Ruby Dee.
Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. The 125’ Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument is a monument on Public Square to Civil War soldiers and sailors from Cuyahoga County.
Spirit of ’76 Painting. The Spirit of ‘76, depicting a flag bearer, drummer boy, and fifer marching across a battlefield during the American Revolution, is perhaps the most famous painting produced in Cleveland. It hangs in City Hall.
Superman. In 1933 two Glenville high school students Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the super hero. An historical marker dedicates the creation and the boys’ 2 houses are in the same Glenville neighborhood.
The Thinker by Auguste Rodin. One of the last Rodin supervised casts of The Thinker can be found in front of the Cleveland Museum of Art. It was bombed in 1970 by the radical Weather Underground and the Museum decided to leave it in that state.
Coming Soon:
- Harvey Pekar
- Gallery One at CMA
- Chess sets at CPL
- Peace Pole at Tri-C
- Soldiers & Sailors
- Rockefeller Greenhouse
- Spirit of 76 at City Hall
- Tom L Johnson statues
- and many more
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