Much more than water under this bridge!
Preview: Ingenuity Festival 2010, Bloggers under the bridge
WHO: On a crisp Saturday morning James Levin gave a sneak peak of the new venue for the 2010 Ingenuity Festival. It’s on the lower level of the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge (commonly known as the Detroit-Superior Bridge). He uncovered the nooks and crannies and shared the expansive spaces that will be the backdrop for this year’s spectacle.
WHERE: This sequestered under-and over-world holds secrets of the past and hope for the future. Its underground caverns include cubbies with subway-tiled walls; flooded, subterranean stairwells; abandoned underground entrances and streetcars that are literally stopped in their tracks (pictured). Many of these areas can be claimed by artists as the staging ground for their displays or performances for the 2010 Ingenuity Festival. Then, in a surprising turn of direction, the bridge arches upward and out of its underground labyrinth and onto thin air, high above the Cuyahoga (pictured). The only separation between your feet and the river far below is a metal grid covered by a ply wood pathway. At the downtown end of the bridge the long-abandoned streetcar tracks submerge out of sight and underwater, beneath Cleveland. Like Charlton Heston’s character in Planet of the Apes when he stumbles on the Statue of Liberty strangely protruding from the sands on the beach, your mind can’t help but wonder what secrets this peculiar place holds. At the same time, looking forward, you try image what this year’s Ingenuity Festival will be like with this curious backdrop.
WHAT: This dramatic change of atmosphere is par for the course for a festival that invites and celebrates that which intrigues, explores, dazzles and generally pushes boundaries in all directions. This unique festival attracts international and Northeast Ohio purveyors of visionary high technology, imaginative fine art, inspired performances and all manner of mixes of these expressive forms.
WHEN: The venue is not the only change to the Ingenuity Festival, this year it will be held a little later in the year: September 24-26.
HOW: One more change we all like, FREE admission!
Carol Drummond has been a professional designer for 25 years. Prior to starting her award-winning graphic design studio 15 years ago, Drummond Design, she graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, worked at a graphic design studio, a video production company, and a consumer products company. She has been an art docent for Mayfield City Schools and currently serves on the COSE Arts Network Advisory Committee. http://www.DrummonDesign.com