Rooms to Let: CLE Returns with a New Look

Photo by Anastasia Pantsios

Sat 7/10 & Sun 7/11 @ noon-6PM

The annual Slavic Village art event known as Rooms to Let: CLE will have a very different look this year.

For its first six years —2014-2019 — the event involved teams of artists taking over houses scheduled for demolition that were scattered throughout the neighborhood. They created installations throughout the houses and outside them that spoke to vacancy and abandonment as well as other issues facing the neighborhood and the city or sometimes ideas just personal to the artist. The event was based on Slavic Village’s centrality to the foreclosure crisis of the ’00s, and its attempt to rebuild.

Performances took place in and around the houses, vendors and artists set up in nearby vacant lots, and there were hands-on artmaking activities.

When Rooms to Let: CLE returns for its seventh year (it skipped last year for reasons we all know) there will be no vacant houses. Instead, art and performance activities will center around the intersection of West 55th and Broadway — one of only two Cleveland intersections where all the original buildings still exist (the other is West 65th and Detroit).

Artists and business owners have worked together to create temporary installations in storefronts and nearby lots with more than 50 artists participating. They include a pop-up show at the Andreoli Gallery at 5000 Fleet Street, featuring five neighborhood artists: Scott Pickering (who colorful, cartoon-like paintings adorn many Slavic Village buildings), Anthony Bocchicchio, Mark Bush, Andreoli Restoration and Deborah Zdanowicz.

A main stage will feature music and community conversations about art and community, starting with a history of Slavic Village by Glenn Soboda of the Slavic Village Historical Society on Saturday @ 1pm and a neighborhood update from Slavic Village Development’s Chris Alvarado Sunday @ 1pm. The diverse music lineup includes blues (K.C. Harmon at 2pm Saturday), indie rock (The Rosies, 4pm Saturday), classical (Opus 216 Ensemble, noon Sunday), hip hop/R&B (Curse, 2pm Saturday) and the unique and indefinable one woman show that is Uno Lady at 4pm Sunday.

Still more performances will be taking place at a space dubbed the “Sacred Sound Garden,” curated by Jacci Hammer in partnership with Ingenuity Cleveland. The Stetson-Marlowe Project, Tom Stoll, Humachine, Astro Celt, Lea Marra, Golden Cap Corral, Obnox and Duo Decidel System perform on Saturday; 1800-SOS, Taylor Lamborn, Fly Hippy Rick, Mikey Silas, Michael McFarland, Fiercely Serene and Meg Stepka on Sunday.

In addition, Slavic Village is one of GardenWalk Cleveland‘s Sunday neighborhoods, so you can also visit local home and community gardens throughout the neighborhood.

Stop by the event hub at 5620 Broadway to pick up a map before you explore. The event is free.

For more info go to slavicvillage.org/roomstolet/.

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