Sat 5/4 @ 7:30PM
It’s hard to believe, but the Ingenuity Fest is 20 years old this year. It launched in 2005 with its first event at Public Square, and a goal to bring art and technology together to spark new creativity and to activate underused spaces in Cleveland. Since then, it’s moved to East 4th Street (back when it was mostly empty storefronts), Playhouse Square, warehouses behind the Lakefront Stadium, great Lakes Science Center and the Rock Hall, and most famously (and legendarily), the trolley level of the Detroit-Superior Bridge. Oh, and that one pandemic year in Gordon Park.
But when it moved into its permanent home in the Hamilton Collaborative in 2016, where its Ingenuity Labs are located, it opened up a whole new realm of possibilities, allowing it to create things that weren’t easily moveable and hold a variety of events, big and small, all year long.
One of those is its annual benefit, the Ingenuity Bal, its major fundraiser to support the three-day September festival. This year’s theme is “Flights of Fancy” (although that kind of describes a lot of what Ingenuity is anyway). There’ll be food and craft beverages and a variety of both hands-on demonstrations and activities for guests to engage with and performances/entertainment to keep them diverted including music from Bassel and the Supernaturals, cirque and aerial acts, and a spectacular Fashion Rocks runway fashion show, featuring musicians as models and couture clothing handmade by Cleveland-area designers. You’re invited to come dressed in fantastic garments too — things you’d never dream of wearing elsewhere! You can also wander around the main space and get a glimpse of some of the work in progress for the festival in September.
Go here for tickets.
Cleveland, OH 44114