CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Case Western Reserve University has long been something of a Tin Man among American universities — a place in search of a heart. Born out of the union of Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology in 1967, CWRU has grown over the decades without a strong campus center to unify its two halves. That’s about to change. The university plans to break ground next spring on the $50 million Tinkham Veale University Center, a centrally located building intended to give CWRU a 24/7 student hangout, a home for student organizations, a jumping-off point for campus tours and a big community gathering space. The design for the 82,000-square-foot building, released to The Plain Dealer by the university, has a decidedly 21st-century look, with thrusting, wedge-like shapes and sloping green roofs rising two stories out of the ground. Given its location northeast of Severance Hall between Bellflower Road, Euclid Avenue and East Boulevard, the center will be a highly visible new landmark in University Circle, Cleveland’s cultural, educational and medical hub. It will also be unlike anything else on campus, except Frank Gehry’s shiny, stainless-steel Peter B. Lewis Building for the Weatherhead School of Management, finished nearby in 2002 at the corner of Bellflower Road and Ford Drive.Click here to read more.

 

 

When the history of early 21st century Cleveland is written, the real estate development company run by two generations of the Maron family will deserve a good bit of attention. Their specialty, apart from restoring historic properties and rejuvenating neighborhoods, lies in rediscovering the treasures in our midst and changing perceptions about Cleveland. The family owned company has revitalized East 4th St. in downtown Cleveland, turning it from a zone of blight into a hot restaurant, nightclub, residential and entertainment district between Gateway and the historic downtown Arcade. In University Circle, they're building the first phase of the $150 million Uptown development. Their part of the package includes erecting more than 100 apartments designed by the noted San Francisco architect, Stanley Saitowitz. The apartments will be bookended by the new Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland and the Cleveland Institute of Art's renovated Joseph McCullough Center for the Visual Arts. Most recently, the Marons have turned the once neglected Tudor Arms Hotel at 10660 Carnegie Ave. into a handsomely renovated Hilton Doubletree.Click here to read more.

 

 

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Apartments in East Cleveland are the opening salvo in a push to blur lines between the region's poorest city and the humming employment hub next door. The Finch Group and University Circle Inc. are planning a 20-unit, townhouse-style project on Euclid Avenue. Just into East Cleveland, the $5 million development would bring rare new construction to a strapped city. It would test geographic and psychological boundaries, built up during decades of distrust and disparity. And it could provide a growth path for University Circle, a fast-growing district struggling to make room for residents amid hospitals, schools and cultural institutions. "Everybody knows East Cleveland," said Gary Norton, the city's mayor since January 2010. "Everybody knows the bad, but we're focusing on the good. One of the advantages that I can claim no credit for, whatsoever, is our location." That location, near a landlocked job center, has long been the subject of spillover speculation. Community Housing Solutions, a development agency based in Cleveland, once hoped to build homes and a park east of Lake View Cemetery. Those plans dissolved when former Mayor Eric Brewer accused the agency of mismanaging federal funds and foundation money. Community Housing Solutions disputed those claims. Now a CircleEast plan has re-emerged, starting with 20 apartments on 1.5 acres between Lakeview Road and Auburndale Avenue. Click here to read more.

 

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A grand old lady from Cleveland's past has had a little nip and tuck. The Hay-McKinney Mansion was closed for two years for restoration projects, but the Western Reserve Historical Society recently reopened the 1911 Italian Renaissance-style building. I couldn't resist an opportunity to wander through a grand old house, and I knew the experience would be a like a graduate-school lesson on antiques and the craftsmanship of the past. My guide to the elegant past was Dean M. Zimmerman, chief curator at the society. The Hay-McKinney Mansion is one of the connected buildings that make up the society's University Circle location. During our afternoon together, I took note of the themes that echoed through the decades, such as reclaiming old materials, the importance of room flow, caring for antiques and how older homes need constant attention. It was great fun touring the mansion with Zimmerman, not only because he is so knowledgeable and passionate, but mostly because he's allowed to step beyond the velvet ropes. Click here to read more.

 

 

 

Family vacations in Cleveland can be rewarding experiences or absolute disasters — it all depends on pre-trip homework. To make planning easier, we've done all the preparation. As part of a Huffington Post Travel series on traveling with children, here are answers to some frequently asked questions about Cleveland family vacations.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is the city's most popular attraction, and rightfully so. The 150,000-square-foot museum, located in the heart of downtown along the shores of Lake Erie, features a comprehensive array of music memorabilia, including stage costumes, handwritten lyrics, instruments, album art and, of course, music. Headphones are scattered throughout the museum so visitors can revisit old favorites and discover new ones.

Address: 1100 Rock and Rock Blvd. (East Ninth Street and Lake Erie), Cleveland, OH 44113
Phone: 216-781-7625
Hours: Daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Extended hours from Memorial Day to Labor Day on Wednesday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
Price: Adults, $22; Greater Cleveland residents, $18; seniors citizens and military, $17; children ages 9 to 12, $13; children ages 8 and under, free with adult admission

Children's Museum of Cleveland

One of several museums located on University Circle in Cleveland's cultural district, the Children's Museum of Cleveland features hands-on exhibits like Splish Splash, which is all about boats and water transportation, as well as Bridges of the Community, where kids can push a shopping cart, open a pretend bank account and even "pump" their own gas.

Address: 10730 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44106
Phone: 216-791-7114
Hours: Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Price: Adults and children, $7; infants 11 months and under, free

Click here to read more.

Courtesy of The Plain Dealer

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

 

 

Not just the Crawford Collection of Western Reserve Historical Society will be affected by, and benefit from, upcoming renovations in University Circle ("Crawford Museum is getting a facelift," Aug. 2) -- just as our marvelous collection of more than 200 transportation-related objects, including 140 cars, is not all of Western Reserve Historical Society. Click here to read more.

 

 

The Cleveland Museum of Art has announced a culinary partnership with Doug Katz, chef-owner of Fire Food and Drink (13220 Shaker Sq., 216-921-3473), to oversee the museum's new restaurant, café and all catering and banquet services.

 

The restaurant and café will be located in the museum’s new 39,000-square-foot atrium in the heart of the redesigned building. Katz describes the more casual café as a world market-themed cafeteria, with multiple food stations outfitted with equipment such as a tandoor oven, Japanese grill for skewered meats and fish, and a hearth oven for flatbreads. Grab-and-go items like salads, panini and pastries will also be on tap. Click here to read more.

 

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Teenagers farming in the heart of Cleveland are growing up themselves in the process. The students, ages 14 to 18, help transform neighborhoods through urban gardening while developing individuality, self-esteem and confidence. More than 60 high school students are working for minimum wage this summer at six learning farms operated by the Cleveland Botanical Garden. The students stay in their own communities, making it easy for them to walk to work and improve their neighborhoods. Joi Green, a second-year participant, said the job has done a lot to get her to come out of her shell. "I didn't talk. I learned to communicate with others," said Joi Green, 17, who works at Buckeye Learning Farm at 11305 Woodland Ave. "I was always a hard worker, but now I am willing to give tours and answer questions," she said with work gloves on, ready to move a wheelbarrow she had loaded with damp mulch. The Green Corps work-study program started mostly in vacant lots around the city. Click here to read more.

Courtesy of The Plain Dealer

Monday, August 1, 2011

 

by Margaret Bernstein

Plain Dealer Reporter

 

The Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum's cars and planes will vanish next month.

 

But this time, it won't be because of financial woes.

 

In fact, it's just the opposite. The Western Reserve Historical Society, which operates the Crawford museum, will place the vehicles in temporary storage so that it can embark on 10 months of renovations and improvements, financed mainly by a long-delayed $2.8 million grant from the state.

 

Historical society officials this week will announce a sweeping plan to update its University Circle facility and make it handicap accessible. New roofing, ceilings, insulation, electrical and sprinkler systems will be installed in the two lobbies and the Crawford museum, and the gift shop will be expanded. The Crawford museum will undergo a face-lift and two new grand staircases will create a more dramatic introduction to the collections downstairs. Click here to read more.

 

 

Every art season has a sleeper — an exhibition that sounds minor but that turns out to be absolutely terrific.

This summer’s example comes courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art. It’s a show of Kalighat paintings, a little-known genre of 19th-century Indian street art, which flourished for a half-century in Calcutta (now Kolkata)  then the capital of the British Raj in the East Indian state of West Bengal. The paintings were produced originally by anonymous artists between the 1830s and 1880s and sold as souvenirs in bazaars around the Kalighat Temple, devoted to the goddess Kali, in south Kolkata.Click here to read more.

 

 

Fear of failure in a major league ballpark definitely concentrates the mind.

 

"You block out everything around you. I was very focused," said Cleveland Museum of Art Director and lefty David Franklin, who threw out a ceremonial first pitch Saturday at Progressive Field before the Cleveland Indians played the Toronto Blue Jays.
 

A former Little League pitcher who played baseball in Toronto from age 6 or 7 until high school, Franklin drew on his prior experience.
 

"I had a bit of a career," he said. "I was all junk. I couldn't throw a fastball, so I learned odd pitches."

 

Click here to read more.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

By Steven Litt
The Plain Dealer

Cleveland boasts a collection of stellar attractions and amenities, from its lake and river to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, PlayhouseSquare and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Click here to read more.

 

 

For 25 years, Club Isabella was the place to go in University Circle for matchless jazz and food. That all ended in 2007 when University Hospitals razed the legendary club to make way for a new hospital. Understandably, fans were heartbroken.

One thing that will help ease the pain is a visit to the brand new Club Isabella, which opened in early June. Located in the former Goose Acres Music on Cornell Road in Little Italy, the new home is breathtaking, with blacked-out cathedral ceilings, marble-inlaid tables, and an open floor plan that transitions seamlessly from courtyard to bar to dining room. Contemporary but warm, classy but fun as hell, the new digs will have old fans wondering what they ever saw in the old haunt. Click here to read more.

 

 

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Museum of Art has acquired a spectacular new anchor for its Chinese collection: an exceedingly rare, late 13th century lacquer box carved with two exotic birds swirling around each other on the lid amid a field of peonies. The museum announced the purchase Thursday, but withheld the price and the name of the Japanese dealer who sold the piece, which will go on display in 2013 when the new Asian galleries open in the museum's West Wing, now under construction.

The acquisition caps a year of research by Anita Chung, the museum's curator of Chinese art. She became convinced that the work is the largest known example of a carved lacquer box from a 50-year period around the collapse of the Song Dynasty and the rise of the Yuan Dynasty, which followed the Mongal invasion of China led by Genghis Khan. "We are really dealing with something very early, and very rare, very monumental," Chung said. She called the box "a masterpiece that paves the way for later developments" in Chinese art, particularly lacquer.Click here to read more.

 

 

 

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The cold war between Cleveland's East and West sides was neither cold nor hostile Saturday as cultural events tied University Circle and the Gordon Square Arts District together. Shuttles made sure that thousands got to sample both events: the marvelously colorful Parade the Circle to the east and the renaissance in progress that the Gordon Square neighborhood has become, around West 65th Street and Detroit. As about 1,500 geared up to put on the parade Saturday morning, it resembled a medieval siege about to happen. At age 6, Elizabeth Haas is already a seasoned veteran. Dressed as a bug representing Bay Arts, she said this is her third parade. Making his debut in the parade was David Franklin, director of the Cleveland Museum of Art. He was joined by his sons, Thomas, 12, and Roman, 8, to form a skateboard trio. Images by Picasso, Langatti and Masson adorned the boards. Click here to read more.

 

 

 

(Cleveland) – Tens of thousands turned out Saturday for the 22nd Parade the Circle, an annual event marking the start of summer that takes place in University Circle. Parade the Circle featured a parade, and the Circle Village at Wade Oval. They are put on by the Cleveland Museum of Art, and University Circle, Inc. The parade featured colorful floats, puppets, costumes, dancers and musicians. Circle Village included activities, live music and food. WTAM 1100’s Cliff Baechle shot these photos at Parade The Circle. Click here to read more.

 

 

 

 

Every winter, while snow piles high and heavy clouds hang low over Cleveland, Rafael Valdivieso starts to think about summer. Everyone in Cleveland does this, of course, or we would collectively go mad and start making ill-advised sacrifices to the sun god in Public Square. But Valdivieso's thoughts of summer go way beyond swimming pools and baseball games. In his summer daydreams, he creates giant, Technicolor puppet creatures, wild, phantasmagoric, multihued beings from another world. He dreams of Parade the Circle.

Saturday at noon, the winter dreams of Valdivieso and dozens of other artists -- along with stilt-walkers, dancers, musicians and more -- will come to life and wind their way around Wade Oval in University Circle, heralding the long-awaited arrival of summer. Click here to read more.

 

 

By Bob Perkoski

 

The 22nd Parade the Circle takes place this Saturday, June 11, on and around Wade Oval in University Circle. The always stimulating Parade kicks off at noon and features wildly colorful floats, puppets, costumes, dancers and musicians. Other events in the area will feature music, food and art. As a longtime fan of the event, Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski fashioned a slideshow of past parades. Click here to learn more.

 

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Architect Steve Kordalski has created a house that he describes as "traditional in a contemporary fashion." The structure has a clear Polygal Plastic roof, and two of the four walls are of the same see-through material. The other two walls are cedar. Neatly arranged, decorative silver-colored bolts hold the unusual dwelling together. He calls it "Wren Zen" because it exudes a meditative feeling. The entrance to the house is a neat round hole, and if the occupants-to-be feel like hanging outside on a nice day, there's an exterior protruding branch for that. Someday, this will all belong to some very lucky wrens -- as in birds.

 

Kordalski, of Kordalski Architects Inc. in Murray Hills, dreamed up this eye-catching abode to be a part of "For the Birds: Architect-Designed Birdhouses," an exhibit at the Cleveland Botanical Garden that begins Friday and runs until Sunday, Oct. 1. About 20 professionally designed birdhouses will be on display. Click here to read more.

 

Courtesy of coolcleveland.com

 

Parade the Circle The city is one big melting pot. Let's get together & celebrate the spirit, culture & creativity of Cle @ Parade the Circle. Stilt walkers, people dressed as food, clever floats -- they'll be there on Sat 6/11. And so will you.

* Nate the Great @ LPL Magic, balloon twisting & amazement.

* Travel back in time @ Hale Farm & Village's Pioneer Festival Weekend. No time machine required.

* Let's fly a (recycled) kite! Make a kite from household materials, then put it to the test.

* Knee-high Naturalists A nature-infused event for the six and under crowd.

 

Find the full newsletter here

 

 

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio — One of the world’s greatest available private collections of traditional Congolese sculpture from the 19th and early 20th centuries has been snagged by the Cleveland Museum of Art because a Belgian art lover became convinced her treasures would have the most impact in Cleveland. The museum announced Friday that it has acquired 35 of the best works from the collection amassed by Odette Delenne of Brussels and her late husband, Rene Delenne, from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. The museum declined to put a monetary value on the deal, a purchase-gift arrangement, but said that Odette Delenne discounted the price in exchange for a permanent credit line on the objects as belonging to the Rene and Odette Delenne Collection. Click here to read more.

 

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The final judge of University Hospitals' new Seidman Cancer Center, which opens today, will be the patients. But listen to the enthusiastic leadership and staff talk about the free-standing cancer hospital, and they seem to have addressed what matters most: "seamless delivery," "state-of-the-art technology" and "model of care." The hospital is poised, they say, to transform how care is delivered by providing the full scope of cancer treatment under one roof.

"There's the feeling that when you walk through the door here, this is your space," Fred Rothstein, president of UH Case Medical Center, told a group touring the cancer hospital in early April. Added Dr. Julian Kim, a surgical oncologist and Seidman's chief medical officer, "Patients will have the ability to see multiple specialists, not only on the same day, but in the same room." Click here to read more.

 

 

 

To address global warming, not to mention the rising price of oil, Americans someday may have to give up their gas-guzzling SUVs and energy-gobbling suburban McMansions. But living in a more frugal future need not require donning scratchy red long-johns and subsisting on cold oatmeal. That’s the core message of the new SmartHome exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, a prototypical house of the future designed to stay comfortable year-round without a furnace, to shave tons of money from energy bills, and to look downright cozy and traditional. Designed by Doty & Miller Architects of Bedford, the SmartHome, which opens for tours at 1 p.m. Monday, shows that being an energy miser might actually be terrific. An opening ceremony starts at 10 a.m. Click here to read more.

 

 

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Kay Crawford battled the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in her final years to keep her husband's vehicle collection intact, but the wealthy widow appears to have made her peace with the museum before she died last year.

Cleveland Foundation officials will announce today that Crawford left more than $12 million in her estate to support the auto-aviation collection at the Western Reserve Historical Society -- with the stipulation that the Cleveland Foundation must administer the money.

 

Her gift, the largest ever received by the Western Reserve Historical Society, makes clear that Crawford never veered from plans to donate most of her estate to the museum, despite a very public tiff in 2009. "Underneath, she loved the museum," said Georgia Froelich, senior vice president of Hawthorn, an ultra-high net-worth financial services arm of PNC.Click here to read more.

 

 

 

Recent years have seen the Cleveland Orchestra reaching out to colleagues in dance, theater, and opera. Now the group is extending a hand across the street, into the realm of visual art. Yes, for the first time in the history of both institutions, the orchestra and the Cleveland Museum of Art are partnering on a large scale, presenting a series called "Italian Masterworks," in which musical performances will take place in the shadow of the museum's galleries. "That's been a dream, to have the orchestra in here playing great music," said Tom Welsh, associate director of music at the museum and co-organizer of the three-concert series beginning Sunday. "Music is always a great way into this museum."Click here to read more.

 

 

 

While other college students are cramming for finals, design students at the Cleveland Institute of Art are sweating over their annual Spring Design Show, where the object is not just getting an A but landing a job. Today is the final day of the four-day annual show, which is being held inside the curvy recesses of architect Frank Gehry’s Peter B. Lewis Building at Case Western Reserve University, home to the Weatherhead School of Management. Now about 20 years old, and in its third year at the Lewis Building, the show is an important annual rite in the city’s cultural scene. For students in industrial, interior or communication design, the Spring Show can be the first step to a paying internship or a job with a starting salary upward of $45,000. And for the art institute, it’s part of a concerted effort to put the city on the map as a center of design. Click here to read more.

 

 

A wave of I-hate-change swept over me as I first climbed the steps to the former Baricelli Inn. Guess my "old school" was showing. To the end, Baricelli remained a kind of bastion where fine ingredients and artful cooking converged, in a setting at once serene and lovely. Au revoir to all that . . .

 

Resentment happily gave way to admiration when I stepped into the lobby of its successor, Washington Place Bistro & Inn. New owner Scott Kuhn and the architects of the fully refurbished mansion, and especially its public rooms, have done a splendid job of bringing warm colors, a sense of light and -- whoa! -- a bar to the once austere structure. Bright, bold flavors with plenty of subtle touches have been introduced, in keeping with all this freshening.

 

Stroll back to the cheerfully sunny dining rooms and any vestiges of nostalgia evaporate. If this be "modern," bring it. Tablecloths remain, and so does efficient yet friendly, nearly instinctive service. Don't hesitate to bring well-traveled out-of-towners when they're in town. Click here to read more.

 

By Brian Albrecht

 

As a child growing up in Cleveland Heights and Beachwood in the 1970s, David Louis Norr remembers being paid a nickel by his grandparents to stay quiet on regular trips from the East Side suburbs to museums in University Circle. Now, as a veteran curator of contemporary art who originally trained to be a sculptor, Norr is returning to his hometown to become the new chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. "I'm so happy about it, I'm honored," Norr said Friday, speaking from Tampa, Fla., where he has worked for the past six years as chief curator for the Institute for Research in Art/Contemporary Art Museum at the University of South Florida, Tampa. Norr said he's thrilled about the construction of the new, $26.7 million MOCA building in University Circle, which will anchor the Uptown housing, retail and entertainment district. Click here to read more.

 

 

 

 

Art museums can't predict the future. They plan big exhibitions months in advance, without a clue as to how future events might color the art on view. The accidental intersection of art and news is especially striking at the Cleveland Museum of Art, which on Sunday will open "The Lure of Painted Poetry," a large exhibition on Japanese and Korean painting, ceramics and calligraphy. With 100 works, roughly three-quarters of which are Japanese, the show comes a little over two weeks after a massive earthquake and tsunami killed thousands in Japan and led to a crisis at a nuclear power plant that has elevated radiation for miles around. Visitors to the museum will be able compare mental images of a monster wave devouring Japanese towns and cities to artistic visions of an entirely different Japan.Click here to read more.

 

 

 

A skeptic might say it would be impossible in cold, snowy Cleveland to build a house that can stay warm without a furnace. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History plans to demolish such doubts this summer, when it builds the city's first passive house designed to use high-tech windows and insulation plus the power of the sun to stay cozy in the worst weather Northeast Ohio can throw at it.Click here to read more.

 

 

 

There's an intriguing black-velvet painting on the wall at the Indian Flame Restaurant. A group of farmworkers has paused for a moment to look with pride and reverence at a beatific barnyard animal beaming in their midst. I'm told it's a sacred cow of India. Click here to read more.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

By Michelle Jarboe
Plain Dealer Reporter

A walking tour of the people, places and past of University Circle is part of a new campaign to attract money and visitors to the growing neighborhood. Click here to read more.

 
The School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University has received a federal grant for $552,908 to create a unique educational partnership between the school and the myriad educational, medical and cultural institutions in the University Circle area of Cleveland.

The grant, awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the primary source of federal funding for libraries and museums in the United States, will give 72 college undergraduates a hands-on introduction to the library profession, particularly in specialized areas with a shortage of qualified people (e.g., art, health sciences, music and other specialized academic areas).
 

Included in the partnership are the libraries and archives of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland Museum of Art, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland Botanical Garden, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland Institute of Music, Cleveland Orchestra, Siegal College of Judaic Studies and Case Western Reserve University’s nine affiliated libraries.
 

Greg Byerly, Ph.D., associate professor in Kent State’s School of Library and Information Science and director of the project, said it will have a national impact as the partners create a model recruitment plan for attracting undergraduate college students, particularly minorities, to the library profession.
 

“For several years, the directors of the libraries and archives in these cultural, educational and medical institutions have been concerned about the need to recruit qualified people with appropriate background to become librarians, especially in the specialized areas they represent,” Byerly said, “and especially as there will be a great need for librarians when the baby boom generation retires in large numbers over the next 10 to 20 years.”

Initial recruitment efforts will target juniors and seniors at five different Northeast Ohio colleges and universities, although additional institutions will be added later. Over the three years of the grant, four cohorts of undergraduate students will take two three-credit courses, one each sequentially over two semesters. The first course will introduce students to the profession, particularly academic and special libraries, and the second will include a 100-hour supervised internship in one of the 19 partner libraries.
 

The grant covers tuition costs for the courses, which will be provided online by Kent State’s School of Library and Information Science. Students will be able to transfer the six undergraduate credit hours from Kent State to their home institutions.The partnership with University Circle museums and other institutions also will help boost Kent State’s new museum studies specialization in the School of Library and Information Science.
 

“Museum studies is a growing field, and there is a need to cultivate expertise in this area,” Byerly said.
 

To help launch the museum studies program, the school this fall hired Kiersten F. Latham, who received her Ph.D. in library and information management from Emporia State University and has more than 20 years of experience working in museums in various capacities, as curator, collection manager, director, volunteer, program coordinator, archivist, historic interpreter, board member, exhibit designer and consultant. She will play an important role in the execution of the grant and in the ongoing partnership with the University Circle institutions.
 

Byerly has developed the initial course for the museum studies specialty and will be responsible for developing the two undergraduate courses for this grant project. Staff at the various University Circle libraries will assist Byerly and Latham in developing Kent State’s new museum studies program and some will serve as adjunct faculty.
 

“The combination of a museum studies curriculum within a library and information science school is relatively rare,” Byerly said, “and the wealth of world-class museums at our disposal will make this program that much more impressive and marketable.”

Only four American Library Association (ALA)-accredited programs nationwide have a degree or certificate in museum studies or related areas. Kent State’s School of Library and Information Science, in the College of Communication and Information, offers the only ALA-accredited Master of Library and Information Science (M.L.I.S.) degree program in Ohio.
 

Byerly, together with Carolyn Brodie, Ph.D., professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Kent State, has brought in more than $6.2 million in grants from the IMLS and other federal and regional sources since 1995.
 

“This important partnership demonstrates Kent State’s ongoing commitment to enhancing the educational and cultural life of Northeast Ohio,” Kent State President Lester A. Lefton said. “Our nationally renowned leadership in the library and information science profession, together with new programs that address specific needs, serves as an outstanding example of how Kent State puts ‘excellence in action.’”
 

In addition to the Master of Library and Information Science degree, Kent State’s School of Library and Information Science offers a Master of Science in Information Architecture and Knowledge Management and is part of the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in the College of Communication and Information. The school is recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of the nation’s top 20 graduate programs, and its youth librarianship program is ranked 13th. It is one of the largest library schools in the country, with nearly 700 students enrolled.

For more information about Kent State’s School of Library and Information Science, visit www.slis.kent.edu.