Passport to Cleveland
08 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Independent Projects, Passport to Cleveland Tags: Cleveland, historical society, history, Museums, Passport to Cleveland, tourism
Passport Cleveland
Passport to Cleveland was my final project as a graduate student for my Museology class. I developed a free “passport” program that encouraged the public to visit museums in the Northeast Ohio are. The museum goers would fill a passport booklet with stamps that they could only get from certain museums that agreed to be listed as participating museums. When the individual or family filled the entire book with stamps they would mail it to a P.O. Box I had opened specifically for this project and in return they would be sent back an official Passport to Cleveland button. In addition to collection the stamps visitors would be asked to describe their visit and what they enjoyed or didn’t enjoy about the museum. The information then would be collected and provided to the specific museum.
The concept of Passport to Cleveland was intended to be two-fold. First, the “passport” was intended to get visitors in the door of lesser known museums in a fun and engaging way. Second, the survey part of Passport to Cleveland would provide museums with valuable feedback they may not otherwise be able to collect themselves.
Read the article written about Passport to Cleveland by Lance Koehnen of Cleveland Stay-at-Home Dads Examiner
See the press release here (doc file)
See the Passport to Cleveland website here (pdf file-the website it no longer up)
Worden’s Ledges: A Gallery in Nature
07 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Adventures, Nature Hikes Tags: adventure, Cleveland, Cleveland Metroparks, Hidden Treasures, hikes, Hinkley Reservation, local trips, Medina County, nature, Noble Stuart, sculptures, tourist spots, Whips Ledges, Worden Ledges
Worden’s Ledges, located in the Hinckley Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks, is definitely a sight to behold. Tucked away behind a secure curtain of trees and tall grass you will find a landscape that looks as if it were a page torn out of a fairytale. As you traverse through the trails behind the Hinckley Historical Society’s Worden Heritage Homestead sculptures magically appear out of the rock ledges to greet you. According to the Art Inventories Catalog of the Smithsonian American Art Museum the sculptures were created by Noble Stuart, the son-in law of Hiram Worden the owner of the homestead. Stuart started carving into the rock in 1944 and in 1946 he and his wife, Nettie Worden, inherited the property. It was initially believed that the creator of the sculptures was Hiram’s son Frank who was a stone sculptor and monument maker by trade; a logical assumption.By 1984 the Cleveland Metroparks had purchased the Worden Homestead and Worden Ledges. The Hinkley Historical Society has been occupying the Worden Heritage Homestead since 1988. Call for tours and research at 330.278.3159.
Photograph by Katie Epps
Part of the fun in visiting Worden’s Ledges is trying to see how many sculptures you can find. According to a 1979 inventory report conducted by the Ohio Historic Preservation Office there is purportedly11 sculptures; which are listed here: The Crucifixion, an Erie Indian, and Romulus and Remus suckled by the Wolf of Rome, a sphinx with an inviting grin, George Washington, Marquis de Lafayette, Ty Cobb, H. M. Worden, a schooner, a cross and an open Bible. Arguably these are not the best sculptures ever to be etched into stone, but the pure mystical ambiance of this natural gallery make the trek through the muddy trails worth the experience.
