Summer Arts Fest: Dance with Giants

Kick off your summer at Summer Arts Fest: Dance with Giants, an interactive arts festival on Wade Oval. University Circle Inc. (UCI), partnering with The Cleveland Museum of Art, will create a unique festival experience featuring larger-than-life art sculptures, roaming costumed performers, live music, and lots of ways for the community to participate in the fun!

University Circle Inc. will host tents with free activities for the whole family, musical groups on the Kulas Community Stage, food vendors, and a beer garden.

Jump to:
Bands Activity Partners Art Installations Roaming Performers Food Vendors

KULAS COMMUNITY STAGE:

11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. - Sugar Pie and Friends
1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. - The Baker's Basement
3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. - Jul Big Green

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ACTIVITY PARTNERS:

Centers for Dialysis Care/Cleveland MOTTEP

Mask in Fantasy: Color and decorate your own half-mask of a superhero or a mythical character. Cleveland Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP): Want to know why it is important to be an organ, eye, and tissue donor?

Children's Hunger Alliance
Participants join Children's Hunger Alliance (CHA) Staff and Nutritionist in learning about correctly portioning a healthy trail mix snack in this "Build-your-own Trail Mix Station" which focuses on Nutrition Education. CHA Coloring Page offers a take-a-way featuring MyPlate.gov dietary guidelines for healthy foods and friendly food images to color! It also lists sites in Cleveland where children under 18 can receive a free meal this summer. About Children's Hunger Alliance (CHA): Based in Ohio and founded in 1970, we are a statewide organization with a mission to ensure that children without access receive healthy food, nutrition education, and physical activity.

Church of the Covenant
Stop by for an interactive activity focused on finding peace in our world. Visitors can help design posters that will be on display following the event at the Church of the Covenant.

City of Cleveland
- Cleveland Public Power
Light Switch Painting: Allow your creative spirit to illuminate your room with your personalized, handpainted light switch plate.

- Cleveland Water
Trivia Time: Answer water trivia and win a prize!

- Water Pollution Control
Plinko Fun: Keep water clean and play games along the way.

Cleveland Botanical Garden
Stop by to make necklaces while visiting the tent! We have over 1000 round slices of wood with holes drilled through them like pendants. There will also be stencils that can be used to color botanical shapes onto the pendants before threading them onto a string to make the necklace.

Cleveland History Center
Wish Bags: Help ensure your hopes for the summer come true with the Cleveland History Center! Decorate a wish bag and fill it with your summer wishes, and wear it during Summer Arts Fest in hopes that they will come true. Plus, learn about upcoming museum events, get a temporary tattoo celebrating our newest motorcycle exhibit, and peruse museum merchandise.

Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Dunk N' Dinos: Join the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to celebrate our favorite larger-than-life Museum ambassadors: the prehistoric fish Dunkleosteus, our Ohio-native wildlife, and the always popular Kirtland Hall dinosaurs. Make a dinosaur mask to wear around the festival, color some unique pages honoring our wildlife ambassadors, and take home a Dunkleosteus hat activity to make your own Devonian armor! Plus, learn about new Museum initiatives and programs, upcoming events and camps, and the major transformation project that’s reinventing our Museum experience. We can’t wait to see you!

Cleveland Public Library
Make and take children's craft activities. Summer Lit League sign up. Free giveaways. Balloon Twisting, Giant Connect 4, and more.

Tri-C JazzFest
JazzFest wooden magnet cutouts for kids to color and take home to put on the fridge.

Global Wellness Day
Jump rope demonstrations & activities: The Jammin’ Jumpers Jump Rope Ohio Competitive Team will be doing fun jump roping demonstrations and having a make your own jump rope activity where you will be measured for the correct length and then you get to decorate with beads and colorful handles. ($10 per rope to help support the team). Healthy Jumping activity will also be offered to build a healthy community with a simple jump rope challenge. Can you jump for 30 seconds? Come find out! Hosted by Life Obstacles 1490 Radio show. Hula Hooping as a great form of exercise will also be demonstrated and taught. Tammy Gutierrez, MD, will answer your health questions and also talk about healthy eating, exercise, and online programs that will teach you what you need to know to live your best, healthiest life. Sign up for our newsletter AND email handouts GET A FREE smart supplementation review and a FREE supplement case.

Mastery School of Hawken
Our activity is guaranteed to push all the right buttons. Express your creativity and join us for button-making with the Mastery School of Hawken!

RTA
RTA Transit Police will be providing safety tips and offering FREE child ID cards and fingerprinting through the Operation KidWatch program.

Spectrum News 1
Color weather-themed activity pages and get a pack of colored pencils to take home.

The Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra Instrument Discovery Zone provides a hands-on experience for kids and families to try playing the instruments of the orchestra!

The Finch Group
Visit The Finch Group in University Circle Inc.'s Community Education tent and get a colorful temporary tattoo!

The Literacy Cooperative and Imagination Library
Creative Art, Literacy Inspired Activities – Make flowers or paper airplanes by upcycling damaged book pages; Make & Take a Name Poster or bookmark while supplies last. Free books for young children while supplies last and for families with children under age 5, sign up for free monthly books mailed to your home from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

University Circle Inc.'s Community Education Team
Greetings from Wade Oval. Use fun stickers and colorful Washi tape to create a postcard memento of Summer Arts Fest to send to yourself at home OR Create a postcard to share your experience today with a friend or relative.

University Circle United Methodist Church
A design project starting with a blank postcard and a variety of mediums to convey a message to someone special.

University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's and Center for Arts-Inspired Learning
UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital and the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning are teaming up to create wearable origami art under the direction of artist, James Peake. Join us for a fun make-and-take craft that will allow you to express your creativity and proudly display it as you enjoy the arts fest.

Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art
We will be making decorative belts from paper, ribbons, and stickers.

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ARTIST INSTALLATIONS:

Kaye Vander / Tree of Kalevala
Activate a hug from the branches above by standing on the platform; the Tree of Kalevala extends its arms out to those who bring themselves forth.

Anthony Andreoli / Colossal Mushroom and Flower
Feel small standing next to a gigantic mushroom and listen to the chimes from the orchid’s pods.

Claudio Orso-Giacone / Sled Press Rolling Rhino
Roll our giant rhino onto a print plate to make your own festival poster.

Scott Pickering / Sproinky
Whimsical winged character of upcycled materials wiggle in the breeze.

Denajua / Weiner Doggie
Created with recycled fabrics that are quilted and patched together to give the viewer a colorful new look at a very happy doggie!

Susie Underwood / Reverie Oasis
Engage in creative play, meditation and relaxation under the magnolia oasis.

Community Arts Crew / Out of Water
Create your own suction cut to add to our Oversized Octopus or fill our coral reef with fish!

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ROAMING PERFORMING ARTISTS:

Ally Russell / Shadow of the Banyan Tree
Representing the overlooked and underappreciated line work the banyan tree exhibits.

Julia Pankhurst and Pick up Stix / Seasonal Giants
A colorful celebration of the seasons.

Friends / Dance of the Magical Mushrooms
Catch these fantastical fungi dancing to the Nutcracker Suite.

Alex Heard / Inflatable Friends
Bright, odd and playful plush friends invite laughter and smiles.

Juliette Antony / Living Statue
Find this slow-moving statue performer roaming Wade Oval for a fun selfie!

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FOOD VENDORS:

Good to Go!
Hippie Sips
Kernels by Chrissie
Rascal House Pizza
Sanders Concessions
The Cleveland Fish & Seafood Co.

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Parade the Circle will return to Wade Oval in 2023!

Plan your trip to Summer Arts Fest: Dance with Giants. Visit riderta.com or ugointhecircle.com for information on busing, rapid transit, and parking.

Bicycle Information Vehicle Parking Information

BY BIKE

Free bike valet on-site provided by Ohio City Bicycle Co-op!

From the Heights: Edgehill Rd. is the choice of most bike commuters; it's a wide, low-traffic road, though a bit bumpy. Careful on the sharp curve before the stop light at the bottom of the hill. Going home there is a wide bike lane for the slow climb.

The new Ambler Park trail is now complete: use caution at the bottom in the railroad underpass, where slippery mud can collect. Follow the signs closely getting across Cedar and Carnegie, which is done in crosswalks that are a bit confusing.

From Downtown: the Euclid Avenue bike lane is popular, but be aware of overtaking cars turning right, opening doors from adjacent parked cars, and a few very dangerous potholes heading home on the westbound side near 65th St. Taking E89th St through Hough to Wade Park, the quiet, "back way" to Wade Oval, will avoid the left turn onto East Blvd in front of the Art Museum from busy Euclid Ave.

The Lakefront Bikeway to the Harrison Dillard Trail (along MLK Blvd) is a bit longer, but mostly a separated path. Wade Park Ave from MLK is a shortcut that avoids the busy circle at 105th St: it's a wide, low-traffic street that is like a quiet, "back way" to Wade Oval.

From the north-east Lakefront Bikeway: The short climb from Lakeshore Blvd up Eddy Rd I-90 overpass is worth it for the long, quiet shortcut on Hazledell/E110th/Lakeview Rd to Wade Park Ave.

From the South: E 71st St is an arterial with moderate traffic volume, that begins at the Towpath Trail, to Slavic Village,and there to E 78thSt to E 79th St., a minor arterial that will lead to Wade Park Ave, the quiet, "back way" to Wade Oval.

Ohio City Bicycle Co-op volunteers will be happy to advise about alternate routes for the ride home!

The Ohio City Bicycle Co-op will provide free, guarded, valet bike parking at Summer Arts Fest from 8:30am to 5pm Their bike corral will be located at East Blvd and Wade Oval Dr., directly in front of the Cleveland Institute of Art. They can also provide safety checks, quick bike repairs, and bike advice and lore.

BY VEHICLE

Cleveland Museum of Art (can prepay to reserve online), Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Cleveland Botanical Garden parking garages are the nearest paid parking options available.

Metered parking will not be available around Wade Oval Park on Wade Oval Drive from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to East Blvd.

The Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center Employee Parking Garage will be open for free parking. Thank you to the VA team for offering this alternative option.

Free VA Employee Parking Garage
1606 E 105th St, Cleveland, OH 44106
Walking distance from the garage to Wade Oval is 0.3 miles.