Friday,
February 01, 2008
The
ANNOTICO Report
Aside
from Severance Concert Hall, the one nice thing I remember about
It
was crowned by a group of
With
the decline of the
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Roxanne Washington
Thursday, January 31, 2008
The
This is just the beginning. It won
"It
Mariani is executive director of the Italian
Cultural Garden Foundation, and the driving force behind the $250,000
ongoing garden overhaul. Mariani is an opera singer who has performed at
Severance Hall and throughout Europe, and still maintains a home in
While Italians and other Europeans appreciate
public gardens, Mariani says, it saddened her to see how Americans zoom right
by, too busy to stop and notice. She thought it a shame that the
"In
Mariani took it upon herself to organize an
effort to give the garden a much-needed face-lift. In the beginning, her
tactics were rather bold.
"I read about people in the newspaper,
and if they were Italian, I called them and told them what I was trying to
do," she says. "A lot of people didn
Her enthusiasm was contagious, and since then
others have joined the efforts of the Foundation. Grants and private donations
raised about $180,000. Last year, the Cleveland Italian Film Festival raised
$64,000.
Mariani has an information booth at this year
The garden is designed on two levels. The upper level begins with a walkway leading to
the large Renaissance fountain that stands in front of a balustrade, from which
two winding stone staircases lead down to the lower level.
On the lower level, a tall wall fountain
graces a courtyard with circular seating. On either side of the fountain are
the faces of famous Italians Giotti, Michelangelo, Petrarca, Verdi and Da Vinci.
Hardscaping repairs include sprucing up sandstone pavement and
replacing the bust of Virgil, the Italian poet, which was donated by the
Italian government at the opening of the garden.
A new "outdoor museum" of small granite
columns with plaques naming famous Italian Nobel Prize winners, famous cultural
figures in the arts such as Luciano Pavarotti and
Federico Fellini, and other names in literature, science and education.
The garden was formally opened on Oct. 12,
1930, with the joint celebration
of Columbus Day and the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Virgil.
In 1930, the Italian government sent the bust
of Virgil and in 1932 sent a large block of stone from Monte Grappa in northern
The latest completed restoration project was
a $60,000 installation of the lampposts in November. Next comes the
landscaping. Bulbs were donated from as far away as
Mariani is working hard to raise the money,
but she left the planting of the bulbs to volunteers.
"I
Hunter Morrison, director of the Center for
Urban and Regional Studies at
Having worked with the Landmarks Commission,
Morrison knows the gardens well. In fact, he helped bring the Chinese and
"This could be a precursor for other
groups making an investment in the cultural gardens," he says. "It
could prompt a lot of enthusiasm."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
rwashington@plaind.com,
216-999-4427
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