I was so glad to attend the Flights of Fancy - An Ingenuity Bal on May 4, 2024, at the IngenuityLabs (5401 Hamilton Avenue, Cleveland) for two reasons. First, is that I attend IngenuityFest practically every year, and write about my great experiences enjoying the event in my Ingenuity Cleveland blog posts. Thus, I wanted to attend the Ingenuity Bal fundraiser to support IngenuityFest 2024 and the year-round programing of Ingenuity Cleveland. The second reason is that I have great memories of attending this fundraiser for Ingenuity Cleveland many years ago, and I knew it would be a blast (See my blog posts: Bal Ingénieux, Ingenuity Cleveland and Bal Ingénieux 2014.)
When I arrived at 8:00 pm, I was greeted outside the IngenuityLabs building by jugglers and other street performers from the 9th Avenue Street Circus. I recognized two of the jugglers from a blog post I had just recently written with video of their juggling at the House Three Thirty first anniversary celebration on "330 Day" (March 30, 2024). I introduced myself to one of the jugglers before going inside, and let him know about their video in my blog post. Later in the evening, I had a long conversation with the second juggler. It was great to see their performance again. (See their performance in the entertainment video below and in my Celebrating House Three Thirty's One-Year Anniversary on "330 Day!” blog post.)
As I entered the building, I was fortunate to be able to talk briefly to Ingenuity Cleveland Executive Artistic Director Emily Appelbaum, and thank her for her good work. She had made it a point to approach me and give me an invitation to the Ingenuity Bal at the April 26, 2024, Greater Cleveland Partnership/COSE and Assembly for the Arts "Art at Work "networking event. I greatly appreciated her making sure that I knew about the event. I am glad I was able to attend (historically I am out of town this time of the year backpacking). At the end of the evening, I made a point to get a photo of Emily Appelbaum and me for this blog post, but unfortunately the photo was too dark and blurry to use here due to the atmospheric lighting. I decided to use her photo from the Ingenuity Cleveland Team Members web page, since it also shows you her extensive experience. We are fortunate to have Emily Appelbaum's expert leadership in Cleveland, organizing our community's creative people.
I am glad I arrived in time to hear the following big announcement, which I immediately shared on social media:
Exciting announcement for Ingenuity Cleveland’s future: They just signed a 10-year lease on the IngenuityLabs space. They will be expanding the size of the space this year.
Ingenuity Cleveland started in 2004, so it is great that they were able to make this announcement of expansion on this, their 20th anniversary!! It was also announced that IngenuityFest 2024: Era of Ascent will take place on September 27-29, 2024. Be sure to mark your calendar and watch for more details.
Cleveland Ghostbusters - Fashion Rock Project - aerialists - costumes - belly dancers - acrobats - circus fun - jugglers - crafts - dancing - and so much more! Here are my photos/videos from the evening. I hope they give you a sense of the excitement which is Cleveland's Ingenuity!
I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
FASHION:
I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
ENTERTAINMENT & DANCING:
I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
In addition to people I talked to earlier during the event, it was very nice that some of the people who were on the dance floor as the evening ended made a point of approaching me to introduce themselves. Everyone was so friendly, and there to have a good time! I also met some people who were college students at the time I was a website director at the college they attended. I then ended the evening talking to a couple whose dancing had impressed me, and learned that they were part of the fashion show. Several of the people said they would look for this blog post.
I ended my evening by sharing on social media:
1:18 am — the music and #dancing in #Cleveland has sadly ended!
Thank you to the Ingenuity Cleveland leadership and volunteers for a great night at “Flights of Fancy” - An Ingenuity Bal 2024! I had a great time and met some really fun people!!
What Others Say
I like to include what others write about the events I attend. It is always great to see Emanuel Wallace at events (last month we were both at two art exhibition openings at The Cleveland Museum of Art). He does a great job of capturing the atmosphere of so many of Cleveland's great events. I took the photo above of Emanuel Wallace at work using his camera to share with others the joy of the evening. Here is his article:
Photos: Ingenuity Cleveland Held their Flights of Fancy Fundraiser to Begin its Era of Ascent
Sunday, May 5, 2024, 5:10 pm. By Emanuel Wallace - Cleveland Scene
Also, here is an embedded video by Bassel & The Supernaturals that was shared by Ingenuity Cleveland on Facebook:
As I was writing this blog post, I found the following online photo gallery from the evening:
Ingenuity Bal: Flights of Fancy - 5/4/24 (Cleveland, OH)
May 5, 2024, by giltwist on the imgur website.
Related Blog Posts
I always like to include in my blog posts a list of related posts that may be of interest to the readers of this blog post.
Blog Date: May 20, 2014 - Bal Ingénieux 2014
Blog Date: May 5, 2013 - Bal Ingénieux, Ingenuity Cleveland
See my 17+ blog posts tagged "Ingenuity Cleveland" by clicking here. I having been writing about Ingenuity events since 2012.
I want to also invite you to see more of the jugglers from the 9th Avenue Street Circus in the following blog post:
Blog Date: April 4, 2024 - Celebrating House Three Thirty's One-Year Anniversary on "330 Day!”
See the video in the "Family Room Entertainment" section of the blog post.
I always enjoy Ingenuity Cleveland events, and write these blog posts to encourage others to attend their events