What's a good Cleveland based activity to give as a gift?
December 10, 2013 8:59 AM   Subscribe

What non-obvious membership or tickets should I get my cousin who lives in Cleveland?

I've got my cousin for Secret Santa this year and she and her husband recently moved to Cleveland. I'd like to get her something non-tangible like a museum membership or tickets to an event (my entire family is trying to declutter). She and her husband are set on the basic stuff like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. What other neat museums/cultural option should I be considering?

For background on my cousin, she'd be more interested in things in a philharmonic/zoo oeuvre than a museum about cars or anything. Tickets to a really cool exhibition would be awesome. This should be in the approximately $100 range but feel free to throw your ideas out there and I will be happy to consider them whatever they are -- bonus points if it's something her husband (who grew up in Cleveland) hasn't heard of but thinks sounds cool. Thanks!
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl to Grab Bag (11 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Looks like they could catch the tail end of the Cleveland Food Bazaar (from projects.metafilter).
posted by oceanjesse at 9:04 AM on December 10, 2013


Do they have a membership to the Cleveland Museum of Art yet? Basic admission is free, but special exhibits are not. Regular membership is well below your threshold (though Partner, for $75, would cover them both) but for $125, you could go for an Ambassador membership for her-- it includes reciprocal admission to many other Ohio museums. There's JUST enough time to catch the once-in-a-lifetime Sicily exhibit, which closes on January 5th, and it's doubtful the Mozia charioteer will be traveling outside Sicily any time soon.
posted by jetlagaddict at 9:18 AM on December 10, 2013


Best answer: A Blossom Lawn Ticket book for the 2014 Blossom Music Festival is available right now for $135 (summer home of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra).
posted by Empidonax at 9:24 AM on December 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


The Cleveland Museum of Art is fantastic, as is the Museum of Natural History (it was one of my absolute favorites growing up and I love going back as an adult, assuming they like natural history museum-type things).
posted by rainbowbrite at 9:37 AM on December 10, 2013


Best answer: The Orchestra has gift certificates.
posted by kickingtheground at 9:51 AM on December 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Thirding the suggestions for a gift certificate or package to hear the Cleveland Orchestra. Blossom and Severance Hall (their winter home, walking distance from the art museum) are both really nice venues. I grew up in Cleveland and attended plenty of concerts both places (as my brother sang in their children's chorus), and it still feels like a special occasion to attend a performance.

The Cleveland Museum of Art is also a wonderful place to be encouraged to drop in regularly (especially now that almost all of their amazing new gallery spaces have opened). Just a short distance down the road from there is Cleveland's newest art museum, MOCA Cleveland. If you think your cousin and her husband would be up for engaging with contemporary art, a general membership there actually does replace an $8 admission fee and includes invitations to openings (among other things). It runs $80 for a household.
posted by Austenite at 10:36 AM on December 10, 2013


Apollo's Fire - wonderful Cleveland based baroque music chamber orchestra.
posted by leslies at 12:03 PM on December 10, 2013


The zoo has memberships but I would recommend the Botanical Garden. The big annual orchid exhibit will be coming up soon and believe me, it is so nice to go see that in the middle of a Cleveland winter!

(Oh and thanks for the shout out, oceanjesse, but the first Cleveland Food Bazaar events aren't happening til next year...) :)
posted by bitter-girl.com at 6:47 PM on December 10, 2013


Oh! And this one is cool as heck and I guarantee even her native husband probably has never been there... The Dittrick Medical Museum at Case comes with some cool premiums AND they have a Sherlock/steampunk exhibit coming up. Link.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 6:50 PM on December 10, 2013


The Cleveland Aquarium is new enough that if they've recently moved back to the city, they've almost certainly not been. My family and I are (sadly) no longer in Cleveland, but we loved the aquarium when we were there. It's not huge, but it's a nice place to spend a couple hours, and we found ourselves there regularly.

I also really love the zoo, which I know isn't news to anyone, but is still worth mentioning.. The rainforest at the zoo means that it's really a year-round destination--you can wander around for an hour and get cold, and then go into the warmth of the rain forest and admire all the monkeys.

It's midseason already, but the Broadway in CLE series is generally fantastic. I don't know how much tickets to this season are, or if you're able to purchase for just, say, the back half of the season, but if you can swing it, everyone I know who has signed on for season tickets has nothing but positive things to say about it. Really, two mid-range seats to any two upcoming shows would probably be a great gift, and also be within your budget. (Playhouse Square continues to shock and delight me with their remarkably cheap tickets to...uh, everything, basically. Seriously, it's fantastic.)

If they're drinkers, a tour on the Cleveland Brew Bus might be appealing. I dunno if that counts as culture or not, but it's something that I keep considering as a gift for people, so figured I'd toss it out there.
posted by MeghanC at 10:49 PM on December 10, 2013


Response by poster: Thanks guys -- orchestra sounds perfect!
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 5:10 AM on December 16, 2013


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