We are rolling out a new weekly feature, Belt Bets. Each Friday we will bring you a curated list of things to do in select Rust Belt cities, including exhibitions, concerts, talks, festivals, and other goings-on about town. We begin with our home base, Cleveland; watch this space over the next month as we add Belt Bets for Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Detroit. 

Friday July 10: hear the Cleveland Orchestra play Strauss and Beethoven as part of their new  Summers@Severance series. Kids under 18 can attend free.

Saturday July 11: view home-grown Rust Belt art at MOCA’s Remain Human exhibition.

Sunday July 12: buy tickets for A Streetcar Named Desire in the auditorium of the gorgeous Cleveland Masonic Performing Arts Center, made possible by all-woman theater collective Mamai.

Monday July 13: walk through the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, created in 1966 as part of a grassroots effort to prevent the construction of a freeway.

Tuesday July 14: browse books at Guide To Kulchur, Cleveland’s newest hub for independent books and community organizing, in Gordon Square.

Wednesday July 15: eat fresh produce grown by high schoolers working in the Cleveland Botanical Garden’s Green Corps at the Fairfax Farm stand, open from 2-5:30.

Thursday July 16: listen to Betty Sutton discuss The Great Lakes Seaway System: Connecting North America’s ‘Opportunity Belt’ To The World at the City Club of Cleveland.

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