News - spanglemagazine.com

The Civic Innovation Lab has awarded a $30,000 grant to SpangleMagazine.com to assist in its efforts to connect and engage Northeast Ohio’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities with the region’s arts, culture and entertainment institutions.

Spangle is the only Greater Cleveland media source dedicated to arts and culture for the LGBT communities. With its unique and fresh voice, Spangle provides a connection between LGBT people and the region's theater, music, dance, art, dining, retail and other entertainment nonprofits and businesses.

This connection (through features, columns, reviews, photo galleries, an events calendar and a business guide) offers an important, untapped audience to these local organizations. The more than 71,000 LGBT people in Northeast Ohio have an individual yearly buying power of more than $45,000, representing some $2.8 billion in collective buying power. 

The Lab was impressed by these numbers; champion Brian Thornton, who is the site’s editor and founder; and the effort to find new patronage for local arts.

“Our vision for Spangle has always been that the LGBT community has interests far beyond what we stereotypically think of as LGBT culture,” Thornton says. “That’s why we actively seek out opportunities to bring this audience to nontraditional venues that have wanted to engage LGBT people but haven’t had an outlet.”

Readers are responding; since its launch more than 75,000 people have visited SpangleMagazine.com, and numerous institutions have partnered with the site to reach the vital and vibrant LGBT audience.

Lucinda Einhouse, president and chief executive officer of the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, will be the project’s mentor.