Italian American Museum of Cleveland

The other day I was searching for something new to do in the Cleveland area when I came across the Italian American Museum. I couldn’t remember hearing about it before, as I later found out, it was established in 2021.

I love anything that relates to cultures in the Cleveland area, let that be art, music, food or history. It is one of the cities where there is a huge cultural diversity, but individual communities don’t necessarily advertise their own services. You really have to know places to find the good stuff. Learning about Italian Americans sparked my interest, because I haven’t really heard about the story of this community. I knew that there was a Little Italy in town, but so do many other cities, and given my background I knew much more about Eastern European immigration.

I was determined, this was the place to go. But instead of just stopping by, I wrote to the museum if anybody would be able to give me a touch tour, and explain anything that would be visual. To my great surprise, though this is what small museums usually do, in a few minutes I got a response from Pamela Dorazio Dean, who kindly offered to show me the museum. Due to circumstances, it was because of me why this visit got delayed a few weeks, but given the weather we had here in January, it was probably for the better.

The background to the museum is that there was an Italian museum nearby before, which closed in 2007. All the materials were transferred to the Western Reserve Historical Society, where Pamela was working maintaining the Italian collection. When this museum opened in 2021, she set it up and she operates it with the help of volunteers.

So, there is a lady who is in love with what she is doing, she knows everything about it, and by the way of Italian origin. And you can tell, from the first moment that she is enthusiastic about her work. And this is the beauty of small museums that I always sense when I go to one.

While the museum has some materials about Italian American immigration in general, the subject of the collection is the history of Italian Americans in Northeast Ohio.

The museum is rather small, the entire thing is one room. Though there are tangible artifacts, for the most parts it is photos, descriptions, and most objects are behind glass. Though I could have walked in, could have read some things with my phone, I don’t think it would be a great experience for me alone.

Pamela took out many of the objects from behind the glass, explained the pictures, and read the accompanying text. What otherwise is a mostly visual exhibit, she totally turned it into an interesting overview where I didn’t feel for a second that I’m missing out on anything.

She showed me original instruments, embroideries, stone carving tools, pasta makers and old bottles, to mention a few things.

We talked about how Italian families were Americanized, their language usage, involvement in sports and politics. Mostly inspired by the photography along the walls of the room.

But there is much more to this museum than what you can see in the room. Pamela organizes classes about regions of Italy coupled with food and wine tasting, and during the summer she leads neighborhood walking tours that I definitely would like to attend.

At the end Pamela even took a few pictures for me for this post so I don’t have to. You know, the ones I take where there is more of my shoes and ceilings than anything else…

I believe I found a new gem in Cleveland. Thank you so much Pamela for the excellent tour. Not only for what I have learned, but for making it truly accessible for me.