Day One The Cleveland Symposium will be led by the graduate students of the Department of Art History and Art of Case Western Reserve University Joint Program with the Cleveland Museum of Art. Reflecting the themes and ideas of FRONT, the first day serves as the 48th edition of The Cleveland Symposium, entitled Recentering the Periphery: An Inclusive Future of Art History. CWRU has invited graduate students from universities across the country to submit papers on reevaluating and redefining the scope of art history, incorporating lost or previously silenced narratives and voices to build a more equitable future for the discipline. Presented by Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Musuem of Art with support from the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, Nancy and Joseph Keithley, and Friends of Art.
Day Two of The Art Futures Forum, led by FRONT International in collaboration with Assembly for the Arts, will focus on how museum institutions can better share stories of creative expression and consider new models to serve and empower communities.
10:30am–12:00pm
The day will start with a panel discussion with the leaders of major arts institutions in Northeast Ohio moderated by Jennifer Coleman, Program Director, Creative Culture and Art for the George Gund Foundation. After several years of turbulence and reflection in the museum community, this will be an opportunity for leaders to speak about positive changes in the museum world and what lies ahead.
Featuring Fred Bidwell, Executive Director of FRONT International, Jon Fiume, Executive Director, The Akron Art Museum, William Griswold, Executive Director, Cleveland Museum of Art, Kathryn Heidemann, President and CEO, Cleveland Institute of Art, Megan Lykins Reich, Executive Director, moCa Cleveland.
1:15–2:45pm
Following a networking lunch, participants will engage in conversations with leaders of some of Cleveland’s most successful and emerging community-based arts organizations on a variety of topics that relate to their missions to increase equity and representation in our arts ecosystem.
FRONT’s exhibition theme relates to exploring art’s role as an agent of transformation, a mode of healing, and a therapeutic process. Given the time of reckoning our country, our city, and our museums are having around white supremacy and race, how can we heal from the past by reimagining our future? Community Conversations aim to create space for neighborhood-focused community leaders in the arts to introduce their initiatives and discuss how institutions and individuals with access can leverage their power in support of programs in underserved communities as part of their equity efforts. Choose from one of the following conversations to participate in:
Curating the Culture: Black Art when Empowered
David Ramsey, founder and lead curator of Deep Roots Experience, a full time art gallery working exclusively with Black, Latin X, and Indigenous creatives. David will discuss the mission of Deep Roots to “Curating the Culture” in Cleveland’s historic Fairfax neighborhood. David will discuss upcoming exhibition Dopeboy Chic, the Inspire Your City campaign, and art project management experience as examples of self empowerment for the creative, generating new paths of institutional support and confidence in the creative.
How might art help overcome trauma?
Community organizer Walter Patton, uses film, music, art, and poetry to help youth overcome trauma in Cleveland's Central neighborhood. Walter will talk about the history of this high poverty community, its connections to Langston Hughes, and how his programs, Create Art Not Violence and Ghetto Therapy create spaces of joy, healing and expression.
How might we reimagine what a community museum looks like?
Artist Antwoine Washington shares insights on how curating exhibitions feeds into his activism and artistic practice. Following his experience curating a series of art exhibitions focused on Black, Cleveland-based artists at moCa Cleveland, artist Antwoine Washington has been interested in exploring the subject of racial segregation, activating diverse neighborhoods with a pop-up museum that brings art and eduation to residents in nontraditional ways. How might art and education have a positive impact on communities?
Ismail Samad co-founded LOITER East Cleveland as a strategic effort to build a future for East Clevelanders. It is weaving a tight community network centered on people's voices and experiences. By supporting East Cleveland entrepreneurs, residents, and change-makers with wraparound business development to the habitually excluded, it will ignite industry in culture, recreation, agritourism, and business incubation. Join Loiter co-founder Ismail Samad for a conversation on empowering local residents, attracting investors from outside the community and rebuilding local morale and expectations in the wake of exclusionary economic practices and harsh negative narratives that plague the City of East Cleveland.
Thank you to our funders:
This program was made possible with generous support by The George Gund Foundation and The Terra Foundation for American Art.
 
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