Arts nonprofit Assembly for the Arts and the Cleveland Leadership Center, which trains civic leaders, have joined together on a project to increase equity in arts and cultural in northeast Ohio, naming their first group of 26 Arts Leadership Residencies, which will run from September 2022 through February 2023 and give participants, many of whom are already known as leaders in the arts community, more tools to increase equity in that community.
“Participants will have access to entrepreneurial expertise, mentorship from the CLC alumni network, and expertise of the other artists and small creative businesses participating in the program,” they say.
The participants include 70% who identify as Black or African American, 68% are women, 12% are nonbinary, and 16% have a disability. The list includes painters, sculptors, photographers, fashion designers, musicians, gallerists, curators, educators and arts organization leaders, among them such prominent names as Amanda D. King, founder of Shooting Without Bullets; entrepreneur/fashion designer Valerie Mayen of Yellowcake Design; guitarist/singer/songwriter Diana Chittester; Robin Robinson of Sankofa Fine Arts Plus and Talise Campbell of Djapo Cultural Arts Institute.
To learn more about the initiative and cohort go here.