In the wake of the FRONT and CAN triennials, can a grassroots group of volunteers using an inclusive, democratic process develop a major new art event for Cleveland?

Does Cleveland need yet another arts festival?

That question was on the table this past February when Northeast Ohio artists Liz Maugans and Dave King called an informal meeting of creators and interested members of the area arts community at Negative Space Gallery in AsiaTown.

The impetus for Maugans and King was that the Cleveland-based FRONT International Triennial had announced it was cancelling its planned 2025 event and shutting down operations, followed by a similar announcement from the regionally focused CAN Triennial. In addition, the long-running biennial People’s Art Show, the non-juried event hosted at the Galleries of Cleveland State University (CSU), was forced on hiatus by the loss of its gallery space.

“I was scrolling on Facebook and [Liz] said something about how we need something to replace the CAN Triennial and FRONT Triennial,” said King. “I said that sounds great, let’s keep the momentum going. From there it was like game on.”

“I called him right away,” said Maugans. “I said, let’s get together and see where this can lead.”

That first meeting attracted about four dozen people to share their feelings about the plusses and minuses of arts-related events in Northeast Ohio and throw out ideas for what a new festival might look like. Suggestions ranged from a single big event at an alternative venue (such as the vacant Dave’s Supermarket in AsiaTown) to a series of events in different neighborhoods, to setting up in a parking lot like a tailgating event, and selling art out from the trunks of cars. Others recalled the SPARX in the City events with multiple locations on a single day, while others cast a wistful eye on huge-scale, massively funded events such as Otherworld in Columbus. Some even suggested multiple cities.

Participants quickly realized that a lot of the suggestions thrown out were not only duplicative of existing events, but that many were attempts to reinvent the Ingenuity festival, with its multi-disciplinary, participatory model that incorporated education, entrepreneurialism, and creators of all skill levels and interests. It was a little hard to discern from that first meeting what direction this discussion might go or even if there was agreement that Northeast Ohio needed a new event. While most suggestions proposed a multi-disciplinary event, the majority in attendance were visual artists. That was also true at subsequent meetings, which were held once a month throughout 2024 at different arts-related locations.

During those meetings it seemed like a business and organizational plan was emerging before any clear idea of what the event or events might look like had coalesced, with talk of safe spaces and fiscal receivership and “questing circles.”

As King put it at one meeting, “we are building this plane as we are flying it.”

Among the top priorities was finding a venue. Maugans learned last spring that, with Greyhound’s plans to move out of its building at Playhouse Square, the space might be available for a temporary event. She and several others toured the space and became excited about its potential. Greyhound’s plans to move fell through, but Maugans continued to talk with Playhouse Square, and the possibility of some of the former CSU gallery space arose. Then the Greyhound space came back into the mix. That now appears to be the most promising spot for a signature Quest event.

“We don’t know whether Greyhound is going to leave or whether it will work for us and work for Playhouse Square,” says Maugans. “It’s not like there aren’t things that can be developed with Playhouse Square as a partner, maybe even an ongoing gallery. Everybody is in this temporal, gestating space.”

The first sign of a unifying concept came in August when photographer/Ingenuity ingeneer Jen Nickler brought up her first encounter with Lottery League, the event where a pool of area musicians draw names to form ad hoc bands which have two months to put together a short set. Why couldn’t we do that with artists, she suggested, bringing them together to co-create projects?

“We could give the artists two months to come up with a concept and create something, bring the pieces together and have an art show or an art festival,” said Nickler. “Obviously the festival wouldn’t have to be just those pieces of art, but they could be the central piece of what the festival is built on—the collaborative, co-created pieces of artwork and many other things.”
Following that meeting it became clear that, in addition to projects created by randomly assigned groups of artists, the tag of “co-create” could cover many of the ideas that had been floating around—bringing together different disciplines, neighborhoods, veteran and student artists. Meanwhile, Maugans was talking to Ingenuity’s Executive Artistic Director Emily Appelbaum about giving Quest a space at the September 2024 festival to share its work and solicit new participants.

With less than a month to design a space that would explain Quest for the Fest to Ingenuity visitors, a group of artists volunteered to put together an example of a co-created project. Those artists—including Maugans, Chris Young, Natalie Isvarin-Love, Georgio Sabino III, Chester Hopkins-Bey, J.R. Campbell, Khalil Thompson, Britney Kuehm, Jurnee Weeams, Ross Bochnek, and Stephen Calhoun—created a “mountain” in keeping with this year’s Ingenuity theme, Era of Ascent, and filled the space around it with colorful lantern flies and butterflies. A call was put out for artists to submit images of projects they were working on, which Calhoun assembled into a pair of slide shows showcasing Quest’s creative community. A table was set up where Calhoun and Isvarin-Love invited those passing through to stop a while and decorate butterflies to add to the space. They were also invited to drop their names and contact information into a jar to become part of a future co-creation; more than fifty did so.

Instead of recreating Ingenuity, the Questers began to see themselves as a movement emerging from Ingenuity. “It was very inspiring to see people coming together and being completely supported by Ingenuity,” said Maugans. “I totally think Quest should be in it every single year. It’s a lot of the same pillars as Ingenuity.”

Challenges remain. While the current group has been encouraged to reach out to performing artists, few have joined the project so far. The potential venue remains up in the air with Playhouse Square’s and Greyhound’s plans uncertain. The Hildebrandt Building and the Brownhoist have also been offered as possible locations.

Meanwhile, at the first post-Ingenuity meeting, yet another idea was proposed. It involves a convening of all interested participants one evening for a series of “side quests” “to build relationships across disciplines and engage fellow creatives in the fest.” It is scheduled for January 25, 2025 at the Brownhoist. Performing artists are especially encouraged to participate.

The Quest continues.