Dara Harper, Author at Collective Arts Network

Giving Back to Our Community: Words & Art

The Akron Black Artist Guild proudly launched a pilot program in November in collaboration with the Summit County Maple Valley Library. This initiative, called the Words & Art Workshops, offers a transformative two-week experience that nurtures well-being and empowers participants from diverse artistic backgrounds to unlock their creativity, enhance self-awareness, and strengthen critical thinking skills through the magic of literature […]

14(4) Winter 2025/2026

Words into Action: Akron Black Artist Guild champions civic responsibility through the power of art.

Dara Harper

Let’s transform our words into action and embody the change we want to see, while also challenging the narratives that surround us. The call for action has never been stronger, and there’s no better way to ignite this transformation than by returning to the basics. We believe in the vital role that art and literacy can play in this journey, […]

14(3) Fall 2025

Akron Black Artists Guild: Archiving Art History & Culture, Sharing the Lives of Artists

Dara Harper

As the sun rises and determines the day, so it sets beyond the horizon to embrace the night. We rely on this systematic collection of time, and proceed without pause to live. We live to be counted, we live to encourage, we live to be remembered. It is essential as we live to hold a place in our timelines to […]

14(1) Spring 2025

A Life Worth Living: The art of Michelangelo Lovelace serves as a mirror of the times we live in

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After decades of workmanlike progress in his career, the late Cleveland-based artist Michelangelo Lovelace had just begun to see his star rise: in 2018, Fort Gansevoort Gallery in New York presented his solo show, The Land. The Cleveland Museum of Art had acquired his painting, My Home Town. Then Lovelace was diagnosed with cancer in 2020, and passed away in […]

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Akron Black Artists Guild: Relationships Are Everything!

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A partnership that becomes a good relationship is pivotal in cultivating a community for working artists. Producing programs beyond an initiative or grant cycle is rare for a small nonprofit organization. It’s easy to move on and post some pictures on social media displaying “oh, what a great time we had!” But in that rare moment, in the knee-deep of […]

13(2) Summer 2024

Building a Thriving Network: Akron Black Artist Guild

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Just three years ago, a collective of Black professional artists imagined that their city could be a destination for Black artists to flourish. Often, artists travel for work and compete for subjective resources. Being an artist is much more than that! An artist needs like-minded support and genuine encouragement to create the works they imagine. As stated by poet Langston […]