Connecting to Futures: Deidre McPherson

Deidre McPherson is a dot connector and coalition builder, deeply committed to the power of collaboration within and outside of the arts sector. For over fifteen years, she has worked in arts and culture in a variety of roles—from marketing and program management to producing and curating arts events and festivals—while remaining steadfastly rooted in community outreach and advocacy.

Currently, McPherson is the chief community officer at Assembly for the Arts, a nonprofit providing advocacy on the municipal and county levels; artist resources, including their Artist as Entrepreneur Institute; grant funding for artists; and research on the arts in terms of audience, economic impact, health and safety, neighborhoods, and the sector itself.

“We are a regional arts council,” says McPherson. “Our mission is to help Greater Cleveland become a great region of the arts and equity—which haven’t always gone hand in hand—so we help create partnerships and collaborations, connecting organizations and people so that everyone feels connected to the opportunities that help people thrive.”

“I play a role behind the scenes, building community engagement based on inclusion,” says McPherson. “My work is rooted in collaboration, making connections and thinking about arts and culture at a macro level and how it connects to other industries.”

McPherson grew up immersed in the arts in Northeast Ohio. Her mother had a deep love of arts and culture which sprung from a childhood in Motown-era Detroit, and she introduced McPherson to the arts and culture as great, exciting things to experience: performances at Karamu House, drawing workshops at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and seeing the Nutcracker ballet at Christmastime. Violin and piano lessons at the Music School Settlement led to a place in their youth orchestra; McPherson’s intense practicing in high school (often four to eight hours a day) garnered a full-ride scholarship in violin performance to Miami University.

And then there were the role models. Growing up, her best friend’s mother, Elaine Long, was an artist who designed cards at American Greetings. “She was an incredible painter and collector,” says McPherson. “Going to their home helped inspire my love for visual art and showed me what a career as a full-time artist looks like.”

But it was the voice teacher of McPherson’s mother who made an indelible impact on McPherson’s life: A. Grace Lee Mims. Mims was a dynamic powerhouse and cultural force in Cleveland. In addition to teaching voice at the Music School Settlement, singing as a member of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and working as head librarian at Glenville High School, Mims held the Black Arts Festival in Glenville, bringing figures like Muhammad Ali to engage with students and the community. In 1976, Mims persuaded WCLV’s president to let her create The Black Arts, a weekly program highlighting African American contributions to classical and jazz music. Mims also served on boards, including the Cleveland Institute of Music, Cleveland Museum of Art, and the African American Archives of the Western Reserve Historical Society. She created programs, platforms and entry points into institutions that were not built for Black leaders or Black voices.

“I grew up as one of the few Black or Brown people in orchestra,” says McPherson. “I did an informational interview with Mims when I was in college. Hearing how she uplifted arts and culture in a space where Black and Brown people are not usually found was incredibly inspiring. Her life’s work brought visibility, pride, and awareness of the contributions of Black artists in places we had been underrepresented due to systemic barriers.”

Mims’ impact would gestate for a while. McPherson graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Marketing, with minors in Violin Performance and Arts Administration. She followed her interests in marketing and branding and took a job in Boston with an ad agency, doing quantitative and qualitative research on brand and consumer loyalty. After about a year, the arts kept calling her.

So, McPherson moved to the Washington, DC, area with hopes to land a job at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. When that didn’t happen, she went to graduate school to get an MBA from the University of Maryland, and volunteered at arts organizations—The Dance Institute of Washington and Arena Stage—to strengthen her resume. She landed a marketing job at DC’s Studio Theatre, but while on a holiday break visiting her family in Cleveland, McPherson saw that The Cleveland Orchestra needed a marketing manager. A family connection (renowned architect Robert P. Madison) helped her get an interview; she applied for the position and was hired.

While at the Orchestra, McPherson developed marketing plans for the Severance Hall subscription packages and Family Concert Series, and established the Student Ambassador program, increasing the number of college students attending concerts. After about three years, she moved to the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE) as the marketing manager for their arts network.

In her spare time, McPherson used her creative entrepreneurship to launch her passion project, the Cleveland chapter of Sistah Sinema, a monthly event bringing people together around films by and about queer women of color. “This was in 2012, before Netflix,” says McPherson. “It provided space for connection; there was no place at the time for queer women of color to be affirmed in their identities.” Sistah Sinema led to working with Cleveland International Film Festival as a community partner, and programming events with filmmakers for the LGBT community.

Then the nexus of Mims’ impact and McPherson’s skills coalesced. McPherson was invited by the Museum of Contemporary Art (moCa) to present a Sistah Sinema film event; its success positioned her to be hired by moCa as their curator of public programs. “MoCa took a chance on me, a marketing MBA with a music background, to help them bring in diverse audiences,” says McPherson. “I love that I took something I was passionate about [Sistah Sinema] and turned that platform into creating exhibition-inspired events that would make the museum as fun and as inclusive as possible.”

From moCa, McPherson went to the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) as the director of public programs. Here, she transformed and reimagined MIX, the after-hours party in the museum’s atrium on first Fridays, complete with DJs and bands (who were also filling local night clubs), as well as Cleveland-based artists from poets to dancers to visual artists. At CMA, McPherson organized over 100 exhibition-inspired events each year—panel discussions, lecture series, music performances, and poetry/creative writing—collaborating with artists and organizations from across Greater Cleveland as well as visiting artists. This intense experience gave McPherson a “deep understanding of how an encyclopedic art museum works.”

The impact of COVID-19 on public events phased out McPherson’s role at CMA, so she started a consulting practice working with clients like Karamu House, DANCECleveland, Cleveland International Film Festival, Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival, and the FRONT Triennial, creating and organizing public events, managing projects and audience development, and creating programs with and for artists. And she eventually met Jeremy Johnson, who had recently boomeranged back to Cleveland to take the helm as the first president and CEO of Assembly for the Arts. Johnson previously had been an arts leader in Newark, New Jersey, and is credited with leading Newark to become ranked among the nation’s top ten arts-vibrant communities.

“Assembly for the Arts was working on addressing challenges in our arts ecosystem,” says McPherson. “And I realized that was the kind of advocacy I had been doing all these years!” When Assembly needed a chief community officer, she was a natural fit.

“My career trajectory couldn’t be purposefully planned,” notes McPherson. “It evolved from one opportunity to the next, which I am really grateful for. What I’ve had the privilege of doing as an arts administrator—creating spaces of inclusion for people whose culture isn’t often prioritized, valued, or centered—stands on the shoulders of people like Grace Lee Mims.”

McPherson’s advice for people considering a career in the arts is build connections and keep learning. “We have an incredible amount of creative talent, world class institutions, and support networks in Cleveland. The field changes constantly—funding, audiences, language—so stay curious. We all play a role in creating the change we want to see in our arts ecosystem. When you choose a career in the arts as a performer, creator, advocate, producer, presenter, etc., choose it with your eyes open, heart intact, and community close. The work is demanding and requires discipline, but it’s rewarding because arts and culture is essential to our quality of life and local economies. You belong here and the field needs your voice, especially if you’ve been told that it doesn’t.”

Assembly for the Arts has two grants available to artists in Cuyahoga County: The Boost Fund ($1,500 to 144 artists; spring, summer, and fall deadlines) and the Creative Impact Fund ($10,000 to 22 artists; opens in May) Details for both will be announced in March at assemblycle.org.