Ali Black: You’re three months into your new role as the new executive director of Spaces. How has Cleveland been treating you?

Fanna Gebreyesus: Cleveland’s been wonderful. It’s been really good. Busy, but rewarding. I’ve been humbled to see how nice and welcoming folks have been, and, there’s been more events than I can attend.

AB: I love to hear that. What have you been doing outside of work? Anything?

FG: Absolutely nothing.

AB: Nothing? Really?

FG: Well, you know. It’s been quite a transition for the organization, even before me landing in Cleveland. That transition happened with the pandemic and that then led to the wonderful exposure that was the biennale. Now there’s a new director and the building of a new team, and I think a new kind of compass of how to now balance what has been some national/international exposure with a recommitment to the local artists.

AB: What has been the most surprising thing that has happened so far since you’ve been in Cleveland?

FG: I think it was sitting in with the local Cleveland farmers that Spaces has been working with for almost two years now as part of a three-year project that was funded by the Teiger Foundation. I don’t think I understood what a wide-ranging agricultural community there was in Cleveland until I was with some of the farmers and hearing about how they’ve been using some of the grant money to recommit to projects that without these funds, they wouldn’t have been able to pursue or explore new ideas with the aim to help the health of Lake Erie. Certainly I’ve worked with projects that go outside of the gallery, but I’ve never worked with farmers inside of a gallery. That’s been surprising in the best kind of way.

AB: Interesting. I didn’t know about that. What are you most excited about?

FG: I’m excited to slightly restructure our artist-in-residence program, which is the bedrock program of Spaces, from what I understand. I really want to give artists more time and a bigger budget to work on their projects, to you know, be in Cleveland longer, to be at Spaces longer, and to really have time and resources to think bigger and truly avant garde. Right now, each artist gets one gallery, but you know, what happens if you challenge an artist and say, “you can have both spaces and a bigger budget.” It’s scary, but it’s good to really experiment.

AB: That’s something to be excited about! I love the part about challenging artists to think bigger and giving them the opportunity to do so. I’m curious about how you came to the arts. What has led you into becoming the executive director of Spaces?

FG: I feel like I’m still constantly trying to answer that question in my mind because I think how I got here and how I started and how that’s paralleled with how much the museum world has changed so much in the past fifteen years or so has been really interesting. I have an art history background. I did an undergrad and graduate art history program in the D.C. area. At one point I thought I’d just be doing research and get a PhD because I just love doing research. But, ultimately, that kind of coincided with the recession and then the first great lack of funding in the arts happened. And, what you study in school and the reality of jobs that are out there don’t always line up. I thought I’d be in a modern museum or maybe an encyclopedic one, but I ended up in the contemporary art space about ten years ago, working at Glenstone Museum, and that really kind of opened my eyes to the contemporary art world, which is very different from the museum world. The lack of representation in these spaces really interested me. In museums, [the lack of representation] is pretty bad, but it’s pretty bad everywhere. So I think wanting to be in a space is to also help and mentor other folks who look like me and wanting to have a peek behind the curtain.

AB: Did you grow up interested in the arts?

FG: Well, I’m from D.C. where museums are free and going to museums was something we just did. Originally what really interested me about art was the history part more than the art part. The storytelling aspect was very interesting to me. I love how you can find a lot of through lines amongst different civilizations across times. I was very interested in the common threads you could find. After I got my first degree, I figured out that excavating stories that aren’t normally in the canon was a thing. Let me say it this way: My family is from Africa. Growing up, you could open books and if you were lucky, you’d get maybe one paragraph on all of the horn of Africa. I’d be sitting there saying, “I’ve been to this place and I know that there’s architecture!” But, there’s all these fallacies, right? Well, I got excited about telling the stories that are out there that aren’t in the Western canon or Western textbooks.

AB: I’m glad of that, but it is frustrating.

FG: Right! I went to Verbena (a café and dry bar in Hingetown) and got the calming tea, but I should’ve bought the energizing one! What was I thinking?

AB: The poet and writer in me wants to know a little about your degree in English.

FG: Getting an art degree back in the early 2000s was not a thing, at least not for my family or community, so I double majored. I studied English because I love storytelling. It’s not so much that I like to write, but I love the art of communication and I love exploring ideas through words. I like nonfiction. I probably would’ve done journalism if things had turned out different. I love advanced discourse.

AB: Why didn’t you study journalism?

FG: I missed the deadline.

AB: Oh no! Can you tell me what you’re the most nervous about regarding your new role?

FG: The first thing I can tell you is that I’m not nervous about the art part. I know how to work in art spaces. I know how to work with artists. To be a good leader in 2024 means something. As a leader, you have to unlearn a lot of things. What leadership meant a year ago is different now. I can certainly lead, but I think this conversation about what leadership means is important.

AB: What does it mean to be a leader?

FG: For me, it means to be on a team. I’m not particularly interested in hierarchical structure, but I think it needs to be supportive. I think it means being a steward of your local community and also thinking of ways how to both come full circle and broaden exposure for your organization and the city you’re in, but also not getting too far away from that.

AB: Are you familiar with the Cleveland Remembrance Page?

FG: I’m not.

AB: The Cleveland Remembrance Page is a social media account that showcases what’s really going on in Cleveland: the crime, the violence, the disparities. There’s obviously two different worlds in Cleveland. One world is filled with what Langston Hughes called, “the lowdown folks” or “the so-called common element” and the other world is filled with white folks in fancy suits and dresses. The “low-down” folks are the folks who have no clue that Spaces exists. I can literally invite my family and friends—Black folks who were born and raised in Cleveland—and they’ll walk into Spaces or the Cleveland Museum of Art or Worthington Yards or The Morgan Conservatory and won’t have a clue as to where they are. How do we change that? What ideas do you have to bring new audiences into Spaces, specifically Black audiences who, again—have no clue that places like Spaces exist?

FG: I appreciate you sharing that and I appreciate the question. Unfortunately, it reminds me of being in Baltimore and it reminds me even more of D.C. where there’s an undeniable divide. I think it is our responsibility, it’s not the fault of a community member that they’re not coming to an arts and culture space. I think it’s literally those spaces that are at fault. It is their job and responsibility to invite, engage, and welcome folks in. And if that’s not happening, then we have to acknowledge that we’re not doing a good enough job. That just is what it is. I don’t think you can argue with that. And of course I say this with the caveat that, I’ve only been here for three months. But again, I feel like I’ve seen a version of the story. I really believe in getting out in the community and hearing testimonials and hearing from the community of what would make them feel welcome in a space. So the first step, it sounds like, is having folks even know that a place exists. But the other part is making them feel comfortable to come in.

AB: I appreciate that answer.

FG: You’re kind of giving me an idea as it relates to our fiftieth anniversary, which is coming in 2028. You know, maybe there is a forum here that says, “Hey, we’re turning fifty. What do we want to take with us, and what do we want to leave behind for the next fifty years?” I think people sometimes confuse moving deliberately and reflecting with moving slow. But I think you also have to do your research before you even know the questions to ask. I’m hoping to use the rest of the year to really learn and not just go storming into the community asking highly emotional questions.

AB: I’ve sort of stepped away from the art scene in Cleveland because it’s so boring and redundant—you experience the same format at art openings and you see the same roster of people. How do we change that?

FG: I think it’s a question about what is the role of art institutions in communities. We’re going through an existential crisis of the role of art spaces. The Rubin Museum of Art in New York, they’re selling their building and it goes to your point that seeing the same roster of people in arts and cultural spaces is not sustainable. I hope I rise to the occasion. I think that’s exactly why I left the museum world because it is very cut and paste. But I do think it’s exciting to see what art spaces like Spaces can do because there isn’t any red tape.

AB: What is your vision for Spaces?

FG: I think with any kind of new transition you’re working with the schedule you’ve inherited, but also thinking about what you want to bring in, so right now my priority is crafting a narrative for Spaces and getting that messaging out there. We have a jam-packed schedule for 2025. We have Everlasting Plastics that was in Venice, now at the Carnegie, that’s going to be installed [at Spaces] in literally two weeks that will be opening almost exactly a year from now. So I think figuring out how to make that presentation special and different. A part of the job is getting the public pumped and giving them a reason to care, so I’m excited for that challenge. I hope to champion the arts community here in Cleveland and hopefully build bridges to St. Louis, Baltimore, Buffalo, Detroit, and beyond.