“Do I have a lot of fun ideas?” Introducing the New Director of Ingenuity, Susie Underwood

Each year, IngenuityFest creates an environment that welcomes the strange, encourages experimentation, and builds Cleveland’s creative future in real time, one immersive installation/performance/improbable idea by one. After ten years of leadership during which she brought the festival to its year-round home at 5401 Hamilton Avenue, Emily Appelbaum has moved on, accepting a position in San Francisco. Now the organization embarks on a new adventure under the leadership of artist, collaborator, and longtime Ingenuity presence, Susie Underwood. As our conversation reveals, she understands the organization’s heartbeat from the inside out.

Underwood steps into the role of executive director not as an outsider, but as someone who has installed work in its halls, facilitated its events, and imagined its possibilities alongside the community it serves. Her vision is rooted in relationships, accessibility, and creative risk, shaped through years of participatory art and a deep belief that institutions should be as inventive as the artists they support. As she approaches this transition, Underwood brings to Ingenuity a vision that reimagines how institutions work with artists, how education and accessibility can mold creative spaces, and what the future might look like. That could include anything from expanded artist support to the possibility of a Family Village installed into the heart of the festival. In this interview, Underwood reflects on her evolving relationship with Ingenuity, the legacy she inherits, and the future she hopes to build—one that invites more people in, nurtures artists for the long run, and keeps Ingenuity as weird, welcoming, and vital as ever.

Began: What were your first experiences with Ingenuity?

Underwood: My first experience with Ingenuity was in 2016, when I was coordinating the Creative Fusion International Artist Residency Program. After that year, I started participating as an artist, partner, and contractor. I have installed installations, performed, facilitated art activities, and even helped a bit behind the scenes.

Began: As someone who describes your work as “weird” and experimental, what did Ingenuity represent to you?

Underwood: Early on, I saw an opportunity to try things at IngenuityFest that I could not do anywhere else in town. There are not many art organizations commissioning immersive installations or performance art, with the exception of Maelstrom Collaborative Arts, who I also love.

Began: When did you first imagine yourself in a leadership role at Ingenuity, or did that idea arrive unexpectedly?

Underwood: The opportunity to apply for the interim executive director position came out of my naturally evolving relationship with Ingenuity. Last year, I helped to do a bit of research and development around new educational programming and I offered some behind-the-scenes support for the fest, so we were already in conversation around me having a larger role with the organization.

Began: You are stepping into a role shaped by a decade of Emily Appelbaum’s leadership. What parts of this legacy feel most important to honor and what parts feel ready for reinterpretation?

How do you balance continuity with the need for change during a transition like this?

Underwood: During this time of transition, I am taking an approach built around stability and sustainability. Do I have a lot of fun ideas? Of course! However, it is important to me to maintain many of the systems and relationships built by Emily over the years. Emily, the staff and the board have accomplished so much in terms of improving the building infrastructure, building up the artist community, and just generally growing into a robust year-round organization from what used to be a one-time event. She is handing it over at a good moment, with many strong systems in place. I do plan to continue piloting the new education program, growing the Labs tenant community, improving the building, building out partner events, and putting on events like no other in the region. I’m sure there will be plenty of little moments for me to put my personal stamp on things, without going crazy this first year.

Began: How has being an artist helped you understand what artists actually need from institutions? How will your role here differ from those project-based temporary works, like the “reading room” installation?

Underwood: I am deeply aware of the challenges artists face and this plays into how I work with artists. It isn’t just about hiring an artist to do your bidding. This is a relationship and collaboration. We can be creative together. Also, it drives me crazy when arts administrators do not practice creativity in their own roles and just leave it to the artists. We are here to promote creativity, critical thinking, and innovation. I want to practice what I preach.

As opposed to a one-off project, this role is a long game. There is no “one and done, I’m moving on.” This is about slow growth and sustainability, to build a healthy ecosystem that will last for twenty more years. This is also very collaborative. I am thinking about what will serve the Ingenuity community best, not just throwing ideas at the wall to see if they fit.

Began: How do you foresee IngenuityFest evolving under your leadership, and what might we see more of?

Underwood: As someone with a long history in education and community programming, I am hoping to build out a really fabulous Family Village at the fest, with a lot of hands-on creative engagement. I want visitors to the fest to have as many opportunities to actually engage creativity as possible. Emily and the team have done a lot to make the fest more accessible to all types of people and I want to continue that trend, as accessibility is really important to me.

People need to feel safe and supported to take creative risks.

Began: What do you believe the festival could reflect more of in Cleveland’s neighborhoods and artistic realm?

Underwood: I hope that my work building education programs will build up our audience of educators and students, year-round, and it will hopefully feed into the fest as well, so that we eventually have some really cool student displays!

Began: What new opportunities might artists find under your leadership?

Underwood: I will be building out our team of teaching artists and providing them with training, which is something many artists need. We often get thrown into teaching because it is a paid gig, without a lot of pedagogy and classroom management experience. As we continue to upgrade the building, there will be more spaces available for artists who are interested in applying to be Labs members. The Ingeneers continues to grow and I would love to see the group continue to diversify and evolve. With this multi-pronged approach, one opportunity can feed into another, as we build a network, improve systems and grow.

Began: What excites you most about this next year? What are some of the changes you’re eager to make?

Underwood: I’m excited to continue moving in the direction of becoming a more public facing organization. I want Clevelanders to know that we are more than just our flagship event and I want Ingenuity to be a resource and hub for creative innovation. Some of our planned building upgrades will help with this, by becoming more welcoming to visitors, partner events, and people from all walks of life. Continuing to build our relationship with the community is important and I love to collaborate.

Began: What do you hope someone feels after spending time at Ingenuity?

Underwood: I want people to feel inspired and energized when they leave Ingenuity. I really do want Ingenuity to spark a flame that people can take into their own lives, whatever that looks like. I want to be a place that artists love and inspires non-artists to be creative and take risks.

Susie Underwood offers not a rebrand of Ingenuity, but a transformation into something Cleveland can anticipate becoming larger than life. Her vision rejects transactional models of support, insisting instead on creative collaboration, patience and building sustainability for artists. As Ingenuity blooms into its new direction, the future she paints is deliberate, artist-led, and quietly defiant, and Cleveland welcomes the new director with celebration!

Olivia Began is a CAN Journal Broadening the Conversation fellow, currently in the art program at Cleveland State University.