StudyMe: Some Notes on D. Black’s Gripes with Cleveland’s Art World

Photo: “City of Sin” by Donald Black, Jr.

Black artists have it bad in Cleveland. This isn’t a secret. I’ve sat in plenty of rooms, sat on too many panels, and performed on too many stages for us to still be in the same place. When I look around, I don’t see much change. Yes, there are artists winning some of the awards and fellowships, but the majority of us are still struggling, still scraping by, still trying to find affordable studio space, still trying to win, still trying to prove ourselves, still applying, and still trying to ignore the injustices all while trying to focus on making the work. 

I sat down with D. Black to get his take. 

Note: I won’t give you D. Black’s commentary on every point below because I want you to check out our podcast for the full conversation. But, here’s some of what D. Black has to say: 

Art institutions are led by people who aren’t artists.
“My experience with artists who are running the institutions, since I was a child, I would say I’ve had more successful experiences at those institutions—starting at Cleveland School of the Arts. Often times, it’s easy for me to pay attention to if the person who’s in charge or the person who’s giving instruction or leading the direction or creating the direction… it’s easy for me to pick up on if they’re an artist or not based on the questions that they’re asking and based on how they engage with me. I feel like artists have a level of understanding of one another. The person who isn’t an artist speaks a different language. Often times, there’s a lot of translating of the language you speak as the creative. There’s a lot of explaining of who you are.”

Institutions are predominantly white.
“Being in a 60% Black city, with the art intuitions being run by predominately white folks, I’m suggesting that it’s a similar situation happening—there’s a cultural bias. It’s a cultural difference. There’s a very repetitive story happening. Places that seem to have white folks, seem to have more success, more resources, more visibility. You know—more, more, more!”

Art institutions take ideas from artists.
“From my experience, often times, a creative person will take an idea to an institution or an institution’s gatekeeper and then, depending on how strong the idea is—that idea or project will come to surface or come to fruition. That’s why Thieveland named their graffiti group Thieveland. They felt like Cleveland is the place where the institutions steal from the artists.” 

Art institutions won’t relinquish power/resources.

Art education doesn’t teach art making to Black kids.
“From me being a product of art education, I feel like a lot of what my engagement was about was the techniques—learning how to use the tools. And then I feel like we were being helped to make art. Now, I feel like art is being used as an activity rather than a healthy form of expression. It’s watered down now. I’ve been in a lot of meetings where they’ve said, ‘Well, we’re not trying to make artists here.’”

The art sector uses Black children.

Award recipients don’t match this city’s population, which is predominantly Black. 

Money is dangled in front of artists in hopes of opportunities. 
“I watch how a lot of artists come up with ideas in hopes to do one of these projects. I say dangled because we’re not the recipients.”

Visiting artists get greater benefits than local artists.
“Artists from out of town seem to get more leverage, more visibility, the opportunities. I mean, these projects that these places are making us apply for are the same ones that people from out of town get. We look at a lot of people get paid a lot of money and they haven’t made a commitment to the city. It’s a huge trend in this city!” 

No nontraditional arts feeder system.

No checks and balances.
“I can come up with a whole list of gripes and there’s no one to fucking tell. The art system can function like this and it’s not being critiqued. And if you are the person critiquing it, you’re the person complaining and upset, you’re the person mad. But in my mind, it should be being critiqued.”

Too many middle men.

Taxation without representation.

No plan to change the arts landscape.
“This whole chase and push for diversity and equity and inclusion and blah, blah, blah—is… it’s like time is just ticking off the clock. And it’s a lot of people at work, claiming to try and figure this out when you got artists in the city who have been very available and very vocal about how to change some of this stuff.”

No neutral ground.

Entire sector is culturally biased.

People are uneducated about fixing the problems.
“You’re the person in place to fix it and you have no fucking clue about how to fix it. The people in charge in Cleveland tend to do what another city is doing. This stuff isn’t fixing the problem, it’s masking it.” 

No real equity.

Underutilizing artists as resources.
“If you aren’t asking specific people in this city for the solution—you’re running from the problem. You’re running from the truth.”

Black artists/communities are underdeveloped. 

The Black arts community is given leftovers.

Artist community doesn’t have an identity. 
“A lot of what’s happening in the art world is some watered down ass repeat of something that was happening in another city.”

You have to leave the city to get respected.

Too many artists leave the city to never return.

The art sector isn’t designed to make artists want to stay.

Local artists have no visibility, treated like the audience add on. 

Black artists are pitted against each other.

“I’ve worked with a group of Black artists and I recognize that I was perceived as ‘the pick’ and I see how that created issues with people’s feelings toward me. I’ve watched white folks try to be the intermediary between myself and other Black artists.”

There isn’t a lot of art with purpose being created.

Sadly, this list is just the beginning. D. Black and I are in constant conversation about issues surrounding the art world in Cleveland and beyond. In this particular podcast, we only scraped the surface. We didn’t even address recent (2020) conversations about racism in the art world. I remember reading several articles about white supremacy in museums and galleries. I read that only 4% of positions—outside of what I call “the help” (service and security)—in US art museums are held by Black folks. I could go on and on. So what’s the solution? I think Black artists need to continue to figure out ways to support each other and posse up. I mean, how much longer are we going to traumatize ourselves? We are mentally exhausted and I’ll say it: a lot of those 2020 solidarity statements from white art institutions feel like complete lies and there’s no way D. Black’s list of gripes should feel as urgent and alive as they do. If we don’t start taking care of ourselves and each other, we will stay in this vicious loop forever.

Listen to StudyMe: “Notes on ‘The Gripes’” on Apple Podcasts.