Urban Arts Space is excited to share a significant accomplishment by our Manager of Community Learning and Experience: Dr. Terron Banner has secured a $250,000 Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme grant for numerous community arts engagement initiatives. Dr. Banner developed this grant alongside primary investigator Dr. Joni Acuff, the chair of Ohio State’s Department of Arts Administration, Education, and Policy. Community partners and co-investigators included Marshall Shorts and Sheri Neale of Maroon Arts Group as well as Dr. Alice Ragland of Empowering Young Voices.

The proposal, entitled “Care, Culture, & Justice as Practice: Authentic Collaborative Community Engagement,” shares a comprehensive plan for bridging the gap between data-driven research priorities in academic institutions and community needs. These initiatives focus specifically on Black and Afrodiasporic communities, offering models and educational opportunities in the arts and humanities. Many of the collaborative projects will emphasize the importance of authentic Black creative spaces, advocating against appropriation or commercialization, and recognizing them as community-crafted social spaces.

Proposed initiatives include support for the 2025 Hip Hop Literacies Conference and the Ohio State Black Archival Practice Project with the Hale Center and Community Extension Center. The grant funding will be split across two years of programming. 

In discussing the grant, Dr. Banner referenced an African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” He added, “The essence of the grant is to bring support and infrastructure to the inner workings of community projects that are already in existence. That’s the power of the grant—authentic collaboration. We’re not creating retroactively to fit the grant; we are utilizing the grant to build sustainability, support, and care around those preexisting connections.”

In addition, the GAHDT funding will support two initiatives affiliated with Urban Arts Space. The Urban Arts Space Journal will align with the gallery’s mission to challenge perceptions, deepen learning, and increase access to the arts. This annual publication—with a tentative launch date in 2025—will feature essays, interviews, case studies, and art by Columbus community members as well as students and faculty from Ohio State and beyond. The journal will emphasize local arts community engagement practices to showcase successes, challenges, and conversations in those realms. 

Irrepressible Soul is another funded project that has worked in close partnership with Urban Arts Space, including for the 2023 Irrepressible Soul exhibition and programming suite celebrating Black art and culture. In 2024, the Irrepressible Soul Collective continued their work with FREEQUENCY, an exhibition at Urban Arts Space highlighting Afrofuturism. As in the previous year, a number of community events will be held alongside the exhibition, including a fashion ball, poetry reading, writing workshop, and Juneteenth collaborations. All projects through the Irrepressible Soul Collective were created and curated by Iyana Hill, a former Urban Arts Space student arts administrator and current graduate student in the Ohio State Department of Arts Administration, Education, and Policy. Hill will also serve as one of the coordinators on the GAHDT grant operations.

The aim of this collaborative initiative is to develop a unified approach that not only benefits the community but also amplifies the University's community impact. Central to this collaborative effort is the commitment to prioritize care, culture, and justice.

Photo Caption: Dr. Terron Banner (right) alongside Iyana Hill, Mario Hairston, and Chris Hearn—all founding members of the Irrepressible Soul Collective—at the Irrepressible Soul fashion ball in June 2023