This forum is presented by a partnership between Assembly for the Arts, the City Club of Cleveland, and The Gund Foundation. Assembly for the Arts was awarded a grant from The Gund Foundation to organize and assemble this discussion. The panel and luncheon event will be hosted by our friends at The City Club of Cleveland.

Yes, a ticket is required. Tickets can be purchased via The City Club here.

City Club Member Ticket Cost: $30

Non-Member Ticket Cost: $45

Online ticket sales for this forum will conclude on Tuesday, July 28th at 11:30am.

The event will be livestreamed for free. Virtual attendees can still participate in the event’s Q&A portion via The City Club’s messaging platform (details will be provided during the forum). Those who are interested in receiving a reminder before the event goes live can sign up here.

For those unable to attend or who would like to revisit the event, the panel discussion will be available via a recording after the live event.

The idea for this City Club event originated in June 2025 when Jeremy Johnson and Jennifer Coleman attended the Americans for the Arts Annual Convention in Cincinnati. During the conference, they attended a presentation by Rockford, Illinois, on the city’s recent cultural planning process and were impressed by the work being done there. Representatives from Philadelphia were also in attendance, and after the session, Jeremy and Jennifer engaged them in a lengthy conversation about Philadelphia’s own cultural planning efforts.

Inspired by these discussions, they felt it would be valuable to bring these communities to Cleveland to share their experiences and lessons learned. Akron was invited because of its proximity and because, despite being a smaller city than Cleveland, it has made remarkable progress in implementing its cultural plan. Pittsburgh was included as well, given its similarities to Cleveland in terms of size, history, and regional context, offering another relevant perspective on cultural planning and execution.

For Assembly, the past year has been a powerful period of deep research and national data gathering. This summer, we are proud to transition into a phase of broad civic collaboration. We’re sharing our findings to catalyze new ideas alongside artists, arts organizations, philanthropy, and public partners.

For example, we just completed a comparative study with SMU DataArts on national public funding models (which will be published on this website). Bringing in leaders from other cities allows us to build directly on that momentum. We’re looking at real-world examples of how peer communities navigate advocacy, funding, politics, artist empowerment, and economic development.

The City of Cleveland is a valued stakeholder and vital partner in conversations surrounding the future of our creative economy. However, this panel was independently conceived by Assembly to serve as an open, collaborative civic space building on our capacity as a convener and researcher.

That said, we are delighted that many partners, including representatives from the City of Cleveland, local artists, and philanthropists, are at the table as we explore insights from sister cities that might be relevant to our cultural landscape.

At its core, this is a learning panel and a vehicle for civic exploration. Having previously led a comprehensive cultural planning process in Newark, New Jersey (Newark Creates), Assembly’s President and CEO Jeremy Johnson recognizes the immense practical value of asking peer cities to share their direct experiences.

This forum brings together diverse sectors—artists, creative businesses, public officials, and philanthropists—to deepen our collective understanding, recognize what is working across the country, and anticipate challenges and opportunities ahead.