What happens when artists step forward not just to create, but to defend the freedom to create?

In this opening episode of a new Art in Action series produced with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Bill Cleveland speaks with Joni Doherty, Senior Program Officer for Democracy and the Arts. Their conversation begins with a rediscovered 1964 speech by Martin Luther King Jr. in Dayton, Ohio, and unfolds into a powerful exploration of how artists today are confronting censorship, recovering buried histories, and expanding the civic imagination.

As Doherty explains, the arts are not merely decoration for democracy—they are one of its most powerful engines.

Through stories of collaboration between artists, poets, dancers, and community leaders in Dayton, the conversation reveals how creative work can become a living civic process, one that helps communities reflect on their past, confront their present, and imagine new futures.

In this episode we explore:

1. How an almost forgotten Martin Luther King Jr. speech sparked a multi—disciplinary arts movement in Dayton, Ohio.
2. How artists are confronting censorship and cultural erasure by reclaiming hidden histories and expanding the frame of what we see.
3. Why artistic creativity may be one of democracy’s most powerful tools—what Cleveland calls a kind of “creative cold fusion.”

Listen in as Joni Doherty shares how artists, community leaders, and cultural institutions are working together to defend freedom of expression, and why the work of imagination is essential to the future of democracy.

Notable Mentions

People

Joni Doherty – Senior Program Officer for Democracy and the Arts at the Charles F.

Kettering Foundation, working to build collaborations between artists and civic institutions that strengthen democratic life.

Bill Cleveland – Artist, writer, and host of Art Is Change, known for documenting the role of community—based arts in social transformation.

Martin Luther King Jr. – Civil rights leader whose philosophy of nonviolent resistance and moral courage continues to inspire movements for justice and democratic freedom.

Willis “Bing” Davis – Dayton-based visual artist and community arts leader whose work explores American history, identity, and cultural resilience.

Sharon L. Davies – President and CEO of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, leading

initiatives focused on democracy, civic engagement, and innovation.

Debbie Blunden Diggs – Executive Director and Artistic Director of the Dayton

Contemporary Dance Company, one of the nation’s leading modern dance organizations.

Sarah Lewis – Art historian and author whose work explores perception, race, and representation in visual culture.

Sierra Leone — Governor’s Award winner, poet and writer Sierra Leone is the president, artistic director and cofounder of OFP Theatre and Production Company. For more than a decade, Ohio has benefitted from Sierra's vision of creative urban arts as a powerful artistic medium to bring communities together across racial, cultural, ideological, and economic divides.

Organizations

Black Palette Art Gallery — Owned by artist James Pate and his partner Shola Odumade, the gallery is located in Dayton’s historic Wright Dunbar district. Along with the EboNia Gallery, it co—hosted the Visual Voices exhibition discussed in the podcast.

Charles F. Kettering Foundation — A nonpartisan research foundation focused on affirming and advancing inclusive democracy and countering authoritarianism.

Democracy and the Arts — One of the Kettering Foundation’s five focus areas. The Democracy and the Arts program integrates the unique power of the arts into the foundation’s work locally, nationally, and globally.

Dayton Art Institute A major regional art museum that hosts exhibitions and community arts programming.

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company – One of the nation’s premier modern dance companies, known for work rooted in African American cultural traditions.

EboNia Gallery — A gallery owned by Willis “Bing” Davis that exhibits contemporary African—American artwork. Located in the Wright—Dunbar District in Dayton, it co—hosted the Visual Voices exhibition discussed in the podcast.

Smithsonian Institution – The United States’ national museum and research complex, referenced in the conversation in relation to debates over cultural representation and censorship.

Events & Historical References

Cold Fusion Announcement (1989) – A controversial scientific claim made by chemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons that nuclear fusion had been achieved at room temperature.

The Third Reich – Nazi Germany (1933—1945), referenced as an example of authoritarian regimes suppressing artistic freedom.

Stalinist Russia – Period of Soviet rule marked by strict political control and censorship of artistic expression.

Cambodian Genocide – Under the Khmer Rouge regime (1975—1979), artists,

intellectuals, and cultural practitioners were systematically persecuted.

Publications

The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America – A book by Sarah Lewis that examines hos visual culture and perception shape racial understanding and historical memory.

Visual Voices: An Exhibition of African American Artists Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s 1964 Dayton Speech — A catalog that includes all of the works in the exhibition discussed in the podcast.

Visual Voices: Storytelling Through Poetry — An anthology of ekphrastic poems created in response to the artwork in Visual Voices: An Exhibition of African American Artists Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s 1964 Dayton Speech..

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Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

TRANSCRIPT

This transcript was produced by a machine and has been lightly edited by a human for clarity and readability.

Bill Cleveland

Hey there. So, what happens when artists, poets, dancers and civic leaders join forces not just to create, but to protect the very freedom to create?

From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Art Is Change, a chronicle of art and social change where activists, artists and cultural organizers social share the skills and strategies they need to thrive as creative community leaders. My name is Bill Cleveland.

I'm happy to share that this episode is part of a special art in action series we're producing in partnership with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation's Democracy and the Arts program.

Now, in these episodes, we'll be speaking with artists, cultural organizers and arts leaders who are navigating and challenging current efforts to limit criticism, free creative expression, free speech. Together, we'll explore what freedom of expression means in practice, not as an abstract right, but as a lived responsibility at the heart of democratic life.

Given that this show is the first in this series, we're speaking with Joni Doherty, the Senior Program Officer for the Democracy in the Arts program. In it, she talks about how a rediscovered Martin Luther King Jr. speech sparked a cascade of artistic expression in Dayton, Ohio, and how that experience has informed the design of this bold new initiative, Art in Action, as a national response to the rise of censorship and cultural suppression across the U.S. Joni explains how this effort supports artists as frontline defenders of democracy, using creativity not only to reflect society, but to resist authoritarian drift and reclaim public space for truth telling. In this episode, we discover how that forgotten MLK speech became the catalyst for a vibrant multi-genre artistic movement in Dayton, Ohio.

We'll also learn why the Kettering Foundation's innovative approach to co-creative philanthropy is transforming how arts and democracy intersect.

And we'll hear some real-world examples of how artists are challenging censorship, preserving erased histories, and inviting communities into deeper civic reflection.

Part One: Co-Creation

Joni Doherty, welcome to the show. For our listeners. Where are you hailing from?

Joni Doherty

Hi, Bill, I'm Joni Doherty. I'm the Senior Program Officer for Democracy and the Arts at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation. We have offices both in D.C. and in Dayton, Ohio. I am talking to you from Dayton, Ohio.

Bill Cleveland

So, Joni, if you had a street name, what would it be?

Joni Doherty

Boy, that's a really interesting question. If I had a street name, what would it be? It would be "On the way."

Bill Cleveland

All right. The journey. So, when you are with folks who are not a part of your everyday universe, how do you describe what you do? What's your work in the world?

Joni Doherty

I honestly feel that my work in the world is to do what I can, no matter how small, to make a difference in a good way — from a spider to a cat to people.

Bill Cleveland

In a practical sense, you are a program officer at an American philanthropic foundation, which is a home for what you just described. Could you describe how you came to be where you are?

Joni Doherty

First of all, let me start with the philanthropic foundation. The Kettering Foundation is an excellent place for me to be because it suits my way of working and really of being in the world. It is not a grant making foundation. It is a foundation that works through creating partnerships to co-create projects involving the arts.

And for a long time, including before I came to the Foundation, that was work that was very meaningful to me. It's a very interpersonal kind of way of working where obviously we have a mission, we have our strategies, but one of our strategies is that in fact we co-create projects in the arts that are designed to affirm and advance inclusive democracy and to counter authoritarianism.

Bill Cleveland

How does that translate in practice with the people and communities that you work with?

Joni Doherty

It's a very people-oriented, maker kind of environment. What can we make? What can I contribute to the making through my work at the Foundation? And what does my partner contribute to the making, to really co-create?

So, that's, I think, that's the way that I've worked for a long time, going back to a time when I worked at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire, for, I think, about 18 years, also doing democracy work and also work involving the arts. And so, I've been in this for decades and it suits me.

Bill Cleveland

For anybody who has any familiarity with philanthropy, what you described is quite unique. And I'm assuming there's a unique skill set that comes with it, that you've learned in the doing.

What makes the most difference in these kinds of partnerships for you and your partners?

Joni Doherty

I think one of the most important skills is listening with the aim of understanding. And then I think a second skill is seeing connections and opportunities that might not be obvious at first glance. And so just listening and talking and engaging and thinking and reflecting our way to where the overlap is, where the shared vision and mission is in any given project.

Bill Cleveland

I have to say, one of the characteristics of what you just described, I'm going to assume, is time to create a relationship that has trust and understanding in it. Do you feel that time is one of the resources that you share with your partners?

Joni Doherty

Yeah, I mean, I think that sometimes it can take a long time to create that trust and mutual understanding and sometimes it can happen very quickly. We actually think that we're pretty nimble here in a lot of ways and we can be involved with muti-year projects, but we can also make projects happen very quickly if need be and if the right partners are found.

Bill Cleveland

Part 2: Dayton, Ohio

Now the Foundation's co-creation approach to philanthropy is clearly relationship centered. And I'd have to imagine that the quality and resilience of the partnerships you create make all the difference in this kind of work. I'm sure they're all different, but do you have an example that shows how one of these collaborations evolves?

Joni Doherty

First of all, Democracy and the Arts is a very young area of work for the Foundation. The Foundation is about 98 years old at this point, I think, and this area of work involving the arts and democracy, it actually was three years old in October. So, we are young. But I do have a story about a project that is continuing that that really fulfilled the goals that I had as we developed this area.

The first thing I did when we began working in this area was spend about a year talking with and getting to know people in the Dayton, Ohio, area because I felt like I really needed to deeply understand the arts in this area and also democracy work in this area and how they intersected.

I shared that speech with Bing, and I asked him if he would be interested in working with us to invite artists in to listen to the speech or read the speech and share or create new visual artwork that picked up on whatever was meaningful to the artist in the speech. And not only from an historical sense but, also, from their contemporary experience, their everyday experience here in Dayton.

Bill Cleveland

Now, we couldn't use any of the audio from 1964, but here's a passage from that speech read by Lamar Lincoln that, given what we're facing now, six decades on, caught me by the collar and wouldn't let go.

Lamar Lincoln (Voice Actor)

We have a message that says in substance to the most violent oppressors, we will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, we will still love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. So, throw us in jail.

Joni Doherty

As we developed that project, Bing had a lot to bring to the table. It would not have been possible without him. He knew a lot of African American artists. He had a gallery. He could decide when exhibitions were going to be hung. And so, he was bringing a lot to the table.

Bill Cleveland

Here are Bing Davis and Kettering Foundation President and CEO Sharon L. Davies at the Dayton Art Institute talking about art and democracy in 2023.

Sharon L. Davies

It strikes me, and I'd love to hear your thoughts about this, but it strikes me that art is almost like a language of its own. And it's a language that everyone seems to know. And in that sense, it really reduces or eliminates barriers.

Bing Davis

What I've come to learn, traveling around country and the world, I was looking to understand myself. And I always make the joke that I was looking for me and I found us. Looking for me and I found us, all of us.

And in that study and that research, I found that all human beings, race, yellow, black, and white, evolved from an African woman. So, we are brothers and sisters, whether we recognize it or not. So, the arts is commonly called a universal language. They are universal forms.

And every group of people from the beginning of time have used the arts not only to celebrate, but also to preserve and acknowledge those things that are important to them. But if you really want to know of people, look at their music, look at their dance, look at their drama, look at their spoken words, how they transmit what's of value to them. All people go through those same stations of life. And what they do is they use the art to help celebrate and perform, perpetuate and pass on those things that are important to them and be able to not only celebrate and appreciate that which is ours, but that which is similar to us that looks like similar to ours, they come from someone else with a little variation. But once you understand that understanding each other and appreciating each other is easy.

Sharon L. Davies

Wow. When you said I was looking for me and I found us, what a wonderful sentiment that is for today's world. I think we're going to have to find a way at the Kettering Foundation to put it up on the wall so that we remind ourselves. I was looking for me and found us.

Joni Doherty

And we were able to say, what do you need from us to make this project happen? So, he was free to develop that project as he saw fit in terms of reaching out to artists, selecting the artwork. He held an artist workshop where he explained to everybody what the goals were, and he basically took it from there.

Bill Cleveland

So how did that partnership unfold as you move forward?

Joni Doherty

Well, he could not afford to keep his gallery open more than two or three days a week. As somebody who's trying to make a living through being an artist and run a gallery and do a thousand other things. Well, we were able to say, well, we can do that. We want this exhibition to be available. We can do that. We can provide the support that you need to get a gallery and attendant in there all day, five or six days a week.

Bill Cleveland

Wow.

Joni Doherty

Initially, he had planned for the exhibition to be up for six weeks at the most. And we were able to keep it up in large part because of a simple thing like having gallery attendant. Also, to respond to the requests of the community to keep it up so that civic groups and school groups and church groups could see the exhibition. It ended up staying up for three months.

And I think part of that community response was that we also were able to support Bing and this exhibition, which was called Visual Voices, through our communication department's capacity to publicize the event, to do an exhibition announcement. We planned several programs to bring people into the gallery. They were able to develop materials to promote those programs and use social media and press releases and all that they had to share, to really let the community know that this was going on and to invite people to the programs and to the exhibition. And then we mailed catalogs to archives and museums and libraries across the state to enlarge the footprint.

And then what built on from that was that our artist-in-residence, Sierra Leone, we asked, Sierra, what might you do in relation to the exhibition? So, of course, she is deeply networked with local poets and invited a group of poets to come and look at the exhibition, and she held a couple of writing workshops, and they created a set of poems where each of the poets selected one, and some ended up selecting two or three artworks to respond to and writing poetry about that work. So, it was a translation of the visual into spoken word.

Sierra Leone

King’s investment is greater than the tolerance and a shift in wages.

Ancestors, rise to the rhythm of voice.

Spirit, rise to the beat of drum.

Where are you standing on the battlefield?

The church step, street corner, schoolhouse, white house

A Slave's root and a Minister's seed. Nobel Peace!

Bill Cleveland

That was an excerpt of Sierra Leone's “American Libation: Standing on the Power of Words” responding to the Visual Voices exhibit earlier this year.

Joni Doherty

We were able to pay each of those poets honorariums. We were able to have a spoken word event where we also included a dancer from our Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and musicians, a drummer. We had this amazing afternoon-long event that was so well attended that the group flowed out into the street. There were so many people there.

We were able to capture those poets on video, interview each of the poets. So again, documenting an event, a transient event. And we also printed an anthology of all of those poems. And we gave multiple copies to the poets and shared them out through the community.

And then the next thing that happened was I had been in conversation with Debbie Blunden-Diggs, who's the executive director and artistic director of Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. She had been attending these events at Bing’s and seeing the poetry, she suggested that the dance company could create a dance working off that poetry and the exhibition and the speech. And so that was premiered in a very incredible dance called Promised Land.

Bill Cleveland

I have a feeling that wasn't the end of this creative journey that you were on, was it?

Joni Doherty

Well, we were absolutely delighted to see it. And then we hired a writer to watch the dance in construction and rehearsal. Then we interviewed the two co-choreographers. The writer wrote a blog again circulating and promoting this event on social media and also the company and what the company does and its history. And we're in the process of writing a much longer piece now that's more than about the dance, but really just about the way the arts can be used to offer very powerful commentary on the impact of racism in America. And the dance was actually a combination of movement, theater, sound, and spoken word. It received a standing ovation in a packed theater. And clearly the contemporary references to the lived experiences of the people in Dayton resonated with that audience.

So that's an example of kind of work that gets really deeply embedded into the consciousness of the artists in the community, and can then be shared with the city at large and Dayton, you know, more generally, Montgomery County, to have an impact on the way people are thinking about race and civil rights and being treated fairly and who belongs and who doesn't, and how that feels. And so, it's all there in the visual work, in the poetry and the dance.

Bill Cleveland

What you just described is thrilling. You began by talking about the way the Foundation works. This kind of a project would not be possible without that iterative and trusting practice because it's opportunistic, improvisational, it's relationship-based. It, in essence. is experimental in the way that it unfolds. Here's an idea. We're going to plant a seed here. Let's see what happens and then let's build on that. Which is, of course, the way most things work in communities.

But did you ever think of this project as a revolutionary act that could be defined by your government as radical, wasteful, illegal and anti-American at the time you started this?

Joni Doherty

I don't think it was revolutionary and I don't think of it as anti-American.

Bill Cleveland

But you know that the basket you filled and the story you told about race in America, all the different ways in which you told it and the diverse voices that were shared. If you were doing this in a branch of the Smithsonian Institution, it probably would be looking for another home right now. If it was in a national park, it would be an orphan.

Joni Doherty

True. And that's why we started this Art in Action Initiative. Exactly why.

Bill Cleveland

Part Three: Art in Action

So, Joni, I know the Art in Action initiative is new, but I think that I speak for many when I say it's really important work and thank you for doing it. Could you describe its genesis and focus?

Joni Doherty

Our response is to develop this project that resists curtailing the freedom to speak freely, and curtailing the freedom to create freely, and to erase our history and our identity. And so that's why the focus of our work and, well, beginning now and into 2026 and beyond, is going to be very much focused on this. And I mean, one thing I would say is that it's not only the current administration, because there's a trickle-down effect there to states and cities, but the acts of censorship and suppression actually demonstrate how powerful the arts and culture are.

Bill Cleveland

Yeah, you gave some examples in one of your essays of historic moments when despots recognized how dangerous art-making and freedom of expression can be in a place that they're trying to control. Obviously, during the Third Reich, East Germany, and one that I spent a lot of time documenting in Cambodia where, literally, 95% of all the living artists in the country were killed. And all of those stories and many, many more, I think speak to what you just said, which Is if you're trying to tyrannize a community, the artist is the last person you want working in a free and an open way.

Joni Doherty

And I think also in addition to obviously thinking about Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany, but certainly in our own country's history, you can see the efforts during Jim Crow and slavery that effort to suppress, for example, the ability of African Americans to learn how to read. Right. And what kind of things they were allowed to express and to sing, and the necessity of communicating the creative spirit of enslaved people in ways that were indecipherable by the dominant whites that this kind of censorship and suppression is a tool that has been used not only in other countries, but in our own as well.

Bill Cleveland

One of the ways you describe democracy is that it is soul work. Doubling down on the idea that it's a mind, body, spirit experience in addition to the voting booth and legislation. Could you talk a little bit about the crossroads of those forces, the mind, body, spirit aspect of democracy, particularly this idea that art making isn't just a nice to have, but is really central to rekindling the American story?

Joni Doherty

Yeah, well, I would say that as human beings, we are mind, body and spirit. And when we create art, I think it gives expression in a holistic way to those three things. And so, it's all of them. It's not like some kind of dichotomy of there are the emotions and then there's the intellect. I mean, any artist that is creating is using all of the capacities of being a human being to create and I think that can be a physical thing, but it might also be a situation, experience, an environment. I'm one of those people who thinks that anybody can be an artist because it's not about mastering a particular form like painting or dance. I'm not saying that those aren't important things for professional artists to do, but art making can be an intentional act by anybody who is interested in creating and expressing.

Bill Cleveland

Part Four: The Unseen Truth

Another point you've written about is the fact that it's not just the first voice expression of the moment that we're in, but it's also connecting what's happening now to what has happened before. Not as once again, a nice to have, but essential to a society getting clear about where it's going, or maybe what's happening in front of it. And this art making moves into the record of who we are, where we've been, where we're going, and how could you talk about history and how important it is?

Joni Doherty

Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of historians would agree with me that history is about so much more than the famous events and people and dates. It's a very complicated story about our human experience and how we make sense of it. I think history is important because I think of it as a story of the experience of humans and the challenges that they encountered and how they chose to live their lives and what they did and didn't do. And I'm also really interested in what history is preserved and shared and what history is pushed to the sidelines or erased.

Another way of thinking about history is almost like a frame. I was reading that new book by Sarah Lewis, The Unseen Truth, and one thing she is writing about in that book is that we're given this frame, like a window, and we're directed to look through the window, and we are not looking at the frame and at what's outside of the frame. And so our attention is directed in one way. And I think it becomes incredibly interesting to look and think, “What are we looking at and what are we not seeing? What are we not hearing and what are we not thinking about?” Because we're given a certain frame and there are other frames out there that are yet to be discovered.

Bill Cleveland

And what are we not saying? Which gets to that point of censorship and self-censorship that you talk about. And of course, if it's not said or portrayed or documented, then it's hidden, which is the most dangerous when the people that follow draw conclusions from only what's visible.

Joni Doherty

Yeah. Although, I mean, I think that's a little bit different because self- censorship means, like you haven't, to me, at least, it’s different from omission because in self-censorship, you are aware you're censoring yourself, usually because of some fear or intimidation. Right. Or both

Bill Cleveland

So true.

Joni Doherty

And so, you know it and you're intentionally not saying it because, usually, because of outside forces or maybe you want people to like you, and so you're trying to fit in some way. So, what I'm interested in is you're actually not able to have a particular thought or see a particular thing because of a lack of awareness of it. Because your attention is directed in one way and not another.

Bill Cleveland

Yes.

Joni Doherty

And then there's erasure, which is something else altogether. So, these are all in play with each other, but I think of them as different stages.

Bill Cleveland

Yes.

Joni Doherty

Yeah, they're different.

Bill Cleveland

And they're all at work right now, some ways overtly, some ways subtly. So, the Art in Action initiative is clear and focused on the idea that we're in an authoritarian drift, and you're being very specific about how pro-democracy and art making together should be centered in the work. To turn that around, could you talk about what role you see art playing in specific efforts to change the story that's being foisted upon us?

Joni Doherty

Okay, let me talk about the difference between human-centered democracy and electoral politics. Politics is a part of our democracy and it's an important part in terms of voting. But democracy is also a complicated human enterprise where we are trying to work out how to live together — I think a lot of people like the idea that everybody should be treated fairly, even as they might be worried about “If you get this, I get less”.

And so, there's this struggle between a rich, complex way of living that isn't binary, with pluses and minuses or either/ors. And to me, art is, as I said earlier, a holistic way of engaging and expressing engagement with the world. Then it really resists that binary setup. And I think that is one important reason why art is so important for inclusive democracy, because it is so rich in its ways of engaging with the world.

So, like, you use the word combat, and that would be one way. But there's all different ways of countering, deflecting, playing with, introducing the unexpected that artists can do to prompt a surprise reflection, a discovery of a different way of thinking or being in relationships. I think in the work to come, there are a lot of different ways that artists can take on this challenge, and it's not within a single binary of winning and losing.

Bill Cleveland

You know, there's a really interesting anecdote that comes from a laboratory in Utah in the late 1980s where a couple of scientists said that they had discovered cold fusion to create energy. Now, fusion is a very, very intensive process and also very dangerous because of the high temperatures, you know, about 100 million degrees. And these scientists announced that they had created energy producing fusion at room temperature, which was obviously big news, but in short order was revealed as a hoax or just very, very bad science.

News Announcer

In a paper released today, the MIT scientists concluded that a major part of the Utah claim is wrong.

Bill Cleveland

But when I heard about it, I said, well, I already know about cold fusion. Cold fusion is something that every artist knows about, because the more you make, the more there is of the thing that you're trying to make. Art-making exponentially increases the creative power, the volume of expression, the abundance of ideas and possibilities by feeding the imagination, which is intrinsically additive and generative. And so, in essence, creative cold fusion is the antidote to the zero sum, dichotomous way of thinking about the world.

So, when people ask, well, what specifically is the artist going to do to help us save democracy? One of those ways is that it's a very old and free and massively abundant way of thinking and operating in the world that is the polar opposite of that win, lose, conflict producing, scarcity paradigm that is undermining our ability to find common purpose.

Joni Doherty

Exactly.

Bill Cleveland

Joni, one of the things that I like to ask people is what's happening in their life and their interaction with arts and culture. So, are there any books, music, performance art stories, things that have really meant a lot to you recently that you'd like to turn people onto?

Joni Doherty

Yeah, well, I described that wonderful Promised Land dance that I saw, and that has stayed with me. I've thought a lot about that. Another thing that I have been reading is that incredible book, a nonfiction book called The Unseen Truth When: Race Changed Sight in America by Sarah Lewis. And she's really working with the ideas that have long interested me about what we don't see and how what we're not seeing really powerfully impacts what we can see and what we think and how we behave. So, I think that is an incredibly important book that I'm recommending to everybody.

Bill Cleveland

You know, I think of every guest we have here as a branch on a tree with many branches reaching out to people who are interested, involved, in art making as a powerful force for change. And this is certainly one of those branches. And the thing that keeps rising up for me from it is that at Kettering, philanthropy is becoming a creative practice.

I mean, the way in which you describe your relationships with the work, you know, allowing these artists and their ideas the air they need to incubate and grow and spawn new work and new relationships is as close as I have come to hearing about philanthropy as a generative process that is imbued with the possibility of creative action and thinking.

Joni Doherty

Well, I will say we have a relatively new president, Sharon Davies. And when she arrived, we really went into a period of deep reflection and planning about our past, our present, and our future. One of the things we talked a lot about at that time was Charles F. Kettering, you know, who endowed the Foundation, was an inventor. He invented the electronic ignition. And Dayton really was a hotbed of invention at the turn of the 20th century. And so, one of the things that we talked a lot about during that period was how important innovation was. I feel that this new area of work for the Foundation really embodies the spirit of innovation, and both artists and inventors need to take chances to see what's going to work and what doesn't work.

Bill Cleveland

And we're at a moment where what's next is going to have a lot of impact.

Joni Doherty

Yes.

Bill Cleveland

So, thank you to the Kettering Foundation for honoring its roots in a way that manifests in the real world right now at a time that we need it so much.

Joni Doherty

Well, thank you.

Bill Cleveland

And thanks to you out there for listening in. As we close, I'd like to share a few things in our conversation with Joni that stood out for me.

The first is that co-creation can spark innovative civic power. Joni Doherty's work at Kettering shows that patient partnerships built on trust, listening, and shared purpose can fuel artistic projects that are both creative and democratic practices.

Second is one that you've heard many times on this show, which is that art making is a hardcore change strategy. From reclaiming erased civil rights history to resisting modern day censorship, Joni's stories powerfully show how art is central to building and protecting a healthy, inclusive democracy.

And finally, the soapbox, which I refer to as creative Cold Fusion, which is the idea that artistic creation is a generative, abundant antidote to the toxic zero sum us them mindset that dominates our public discourse and decision making.

Artist Is Change is a production at The Center for the Study of Art and Community.

Our theme and soundscapes spring forth from the head, heart and hand of the maestro, Judy Munson; art text editing is by Andre Nnebe. Our effects come from freesound.org and our inspiration comes from the ever-present spirit of UKE235.

So, until next time, stay well, do good and spread the good word.