For years, we’ve shined the light on underutilized resources in Downtown Cleveland’s urban core. Now, our city as a whole has never looked better. Where does this leave one arts nonprofit still looking to make an impact?

For the first time since its inception, IngenuityFest will move outside the Downtown district. We were looking for a place to take root and bloom – but also a place where we could feed the soil and give back. We wanted to better support artists and creatives with tools, resources, space and connections, to help them more easily present the visionary work we all crave – to amuse us, help us meet social issues head on, educate us and inspire. We wanted to move to a neighborhood with a strong but growing arts community, a diversity of residents of all backgrounds, great things happening and also more to do. We wanted to build relationships with local businesses, neighbors, and corporate citizens, and present in a place that captures the raw intensity of possibility. We found ourselves in Saint Clair Superior, at the corner of 53 rd and Hamilton.

We’re working toward a future in which we integrate seamlessly with a range of neighborhood initiatives. IngenuityFest 2016 will transform the former Osborne Industrial Complex into a new interface for our established and growing network of artists, entrepreneurs, educators, manufacturers and business leaders, as well as creative individuals and local leaders from the surrounding neighborhoods.

We’ve seen the power and possibility of collaboration during our festival and our other events, and it is our mission to help this kind of cross pollination occur 365 days a year. To that end, this year’s festival will include a pilot creative collaborative community built right on site. Participants and members of our IngenuityLabs incubator will represent the needs and aspirations of the creative community as we work together to vision an identifiable neighborhood hub and anchor providing low-barrier- to-access space and programming.

Our 12th annual IngenuityFest will be held September 23-25, 2016 with the theme “Awakenings,” which resonates with this new chapter in our organization. Join our community of artisans and partners! To see what kinds of opportunities Ingenuity is currently offering, visit www.ingenuitycleveland.com/getinvolved or reach out to Program Director, Emily Appelbaum, at emily@ingenuitycleveland.org.