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Art History in Action

Erin Benay is at the forefront of redefining humanities education

Photo by Gus ChanCWRU art historian Erin Benay at Zygote Press in Cleveland. In recent years, she created Pressing Matters for local teens to build self-advocacy skills and visual literacy while making prints at Zygote and other locations.

Sawyer Brent usually kept the slogans and sketches in his tattered notebook to himself. But in 2023, he joined a new after-school program—Pressing Matters at Cleveland's Zygote Press—where he learned to carve linoleum blocks, ink them and print his designs on posters and shirts.

His artwork—bold depictions of bicycles and skateboards—represented personal freedom and individuality. 365bet体育在线世界杯 the workshop's final gathering, where students showcased and sold their work, he had buyers for every item.

"I never really thought anyone would care about my drawings," said Brent, 14, who lives on Cleveland's West Side. "But now I see that sharing ideas actually brings people together. It's cool how different perspectives can make everything more interesting."

Pressing Matters is a signature project for Case Western Reserve University's , PhD, an art historian who created it in recent years as she expanded the vision that shapes her teaching, research and community partnerships. Now her work extends beyond studying the past to engaging with the present.

By working at the forefront of the "public humanities"鈥攁n approach that prioritizes collaboration with external partners and connection with a broad range of community members鈥攕he demonstrates how scholarship can be active, relevant and deeply engaged with the wider world.

For , PhD, a national leader in public humanities and curator at in Washington, D.C., Benay's work is a model for how the humanities can move beyond traditional academic spaces.

"The humanities cannot be isolated or unchanging," said May-Curry, who also teaches in Georgetown University's Master of Arts in Engaged and Public Humanities program. "Erin doesn't just talk about public engagement; she puts it into practice. She's rethinking what humanities education can look like, and that's the kind of work that deserves recognition and support."

FROM ART HISTORY TO PUBLIC HUMANITIES

Benay's interest in publicly engaged scholarship grew from her background as a specialist in early modern Italian painting and visual culture. For years, she studied how Renaissance prints and paintings were produced, and then how they traveled across time and space—shaping knowledge and beliefs.

But as she examined how historical images impacted public consciousness, she began wondering whether those conversations had to remain in the past.

"I spent my career studying how prints helped spread religious and political ideas," she said. "But I kept thinking about how that knowledge could be applicable in other ways. What if we applied that same lens to the present, using art to engage contemporary audiences in meaningful ways?"

With Pressing Matters, for example, she's bridging art history, social advocacy and visual literacy (the ability to read, interpret and analyze visual information) with printmaking—a centuries-old medium for expression—to help young people across Cleveland amplify their voices.

Working with Zygote Press—a nonprofit community-printmaking studio—as well as local artists and CWRU students, teens in the workshop channeled their experiences into art, tackling issues ranging from mental health to education reform. For some, the process encourages them to speak up in ways they hadn't before.

"They started talking openly about their experiences and the changes they wanted in their neighborhoods," said , a Cleveland-based artist and Pressing Matters mentor. "Making prints became a doorway鈥攜ou put your ideas on paper and suddenly you feel heard."

In 2023, CWRU named Benay one of two inaugural Distinguished Scholars in the Public Humanities, recognition of her commitment to engaging the broader public through art, partnerships and projects. (, PhD, professor in religious studies, was the other scholar.)

"Public humanities challenge the idea that history is something we simply inherit," Benay said. "It's something we actively shape."

REFRAMING THE PAST

Photo by Gus ChanMegan Alves, who graduates in May with a master's degree in art history, demonstrates (above and below) a printmaking technique used in the 1930s and 1940s by artists affiliated with Cleveland's Karamu House. Alves learned the technique in a seminar CWRU's Erin Benay taught in which students helped with research and developing the catalog for Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community, a Cleveland Museum of Art exhibition that runs until mid-August.

That same dedication to public engagement is shaping another of Benay's community efforts—one that examines Cleveland's artistic history by highlighting a range of local artists. Recently, she turned her attention to , Cleveland's historic African American arts center. Renowned for its theater program, Karamu was also home to a printmaking workshop in the 1930s and '40s that gave Black artists space to create and display their work.

When the organization's archives moved to CWRU's Kelvin Smith Library in 2021, Benay saw a chance to connect past and present. This academic year, she co-curated : Printmaking, Race, and Community, an exhibition at the exploring the center's role in the region's cultural landscape. Several of her students contributed research and writing for the exhibition labels and the catalog. The show runs through mid-August.

Benay also spearheaded additional programming with called Karamu in Context that included community lectures, printmaking workshops at library branches and exhibition tours at the museum. Her intent: to help ensure that a broader Cleveland audience is introduced to the exhibition's themes.

But for Benay, research isn't only about documenting the past—it's also about rethinking how it's understood and shared. Rather than simply compiling historical analyses and publishing the work in peer-reviewed journals, she and her students engage directly with living artists, descendants and local residents. They also work with families, combing through personal photographs, letters and oral histories to uncover perspectives on the Karamu printmakers from decades ago that might otherwise be lost.

"We're making sure this exhibition reflects the voices of people who lived it," said graduate student Megan Alves, one of the exhibition's contributors.

THE HUMANITIES IN ACTION

On campus, Benay is working to help students connect their academic work with local engagement through CWRU's , which she and colleagues at the university's Baker-Nord Institute for the Humanities launched in 2022.

The program encourages students to move away from studying art (or any subject) in isolation and instead consider its broader social and community contexts.

"We are not studying art in a vacuum," said Alves, one of the first enrollees, who is earning both her master's degree in art history and the certificate in May. "Art historians have historically focused on objects alone. Dr. Benay's classes have deepened my understanding of how race, class and gender intersect and have taught me how interpretation can shape whose [artistic] voices are heard."

That perspective shaped her work on the Karamu House exhibition, where she developed object labels highlighting the role of Black printmakers in Cleveland's cultural history. The hands-on experience revealed how museum narratives can either elevate or overlook little-known artists from across backgrounds and disciplines.

According to Alves, this change in outlook stems from Benay's approach—both teaching public engagement and practicing it.

"Dr. Benay is fearless," Alves said. "I hope to carry that flexibility forward in my own work."

PAINTING ON WALLS

Photo by Bob PerkoskiThis mural, Sophie Climbing the Stairs (2016) by Aaron de la Cruz, is featured on a concrete retaining wall along a Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority rapid-transit line. It's included in The City is Our Museum, an app that guides visitors on a tour of Cleveland's public art. Students in one of Erin Benay's courses collaborated with the nonprofit LAND Studio to create the app.

Benay brings this same community orientation to her undergraduate teaching, ensuring that students explore and apply art history in real-world contexts.

A notable example is "Painting on Walls," a CWRU course for undergraduates and graduate students she developed in 2020 in partnership with , a Cleveland-based nonprofit focused on public art and urban design.

Blending historical analysis with place- and community-based research, students examined the evolution of murals—from Renaissance frescoes to 20th-century street art鈥攂efore moving beyond the classroom to explore Cleveland's vibrant public art landscape. As they studied the city's murals, they began questioning not just what was depicted, but whose perspectives—artistic and from the community—were absent.

"Erin's students pushed us to ask, 鈥榃hose voices are we not hearing?'" said Greg Peckham (MNO '99), LAND Studio's executive director. "There's a difference between a mural that just appears on a wall and one that's rooted in local stories."

Students collaborated with the nonprofit to develop interpretive panels and digital content, which became part of The City Is Our Museum, a free app that provides self-guided walking tours of Cleveland's murals and sculptures. Their research added depth to the public's experience of the artwork, offering accessible, museum-style descriptions that connect the murals to the neighborhoods and stories they represent.

"Public art meets people where they are, making history more visible and inclusive," Peckham said, "and their experience of their surroundings becomes much more personal."

As a third-year student, Abigail Adams (CWR '24) worked on the app during a public humanities course she took with Benay, interviewing community members with other students for comments included in the app. The project demonstrated how art history can function as a tool for connection and advocacy.

"It pushed me to think about who we include in exhibitions and public art," said Adams, who is now pursuing a graduate degree in fashion and textile history in New York City. "I realized if a community doesn't feel welcomed, it doesn't matter how brilliant the exhibit or art piece is."

CHANGING THE FIELD

For Benay, such projects do more than recover overlooked histories—they also redefine the role of an art historian. Rather than only interpreting the past, she sees scholars as active collaborators, working directly with community members to amplify their perspectives.

"Artists, historians and families hold deep knowledge about their own histories," she said. Through Engaged Art History—a symposium and international network she co-founded in 2021—Benay is helping scholars and museum professionals around the country rethink their roles, prompting them to work with, rather than apart from, the people whose stories they interpret.

"The humanities should not be about gatekeeping," she said. "The power of collaboration helps us open doors to different ways of understanding history, whether through oral histories, grassroots archives or firsthand accounts. It's a reminder that culture belongs to all of us."

— DANIEL ROBISON