COMMUNITY IM PACT REPORT
2023–24
CIA COMMUNITY
CIA attracts select students and employees from across the country, and in fact, from around the world. And, increasingly, CIA’s University Circle campus is evolving to look more like our national profile—more diverse, both demographically and geographically. Combined with recruiting employees who bring diverse life experiences to the College, CIA’s efforts strengthen the cultural fabric of Cleveland.
BY THE NUMBERS: STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS
Rate (Fall 2023 to Spring 2024, record low for CIA)
Rate (Fall 2022 to Fall 2023, most recent IPEDS data available)
$37,966 Average Financial Aid Award
States where seven or more students came from
States where six or fewer students came from
Through international partnerships with colleges and universities across the globe, CIA also welcomed students from China, France and Argentina.
Increasing Access
In 2023–24, CIA launched the Curlee Raven Holton Inclusion Scholar Program, which provides established and emerging artists from traditionally marginalized groups—such as African American, Latinx, Native American and other groups—opportunities to engage with students in professional development and networking at CIA. The inaugural inclusion scholar was Mexico City-based artist Clotilde Jiménez, a 2013 CIA alum, who participated in a Q&A with CIA faculty member David C. Hart, PhD. Curlee Raven Holton earned his BFA from CIA in 1989 and is a National Director of CIA’s Board of Directors.
Students from 30 states enrolled at CIA in Fall Semester 2023.
BY THE NUMBERS: EMPLOYEE DEMOGRAPHICS
CIA recruits talent from across the country, thus deepening and diversifying our region’s creative pool. In 2023–24, employees moved to Northeast Ohio from Alaska, Maryland, Missouri, New York, central and northwest Ohio, and South Carolina.
Increasing Support
In light of the delayed rollout of the new FAFSA, CIA’s Financial Aid staff hosted You Got This: Financial Aid Workshop to help Northeast Ohio high schoolers and their families navigate the entire financial aid process. Students and parents were able to receive step-bystep, one-on-one support from CIA staff in an effort to help them complete their FAFSA.
International Profile
Faculty member Jimmy Kuehnle’s inflatable maze, “Bau(ncy) Haus,” is one of about 20 works in the Balloon Museum’s Pop Air: Art is Inflatable, a touring exhibition dedicated entirely to inflatable art. Pop Air was on view in Barcelona, Spain, and will travel to Berlin, Germany and Vienna, Austria over the next three years.
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
People experience community in many different ways. For some, it might mean spending time with people who share the same culture, background or identity. For others, community might mean helping those in need to serve the greater good. At CIA, community takes all of those forms and more, in the process reflecting the College’s institutional values of Inclusivity and Responsibility.
Celebrating Culture
CIA’s Latinx Heritage and Appreciation Club held its inaugural Cafecito y Chisme event, which invited students, faculty and staff are invited to meet and chat with club members while sipping on Café Bustelo and eating guava pastries from Guaterriqueña Bakery in Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood. The event also involved dancing and music, and it was held in late September during National Hispanic Heritage Month.
Expressing Pride
For the second consecutive year, the CIA community showed its support for the LGBTQIA+ community by participating in the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland’s annual Pride in the CLE March and Festival in downtown Cleveland. Pride in the CLE showcases the rich talents within the LGBTQIA+ community and amplifies vital voices, and CIA’s support of those endeavors is rooted in its institutional values of Inclusivity and Individuality.
Helping Neighbors
In 2025, CIA will open its new Interactive Media Lab in the MidTown district of Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood. But, CIA students and employees got an early start to being active members of the community by participating in MidTown’s annual Spring Clean-Up Day. Beautification efforts included picking up litter and planting flowers, but just as meaningful were the connections built with future neighbors—residents and organizations alike.
Rebuilding Communities
Each year since Hurricane Katrina, students on CIA’s Community Outreach Team have spent their spring break in New Orleans helping rebuild homes and neighborhoods. Work over the years has included doing drywall, light construction, working in urban gardens and clearing blighted lots, and in 2024, students partnered with Rebuilding New Orleans Together. Community service such as this inspires students to do more when they return to Cleveland.
CREATIVE ECONOMY
At the heart of the creative economy are cultural and creative industries, which generate more than $2 trillion annually and employ about 30 million people worldwide, according to UNESCO. CIA is the educational engine that drives this sector in Northeast Ohio. CIA alumni propel creative and entrepreneurial conversations locally and nationally, and students and alumni alike work for— and with—some of the most recognizable brands in the country.
$26.7 million Induced impact
$23.4 million Direct and indirect impact
$55.2 million
CIA’s cumulative economic impact on Cuyahoga County
$3.2 million Student impact
$971,000 Student partnerships
$349,000 Events
$215,000 Visiting artists and lectures
$44,000 Cinematheque
Direct impact: Immediate economic effects generated by CIA activity.
Indirect impact: Secondary effects that occur as a result of CIA activity.
Induced impact: Result of increased household spending resulting from CIA.
Source: Economic Impact Analysis of the Cleveland Institute of Art on Cuyahoga County, Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy
Highlighting Student Impact
Chase Leidy, a 2023 Animation graduate, interned at the Glenn Research Center to create animations for NASA’s Lunar Surface Propagation project that would simplify intricate scientific concepts for a wider audience. More specifically, the animation needed to demonstrate establishing 4G LTE communications on the moon to support future missions of the NASA Artemis program, which aims to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before as well as land the first woman and first person of color on the moon.
Supporting Gender Diversity
Melissa Harvey, a 2023 Life Sciences Illustration graduate, has worked closely with Dr. Kirtishri Mithra at MetroHealth Systems in Cleveland to become a pioneer in illustrating vaginoplasty, a complex procedure to construct a vagina. Although she is not the first medical illustrator to focus on the transgender population, Harvey says she is the first to illustrate vaginoplasty’s post-operative anatomy.
National Recognition
BY THE NUMBERS: ALUMNI
85%
2023 graduates working full-time, part-time or freelancing in an art- or design-related environment or are continuing their studies in graduate school
Emberlynn Miao, a 2023 Industrial Design graduate, earned a prestigious Student Merit Award from the Industrial Designers Society of America for her AnDi Entryway Cabinet. “I grew up a self-taught traditional artist, where it was all about using art to express myself. Design is all about others, problem solving and creating value for the world, all of which provides a much more fulfilling force for my creativity,” Maio says. 6,798
alumni Alumni living in Cleveland Alumni living in Northeast Ohio
Alumni living in Ohio
CREATIVE COLLABORATIONS
Social practice is at the heart what CIA does. This can be seen in classrooms, but more importantly, it takes shape outside of CIA’s walls, where students learn through community-based partnerships and entrepreneurial internship programs. CIA also forms community by being a place where Northeast Ohioans come to learn and be inspired.
Community Involvement
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority and Cleveland Institute of Art collaborated to create artistic panels for the bus shelters located on Euclid Avenue at Stearns Road and Stokes Boulevard in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood. The project’s theme was derived from GCRTA’s current media campaign, “Let’s Go Together,” and developed through discussions between GCRTA Marketing and a class of more than 40 students at CIA.
Enriching Neighborhoods
To honor and celebrate Buckeye-Shaker, a Cleveland neighborhood with vibrant culture and a rich history, CIA students collaborated with IBIS Development Group—which operates the Buckeye Plaza shopping center—to design murals that showcase themes of growth, strength and community. Under the direction of professor Pam Spremulli, students researched the neighborhood and created art that inspires, uplifts and enriches. The murals were installed in May 2024 at Buckeye Plaza.
Classroom Connections
CIA students worked with these community partners—and many more— in 2023–24.
Chagrin Documentary Film Festival
Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland Public Library
Case Western Reserve University
Deep Dive Art Projects
Empress Editions
Finnish Heritage Museum
General Motors
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
Health IQ Monitoring, LLC
Hospice of the Western Reserve
IBIS Development Group
iDesign
Julia de Borgos Cultural Arts Center
LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland
Nature Center at Shaker Lakes
Oak Tree Learning Center
Praxis Fiber Workshop
Progressive
Stellantis
Studio West 117
Wizbang Theatre and Spirit Room
Cocktail Bar
Your Story on Film, LLC
YWCA Greater Cleveland
29,000+
Visitors to public programming events during 2023–24
11,000
Visitors to 24 exhibitions throughout campus
17,700 Cinematheque attendees to 464 screenings
322 Young artists and adults took part in 48 Continuing Education classes
888 Northeast Ohio high school students exhibited work at CIA
1,592 Northeast Ohio students submitted work for Scholastic Art & Writing Awards consideration
During the 2024 Spring Show, attendees had an opportunity to engage with students majoring in CIA’s Design disciplines and learn more about—or perhaps interact with—the innovative products they imagined and created.
Black Scholars and Artists, a CIA student group, organized its second annual Black History Month Exhibition, Is It Because I’m Me BLACK!!?, in 2024. The exhibition featured work made by students from across CIA’s academic environments.
LIFELONG COLLABORATIONS
At CIA, an art and design education lasts longer—and means more—than four years of college. CIA serves as an engine for creativity for high schoolers through innovative and immersive programming, encouraging students to learn new skills and discover their passions. The College also maintains strong connections to generations of graduates whose work contributes to Northeast Ohio’s cultural vitality of our region and entrepreneurial spirit.
Expanding Experience
In 2023–24, hundreds of high school and middle school students in Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga counties were awarded for their creativity through the annual Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition at CIA. Award-winning students—as well as their proud teachers and families—attended an exhibition reception in CIA’s Reinberger Gallery to view their artwork, read their prose and celebrate their achievements.
Building Futures
Each year, high school students from across the country immerse themselves in CIA’s Pre-College program, which helps them build new skill sets while experiencing life at an art school. Students spend two weeks learning from CIA faculty (earning three college credits along the way) and living in CIA residence halls, and they leave feeling better prepared to attend college. For many, it’s their first step toward pursuing their creative passions.
Pioneering Transportation
CIA alumni are trailblazers, innovators and creative agitators. For example, Scott Colosimo ’04 founded Clevelandbased LAND Energy, where he and his team design and hand-build twowheeled electric vehicles called E MOTOs. Recently, Cleveland Police launched a pilot program that uses E MOTOs to patrol large-scale events. Also, LAND sources 80% of its components from the U.S.—a fact that led The Wall Street Journal to interview Colosimo about how defense-tech startups work to rely less on China for parts used in U.S. military innovations.
Crafting Creativity
Did you know that your DeWalt, Cub Cadet, CRAFTSMAN, Hustler or Troy-Bilt mower might have been designed by a CIA alum?
From left, Ryan Maibach ’09, Maynard Payumo ’10, Veronica Flanigan ’17, Dennis Fowler ’98, Johnny Barker ’19, Mark Raber ’04, Mason Radike ’20 and Jeremy Powell ‘07 all work at the Stanley Black & Decker / OUTDOOR facility in Valley City, Ohio—just one example of CIA alumni contributing to Northeast Ohio’s innovation economy.
Looking ahead to CIA’s impact in 2024–25
The Cleveland Institute of Art Interactive Media Lab (IML) will be the nexus of art, design, innovation, technology and community when it opens in spring 2025 at the Cleveland Foundation’s MidTown Collaboration Center. The IML will feature an extended reality (XR) virtual production stage and leading-edge virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology, and it will allow CIA students to engage in artist- and designer-driven development with Northeast Ohio companies and institutions leading the way health care, software development, entrepreneurship and community-based arts. The IML’s public accessibility—paired with its scope, capacity and technology—will make it the only facility of its kind in Ohio.
Community Impact Report 2023–24 images courtesy of Michael C. Butz, Cleveland Foundation, The Dark Room Co., Amber N. Ford ’16, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, Rustin McCann, Meptik, Emberlynn Miao
’23, NASA, Leah Trznadel ’19 and Carlo Wolff.