Expansive Practice Ben Smith is an artist whose broad, interdisciplinary work spans sound, film and moving image, social engagement and analogue technologies, often operating at the intersection of storytelling, memory and place. His approach is rooted in collaboration and exchange, creating frameworks where communities actively shape and transmit their own narratives. Working with a distinct openness to form, he builds projects that shift between platforms and contexts, foregrounding process...

Introduction: Radical Presence in East Cleveland In a moment when phrases like ‘community engagement’ and ‘creative placemaking’ are widely circulated but often shallow in practice, Loiter emerges as a radical intervention. Based in East Cleveland, a city long impacted by redlining, deindustrialisation and infrastructural neglect, Loiter isn’t a typical non-profit, a gallery, or a consultancy; it’s a philosophy of presence. Founded on principles of cultural preservation, refusal of erasure,...

From participation to co-production: care, memory and the making of civic space Each year, Ingenuity Cleveland transforms its large industrial site into IngenuityFest 2025: a weekend of art, performance and experimentation. In September 2025, A Paradise of Displacement was introduced within that setting. Alongside the festival’s performances and installations, A Paradise of Displacement introduced a set of participatory works that asked a simple question: What happens when people are invited...