Rust Belt Renaissance: How FRONT International Reimagined the American Art Triennial

On a sweltering July morning in 2018, Cleveland's cultural leaders gathered at the steps of the century-old Federal Reserve Bank building on East 6th Street. The stately limestone edifice had stood largely vacant for years, another monument to the city's faded financial power. But on this day, the building hummed with anticipation as art world dignitaries, curators, and journalists from across the globe crowded into its opulent lobby. FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art was about to make its debut, marking the most ambitious attempt yet to redefine what a major art exhibition could mean in America's heartland.

"People asked me, 'Why Cleveland?'" recalled Fred Bidwell, the philanthropist and former advertising executive who founded FRONT. "They meant, 'Why not Chicago or New York?' But that question itself revealed the opportunity. Cleveland offered something rare—authentic places with complex histories, institutions hungry for collaboration, and communities eager to engage with contemporary ideas without the market pressures and saturation of coastal art centers."

The inaugural FRONT emerged from a confluence of circumstances particular to Northeast Ohio in the mid-2010s. Following decades of population decline and economic struggle, Cleveland was experiencing modest urban revitalization. The city's cultural institutions—among them the Cleveland Museum of Art, which had completed a stunning $350 million expansion in 2014—were punching far above their weight class. Meanwhile, smaller cities like Akron and Oberlin maintained distinct cultural identities anchored by respected institutions like the Akron Art Museum and Oberlin College's Allen Memorial Art Museum.

Bidwell, who had split his time between Cleveland and New York, recognized an opportunity to connect these dots into something greater than their sum. "The traditional biennial model, descended from Venice, places everything in a central location," explains Reto Thüring, who served as Artistic Director for FRONT's second edition. "Fred envisioned something closer to a cultural mapping project—using contemporary art to reveal connections between places, histories, and communities that usually don't speak to each other."

This vision required rethinking fundamental assumptions about exhibition-making. Rather than imposing a structure on the region, FRONT's organizers spent years building relationships with institutions large and small, from world-class museums to community arts centers. The collaboration extended beyond traditional art spaces to include public libraries, universities, transit hubs, and industrial sites, creating what Michelle Grabner, the inaugural artistic director, called "a curatorial conversation with the landscape itself."

This landscape-based approach yielded unexpected dividends. For the first edition, German artist Marlon de Azambuja created a striking installation in Cleveland's Public Square, using locally-sourced concrete blocks and pigments to construct a miniature cityscape that referenced both Cleveland's architectural heritage and its complex racial geography. In Oberlin, British artist Lubaina Himid transformed the Allen Museum's elegant Ellen Johnson Gallery with an immersive meditation on migration, memory, and the African diaspora—themes that resonated differently in a college town with deep abolitionist roots than they might have in an urban center.

"What makes FRONT radical isn't just what happens in the exhibition spaces," observed critic Jillian Steinhauer in her review of the inaugural edition. "It's how the exhibition creates new pathways through the region, encouraging visitors to see places they might otherwise ignore and revealing connections that weren't visible before."

This emphasis on place has proven particularly meaningful for local audiences. Cleveland photographer Michael Loderstedt, whose work has engaged with the region's waterways for decades, noted that "FRONT made Northeast Ohioans see familiar landscapes through fresh eyes. When international artists respond thoughtfully to our region, it validates local experience while connecting it to global conversations."

The triennial has also catalyzed institutional transformation. William Griswold, Director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, credits FRONT with accelerating his institution's engagement with contemporary art and helping bridge divides between cultural organizations. "Collaboration at this scale was unprecedented for Cleveland," he noted. "FRONT created a framework for institutions that typically compete for resources to work toward a common goal, building capacity and trust that extends beyond the exhibition cycle."

Now preparing for its third edition in 2025, FRONT has solidified its identity as a different kind of triennial—one that values context over spectacle and relationship-building over cultural consumption. "The most successful projects," observed Prem Krishnamurthy, co-artistic director of the 2022 edition, "are those that grow from extended engagement with Northeast Ohio's specific conditions rather than being parachuted in from elsewhere."

This emphasis on sustained engagement represents perhaps FRONT's most significant contribution to the evolution of large-scale art exhibitions. At a time when global biennials often struggle with accusations of cultural tourism and superficial engagement, FRONT's model suggests an alternative approach—one that moves slowly enough to foster meaningful exchange between artists, institutions, and communities.

"The question was never really 'Why Cleveland?'" reflects Bidwell. "It was 'How can contemporary art help us understand what it means to be in this place, at this moment in history?' That question remains as urgent and generative as ever." As FRONT approaches its third iteration, it continues to demonstrate that the most innovative thinking about exhibition-making might come not from traditional art world capitals, but from the complex, contradictory American heartland where necessity has always been the mother of invention.