Cleveland: Philanthropic Tourism or Community Counter Reading: Race and Place in Rust Belt Rediscovery

Cleveland, a rust belt city, is undergoing what David Wilson has criticized as a highly uneven form of urban revitalization hinged on the creative industry. GraffitiHeart, a local non-profit, uses art creation, workshops, and public programming in tandem with philanthropic efforts to address inequality in urban spaces. Inspire Your City, an artist-run mural initiative uses literacy-themed murals to draw attention to dynamics of racial capitalism in Cleveland’s uneven development. The chapter investigates the similar and different ways that the two programs imagine graffiti/street art as a resource for discovering Cleveland.