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. At 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 Erin Benay, 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”—an approach that prioritizes collaboration with external partners and connection with a broad range of community members—she demonstrates how scholarship can be active, relevant and deeply engaged with the wider world.
For Michelle May-Curry, a national leader in public humanities and curator at DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities 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.”
Read more about the initiatives Benay is leading in the public humanities.