#FaithInFocusCLE: History, the Arts, and Engaging Dialogues about Religious Diversity

Cleveland History Center

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• Date Thursday, October 19, 2023 - Sunday, December 31, 2023
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The Cleveland History Center houses diverse exhibits that narrate the history of Northeast Ohio through various collections of items, documents, and artifacts. It offers a sense of identity in our mobile society and a platform for learning about innovation and... more

2023-2024 program series, will include exhibitions in the Western Reserve Historical Society’s Henri Pell Junod, Jr. Center for History Education, guest speakers, book discussions, poster exhibitions from the Smithsonian Institution’s Traveling Exhibition Services (SITES); and banner and web-based oral history exhibitions related to a community partnership with Cleveland’s East Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Distinguished Scholar of African American History and Culture, will serve as the program director.

The series begins on Thursday, October 19, 2023, with the 6:30 PM Opening Reception for “Sisters: Portraits of Women Religious from St. Adalbert / Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church and School,” a special exhibition of recent works by photographer Herbert Ascherman, Jr. At 7 PM, Ascherman will deliver an illustrated talk on “Religious Cleveland: A Photo Documentary.” The address for the Western Reserve Historical Society is 10825 East Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio, 44106. Admission to this event is free for WRHS members and other guests with paid museum admission or guest passes. Ascherman’s presentation will include photographs that he contributed to Images from the Heart: A Bicentennial Celebration of Cleveland and Its People. He described his contribution to this book project as a portrait study of the approximately 65 religious communities in Cleveland. The photographer went on to say that he shot on location and produced a portrait of a representative of each of the various religions.

Having closed his studio in 2009, Ascherman donated his “legacy” photography collection to the Western Reserve Historical Society. A fourth-generation citizen of Greater Cleveland, his WRHS Library collections includes 6,000 black and white portraits taken over the course of his 45-year career. The photographer states that his camera has taken him to 43 states and 36 countries. Today, he works from his home-based studio in Shaker Heights and remains committed to the health and welfare of Cleveland, a community that he describes as “the greatest little gem in the country.”

The Ascherman exhibition, which includes portraits of Sisters born in Kenya and Tanzania, will continue through December 2023. The complete schedule of related program activities will be available in October, which is National Arts and Humanities Month, and online at wrhs.org. For more information, please contact Dr. Regennia N. Williams at rwilliams@wrhs.org.