Dionne Custer Edwards is the Director of Learning & Public Practice at the Wexner Center for the Arts where she oversees four major program areas and has pioneered several groundbreaking education programs—including Pages, an art and writing program—serving hundreds of high school students a year from across central Ohio.

Embedded in her art and education practices is Dionne’s commitment to work in diversity, equity, inclusion, and access. In partnership with Wex board member, Alex Shumate, Dionne helped to conceptualize and sustain the work of the Shumate Council—a group of Wex supporters, ambassadors, and volunteers; committed to diversity, inclusion, and access.

Dionne has received awards and fellowships for her work in the arts, including a 12-month fellowship with Americans for the Arts, and two nominations, for a Greater Columbus Arts Council Community Arts Partnership award. Dionne has presented and been a featured speaker at several national conferences on her work and research in arts education—including at the Indianapolis Museum of Art TEDx conference—where she spoke on 21st century learning.

While Dionne is an arts educator, arts administrator, and programmer—she is also a practicing artist. She has published critical and literary writing, internationally and nationally in Sanat Dünyamiz (“Our Art World”), Turkey, Journal GEARTE, Brazil, and in the University of Arizona’s Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education. Her poetry and nonfiction have appeared in 3Elements Review, Barren Magazine, Entropy Magazine, Flock, Gordon Square Review, Grist, Porter House Review, Storm Cellar, The Seventh Wave, Tahoma Literary Review, and others.

Dionne has a MA in Arts Education and Creative Writing, Antioch University and a BA in English, Ohio State University.

Areas of Practice and Research

• Community-Based Arts Education
• K-12 School Arts Partnerships
• Interdisciplinary Practices
• Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Inclusion
• Arts Administration
• Museum Studies
• Gallery Practices and Interpretation
• Public Programs