OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, October 3 from 5-7pm.
Interpretations of an American Dream is a regional, all-media juried exhibition showcasing contemporary artwork that explores the meaning of dreaming in America today. This exhibition brings together artists from across Ohio and its neighboring states to consider how aspirations, ideals, myths, and realities shape our shared experience of the United States.
The works on view reveal that the American Dream is not a single story but many, told through lenses that are deeply personal and profoundly social. Some artists highlight moments of hope, resilience, and beauty—expressions of faith in possibility. Others draw attention to the tensions, contradictions, and disillusionments that surface when the dream collides with reality. Together, the works reflect the wide spectrum of living in America: the absurd and the profound, the familiar and the strange, the nostalgic and the unsettling.
At its core, this exhibition reminds us that dreams are complex. They can inspire ambition and unity while also revealing divisions and inequities. The American Dream, elusive as it may be, continues to shape our imagination, our labor, and our sense of belonging.
Through painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and mixed media, these artists ask us to reflect on our own relationship to the dream—how we inherit it, question it, struggle with it, and, ultimately, how we continue to reimagine it.