Dionne Custer Edwards

In 2005, Dionne Custer Edwards, head of learning and public practice, joined the Wexner Center for the Arts. Her work at the Wex has included pioneering 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. 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. She also regularly serves as a trustee on nonprofit organization boards and serves on panels for arts and grantmaking organizations. 

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, The Ohio State University.