Dionne Custer Edwards

PROFESSIONAL BIO

Dionne Custer Edwards is a writer and arts educator working in education programming at The Wexner Center for the Arts, where she created Pages, a multi-visit writing-based arts program, where she curates arts experiences, teaches, and co-edits an anthology of student writings inspired by a year of learning experiences in and around the arts. For nearly 20 years, Dionne has served in central Ohio communities focused on education and arts integration in K-12 education and museums. Her interests are writing, literacy, and developing arts-integrated programs that build interdisciplinary experiences.

She has partnered with many programs and organizations including Ohio Arts Council, Greater Columbus Arts Council, Transit Arts, and Thurber House Writing Center—and serves on three boards: Columbus Montessori Education Center, the Ohio Art League, and The Wellington School. She has received several awards and fellowships for her work in the arts and in 2014 was nominated for a GCAC Community Arts Partnership award.

In conjunction with her work in the arts and education, in 2012, she presented in Indianapolis, a TEDx talk titled: Beautiful Distractions in 21st Century Learning, and most recently spoke at the National Art Education Association on her research and work with the Pages program. She was one of the keynote speakers at the Council of Education Facility Planners International conference, where she spoke on engaging design thinking, learning environments in the 21st century, and the future of K-12 education.

For several years, she was a contributing writer for Alive, has published single works of creative writing, essays, and articles, and recently published an essay, translated in English and Turkish, Inside Outside: On Creative Practice and Arts Partnership in Sanat Dünyamiz (“Our Art World”). In 2015, she was featured on The Ohio Channel’s Book Notes, a series featuring writers living and working in Ohio.

She writes regularly online at lifeandwrite.com, and lives with her husband, three sons, and a journal, in Columbus, Ohio.