Local resident and longtime art curator Ena Nearon launched her new podcast, “Curious About Art?” on Thursday, June 5, on WCSU-FM Jazzy 88.9; the program will air weekly on Thursdays at 6 p.m. Above, Nearon records an episode of the program in the WCSU studios on the campus of Central State University. (Photo by Lauren "Chuck" Shows)
A podcast for the art-curious
- Published: June 18, 2025
Last week, folks tuned into WCSU-FM Jazzy 88.9 during Thursday’s evening drive-time would have heard a voice familiar to many in the village floating through the airwaves and from their speakers.
“Welcome to ‘Curious About Art?’ — the podcast where we explore the intersections of creativity, culture and community. I’m Ena Nearon.”
“Curious About Art?” launched its inaugural episode both online and on the air last week. It will air on WCSU at 6 p.m. Thursday evenings, and will be hosted online at wcsufm.org.
The News chatted with local resident and host Ena Nearon the day of the podcast’s launch. With past experience in broadcasting and much of her life devoted to curating art exhibitions and connecting creative folks with one another, Nearon told the News that a podcast about art seemed very much within her wheelhouse. She ran the idea past WCSU’s general manager, Charles Fox, and he gave Nearon the green light to get the podcast off the ground.
“[Fox] is very community-minded; I said I didn’t want [the podcast] to be for just a certain niche … and he said that was a good idea,” Nearon said.
With the broader community in mind, Nearon said she aimed to produce a podcast that captures conversations geared toward “the common person,” and not necessarily those who are already heavily steeped in the art world.
“What about a podcast for people who want to learn about art and not feel uncomfortable when they go into an art environment?” Nearon said. “Where they can become familiar with the art field in all of its different colors and shapes and ideas.”
Emerging from this concept has been a series of conversations between Nearon and artists, activists and change-makers that interrogate the ways art — particularly visual art — interacts with and influences the lives of everyone, often in ways that go unnoticed.
“Curious About Art?” has been the months-long work of collaboration between Nearon and Wade Oberlin, the operations manager of WCSU at Central State University. Oberlin, who edits the podcast, said he and Nearon developed a format for “Curious About Art?” that both embraces and goes beyond the one guest, one topic formula endemic to many podcasts.
“This is a unique prospect in that we’ve interviewed many different guests, and then we started to sort of make a patchwork [of interviews] based on themes,” Oberlin said.
The introductory episode highlights the “patchwork” aspect of the program’s focus, in which five guests, each interviewed separately about different wide-ranging topics, all ended up speaking to a central theme Nearon and Oberlin pulled from the discussions: Why does visual art matter to our everyday experience?
The episode features renowned Dayton visual artist and educator Willis “Bing” Davis, who describes creative people as “griots — collectors of our culture and the reflection of our culture”; Rachel Evans Nead, director of grantmaking and impact at Culture Works Dayton, speaking on how her work empowers visual art to enrich communities; activist and writer Bomani Moyenda, who recalls the effect of activist imagery on youth-led protests in the village in the summer of 2020; artist and educator Jenny Roselle Ustick on the relationship between public art and communities; and historian and professor Kevin McGruder, who discusses the impact of graffiti art in the subway stations of New York City during his time living there in the ’80s.
“Each of these perspectives,” Nearon says during the episode, “brings us to a bigger idea: Art isn’t just something we look at; it’s something we live with.”
Though the introductory episode and subsequent episodes, which will run about eight minutes, will follow a similar thematic format most weeks, Nearon said the long-form versions of each individual interview will be aired on 88.9 one week each month. Some are already live on Nearon’s website, curiousaboutart1.com. Both approaches, she said, are in service to keeping listeners informed and engaged.
“Different guests, different niches, different approaches,” Nearon said. “I wanted [the podcast] to have a mission. I didn’t want it to just be talking on the air.”
As a longtime supporter of artists via exhibition planning, art curation and social media management, Nearon is familiar with a bevy of creative folks — “I like creative types around me; I like community, people getting together from different backgrounds and being exposed to different things,” she said. Thus, the well of potential arts-adjacent guests for “Curious About Art?” is unlikely to run dry.
But Nearon said she also aims to explore avenues that folks might not consider when thinking about the arts when planning her roster of guests.
“I thought, ‘I could do this from a lot of different perspectives’ — mental health, spirituality, even physical health,” she said. “I talked to [financial advisor Michelle Graves] about art valuation and financial planning for artists; I brought in [Yellow Springs business owner] Christine Monroe-Beard, and as a businesswoman, she talked about murals and how they’re beneficial to both businesses and the community.”
Educating and entertaining is a top priority for Nearon in creating the podcast, but she said the ultimate impetus of “Curious About Art?” is about bringing some joy to the ears of the podcast’s listeners — and to herself.
“After the election last year, I was sitting in the car thinking, ‘How am I going to handle this? How can I do something that will create good in the world?’” she said. “This podcast was a promise I made to myself.”
Nearon added that she’s grateful to the staff at the historic Central State University’s radio station for giving her the opportunity to keep that promise.
“I want to honor WCSU for giving me a chance; they gave me access to all the equipment and a professional editor who is really wonderful,” she said. “So it’s important to me, when I do this, that I don’t lose the community-focused essence of what WCSU is all about.”
“Curious About Art?” with Ena Nearon airs Thursdays at 6 p.m. on WCSU-FM Jazzy 88.9. For more information, go to wcsufm.org or http://www.curiousaboutart1.com.
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