Tour de Force
Download the BLINK audio tour from ArtsWave with exclusive content.
ArtsWave’s Guided BLINK Tours
Download at artswave.org/tours for a $10 donation.
BLINK is A LOT to see, but if you’re curious about the stories behind some of the murals, installations, and projects just listen.
ArtsWave, the nonprofit engine for the Cincinnati region’s arts and Illuminator of BLINK®, has developed a unique behind-the-scenes guided walking tour for the event.
“We are calling them digital tours rather than audio tours because they include video introductions from the artists, images, sketches, artist bios and more,” says Jeni Barton, ArtsWave’s executive-in-residence for creative technologies.
Using your own smartphone, and walking at your own pace, the walking tour features 10 stops on a 1.5-mile loop. Each stop offers an immersive experience, curated by the artist, including video introductions, along with an array of different materials per art piece, including tours of the artists' studios, in-progress sketches and photos, artwork installation videos and biographies.
“I hope people learn more about the people behind the artwork while doing the digital tour,” says Barton. “The festival features both local and international artists with such a variety of creative styles and methodologies. It is fascinating to see how this diverse group of people from around the world can create such a cohesive and unifying magical experience.”
The tour is available with a $10 donation to ArtsWave, and can be accessed at any time during BLINK. You will receive an email immediately after their purchase containing the confirmation and instructions.
“The coolest thing about the tour is getting to look at the creative process behind some of the installations at BLINK,” says Bartton. “Each video captures the artist's personality and creative style. You feel like you are meeting the artist while experiencing their work!”
All proceeds from the tours will local arts, festivals, performances, and more. Donors to the 2022 ArtsWave Campaign who qualified for the Team Cincinnati benefit do not need to purchase a tour and have access the tour compliments of ArtsWave.
“As the illuminating sponsor of BLINK, we wanted to create something that would inspire people to become arts donors,” says Barton. “Every year, through donations from the community, ArtsWave funds thousands of arts events, like BLINK. A $10 donation gives you a more engaging experience with the artwork while also helping fund the next great Cincinnati art event.”
Coming Into Focus
The CAC is partnering with the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial: World Record, for a slate of exhibitions. The month-long celebration of lens-based art opens with a public reception on Friday.
FotoFocus Biennial: World Record
Opening Reception
Four Exhibitions. One Celebration.
Friday, Sept. 30
5 p.m.–12 a.m.
5 p.m. – Cocktail Reception
in Kaplan Hall
CAC Members and FotoFocus Passport Holders Only
6 p.m. – Exhibition Preview
CAC Members and FotoFocus Passport Holders Only
7 p.m. – Film Screening + Discussion in CAC Black Box with artists Dara Friedman and Lizzi Bougatsos
CAC Members and FotoFocus Passport holders only
8 p.m. – Opening Celebration
Kaplan Hall, 4th and 5th Floor Galleries
Free and open to the public
Everyone has a camera at all times now, with filters and Facetune to perfect their shots. But that ubiquity allows the art of photography to be even more appreciated. Sure anyone can take a picture, but only some people can tell compelling human stories through their photos.
FotoFocus celebrates and champions photography as the medium of our time through programming that creates a dialogue between contemporary lens-based art and the history of photography.
The 2022 FotoFocus Biennial, now in its sixth iteration, activates over 100 projects at museums, galleries, universities, and public spaces throughout Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Dayton and Columbus, Ohio throughout October.
Each Biennial is structured around a unifying theme; for 2022 that theme, World Record, considers photography’s extensive record of life on earth while exploring humankind’s impact on the natural world. FotoFocus welcomes global artists, curators, critics, educators, and regional visitors to Cincinnati with exhibitions, talks, performances, screenings, and panel discussions during an expanded week of programming, Sep. 29–Oct. 8, 2022. Find details at www.fotofocus.org.
FotoFocus World Record officially begins Friday, Sept. 30 with an opening reception at the Contemporary Arts Center. The CAC has three FotoFocus curated exhibitions for the biennial, along with Cameron Granger: The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Heaven in the Kaplan Lobby, which is a FotoFocus participating venue.
On the Line: Documents of Risk and Faith
Mitch Epstein. Installation view, On The Line: Documents of Risk and Faith. Photo: Wes Battoclette, 2022. Image courtesy of the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati.
This group exhibition features artists whose work engages the complex and contested relationship humans have with notions of environment, wilderness, nature, and place. Drawing metaphorically from the phrase “on the line”—what is at risk; what is at stake; the body caught and captured; following the path of a line—the exhibition repositions various artistic interventions, with a focus on ephemeral acts to suggest an expanded conception of photographic time and the document. On the Line comprises a diverse selection of artists from the Americas and includes works in all media, with a special emphasis on photography, video, and performance.
On the Line is co-curated by Makeda Best, Richard L. Menschel curator of photography at Harvard Art Museums, and Kevin Moore, FotoFocus artistic director and curator.
Images on which to build, 1970s-1990s
Allen Bérubé, Snapshot of pride parade [FTM Contingent], 1994, Color photograph, 4x6”, Allan Bérubé Papers (1995-17), Courtesy of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society.
Through photographic documentation of activism, education, and media production within trans, queer, and feminist grassroots organizing of the 1970s through the 1990s, Images on which to build, 1970s-1990s reveals the technologies through which influential image cultures were constructed and circulated. The exhibition presents a range of photographic practices to explore the process of learning within alternative schools, workshops, demonstrations, dance clubs, slideshow presentations, correspondences, and community-based archive projects. Featured artists and collectives include Diana Solís, Joan E. Biren (JEB), Lola Flash, the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and the Sexual Minorities Archives, among others. The exhibition is co-organized by the Leslie-Lohman Museum, New York, where it will travel in the spring of 2023.
Images on which to build is curated by writer and curator Ariel Goldberg.
Baseera Khan: Weight on History
Baseera Khan. Installation view, Baseera Khan: Weight On History. Photo: Geoff Winningham, 2022. Image courtesy of the Moody Center for the Arts.
The CAC also presents Baseera Khan: Weight on History, the first institutional solo exhibition in the Midwest by this New York-based artist. Khan shifts seamlessly between media to explore the interconnectedness of capital, politics, and the body. Their work in video, photography, sculpture, and performance creates spaces of reprieve, beauty, and safety, while also critiquing power structures and knowledge systems that systemically exclude or misrepresent marginalized populations. The exhibition features a new body of sculptures, existing photographic collages, video, and sculptural work, as well as a site-specific installation, the exhibition addresses issues such as access, cultural appropriation, and migration. The exhibition is co-organized with the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, where it was recently on view.
The exhibition is co-curated by CAC Senior Curator Amara Antilla and curator Ylinka Barotto.
Cameron Granger: The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Heaven
Cameron Granger (b. Cleveland, OH; lives and works in Columbus, OH), This Must Be the Place (detail), 2018. Digital color video, with sound, 4 min., 32 sec. Courtesy of the artist.
For his solo project at the CAC, Cameron Granger: The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Heaven, the Ohio-based artist and filmmaker develops a new iteration of The Line (2021) for the CAC lobby that draws from his personal biography as a Black man raised by his mother and grandmother in Ohio. By juxtaposing live-action scenes, autobiographical texts, and found footage, Granger’s videos and installations weave stories that complicate accepted interpretations of the past and present. His works thus offer poignant meditations on Black history and culture, highlighting not only the systems of racial inequity that target and police Blackness, but the communities that continue to thrive, persist, and most importantly, demonstrate love.
This project is curated by Stephanie Kang, former assistant curator at the CAC.
Seeing (the) Reds
As Hispanic Heritage Month begins, it's a great time to explore “Los Rojos!” at the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum, which looks at the history of baseball in Latin America.
MLB HISTORY
“Hispanic Heritage Month is the perfect time to highlight what we’re doing here.”
Los Rojos! The 2022 featured exhibit at the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame & Museum is ready for you to explore.
And what a better time to do it than during Hispanic Heritage Month!
We stopped by recently and chatted with its Executive Director, Rick Walls.
Walls says the exhibit looks at the impact Latino players have on the Reds and Major League Baseball.
Learn More
The Reds Hall of Fame encourages you to find out more about Los Rojos at their website and to learn more about the impact of Latino players on Reds’ baseball, integration in MLB, and more!
“It’s an annual exhibit, it’s a space we change out every year,” says Walls. “This year, we brought something new. A different color, a different look and just a great different feel and now, during Hispanic Heritage Month is the perfect time to highlight what we’re doing here.”
Walls says the exhibit attracts baseball and Reds fans from all over. The exhibit also brings in a lot of education programs from local schools.
The exhibit is set up so you can explore at your own pace or simply follow the timelines. There’s also a 12-minute film that Walls suggests visitors watch before touring the exhibit.
“You’ll find jerseys, helmets, contracts, balls, contracts of players dating back to the 1800s,” says Walls.
lEADING THE WAY
“There’s always been a connection to Latin America and the Reds have been at the forefront of all this, signing two players as early as 1911.”
Walls points out that the exhibit includes contributions from all MLB teams.
Check back here next week for a special segment on the Los Rojos! exhibit.
Refresher Course
Celebrate local art with Behringer-Crawford Museum’s freshArt fundraiser.
If You Go
freshART
Sunday, September 11, 4-8 p.m.
Behringer-Crawford Museum
1600 Montague Road, Devou Park
Tickets are $75. Order now or
call (859) 491-4003.
Event includes cocktails and hors d'oeuvre followed by a live auction.
The Behringer-Crawford Museum opened in 1950 with a life-sized stuffed black bear, a two-headed calf, and other “curiosities.” In the following decades, the museum has become a center of both local history and arts education.
This Sunday, the museum celebrates learning, loving, creating and collecting art in Northern Kentucky with their annual fundraiser freshART, a party and art auction of “fresh” art created en plein air by dozens of artists in Devou Park the previous week.
A portion of the sale price of each piece goes to the artist, with the balance donated to the museum, benefiting area children through BCM’s educational programs.
Submitted freshART works were judged by a panel of experts, with $1000 in cash prizes awarded to the first, second, and third-place entries by the William & Patricia Applegate Fund.
The afternoon includes cocktails and hors d'oeuvres from Funky's Catering along with music by violinist Preston Bell Charles III. John Lomax, retired LOCAL 12 news anchor, is the emcee and H. David Wallace, CEO and chairman of the board of Heritage Bank, will conduct the auction.
If you are unable to attend the event, there is a “silentART” option currently underway. View previously completed artwork by dozens of local artists and bid online or use QR codes in the galleries. The silentART auction will close September 11 at 8:15 p.m.
Since freshART began in 1992, over $950,000 has been raised, bringing educational and cultural activities to more than 275,000 Northern Kentucky children.
Setting the Scene
Film Cincinnati gears up for busy Fall with a new movie and Backlot fundraiser.
Ready for your closeup?
Backlot is Film Cincinnati’s annual fundraiser that allows the organization to continue to make our region a world-class destination for film and entertainment.
Oct. 29, 7 – 11 p.m.
Waypoint Aviation
4765 Airport Road, 45226
General admission – $150
Red carpet
Food & entertainment
Open bar
VIP – $250
6 p.m. – VIP celebrity cocktail mingle with Barry Levinson a
VIP Salon – $3,500
Private table of 8
6 p.m. – VIP celebrity cocktail mingle
Get tickets now!
Lights! Camera! Austin!
Fresh from his star-making role in “Elvis,” Austin Butler heads to Cincinnati in October, for the new film “The Bikeriders.”
He will be joined by Jodie Comer (“Killing Eve”), Tom Hardy (“Mad Max: Fury": Road”) and Michael Shannon (“The Shape of Water”) in director Jeff Nichols’ next feature.
The film is Nichols’ sixth directorial effort, and his first since “Midnight Special” and “Loving” premiered in 2016. Sarah Green and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones will produce via Tri-State with Nichols, alongside New Regency. Fred Berger executive produces. The film will begin production in Cincinnati this October.
Based on the 1967 Danny Lyon photography book, “The Bikeriders.” tells an original story about a ’60s midwestern motorcycle club as it evolves over the course of a decade from a community for outsiders into a far more sinister gang.
“We are thrilled to host this incredibly talented team and provide tremendous opportunities for locals,” said Kristen Schlotman. “It’s a very exciting time for Cincinnati's own role in the film industry.”
The movie follows the recent filming of the docuseries produced by Film Cincinnati, “label•less.” Filmed earlier this month at the American Sign Museum, the show follows the making of a stage show of the same name. Performances featured a special appearance by actor Zack Gottagen, who had his breakout role in 2019’s The Peanut Butter Falcon. In 2020, he became the first person with Down Syndrome to be a presenter at the Academy Awards.
Led by a talented young cast, “label•less” tells their stories of love, compassion and how they defy the labels they have experienced in their lifetimes. It’s an incredibly powerful show that people of all ages can embrace and experience together. With a diverse cast of 16-26-year-olds, this show tackles current social issues that this generation faces; everything from bullying to mental health to homophobia to racism.
The docuseries is a collaboration of Drew and Lea Lachey, Brave Berlin, and TVACOM (LA/Cincinnati).
With “Shirley,” starring Regina King and an adaptation of John Green’s “Turtles All the Way Down” filming earlier this year, and Film Cincinnati has come roaring back from COVID shut downs. In 2017 and 2018, the motion picture industry had an economic impact of nearly $80 million in the Greater Cincinnati area, according to a study by the University of Cincinnati Economics Center.
Filming of these productions during that time had a total economic impact of $142 million, with an employment impact of 1,054 jobs between FY 2014 and FY 2018.
The Backlot fundraiser helps Film Cincinnati continue its mission to develop programs, advocacy, and promotional events and support the continued growth of local film production.
The Next Stage
The 2022-2023 Broadway in Cincinnati season brings a little bit of everything to the Aronoff. Get a sneak peek at the shows headed your way.
Broadway in Cincinnati 2022-23 Season
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
Oct 25–Nov 6, 2022
Jesus Christ Superstar
Dec 6–18, 2022
Anastasia
Jan 3–15, 2023
Annie (season option)
Feb 7–12, 2023
Tootsie
March 7–19, 2023
Jagged Little Pill (season option)
March 28–April 2, 2023
Hadestown
April 18–30, 2023
Moulin Rouge! The Musical
May 17–June 4, 2023
Prepare for your favorite stories from music, mythology and movies to take the stage as gender-bending, gospel-singing, mashup-bringing musicals come to the Aronoff Center for Broadway in Cincinnati’s 2022-23 season.
But before we get to the next season, remember that Hamilton rounds out the 2021–22 season with an almost month-long run from Sept. 6 to Oct. 2. Tickets – especially for weekday performances – still remain.
Now, let’s get a sneak peek into some of the upcoming shows.
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
The season kicks off with Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, which chronicles the life and legacy of Nutbush, Tennessee’s favorite daughter: the former Anna Mae Bullock. The show takes us through her transformation into the Tina Turner who graces stages and breaks barriers, while overcoming abuse and discrimination along the way.
Her volatile and violent relationship with Ike Turner is the focus of the first act. And you know what that means: time for a redemptive Act II. You’ll dance in your seat and sing along to Tina’s iconic songs, and the show’s finale is something special. If you love a jukebox musical (and who doesn’t), you might find yourself calling this one “Simply the Best.”
Anastasia
The legendary story of the Imperial Romanovs of Russia and their “lost princess” has been the subject of books, movies ,and an animated classic. Now, Anastasia takes the stage in a Broadway show that’s perfect for all ages.
Fans of the animated movie will recognize some of the classic songs like “Journey to the Past,” but 16 new songs by Lynn Ahrens and CCM grad Stephen Flaherty make the stage production feel even bigger. LED projection screens create and ever-changing background – and such a realistic experience during a train scene that I saw a patron in the front row of NYC’s Broadhurst Theatre get physically ill.
I promise this show won’t make you sick, though. Quite the contrary: you’ll find yourself humming song like“Once Upon and December” and “My Petersburg” for days.
Hadestown
Broadway delves into the mythology of Hades and Persephone, Orpheus and Eurydice. Thankfully, the Playbill offers a brief primer for those of us a bit removed from our studies of Greek gods.
This show chronicles these two couples on opposite ends of their own journeys; one pulling apart, one coming together. The story is set on earth and “way down” in Hadestown, and the juxtaposition of the two play out in sets, costumes, lighting and choreography.
Hadestown even takes the form of ancient Greek plays, with a narrator, Hermes, known in mythology as the messenger of the gods. The Three Fates at times tempt, and at others, shame the main characters for their actions. The ensemble takes the role of the Greek chorus, hammering home the show’s message and furthering the story.
Hadestown is beautiful performance that explores love and loss, and offers hope amid its despair. It’s one of those shows you could watch over and over and see something different each time.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Wrap a glitzy visual extravaganza in catchy “Glee”-style song mashups – and you’ve got Moulin Rouge. It’s based on Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 movie about a young Englishman in 1899 Paris who meets mysterious dancer at the can-can revue.
The story is secondary to the music, though. Yes, you’ll hear “Lady Marmalade,” as well about 576 other recognizable songs. Your brain will be doing somersaults trying to pick out each one, and by then, they’re on to the next.
The sets, costumes and lighting are among the best you’ll see on stage - and if excess is what you’re looking for, you’ve found it. The show is recommended for ages 12 and up, but I might lean a little older than that. Moulin Rouge is a visual and aural spectacle and it owns it.
– Kathrine Nero
Keep It 100
Art Academy of Cincinnati hosts a party and exhibiton for Charley Harper's 100th birthday.
Celebration of Charley Harper
On His 100th Birthday
Aug. 4, 5–7 p.m.
Continues through Sunday, Aug. 14
Art Academy of Cincinnati
The Pearlman Gallery
1212 Jackson Street
More information.
The Art Academy of Cincinnati’s celebrates the 100th birthday of one of its most famous alumni, Charley Harper, today!
More than 40 prints from Harper’s career will be featured in a new exhibition in the AAC’s Pearlman Gallery.
Harper developed one of the most recognizable styles of American illustration in the 20th century.
With a body of work ranging from advertising and posters to murals and paintings, and a delicate approach to lines and colors, Harper’s love of nature led him to create an influential legacy that is now compiled in a new book, Wild Life: The Life and Work of Charley Harper.
Curated in collaboration with the Charley Harper Art Studio, led by his son Brett Harper, and offering insights into his private life, influences, and professional evolution, this book presents the Harper universe in its totality. He will attend celebration and sign copies of his new book.
Harper was named a Distinguished Art Academy Alumnus in 2019. He was a Cincinnati-based American Modernist artist, best known for his highly stylized wildlife prints, posters, and book illustrations.
Ladybugs, birds, dogs, and owls. With a never-ending curiosity for the world around him, Charley Harper developed one of the most recognizable styles of American illustration in the 20th century. With a body of work ranging from advertising and posters to murals and paintings, and a delicate approach to lines and colors. Brett Harper, who wrote the preface for and is the co-editor of Wild Life, leads the Charley Harper Art Studio, which is dedicated to preserving and promoting the American illustrator’s work. Charley Harper's art is a beloved treasure which inspired an entire generation of artists and designers.
Born in Frenchtown, West Virginia in 1922, Harper’s upbringing on his family farm influenced his work to his last days. He left home to study art at the AAC, and won the school's first Stephen H. Wilder Traveling Scholarship. While at the AAC, and supposedly on his first day there, Harper met fellow artist (and fellow AAC Distinguished Alumna), Edie McKee, who he married after graduation in 1947.
Flood of Memories
Each of the exhibitions currently on view at the Contemporary Arts Center offer a chance to explore the world around us from new and thoughtful perspectives.
If You Go
Contemporary Arts Center
44 E. Sixth St.
Admission is free.
Open Wednesday –Friday, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
www.contemporaryartscenter.org
Launched in 2017, Center of Unfinished Business from Contemporary And (C&) is a roving reading room and discussion-based program. It has traveled to art spaces and museums around the world. The CAC’s iteration, in the lobby, features a curated selection of books and a series of discussions that respond to water as a literal and metaphorical framework for exploring African American and African experiences and cultures.
Breaking Water brings together works in installation, video, photography, painting, sculpture, and performance that offer a range of approaches to the subject of water, liquidity, and feminism. Co-curated by CAC Senior Curator Amara Antilla and independent curator and writer Clelia Coussonnet, Breaking Water opens on May 6 and continues through August 15, 2022. The exhibition will be accompanied by a parallel film screening program that extends the exhibition’s central themes.
Co-organized by the CAC and Wave Pool, Artist-Run Spaces explores a moment of self-reflection and reopening amid the pandemic. The needs and interests of these artist-run and independent spaces, which are often able to pivot and react to current events much quicker than larger organizations, are timely and important. This exhibition features ten artist-run spaces and collectives that developed an installation highlighting their work and ethos, with a focus on showcasing the work of artists and makers within their networks.
Look Around
The CMF Outdoor Museum features 15 local artists of color at Paul Brown Stadium, presented by ArtsWave.
If You Go
The community is invited to meet the artists and paint rocks as part of the public art display in Washington Park on Saturday, July 23, from10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The artists painting in Washington Park are
Nytaya Babbitt
Zuri Ali Cole
Terence Hammonds
Javarri Lewis
Rashad Orlando
James Reynolds
La'De Richardson
Keith Wallick
Dai Williams
The third annual Cincinnati Music Festival Outdoor Museum opens at Paul Brown Stadium on Saturday, July 23 to celebrate the return of the music festival.
The CMF Outdoor Museum is an outdoor public art exhibition that will feature works from 15 local artists of color, all focused on the theme of “Feels like CMF.”
At Paul Brown Stadium, five local artists – Cedric Michael Cox, TC Flowers, Hannah Jones, Adoria Maxberry and April Sunami – will take a plein air approach on Saturday night, capturing what they’re seeing in both the crowd and on stage.
During the day, 10 additional local artists will create artwork in Washington Park, capturing the city skyline, plus the energy and excitement of the crowd being able to come together to enjoy the music festival.
All artwork will be displayed in Washington Park through the end of August and the community will be able to engage in creating stones that will form the displays. After August, the public art will travel to the Court Street Plaza, through a partnership with 3CDC.
For more information on the CMF Outdoor Museum, visit artswave.org/outdoormuseum.
La Vie en Rose
Explore the City of Light in the Queen City at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Mercantile Library, and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
Can’t wait to hop that Aug. 2 direct flight to Paris from CVG? A visit to the Cincinnati Art Museum will help tide you over until you can make it to France.
Among the museum’s world-class collection of European paintings you’ll find 19th-century French landscape paintings by Corot, Courbet, and Daubigny. From coastal scenes to sylvan settings, these works will transport you to the French countryside. You’ll be ready to grab a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine and step inside one of the frames. You’ll also find more a modern forest by a certain Dutch painter who loved France!
You’re on a streak on Duolingo! Tres bien!
Put all that hard work to the test at the Mercantile Library. and explore their French collection.
Though many of their books about France are in English, Librarian Cedric Rose discovered Paris and Environs in the stacks, written in both languages. So you can try out your translation skills as well as explore French history and geography.
When you’re ready to enjoy a glass of wine after all that hard work, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has you covered! Now through Aug. 4, the CSO’s concert of Debussy’s La Mer, conducted by Louis Langrée, is being rebroadcasted via CSO Replay.
Whether you are commemorating Bastille Day or simply want to take a culture trip, a visit to France is closer than you think.
Truly Inspiring
New exhibition from ArtsWave and community partners at the Cincinnati Art Museum features the work of Black and Brown artists
Through the lens of 22 local artists who received support from ArtsWave’s Black and Brown Artist Program, year’s “Truth & Inspiration Artist Showcase” features works that represent an array of perspectives on the complexities that accompany the theme of “truth and reconciliation,” many of which will inspire us all.
This year’s showcase features visual art, film, music, dance, children’s literature — expanding from two locations to partner with three different arts and culture organizations: the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Cincinnati Museum Center and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
Live performances and a film festival will be held throughout the weekend. The exhibition is open through Aug. 14 at the Cincinnati Art Museum.
Truth & Inspiration Visual Art Exhibition
Cincinnati Art Museum, Schiff Gallery,
Open through Aug 14, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (daily)
Included Artwork and Artists:
NEW MOON by Asha Ama
Mood Altering by Asha the Artist
REST by Darnell Pierre Benjamin
It Is Art by Means Cameron
12 Commandments by Michael Coppage
Amid Exhibition by Iman Jabrah
Tepozzanilli: Live Stream Transmission by Rebecca Nava Soto
Sanctuaries by Michael Thompson
Story Share by Kailah Ware
Saturday, July 16
Cincinnati Museum Center
10 a.m. to noon – “On Her Shoulders” a masterclass by Annie Ruth
Cincinnati Art Museum
11:30 a.m. – “I Am Not Afraid of Spiders” book reading by Ashley Aya Ferguson at the Rosenthal Education Center
12:30 p.m. – “Mood Altering” panel discussion by Asha the Artist in the Fath Auditorium
1:45 p.m. – “Story Share” short film by Kailah Ware and testimonial in the Fath Auditorium
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
(All events in the Harriet Tubman Theater)
3 p.m. – “Monarca - Lost Butterfly (In Memoriam)” contemporary dance with film by Gabriel Martinez Rubio
4 p.m. – “Namba: A Japanese American’s Incarceration and Life of Resilience” documentary by Emily Hanako
Momohara with Q&A
Sunday, July 17
Cincinnati Art Museum: Film Festival
(All films in the Fath Auditorium)
11:15 a.m. – “Same Garden: An Identity Documentary” by Jonesy
12:05 p.m. – “12 Commandments” by Michael Coppage
12:15 p.m. – “laying the foundation” by Asa Featherstone IV
12:30 p.m. – “Black Arts Revamped” by Lamonte Young
1:30 p.m.– BREAK
2 p.m. – “Our Baby Knows” by David Chimusoro
2:15 p.m. – “REST” by Darnell Pierre Benjamin
2:55 p.m. – “Monarca - Lost Butterfly (In Memoriam)” by Gabriel Martinez Rubio
3:10 p.m. – “It Is Art” by Means Cameron
3:30 p.m. – “I’m Listening...” documentary by Brent Billingsley
Exhibitions
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
“I’m Listening...” mural by Brent Billingsley in the Everyday Freedom Hero Gallery.
On view through Sept 22, 2022.
Cincinnati Museum Center
“Regeneration” by Erin Fung, part of “America’s Epic Treasures featuring Preternatural by Michael Scott” on the Lower Level
On view through Jan. 8, 2023
ArtsWave, the engine for the Cincinnati region’s arts, is partnering with the City of Cincinnati, Duke Energy, Macy’s, the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, Hard Rock Casino and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center for the 2022 Truth & Inspiration Artist Showcase.
What's the Story
Drew and Lea Lachey are creating a space for young artists to follow their hearts. Ih the show label•less, the students tell heir own stories, building empathy in a world of enormous challenges.
Drew and Lea Lachey understand the impact music and dance can have on someone’s life. Through Lachey Arts, in Pleasant Ridge, they offer classes for students to hone their skills by learning from working artists.
But they are also creating a space for young artists to follow their hearts, including creating label•less, a musical journey toward acceptance.
Lachey Arts is a non-profit organization focused on using the arts to build a diverse community of young artists, empowering the creative spirit and giving the confidence and tools to change the world.
Summer camps continue through this month, along with a number of dance classes. For more information visit www.lacheyarts.com.
Peace Offering
SOS ART 2022, opening Friday at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, brings creative expressions for peace and justice from more than 40 artists from around the country.
If You Go
SOS ART 2022
Opens Friday, June 24, 6–9 p.m.
Art Academy of Cincinnati
1212 Jackson St.
McClure Gallery, Pearlman Gallery,
Chidlaw Gallery and Site 1212
Evening include potluck reception, artists’ remarks, and music from Lastboppers.
Gallery open Monday to Sunday,
9 a.m. – 9 p.m.
More at www.artacademy.edu/news-events/event/2022-sos-art-exhibit.
More than 150 Greater Cincinnati artists will participate in this year’s SOS ART event at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. The exhibit also includes miniprints on peace and justice by more than 40 artists from all over the USA.
Now in its twentieth year, SOS ART presents art and programs that offer creative expressions for peace and justice.
Organizer and founder, Saad Ghosn of the University of Cincinnati, and other board members of SOS ART, have coordinated the art – paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, installations, videos, dance performances – around current issues of peace and justice.
“I view art as a reflection of the artist in his entirety and, therefore, not only ‘for the sake of Art’ but primarily ‘for the sake of the Artist,’ ‘for the sake of the Artist’s Life’ and “‘or the sake of Life’ in general,” Ghosn said in a statement.
A native of Lebanon, Ghosn has lived in Cincinnati since 1985. A retired medical professional and educator, a Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. Along with founding SOS (Save Our Souls) ART, he is also the editor and publisher of the yearly For a Better World, Poems and Drawings on Peace and Justice by Greater Cincinnati Artists, and the author of Greater Cincinnati Artists as Activists, featuring 50 local artists, released in 2015.
SOS ART 2022 offers a community view on the sociopolitical world. Works by local artists make powerful and diverse statements in support of justice and peace locally, nationally and worldwide.
“Art is potent and motivating; it can inform and challenge; it can lead the viewer into thinking and into action,” said Ghosn. “In this respect I strongly believe in ‘Art as Activism’ and in art as a potent tool for effecting a change toward a better world.”
Common Sense
From page to screen, Jane Austen: Fashion & Sensibility at the Taft Museum of Art uses costumes to look at society in Austen’s world (and our own).
Some escape the summer heat by going to a movie.
Others seek refuge in a museum.
Still others indulge in a good book.
Jane Austen: Fashion & Sensibility combines all of those into one beautiful exhibition at the Taft Museum of Art.
This special exhibition displays costumes from eight acclaimed film adaptations of Jane Austen’s classic novels. The collection is making its North American debut at the Taft.
Extending from the museum’s Fifth Third Gallery into the rehabilitated house and among a newly reinterpreted permanent collection, Jane Austen: Fashion & Sensibility featurs approximately fifty costumes and accessories worn in popular film and television productions.
Fashion & Sensibility will provide an unforgettable opportunity to see, up close, costumes worn by Hollywood celebrities including Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Judi Dench, Colin Firth, and Hugh Grant. The exhibition will bring to life beloved characters from Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Mansfield Park, while revealing powerful themes of class, gender, and social dynamics in Austen’s world.
Drawn from the collection of award-winning British costume house Cosprop Ltd, these meticulously tailored ensembles will transport audiences to the Regency era through ball gowns, wedding dresses, day dresses, hats, jackets, waistcoats, riding habits, and other middle- and upper-class clothing.
The Taft also presents Jane Austen in London: A Wall-Sized Map in the museum’s Sinton Gallery in conjunction with Fashion & Sensibility. Measuring seven by thirteen feet, this massive work on paper represents a monumental achievement in cartography and will illustrate London locations from both Austen’s fiction and her life. The 18th-century map is lent to the museum by the Estate of Sallie Robinson Wadsworth.
If You Go
Taft Museum of Art
316 Pike Street
Museum hours: Wednesday–Sunday: 11 a.m.–4 p.m. General admission includes access to Jane Austen: Fashion & Sensibility, Jane Austen in London: A Wall-Sized Map, and the museum’s permanent collection galleries located in the Taft historic house.
Admission: Free for members; $8 for guests of members; $18 non-members; $16 seniors; Pricing available for groups of 10 or more.
Tickets are on sale now at taftmuseum.org/Tickets.
Old Time Rock 'n' Roll
Looking for a beach read with a bit of local history? We talk to Steven Rosen about his new book Lost Cincinnati Concert Venues of the '50s and '60s.
Steven Rosen is a longtime Cincinnati arts journalist whose first book, Lost Cincinnati Concert Venues of the '50s and '60s From the Surf Club to Ludlow Garage is now available, with a foreword by Jim Tarbell.
Cincinnati during those decades offered an incredible number of of live music and entertainment venues that now are gone. Some, like Tarbell's countercultural rock club Ludlow Garage or Cincinnati Gardens, are familiar. Others, like the West Side's Surf Club, where incendiary comedian Lenny Bruce performed, or Babe Baker's Jazz Club, which hosted John Coltrane in what some who attended consider one of Cincinnati's greatest concerts ever, are not.
Some well-known places even had shows that are now fabled, like Iggy Pop at the Summer Pop Festival at Crosley Field or a young Rolling Stones with Brian Jones at the Gardens. The book also provides detailed coverage of The Beatles' two Cincinnati shows. We talked to Rosen about the book and those heady days of Cincinnati’s music scene.
Soak Up the Sun
Summerfair Cincinnati brings more than 350 artists to Coney Island, June 3–5, along with children's activities, live music, and gourmet food. Jayne Utter, Summerfair's managing director, shares the details.
Summerfair 2022
Friday, June 3, 12 – 7 p.m.
Saturday, June 4, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Sunday, June 5, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Coney Island, 6201 Kellogg Ave.
Tickets are available at summerfair.org. One-day tickets to Summerfair are $10, with children 12 and under admitted free. Multi-day tickets are $15.
Summerfair Cincinnati returns to Coney Island this weekend, bigger than ever.
More than 350 artists and craftspeople from across the country are exhibiting and selling works ranging from ceramics and sculptures to painting and photography. The juried art exhibits are showcased in 12 categories, including photography, painting, wood, metal, drawing/printmaking, sculpture, glass, ceramics, fibers, leather, jewelry and 2D/3D mixed media.
Summerfair Acoustic Music Stage
Saturday, June 4
12 p.m. Two of a Kind
1 p.m. Swingtime Trio
2 p.m Boutique
3 p.m. Wild Carrot and Their Roots Band
4 p.m.Greg Schaber
5 p.m. April Aloisio and George Simon
6 p.m. No Promises
Sunday, June 5
11 a.m. Jam Grass Duo
12 p.m. Rachel Mousie
1 p.m. Tracy Walker
2 p.m. Faux Frenchmen
3 p.m. String Theory
4 p.m. Cheryl Renee
In addition, there are youth arts activities, four stages with local and regional entertainers, and a variety of gourmet food.
The annual a juried fine arts fair raises money that provides support for individual artists and small arts organizations throughout the region through scholarships, awards and exhibitions.
This is the first year since 2019 to have children’s art activities at Summerfair. Create-a-Tee and craft tables will be open for young artists on Friday, from 2–5 p.m., Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. The Benken Florist Home and Garden: Paint-a-Pot table will be available on Saturday, 1–4 p.m., and on Sunday, 1–3 p.m.
The annual fine arts fair is Summerfair Cincinnati’s primary fundraiser and consistently ranks among the top 100 art shows nationally. Proceeds from Summerfair Cincinnati provide award, scholarship and exhibit opportunities to a variety of emerging (high school and college), individual (working professional) artists and local/regional small and mid-sized arts organizations throughout the year.
Natural Selection
New exhibition, XXXX, at Cincinnati Museum Center inspired by beauty of nature.
Now Playing: Omnimax – Into America’s Wild
A cross-country adventure to the heart of nature and the wild inside each of us
From the Academy Award® nominated producers of the acclaimed hit film National Parks Adventure comes your next cross-country adventure into the hidden wonders of the natural world. Into America's Wild is a visually stunning, non-stop ride via kayak, bike, train, hot air balloon, zipline and more into some of the most beautiful but little-known landscapes of North America. From the wilds of Alaska and the lush coastline of Oregon to the ancient canyons of the Southwest and the rolling hills of the Appalachian Trail, the OMNIMAX® Theater takes you there.
Follow three trailblazing guides – indigenous astronaut John Herrington, Alaskan pilot and youth advocate Ariel Tweto and long-distance hiker Jennifer Pharr Davis – as you wind your way through the scenic byways, ancient homelands, secret gems and hidden trails of America.
Narrated by Academy Award® winner Morgan Freeman and directed by Academy Award® nominee Greg MacGillivray, Into America's Wild is a MacGillivray Freeman Film produced in association with Brand USA. The film is presented by Expedia and United Airlines.
The beauty of nature has long been a muse for artists.
Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC) is showcasing the nature-inspired landscape artwork of artist Michael Scott alongside works from the museum’s own collections, in the new exhibition America’s Epic Treasures featuring Preternatural by Michael Scott, opening Friday, May 27. Another component of the immersive exhibition is a multimedia installation that examines the link between racial justice and climate change from the lens of Indigenous peoples, called Regeneration.
America’s Epic Treasures features 32 major works organized around Earth’s four natural elements: fire, water, air and earth. The immersive art exhibition showcases the beauty of natural landscapes and the destructive and rejuvenating nature of the elements. Vibrant colors and skillful execution create dynamic textures and compositions that draw you into the artwork, evoking a greater appreciation for the magic and mystery of nature. Scott’s onsite field studies included in the exhibition provide a look into the artist’s process.
“Scott’s paintings offer a place where the natural world, the human world and the world of the spirit or the soul can commingle,” said MaLin Wilson-Powell, art historian and author. “Together they comprise an arena that oscillates between what is there and what is not there, what the artist brings to it and what the viewer brings to it.”
Alongside Scott’s works will be a dozen pieces from CMC’s own collections, featuring local landscapes by artists including Rudolph Tschudi, John Casper Wild, William Louis Sonntag and Robert S. Duncanson. The artwork, primarily from the 19th century, includes views of Cincinnati from across the river in Covington, Newport and Forest Hills as well as the Mill Creek, Burnet Woods, Ault Park and more. A selection of animal specimens and fossils will connect the natural worlds depicted in the artwork.
“The interplay of science and art are at the core of our mission. Science creates nature, nature inspires art and the interplay between the two creates magic, wonder and enlightenment,” said Elizabeth Pierce, president & CEO of Cincinnati Museum Center. “America’s Epic Treasures is a visually-stunning and evocative introduction to topics of climate change, habitat destruction and the conservation of wild spaces through the lens of artists who love and appreciate the beauty of nature.”
Regeneration, curated by musician Erin Fung and Sahtu Dene filmmaker Tate Juniper, explores Indigenous perspectives on changing landscapes, the magnitude of the erasure of First Nations peoples, and the global impact of local plastics production and pollution. Visitors will experience authentic dialogue between hunters, artists, elders and youth in an immersive, multimedia recreation of a roundtable discussion and individual interviews within the Northern community of Inuvik, Northwest Territories.
Fung is one of 22 BIPOC artists creating projects this year that explore the theme of “truth and reconciliation.” The sound project was funded through a 2022 Black and Brown Artist Grant Fung received from ArtsWave.
Scott received his MFA from the University of Cincinnati and has been exhibiting artwork for over 40 years. Scott’s paintings are in numerous private and corporate collections, as well as the permanent collections of the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio; the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi; Cincinnati Art Museum; New Orleans Museum of Art; Tia Collection in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles; Tyson Collection of Contemporary Art in Springdale, Arkansas; Southern Ohio Museum of Art in Portsmouth; Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center for the West in Cody, Wyoming; and the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.
“This is a rare opportunity to see, together in one place, expressive paintings of 19th century life in and around Cincinnati,” said Kate Bonansinga, director of the School of Art at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. “It reminds us of how our city has grown and changed, and how nature offers a reprieve to urban life, both then and now.”
Spring into Action
Highlighting beloved works in the collection, and showcasing the creativity of regional florists, Art in Bloom returns to Cincinnati Art Museum this weekend.
Spring is in the air, and in the galleries, as Art in Bloom returns to the Cincinnati Art Museum from May 13–15, with floral arrangements inspired by the museum’s permanent collection.
A fresh crop of flower arrangements, created by floral professionals and amateur enthusiasts, will create a dialogue between fine art and floral beauty.
If You Go
Art in Bloom floral display access inside the museum will be ticketed (pricing varies) and will also include tickets to special exhibitions David Driskell: Icons of Nature and History and Working Together: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop. Admission to Art in Bloom and the exhibitions are free for members.
Admission tickets and special event tickets can be purchased at cincinnatiartmuseum.org/aib.
Free hours for those who are not members will take place Saturday, May 14, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. All admission proceeds benefit future programming at the museum.
This is the eleventh Art in Bloom floral celebration held at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Every other year since 2001, with a break in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this event has celebrated the masterpieces in the museum’s collection in a unique way. This will be the first time it is held in the spring instead of the fall.
Art in Bloom Family Festival
Saturday, May 14
11 a.m.–3 p.m.
Art in Bloom also includes a family friendly Community Festival on the Art Climb.
This FREE outside event includes a DJ, a flower potting station, and food trucks with food available for purchase. Community performances and more allow visitors to celebrate outdoors before heading into the museum to explore the indoor floral displays.
This year’s festivities, led by co-chairs Cheryl Rose and Jeff Chapman, include outdoor programs and partnerships with local businesses and organizations. Visitors will be able to explore outdoor installations before heading inside the museum for docent-led tours, family-friendly scavenger hunts, and more.
“Art in Bloom is beautiful and important event for the Cincinnati Art Museum, and we are so excited to bring it back for the community in 2022,” said Rose. “We have Doan Ly, who is internationally famous, creating exquisite, giant floral installations at the museum, along with more than 90 volunteer-created floral displays. It will be three days that all our visitors will remember!”
Based in New York, Ly is founder and creative director of a.p. bio. She is creating four large floral installations throughout the museum and will be a part of a moderated conversation on Friday morning.
Each of the 90 floral designers is assigned a specific artwork—including paintings, sculptures and ceramics—and creates their corresponding arrangement using live flowers, building out their own interpretation and creating opportunity for visitors to see familiar works anew, through rose colored lenses.
Hidden Depths
New exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Center explore water as framework to examine timely concerns.
If You Go
Contemporary Arts Center
44 E. Sixth St., downtown
Monday – Tuesday: Galleries are closed
Wednesday – Friday, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Saturday –Sunday: 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
www.contemporaryartscenter.org
Breaking Water, a group exhibition now open at the Contemporary Arts Center, brings together works in installation, video, photography, painting, sculpture, and performance that explore water, liquidity, and feminism.
The exhibition includes four new CAC commissions by Paul Maheke, Josèfa Ntjam, Claudia Peña Salinas, and a collaborative work by Calista Lyon and Carmen Winant. These works are includes with new and existing work by an international group of artists whose work addresses timely concerns including water rights, climate change, and the effects of natural disasters. Co-curated by CAC Senior Curator Amara Antilla and independent curator and writer Clelia Coussonnet, Breaking Water will be accompanied by a parallel film screening program that extends the exhibition’s central themes.
“Breaking Water expands from conversations and ideas that Clelia and I began exploring with other artists and academics analyzing the subject of water and its many forms: a source of life, a weapon of destruction, a basic human need, and a primary element that connects us with each other and our environment,” said Antilla.
For the exhibition, the CAC has partnered with the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center at the University of Cincinnati to host a conversation about water, gender, sexuality, and race organized by Dr. Chandra Frank. The speakers will touch on themes related to climate justice, social movements, and possible futures.
“The artists involved tell personal and poignant stories through their works that lead us to consider more resilient ways of relating and acting in the world.” “In the past years, there has been a convergence of exhibitions and art events in relation to oceans, rivers and swamps, which demonstrate a rising concern and awareness of how much our futures depend on the balance and vitality of liquid environments—on the defense of their rights, and on a respectful and dynamic relationship with them,” explained Coussonnet. “Breaking Water explores water as an agent of change and transformation, capable of eliciting new forms of action and knowledge production.”
Breaking Water continues through August 15.
Concurrent to Breaking Water is Center of Unfinished Business, a roving reading room and discursive program organized by the multimedia platform Contemporary And (C&) and conceived by C& co-founders and artistic directors Julia Grosse and Yvette Mutumba. The project was launched in 2017 and has since traveled to art spaces and museums around the world. The CAC’s iteration, sited in the lobby, features a curated selection of seminal books and a series of discussions that respond to water as a literal and metaphorical framework for exploring African American and African diasporic experiences and cultures. Through the selection of significant and at times unsettling texts, the installation highlights the ubiquitous traces of colonialism that extend throughout all facets of life.
Bao Down
With entertainment, a secret menu, and more than 100 dishes, Asian Food Fest returns to Court Street Plaza this Saturday and Sunday.
If You Go
Asian Food Fest, presented by Kroger
and Procter & Gamble
Court Street Plaza, downtown
Saturday, May 7, 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Sunday, May 8, 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.
More info at www.asianfoodfest.org.
“Every year, the Asian Food Fest team is proud to see how the people in the Cincinnati region come out to support these restaurants and businesses,” said JP Leong of the Asian American Cultural Association of Cincinnati.
Produced by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber in partnership with the Asian American Cultural Association of Cincinnati, and presented by Kroger and Procter & Gamble, Asian Food Fest has more than 35 restaurants representing 13 Asian countries.
Celebrating its 11th year, fans of Asian Food Fest will enjoy a small plates, priced from $2-$8, so they can be sure to sample the more then 100 different dishes available over the weekend.
Along with food, guests will also see an incredible lineup of performers. National Asian American acts Kiyomi and Jamieboy will headline, with Katherine Ho, Simon Tam & Joe Jiang of the Slants, and a variety of local performers rounding out the musical acts.
“From Chinese & Filipino traditional dances to the booming Japanese Taiko Drums, there’s plenty to entertain all audiences,” said Lam Dang, of Asian American Cultural Association of Cincinnati. “Asian Food Fest has become known for welcoming nationally recognized Asian American acts as well as featuring many of the amazing groups from our community.”