New Kids on the Block
Earlier this year, ArtWorks moved from its longtime home in Over-the-Rhine to a larger space in the heart of East Walnut Hills.
If You Go
Opening Reception: Student Power
V² Gallery, 901 E. McMillan St.
Friday May 28 from 4-7 p.m.
First gallery opening and open house for ArtWorks new space. Exhibit continues through July 31.
The new building has given ArtWorks the space to open the V² Gallery, devoted to young emerging artists. This will also allow ArtWorks to start at gallery residency program for youth, ages 16 – 23, to learn how to create art and prepare for their first ever gallery exhibit.
The gallery shares similarities with ArtWorks’ apprentice program. Through the Youth Artist Exhibition Program, young artists will work with lead artists to learn techniques from lead artists and create their own individual works to develop a group show. The young artists will develop artist statements, titles, descriptions of work and pricing. They will also have the opportunity to meet with local curators, collectors and museum partners as part of their professional development.
ArtWorks is perhaps best known for its public art murals and its youth apprentice program. Since the mural program began in 2007, ArtWorks has created more than 200 murals throughout the city. During that time more than 3,500 youths and 3,000 professional artists have completed more than 12,000 public and private art projects.
Photo by Walter German
The inaugural exhibit, Student Power, led by artist Terence Hammonds, features the work of eight emerging artists, exploring student protest movements and issues that these artists care about to express the role of youth in social change, all on printed materials, including handmade ceramics, prints and more.
Hammonds, Cincinnati native, is a printmaker whose work is informed and inspired by the struggles and determination of African Americans seeking equality during the civil rights movement of the 1960s and fuses imagery from that era with soul, funk, rap and punk music. He previously worked with ArtWorks for the New Lines project. In partnership with Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, ArtWorks created a series of 12 small murals in Over-the-Rhine in the area bordered by Main, 13th, Sycamore and Liberty Streets.
The ArtWorks V² Gallery is made possible through the generosity of V², also known as Vandell Verdona, a collaboration between longtime ArtWorks supporters Sara and Michelle Vance Waddell and Ron Houck and David Nebel.