Now and Forever

2023 Annual Gala: 20 Years at the Center
Saturday, Oct. 7, 5 – 10 p.m.
Contemporary Arts Center, 44 E. Sixth St.

• Keynote Speakers: Christina Vassallo & Charles Desmarais

• Presentation Honoring the Rosenthal Family

• Entertainment, benefit auction & exhibition viewing

10 p.m.| Official Gala Afterparty presented by Lightborne featuring immersive installations, a dance party, & cash bar

Click for tickets at more information.

Founded as a place to see “the art of the last five minutes,” the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) has brought cutting edge art works to Cincinnati for more than 80 years.

That perspective also applies to the CAC’s landmark Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, which opened in 2003. The building was the first U.S. museum designed by a woman and architect Zaha Hadid’s first completed building in the U.S.

This weekend, the CAC celebrates the 20th anniversary of its landmark building.

Along with the gala, the CAC marks the occasion with A Permanent Nostalgia for Departure: A Rehearsal on Legacy with Zaha Hadid, a group exhibition that examines legacy through a collection of new commissions by an international roster of artists that proposes a take on Hadid’s practice and the CAC building itself. The exhibition, guest curated by Maite Borjabad López-Pastor, is on view through Jan. 28, 2024.

The exhibition also brings a selection of paintings and ephemera by Zaha Hadid that depict the unique aesthetic regime the architect created. These selections highlight the early stages of Hadid’s process, bringing back a vocabulary that preserves full potentiality to keep expanding.