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.”
Two for the Show
Double bill of plays at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati explores Black women's lives.
If You Go
I Shall Not Be Moved and Your Negro Tour Guide,
Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, 1212 Vine St.
Through May 7
Tickets and information at ensemblecincinnati.org.
Please note: These productions are performed back-to-back with one intermission in between. No additional ticket is required.
“I am both personally and professional grateful to have an opportunity at Ensemble to bring these two playwrights together and their vision of what was and what can be for our country and our world,” says D. Lynn Meyers, Producing Artistic Director at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati.
ETC is currently showing two one-act productions, the newly commissioned world premiere of I Shall Not Be Moved followed by the return of Your Negro Tour Guide, which has been revamped since it last appeared on ETC’s stage in 2010. Rooted in the lived experience of Black women in America, these productions narrate powerful stories of the battle for equity and equality.
The riveting I Shall Not Be Moved is by Cincinnati native and emerging playwright Isaiah Reaves, who drew inspiration from his grandmother’s diaries for this new work. This one-woman show recounts the story of Reaves’s grandmother, nationally recognized Civil Rights pioneer Betty Daniels Rosemond, and her horrifying and trailblazing journey through the American South as one of the first Freedom Riders during the 1960s. Audiences far and wide will experience the internal conflicts and joys of a dark-skinned Black woman’s fearless battle for equity and equality.
“Isaiah Reaves is an inspiration,” says Meyers. “It’s amazing how he wrote his grandmother’s story using her words and his influence as a young Black man in this world. Having these shows to look forward to during the dark days of the pandemic always kept light shining at ETC.”
The updated one-woman stage adaptation of Your Negro Tour Guide draws heavily from columns and National Public Radio commentaries collected in Kathy Y. Wilson’s book, Your Negro Tour Guide: Truths in Black & White, based on her former CityBeat column. Throwing a glaring light on misguided notions of natural Black beauty, Black homophobia, intra-racial bigotry, and other cultural stereotypes, this play allows us, once and for all, to laugh at every secret we’ve held against and sideways glance we’ve cast at “The Other,” whoever they happen to be.
“I have the utmost respect for what Kathy Y. Wilson has done in her career to enhance our vision, to strengthen the connections between people, and to call it the way it is. She’s uncompromising, and that’s what I always want Ensemble to be,” says Meyers.
The Whole Ruth
A one-woman show at Playhouse in the Park looks at the life of Dr. Ruth.
Go Behind the Scenes
Stay after select performances for Becoming Dr. Ruth for a behind-the-scenes discussion with the cast and crew.
April 17 at 2 p.m.
April 24 at 2 p.m.
April 27 at 7:30 p.m.
May 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets and information.
Perhaps the most unlikely sex symbol of the late 1980s was Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
Before the age of the Internet, she answered callers’ most intimate questions about sex and relationships on the radio and TV.
The one-woman show, Becoming Dr. Ruth, now at Playhouse in the Park, offers a glimpse of the tiny woman behind the microphone.
With five doctorate degrees – including in family and sex counseling – she helped create a new way for people to express their feelings about intimacy and sex. But despite her familiarity, many still don’t know her whole story.
In this heartwarming portrait, Dr. Ruth narrates the harrowing and fascinating details of her life from the tragic separation of her family during the Holocaust to her experiences as an Israeli sniper to her struggles with balancing work, higher education and single motherhood in America. Becoming Dr. Ruth is a humorous, affectionate and illuminating one-woman show that’s full of grit and triumph.
Anne O’Sullivan makes her Playhouse in the Park debut, having performed the role of Dr. Ruth in theaters around the country, including the 2019 production with director Stephen Nachamie, the director of this production, at the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, Mass.
Given the subject matter, Becoming Dr. Ruth is recommended for adult and teenage audiences, as it contains discussion of healthy sex and sexuality, while also covering other mature topics. But true to its subject, these topics are addressed with a cheerful and disarming tone.
The play is sponsored by The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, one of many programs and interactive experiences included in the Jewish Cincinnati Bicentennial, marking 200 years of Jewish community life in the city.
Fielder's Choice
Enjoy local history with a side of fries, as the Reds Hall of Fame and Frisch's team up for exhibit at Mainliner.
You would be forgiven for thinking that Mr. Redlegs and Big Boy were related. With their gregarious personalities, unbridled love of Cincinnati, and gigantic heads, they would seem to be cousins, at least.
That familial similarity also includes their long-standing ties to the local baseball team.
“With Frisch’s Big Boy celebrating their 75th anniversary, the Reds joined Frisch’s in paying tribute to Opening Day and turned to the Reds Hall of Fame and museum for some mementos that show the long association between the two entities that last over 50 years,” says Rick Walls, executive director of the Reds Hall of Fame.
The exhibit at Frisch’s Mainliner restaurant, 5760 Wooster Pike. includes many pieces that highlight the unique connection between two of Cincinnati’s most beloved institutions These include Crosley Field scorecards from the 1940s along with Frisch’s advertisements on Riverfront/Cinergy Stadium seating charts printed in the yearly pocket schedule cards. The cards will be displayed with one copy showing the cover, and a second copy showing the Frisch’s advertisement inside. Also on display are scorecards from the Riverfront era as well as those from Crosley Field
. The items originate from the collection of the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum presented by Dinsmore.
“From our archives, we were able to supply Crosley Field scorecards along with Frisch’s advertisements through the years on seating charts, pocket schedule cards, ballpark giveaways, and more to be displayed at the iconic Mainliner,” says Walls.
Also featured will be Frisch’s sponsored Kids Opening Day giveaway hats, including one from the first year of the annual promotion in 2016. Frisch’s also has in its collection samples of the hats from 2019 with Joey Votto’s picture on the crown, and from 2021 with Mr. Redlegs displayed on a trucker-style hat.
Another popular item is the Frisch’s Gapper Bobble Belly from 2021, handed out last August 7 at a Saturday game with the Pirates.
Beers of Summer
Get ready for summer, and Summerfair, at an artist's signing of the 2022 poster and a new beer to celebrate the occasion.
The Summerfair Cincinnati 2022 commemorative poster will be officially released during a special event at HighGrain Brewing Co. on Thursday, April 7, from 5 to 7 p.m. Along with the new poster, a new seasonal beer will also make its debut, all to celebrate Summerfair’s 55th anniversary.
If You Go
Summerfair 2022 Poster Debut
Thursday, April 7, 5–7 p.m. HighGrain Brewing Co., 6860 Plainfield Road.
Artist will be available to sign copies of the poster which will be on sale. Citrus Wheat beer will be available on tap and for sale in cans.
Details at summerfair.org
This year’s poster was designed by Tom Rovito, a graphic designer who loves to put a visual spin on things. In this year’s poster he plays hide-and-seek with tools Summerfair artists use to create their work, along with a number of playful elements.
(Look for the butterfly, dragonfly and ladybug, along with a clay pot, pointed paint brush, pencil, photograph, necklace, and more!)
The new beer from HighGrain is a citrus wheat made with lemon and lime juice and mandarin orange zest, a perfect summer refresher. The can features elements of the poster designed by Rovito. The beer will be available on tap at HighGrain and in cans at HighGrain and select stores.
Summerfair 2022 will be held at Coney Island Friday, June 3 through Sunday, June 5. Tickets to Summerfair are $10 (cash only at the gate), with children 12 and under admitted free. Advance one-day or multi-day tickets are $15 and available online at summerfair.org.
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.
Coming in Third
Third Space Gallery in Camp Washington highlights the work of Black and Brown artists.
If You Go
Third Space Gallery
2868 Colerain Ave.
Open Thursday – Saturday, 12–5 p.m.
More info at www.thirdspacegallery.com
Camp Washington continues to grow as a cultural hub in the city, as smaller galleries and non-profits have joined the American Sign Museum in the neighborhood.
The new Third Space Gallery opened on Saturday with a mission to provide local Cincinnati BIPOC artists a place to share their work and challenge cultural boundaries.
The inaugural exhibition On Belonging is a celebration and acknowledgment of the many ways BIPOC artists are exploring ideas and questions of belonging.
This show includes perspectives from 12 local artists: Michael Coppage, Xia Zhang, Emily Hanako Momohara, Julia O. Bianco, Jesse Ly, Migiwa Orimo, Asa Featherstone, BATRES GILVIN, Stephanie Cuyubamba Kong, Anissa Lewis and Kara Yeomans.
The gallery and exhibition were created by Lorena Molina, who received a 2022 Black and Brown Artist Grant from ArtsWave on the theme of “truth and reconciliation.” Molina is one of 22 BIPOC artists creating projects throughout the first half of the year and culminating in a showcase that will be held later this summer.
Each of these artist’s works expresses a diverse view of what it means to belong, from what it means to fit within an identity, culture to the effects of exclusion and marginalization. On Belonging brings together a diverse group of artists and celebrates each expression of belonging so that we can build a more welcoming and vibrant community.
In Honor
Black & Brown Faces: Paying Homage To, opens Friday at the Cincinnati Art Museum.
Art After Dark
Friday, March 25, 5–9 p.m.
Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive
This exhibition opens with this public celebration.
The new Paloozaniore exhibition Black & Brown Faces: Paying Homage To, opens at the Cincinnati Art Museum on March 25.
Rico Grant and Ray Ball, co-founders of Paloozanoire, organized the exhibition to build on the structure of the inaugural 2020 show, which commissioned 10 Black artists who depicted the emotional extremes of 2020, with the goal of facilitating a process of community healing from the upheaval of the year using art and connection as a catalyst.
This year, Black & Brown Faces: Paying Homage To expands to include 15 Midwestern artists of color, recognizing 15 Cincinnati leaders. All individuals of color driving change in their community, disrupting the norm, and lifting others through their work, the exhibition includes depictions of Dora Anim, Gee Horton, Damon Jones, Barry Larkin, Lydia Morgan, Tyra Patterson, Annie Timmons, Lynn Watts, Adrienne Wiley, and others.
“Black & Brown Faces was created to uplift artists of color around the Midwest with a strong focus on Cincinnati-based artists,” said Grant. “We understand the importance of representation and our partnership with The Cincinnati Art Museum has allowed us to amplify our mission beyond our wildest dreams.”
Paloozanoire was founded in 2019 to focus on enriching the lives of people of color throughout the Midwest in the areas of corporate leadership, entrepreneurship, and creativity. Quickly gaining the support of the community Paloozanoire has now produced events and activations catering to more than 20,000 attendees. The group’s two main attractions are the Black & Brown Faces art exhibition and Juneteenth Block Party Experience.
“This partnership with Paloozanoire is an amazing expression of the kind of work we are excited to do in our city,” said Megan Nauer, Cincinnati Art Museum site coordinator for the exhibition. “We hope that by bringing artists and change-makers of all kinds together in the museum in support of Paloozanoire’s vision, we can continue to demonstrate the power of art to connect communities and act as a catalyst for inclusion and joy.
Each artist in Black & Brown Faces – Nytaya Babbitt, Christian Drye, Magnus Juliano, Javarri Lewis, Blake Lenoir, Keenan Litman, Crystal Miller, Francesca Miller, Kandice Odister, Rashad Orlando, Natalie Orr, Torri Shaaron, Kevin Nance-West, Wyze, and Frank Young – has created an interpretation of a portrait to pay homage to one of the honorees.
“We have the chance to celebrate both the artists and the community changemakers in this exhibition,” said Ball. “It’s exciting to honor these individuals of color who are driving change in their Cincinnati communities, disrupting the norm, and lifting others through their work.”
Kick Up Your Heels
Seeing Cincinnati's beloved McGing Irish Dancers is a tradition on St. Patrick's Day. See where they'll be today and where you can see them dance throughout the year.
If you have ever visited a bar on St. Patrick’s Day or attended a Celtic festival in Cincinnati, you’ve seen them. Whether they are in their sparkly costumes or team T-shirts, the McGing Irish Dancers are synonymous with local Irish celebrations.
For this St. Patrick’s Day, you’ll find the troupe performing throughout the Tristate, dancing at bars, breweries, restaurants, and parks during the evening.
The McGing School of Irish Dance has taught thousands of students since opening in 1977. But during those years, it has grown to be more than an Irish dancing school. They are now viewed as an internationally renowned program that help children develop a strong sense of self, and physical fitness, both on and off the dance floor.
Classes are taught with an emphasis on individual attention. Staff ranges from school teachers to lawyers and from World Champion Irish Dancers to dancers in Lord of the Dance.
If you miss them on St. Patrick’s Day, the troupe is performing at the Covington Library (502 Scott Boulevard) on Marche 26, at 3 p.m.
On a competitive level the McGing Irish Dancers have produced two World Champion Solo Dancers and a World Champion Team, which made them the first school in North America to have a Female, Male and Team World Champion and ranks them as one of the most prestigious dancing programs in the world.
For more information about the McGing Irish Dancers, visit www.mcgingdancers.com.
Ahead of the Curve
With its lineup of exhibitions and performances for 2022, the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) continues to create a space for artists to bring engaging, enlightening, and challenging works to Cincinnati and the world.
This Time Tomorrow
The new season at the CAC kicks off with the 2022 edition of This Time Tomorrow from April 6–10. For this annual performance festival, the CAC has commissioned a number of works and includes regional and world premieres from international artists from all over the world, including Radouan Mriziga, Mikrokosmos (Justin Hicks and Steffani Jemison), Alice Ripoll / Cia REC, Jay Bolotin, and others. The festival also features a collaborative commission by Juni One Set, comprised of Senga Nengudi, Eddy Kwon, and Degenerate Art Ensemble co-artistic directors Haruko Crow Nishimura and Joshua Kohl.
The CAC has partnered with The Carnegie, Mercantile Library, Wave Pool Gallery, and 21c Museum Hotel for performances during TTT. With lunchtime presentations, Goetta Institut, at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, and Late Night Hub shows in the CAC’s Black Box Theater, TTT offers compelling performances all day long.
Among the season’s offerings are a major solo exhibition by Baseera Khan; a spotlight on artist-run spaces throughout Ohio and Northern Kentucky; and the debut of new, genre-spanning commissions by Senga Nengudi, Eddy Kwon, and the Degenerate Art Ensemble; Paul Maheke; Calista Lyon and Carmen Winant; Cameron Granger; and others.
In May, the CAC debuts Breaking Water, a group exhibition bringing together new and recent work exploring the subject of water and themes of liquidity, feminism, and climate justice. In the lobby, the Center of Unfinished Business—a roving reading room and discursive program organized by the publication and editorial collaborative Contemporary And (C&)—will offer a curated selection of books and a series of discussions organized by Dr. Chandra Frank that extends the themes of Breaking Water, using water as a framework for examining African American and African diasporic experiences. Spring at the CAC also includes Artist-Run Spaces, an exhibition highlighting the work of ten artist-run spaces and collectives throughout Ohio and Northern Kentucky, co-organized with Cincinnati-based, community-driven arts organization Wave Pool.
In the fall, the CAC unveils a new lobby installation by Ohio-based artist and filmmaker Cameron Granger and presents a slate of exhibitions as part of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial, a month-long celebration of photography, video, and lens-based art held throughout Greater Cincinnati and the surrounding region. These include On The Line: Documents of Risk and Faith, a group exhibition of artists throughout the Americas whose work—primarily in photography, video, and performance—documents the complex and contested relationship humans have with notions of environment, wilderness, nature, and place; Images on which to build, 1970-90, which presents a range of vernacular photographic practices that offer a fuller understanding of LGBTQ and feminist grassroots movements in the 1970s through 1990s; and the first Midwestern solo museum exhibition by New York–based artist Baseera Khan, co-organized by the CAC and the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University.
For more information about the CAC, visit contemporaryartscenter.org.
Header image: Carolina Caycedo, Thanks for hosting us/We are healing our broken bodies, 2019.
Best of the City
The Chamber honored the more recent class of Great Living Cincinnatians at their annual dinner.
Demonstrating the adage to tell people how you feel about them while they are around to hear you, the Cincinnati Chamber annually pays tribute to a new class of Great Living Cincinnatians. The honorees are chosen based on a number of factors, including their service to the community, leadership, awareness of the needs of others, and distinctive accomplishments that have brought favorable attention to their community.
The 2022 inductees – Donna Jones Baker, Jean-Robert de Cavel, Charles O. Dillard MD, and Roger L. Howe – join 163 awardees named over the past 55 years.
Learn more about this year’s Great Living Cincinnatians below.
Reading Between the Lines
New poet laureate Yalie Saweda Kamara celebrates Cincinnati’s “promise of tomorrow.”
Photo by Phil Armstrong
When she learned she had been named the 2022-2023 Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate, Yalie Saweda Kamara says she was “initially speechless, which is ironic for a writer,” she says.
Poet Laureate Inauguration:
Yalie Saweda Kamara
Mercantile Library, 414 Walnut St. #1100
Thursday, April 7, 5:30 – 7:30 pm
5:30 p.m. reception/6:30 p.m. program
FREE & open to the public. Registration required.
“What followed was a smile, a deep breath and profound appreciation for this honor, which, at its core, involves serving Cincinnati’s diverse communities through the literary arts.”
Previously held by poets Pauletta Hansel and Manuel Iris, the Poet Laureate promotes poetry throughout the city, reads poems at events, and leads programming. Kamara’s tenure will begin with an induction ceremony at the Mercantile Library on Thursday, April 7. The two-year position includes a stipend underwritten by The George & Margaret McLane Foundation, an anonymous individual, the Mercantile Library, and the City of Cincinnati.
The Sierra Leonean-American writer, teacher, and University of Cincinnati PhD candidate is the author of two collections of poetry: A Brief Biography of My Name and When the Living Sing. Her accolades include Pushcart Prize and Best of Net anthology nominations, finalist for the National Poetry Series competition, finalist for the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, and semifinalist for the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. She has held fellowships at the Vermont Studio Center, the National Book Critics Circle Emerging Critics, and Callaloo, and was a featured poet at the 2020 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. Kamara's poetry, fiction, interviews, and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, Callaloo, A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, Black Camera: An International Journal, Puerto del Sol and more.
Her initiatives will promote equity, social justice, and explore the wonder of Cincinnati, “with work that foregrounds the necessity for creativity, collaboration, and representation, all of which nourish, enable and sustain a just world.
Kamara will celebrate both Cincinnati’s long artistic and cultural history, and “its promise of tomorrow,” she says, “holding space for the voices of this city, which constitute its many realities and circumstances yet to be discerned.”
Fountain of Youth
Looking for next gen talent? See Summerfair's Emerging Artists exhibition now at the Clifton Cultural Art Center.
2022 Emerging Artist Exhibition
Participating University Art Programs and their 2022 Emerging Artists
Art Academy of Cincinnati: Henry Burdsall, Erica Fitzgerald, Emily Underwood
Mt. St. Joseph University: Eden Craig, Alfonso Huckleberry II, Carissa Palazzolo
UC DAAP: Sabrina Argotte, Sam Edwards
Miami University: Katie Ensor, Hannah Martin, Megan Sekulich, Emma Wiersma
Northern Kentucky University: Veronica Lash, Jazmina Robinhawk, Chloe Wenger
Thomas More University: Kennedy Yurt
Xavier University: Nihal Ahmed, Molly Mariani, Isabella Munafo
Clifton Cultural Arts Center
2728 Short Vine St.
“One part of Summerfair’s missions is to help support young artists,” says Jayne Utter, managing director of Summerfair Cincinnati.
One way the organization supports that mission is through an annual exhibition featuring the work of art students from Greater Cincinnati colleges.
“Our Emerging Artist Exhibition allows junior and senior art majors to experience what it takes to be in an exhibition – how to interact with those outside of the classroom, how to prepare their creations for hanging, and just how to follow directions that may not be what they would do but how they are expected to do things,” says Utter. “These things are not taught in class and we think it’s very important to allow them this experience.”
Representing the next generation of artists, the students are nominated by their professors, juried by Summerfair, and are afforded the opportunity to exhibit their work among their peers. Summefair’s Emerging Artists Exhibition is on view through Feb. 25 at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center.
“I think being in a city that is rich in art of all types, helps fuel their imaginations.”
“CCAC is incredibly proud to partner once again with Summerfair Cincinnati on their annual Emerging Artists exhibition,” says Leslie Mooney, executive director of CCAC. “As a community arts center, we know how important it is to foster creativity in our youngest artists and provide opportunities for them to showcase their work in a professional yet accessible setting. We are astounded at the strong talent by this year’s cohort of student artists.”
”It is so powerful to watch these young adults, their families and even professors come to the event and be so proud to see what they have produced,” says Utter. “We feel the time, energy and expense is well worth it. Each year we are blown away at the creativity these young artists have. This year was exceptional. Our judges had a hard time coming up with those that won our financial awards. I think being in a city that is rich in art of all types, helps fuel their imaginations.”
Exhibition awards were presented at the opening reception on Feb. 11. The first place prize of place $800 was presented to Hannah Martin from Miami University. Second place, a prize of $550, was awarded to Jazmina Robinhawk from NKU. The third place award, $300, was given to Chloe Wenger, also of NKU. The Jerry Bollen Scholarship Award of $250 was given to Sam Edwards from the University of Cincinnati.
“Summerfair is proud to give in so many categories, supporting small groups that may generally fall through the cracks of giving,” says Utter. “Next we will judge our Small Arts Organizations, giving $20,000 in awards to several worthy groups.
Future's So Bright
BLINK is back! Meet the festival's new executive director, Justin Brookhart, and start planning for a the return of the most eye-popping event in Cincinnati.
BLINK, as you may have heard from excited fans, is back. The incredible light, art, and culture festival returns Oct. 13–16.
Justin Brookhart has been named the executive director of BLINK Cincinnati.
“It’s an honor to lead BLINK Cincinnati in collaboration with our producing partners to shine a light on Cincinnati’s innovative and forward-thinking arts and culture community,” he says.“I have long heard of Cincinnati’s collaborative creative spirit and I look forward to creating long-lasting partnerships in continuing the enormous success of BLINK.”
Though he recently moved to Cincinnati from Austin, he is no stranger to the city. We caught up with him to see how he’s settling in to his new hometown, as he gets ready for the biggest show in town.
What are you looking forward to once you get settled in?
Eating! My wife, Erin, and I love to go out to eat and we also enjoy cooking at home. Cincinnati has a fantastic dining scene and Erin will be working at Findlay Market which has wonderful vendors and producers that we are excited to explore.
What are you excited to bring to Cincinnati from your experience?
Texas pride?! I often joke that Texans take an odd pride in our state. We grow up pledging our allegiance to it every morning in school. We talk crap about it while also aggressively defending it to any naysayers. We've built a brand around what makes us unique even when those uniquenesses aren't all positive. I'd like to bring the same mentality to my new home. Don't mess with Texas OR Cincinnati!
What's your dream project?
(Money and time are no object!)
I went to school for film production and always wanted to do an adaptation of my favorite childhood novel, The Hatchet. I'd want to produce with someone like Hiro Murai directing. Not a bad way to spend unlimited time and money.
Have you had Skyline yet?
Yes, many times when visiting the region with Erin. I married into Skyline, but she was born into it, molded by it. 🙂
Do you have a favorite Graeter’s flavor yet?
Mint chocolate chip! Had some last week!
For more information about BLINK Cincinnati, visit blinkcincinnati.com.