Strike a Pose
Artists enjoy opening for Summerfair's Emerging Artists exhibition at Clifton Cultural Arts Center.
The next generation of artists takes center stage at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center during Summerfair’s Emerging Artists exhibition.
At the opening last Friday, awards were presented to the best in show by Jayne Utter, Summerfair's managing director along with juror Mary Donaldson.
The first place winner was Helena Kaelin from Northern Kentucky University for the piece, The Prodigal Daughter. Second place went to Mary Visco, Miami University. with Expanse. Alyssa McRoberts from Mount St. Joseph University, took third place for Tracing Time. Honorable mentions were given to Kendra Yurt, from Thomas More University, for Midnight Pondering and Madison Mackinnon of Miami University, for Phoenix Ember Emerging.
The Jerry Bollen Award was presented to Nick Felaris of Miami University for the work, KETTLEPEOPLE.
The exhibition continues through Feb. 24
Bring in the New
The Greater Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky African American Chamber of Commerce recently elected new officers and shares their 2023 goals at their annual meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 31.
The Greater Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky African American Chamber of Commerce recently elected new officers and shares their 2023 goals at their annual meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 31.
The new officers of the AACC are
Shannon D. Lawson, Esq., chair and an attorney with KMK Law, serving in the firm’s Business Representation & Transactions Group
As an attorney in the firm’s Business Representation & Transactions Group, Lawson assists clients with all aspects of their commercial financing and equipment leasing needs. Shannon has successfully negotiated and structured numerous transactions—and has become the go-to source for clients when it comes to solving their complex legal issues within finance and leasing.
Apryl Pope, secretary and a financial planner with Pope Financial Planning, LLC.
Pope and her team work one-on-one with families and business owners to design and implement a personalized plan to pursue their financial goals. As a former high school teacher, she values education and is committed to teaching others about the importance of financial planning and wealth building.
Royce Sutton, treasurer and an executive vice president with Fifth Third Bank
Sutton is an experienced Community Reinvestment Act compliance manager, with more than 20 years of regulatory and community development business success. His work includes everything from creating business development strategies and opportunities with community partners to administering the foundation grants program and maintaining outreach with key community, government, business and non-profit leaders.
Erica White-Johnson, Esq., vice chair and an attorney with altafiber.
She has a degree in accounting from Hampton University and is a graduate of William & Mary Law School.
She also serves on the City of Cincinnati Primary Care Board of Governors, which has the responsibility for establishing policies, including determining the scope and availability of services, location and hours of services, and assuring the organization is operating in compliance with federal, state, and local laws and regulations. The Board’s oversight of the public entity is governed by its by-laws and a co-applicant agreement with the Board of Health.
The Chamber will also welcomed two new board members.
Darrick Dansby, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Realty. Williams received his undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina and his law degree from The Ohio State University.
Dansby has been a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Realty since 2014 and began his Real Estate career working with the 3CDC (Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation) and later served as the Director of Development for Price Hill Will.
Max Williams, an associate attorney with Frost Brown Todd,
During his time in law school, Williams was the chief managing editor for the Ohio State Business Law Journal. He also served as an executive justice for judge recruitment on the Moot Court Governing Board.
Williams previously worked as a clerk for a Personal Injury attorney in Columbus, Ohio, and as a summer associate of the firm in 2019.
More Than Movies
Film Cincinnati makes an impressive showing at the Sundance Film Festival, which was back in full swing after two years of on-line screening only.
The Big ‘Dance
If you plan to go out to Sundance next year, consider becoming a member at www.sundance.org (different levels are available, depending on how much you want to do and see).
Membership gives you early access to tickets, whether you want single-movie tickets or packages. It also gives you a discount on Sundance merch, always a hot commodity. For cinephiles, it’ an exhilarating immersion into independent cinema and a first look at some of the films we’ll be talking about in the months to come.
The Sundance Film Festival, an offshoot of the Sundance Institute founded by Robert Redford in 1981, was back in full swing in person (and virtually) in 2023 after two years of on-line screening only. It’s certainly the place to see and be seen in the industry, where fans can walk the streets with some of the biggest names in film, and party with entertainment and cinema glitterati.
While movies are shown in locations throughout the area, the hub of the action is the ski resort town of Park City, Utah, a vacation paradise not just in summer, but year round.
Normally a pleasant little resort city of 7,500 tucked in the Wasatch Mountains, the town explodes during Sundance with film buffs, film makers and film movers and shakers (in fact, most of the natives get out of town for the week and rent their homes to visitors for a pretty penny). Car service is a must, especially if you’re staying at nearby resorts. Ride sharing is available, but often your driver is from out of town and doesn’t know the back streets, a must during festival week. (Two feet of snow doesn’t help, either, especially when said back streets are still snow covered)
While this year’s festival ran from January 19 through January 29, the real action happens during that first weekend—in fact, many of the major sponsors pull their activations out of town after Monday. It’s a time for aspiring moviemakers to make connections, film industry veterans to reconnect after two years on line, and, oh yes, see some of the finest independent movies being made today.
Some of the hot movies being screened at Sundance this year were a series of documentaries, including “Little Richard: I am Everything” and “Still: A Michael J Fox Movie,” psychological thriller “Cat Person” and the mocumentary “Theater Camp.” Making headlines for all the wrong reasons was the drama “Magazine Dreams,” when the Sundance jury, including Marlee Matlin, walked out on the premiere because the caption technology wasn’t working.
The Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky film industry was well represented at this year’s Sundance, thanks to Film Cincinnati and its executive director Kristen Schlotman, starting with an open-to-the-industry Bengals-Bills watch party at the famed No Name Saloon on Main Street in Park City. Filmmakers, performers and Cincinnati ex-pats vacationing or living in the area stopped by to cheer on the Bengals to the divisional victory.
Film Cincinnati also partnered with Kentucky Film for a Monday afternoon reception to boost the film industry in the Bluegrass. More than 400 RSVP’d for the event at The Cabin, which featured Kentucky bourbon and live music.
– Betsy Ross
Buffalo Stance
Bengals shuffle into the AFC Championship with a win against Buffalo, and we were there!
Did you see that? Despite the snow (and the cold), the Bengals got the win against the Buffalo Bills last Sunday at Highmark Stadium. Undaunted by the weather at home and on the road, the Bengals faithful made the trip, bringing the ultimate tailgate experience to Buffalo and rounds of WHO DEY inside the stadium.
Ruffling Some Feathers
WHODEY! Check out some of our favorite Bengals fans from the AFC Wild Card game.
Bengals fans took tailgating to new heights before the Wild Card game on Sunday, Jan 15 against the Baltimore Ravens.
Photos by Shae Combs
Just One Look at You
Friends remember Jean-Robert with video tribute.
As family, friends, and Cincinnati’s culinary community gather to celebrate the life of Chef Jean Robert de Cavel, we wanted to share this video remembrance.
A memorial mass for Chef Jean Robert de Cavel will be held on Jan. 16, 9:30 a.m., at Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter in Chains, 325 W. Eighth St. in downtown Cincinnati. Rev. Barry Windholtz and the Rev. Jan Schmidt will officiate.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the de Cavel Family SIDS Foundation.
Online condolences can be made at Dobbling, Muehlenkamp-Erschell Funeral Homes.
A Safe Bet
Place your bets, sports fans! See the action at Hard Rock Casino.
In a truly only-in-Cincinnati moment, when sports better started in Ohio, Pete Rose placed the first best at Hard Rock Casino, wagering $100 that the Reds would win the 2023 World Series.
Rose was joined by other Cincinnati sports luminaries Cincinnati Reds Hall of Famer Bronson Arroyo, broadcast legend Marty Brennaman, Olympic Gold Medalist Mary Wineberg, and Cincinnati Bengals legends Anthony Muñoz, Ickey Woods, Jim Breech and David Fulcher to celebrate New Year’s Eve and the launch of sports betting at Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati.
Hard Rock Sportsbook officially opened at Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati at approximately 12:01 a.m. on January 1, the landmark day that sports betting became legal in Ohio. Located inside the Hard Rock Cafe, Hard Rock Cincinnati Sportsbook features a new lounge area to enhance game days year-round for local sport fans. In addition to a new sportsbook lounge area, Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati has added more than 150 TVs, 33 betting kiosks, and six betting windows.
The Hard Rock Sportsbook experience is also available anytime, anywhere throughout Ohio, via a mobile app and desktop sportsbook. New Ohio players on the Hard Rock Sportsbook mobile app can earn up to five spins of the Mystery Wheel (depending on amount bet), each with a chance to win up to $5,000 in bonus bets.
Hard Rock Sportsbook’s mobile app has a 4.8-star rating and offers a frictionless, easy-to-use experience with live streaming, innovative promotions, fast deposits and withdrawals, and hundreds of games and props to bet each day along with same game parlays and prop parlays. The Hard Rock Sportsbook mobile app is available for download through the App Store (iOS users) or the Google PlayStore (Android users) and can be utilized by fans physically located within Arizona, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia with plans to expand to additional states soon. Hard Rock Sportsbook also serves fans online in New Jersey and Iowa through the Hard Rock Sports & Casino NJ and the Hard Rock Sportsbook Iowa apps, respectively.
In Top Form
The Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky African American Chamber of Commerce has named their annual business award honorees.
The Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky African American Chamber of Commerce (AACC) held its annual Gala on Saturday, Dec. 3, inducting a number of local business leaders into its Hall of Fame.
The Cincy Nights Gala was an homage to the creative, collaborative spirt of the Harlem Renaissance. The event in the Music Hall Ballromm featured a live jazz band, poetry, fashion show, and tap dance performances from members of the communities served by the AACC.
Hall of Fame honorees
Emerging Leader winners
Chairman’s Award honorees
AACC Volunteer Award winner
Sam Ross of Ionic Communications
Home Cooking
Jeff Ruby makes a special delivery to first responders in Anderson.
Since 2015, Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment has provided more than 4,700 turkeys to first responders and their families. That tradition continued this week, with deliveries to the Anderson Township Fire & Rescue and Police Department.
“We have the honor and privilege to offer a very small gesture of appreciation for first responders here in Anderson Township. Every day they – and every first responder in Cincinnati put the needs of our community ahead of their own in order to protect and serve all of us. We’re thankful for them and for the opportunity we have to share a bit of joy with them and their wonderful families during this holiday season,” said restaurateur Jeff Ruby, founder of Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment. “From more than 800 members of the extended Jeff Ruby family, we offer heartfelt gratitude and thanks for all they do in keeping us safe.”
Approximately 100 turkeys were donated by the Jeff Ruby family, owners and operators of Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse, The Precinct, and Carlo & Johnny.
Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment also gave turkeys to first responders in Columbus, Nashville, and Louisville.
Home of the Brave
Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati honors local vet with Veterans Day ceremony.
Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati honored local vets today with a special ceremony. Hamilton County Color Guard presented the colors and and Robert Lomax, from the Hamilton County Sherriff’s office, sang the National Anthem.
At the ceremony George Goldhoff, president of Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati, presented a $10,000 donation to Disabled American Veterans to Jeremy Yost, a Marine veteran and DAV’s assistant national employment director.
Hard Rock Cafe and Brick’d Pizza offered free meals to vets. In the cafe Nancy James and a big band performed nostalgic tunes to celebrate veterans and our armed forces.
Screen Test
Ready for your close-up? See shots from Film Cincinnati's Backlot gala.
Glamour and fun ruled the red carpet at Film Cincinnati’s Backlot fundraiser on Saturday, Oct. 29.
Guests did not disappoint, picking up the pre-Halloween vibes and going all in on the “Hollywood Glam” theme for the event, held at Waypoint Aviation.
Along with food from Funky’s Catering, music from Fixx Band, and green screen and 360-camera stations, the evening also honored film producer Sarah Green, who received Film Cincinnati’s Founder's Award.
Brewing up history
Hands down, this tour in OTR where we learned about Cincinnati’s brewing history was easily at the top of our “Coolest things we’ve done in Cincy this year” list.
Dark side of brewing
Is the name of the tour we took! You’ll walk a little over a mile through OTR, past historic breweries.
Brewing Heritage Trail staff are incredibly knowledgeable as they take you through Cincinnati’s brewing history, sharing stories of those who left their mark here through beer.
The last two stops on your tour are some of the coolest!
tOUR AN ABANDONED THEATER
We won’t give it all away but this was one of our favorite parts of the tour.
Next, you’ll walk underneath the historic Jackson Brewery, into its former brewing tunnels.
Check out the gallery below and our Cincinnati People show for all the fun we fun we had.
For more info, click here: https://brewingheritagetrail.org/
What's Cooking
Dillon Ruby on the new era in dining for Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse.
Cincinnati steak-lovers, we’ve got good news and we’ve got bad news.
The bad news is Jeff Ruby’s eponymous downtown steakhouse closed on Sunday.
The good news is a new, bigger, and somehow even more glamorous, steakhouse opens across from Fountain Square on Saturday.
Sleeping Beauty
The glamorous art deco bedroom closes soon at the Cincinnati Art Museum!
Like the Roaring Twenties, the days to see Unlocking an Art Deco Bedroom by Joseph Urban at the Cincinnati Art Museum are fleeting.
The lavish bedroom designed by Austrian-born architect Joseph Urban for 17-year-old Elaine Wormser closes Sunday, Oct. 2.
About the Architect
Joseph Urban (1872–1933) was a prolific illustrator, scenic designer, and architect who trained in fin-de-siècle Vienna. During this period, many Viennese artists, including Urban, rejected historical precedents and embraced a new modern art. In 1911, he relocated to the United States to become the art director of the Boston Opera. He quickly became one of the most revered set designers of the early twentieth century and worked tirelessly across a range of media, from film to architecture, to create and promote a fresh style that reflected the times.
Some of Urban’s most notable projects include set designs for the Metropolitan Opera, the Ziegfeld Follies, and Hollywood films; the first American gallery to showcase work by artists of the famed Wiener Werkstatte (Vienna Workshop); the building and interiors for The New School in New York; the color direction for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair; interiors for Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago; and the roof garden of Cincinnati’s Hotel Gibson (demolished in 1977).
More than 90 years after its completion, the Wormser Bedroom’s furnishings have been fully conserved and displayed to reflect their state as originally installed in Chicago’s Drake Tower and photographed in 1930.
“It is thrilling to present this bedroom for the first time in our galleries, with new scholarship and display approaches,” notes Amy Miller Dehan, the exhibition’s curator and Cincinnati Art Museum’s curator of decorative arts and design.
When Elaine Wormser Reis moved to Cincinnati in 1936, she brought nearly all of her bedroom with her—including the custom wall-to-wall carpet. The room’s elements, donated to the Cincinnati Art Museum by Elaine Wormser Reis in 1973, form the largest collection of Urban-designed furnishings held by a public institution.
One of Urban’s final commissions, the Wormser Bedroom features a daring combination of colors and patterns, black glass walls and a reflective silvered ceiling. The interior embodies the distinct modern design vocabulary that Urban developed and employed throughout his career, highlighting his talent as a colorist, his flair for the dramatic, and his skillful blend of Viennese artistic influences with the prevailing modern style now known as Art Deco.
“For decades, our understanding of the room was based on black-and-white photographs which fail to present Urban’s virtuosic combinations of color, pattern, and finish,” says Dehan. “The process of reconstructing the room has been a revelation. This exhibition reveals Urban’s boundless talent and contributions to the development of American Modernism as well as the bold messaging that women like Elaine Wormser projected when choosing the avant-garde style over backward-looking historical fashions.”
In addition to the bedroom, the exhibition features drawings, paintings, costumes, and related furnishings drawn from many American collections. A full-color illustrated book and an interactive website provide further context, including reflections on the experiences of the caretakers and unnamed craftspeople who are an integral part of the Wormser Bedroom story. Behind-the-scenes investigations and processes necessary to reintroduce the room to the public are also highlighted.
young, scrappy, and hungry
Catch the cast of HAMILTON performing at Oktoberfest Zinzinnati.
They were not throwing away their shot!
At last weekend’s Oktoberfest Zinzinnati, the cast of HAMILTON did a very different kind of dance.
Check out this BTS video from the Rich Walburg World's Largest Chicken Dance!
The cast members were thrilled to participate in this Zinzinnati tradition, in front of 70,000 strong on Saturday night
HAMILTON continues through Oct. 2 as part of Broadway in Cincinnati at the Aronoff Center.
Top of the Park(s)
We all know King's Island is tops, but now everyone else does, recently winning Park of the Year.
For movies, it’s the Academy Awards. For music, it’s the Grammy’s. For amusement parks? It’s the Golden Ticket Awards that took place recently in San Antonio, Texas.
And Cincinnati’s own Kings Island took home one of 2022’s top honors – Park of the Year for its 50th Anniversary Celebration season, according to Kings Island’s Director of Communications, Chad Showalter.
Recently, the amusement park’s rides were recognized as some of the best, including The Beast, Mystic Timbers, Orion and Diamondback.
Here’s a look at the park’s honors for this year:
Top Honor: 2022 Park of the Year
Amusement Today, the organizers of the Golden Ticket Awards” said that Kings Island received the ‘Park of the Year’ award “Because of (the park’s) important history and its perfect celebration of it.”
World Class
In addition to offering more than 100 world-class rides, shows and attractions, Kings Island offers a series of special outdoor events each and every year.
More Kings Island Recognition:
In addition to Park of the Year, Kings Island in the following categories:
Ice Dreams
You know you’ve made this face while enjoying the seasonal fav, Blue Ice Cream. YUM!
#2 Best New Show – “Fun, Fireworks, and Fifty Nighttime Spectacular”
#2 Best Kids Area in the World – Planet Snoopy provides families with top kids rides and attractions during their visit to Kings Island.
#4 Best New Show – “Phantom Theater Encore”
#4 Best Guest Experience (up from #5 last year)
Racing for the Win
The Red and Blue racers are a classic, guest favorite.
#5 Best Wooden Rollercoaster – The Beast (One of only two roller coasters that have been on every top 10 list Amusement Today has published)
#6 Best Wooden Rollercoaster – Mystic Timbers (The coaster debuted at #11 in 2017)
Golden Anniversary
“It's moments like these that make me so proud of my park.”
– Chad Showalter, director of communications
#17 Best Steel Coaster – Diamondback Earlier this year, Grace Timmons from Seymour, Indiana became Diamondbacks 20 millionth rider.
#20 Best Steel Coaster – Orion USA TODAY’s Best New Amusement Park Attraction in 2020
“It's moments like these that make me so proud of my park, Showalter adds. “This weekend, at the annual international Golden Ticket Awards ceremony in San Antonio, Texas, Amusement Today awarded the Golden Ticket Award for Park of the Year to Kings Island.”
50 years of fun
The park celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022, with special events, honoring memories, fun and traditions.
The park is in the midst of getting ready for Halloween Haunt, opening on Friday, Sept. 23.
Keep an eye out as we take you inside the park and share the spooky and scary happenings!
For more info, click here!
Amusement Today’s annual Golden Ticket Awards are the amusement industry’s top recognition with amusement park owners and managers, ride manufacturers and other industry officials. One a year they gather to salute the industry’s top parks. Winners are selected by hundreds of well-traveled amusement park enthusiasts, who vote from all corners of the world.
Clear as a Bell
The Bell Charitable Foundation has selected the organizations to receive the Foundation’s inaugural round of grants that total $150,000.
The Bell Charitable Foundation today named four organizations that have been selected to receive the Foundation’s inaugural round of grants that total $150,000.
altafiber, which formerly did business as Cincinnati Bell in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, launched the BCF earlier this year. The BCF’s mission is to support organizations in its operating territories that are driving Economic & Social Mobility, Technology, Environmental Sustainability, and Health & Wellbeing initiatives.
The BCF awarded the following organizations with grants at a special luncheon at the 1819 Innovation Hub at the University of Cincinnati.
In the Economic & Social Mobility pillar, BCF funded Visionaries and Voices. V+V focuses on art education for people with disabilities. V+V works with these artists to develop and leverage their skills into careers. The BCF grant funds will expand this arts program to impact more lives and spread the word about its work in communities that lack art education. This is a great example of meshing important education and job opportunities for the artists, with spreading artistic energy and appreciation around the city.
In the Technology Pillar, BCF funded Per Scholas. Per Scholas provides IT training for unemployed or underemployed citizens at no cost. Individuals who qualify for Per Scholas' services may choose from any number of different IT courses. All course options include soft skills training, including how to interview well and develop financial budgeting skills.
In the Environmental Sustainability pillar, BCF funded Green Umbrella. This sustainability alliance is home to the Cincinnati 2030 District, which focuses on working with companies to decrease their carbon emissions in different ways. Companies that are part of the District focus on reducing their utility use, improving building efficiency, and helping green their employees’ commutes. Green Umbrella’s work includes many other areas of sustainability and climate action as well, including policy advocacy, planting community orchards, equitable access to outdoor learning for kids, building food system resilience, and connecting bike trails and paths around the city to encourage access to greenspace and biking as transportation.
In the Health and Wellbeing pillar, BCF funded 1N5, which focuses on mental health education and suicide prevention for students K-12 and in college. The organization’s model uses a rigorous evidence-based framework to normalize mental health and break down barriers that prevent youth from seeking help. Because 50% of mental illness originates before the age of 14, and 75% appears before the age of 24, 1N5 works in schools to make meaningful change. Mental health education helps to break stigmas and is especially important in this post-pandemic climate.
To learn more about the Bell Charitable Foundation’s work visit www.BellFDN.org.
Family Style
Nashville-based Royce brings a bit of savoir faire to Fountain Square.
Cincinnati has a new foodie corner in the works with the recent opening of Royce, a “modern French brasserie” located on the corner of Fifth and Vine. The restaurant in the former Tiffany & Co. space features an al fresco seating option facing Fountain Square.
Later this fall, Royce’s new neighbor, Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse, will open its new flagship steakhouse. Via Vite, a long time Italian favorite sits across the street.
Royce is run by Nashville-based restaurateur Terry Raley, who opened the oyster bar and restaurant Pearlstar last fall. Raley named the restaurant after his grandfather, Royce, who taught him the simple pleasures of cured meats, fresh oysters, and sharing a warm laugh with loved ones.
Speaking of oysters, seafood fans will enjoy the “Le Bar a Fruits de Mer” with a variety of options from fresh oysters, poached shrimp, mussels and lobster.
The caviar with fresh salt and vinegar chips is also a must-try with a glass of champagne.
Those who enjoy a bite at the bar will also find a new home at Royce with a smart and tempting cocktail menu.
Weekend brunch at Royce begins this weekend.
Royce employs a team service approach which is top notch.
Reservations at resy.com. More information at www.royce-cincy.com.
Teeing Off
The LPGA returns to Cincinnati next month for the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G! Get tickets now.
For the first time in more than 30 years, the top female golfers in the world are returning to Cincinnati. The Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G at Kenwood Country Club will be held Sept. 8–11.
The tournament serves as a platform to showcase Southwest Ohio to an international audience, drive tourism and awareness, create a positive charitable and economic impact to the community, build VIP relationships, and continue to grow women’s golf in the region.
You can be part of the action! Get your tickets today!
Good as Gold
Our very own Betsy Ross received the Silver Circle Awardfrom the Ohio Valley chapter of the National Academy ofTelevision Arts and Sciences, honoring her decades of work in television news.
Our own Betsy Ross has some new hardware to add to her collection.
On Saturday, Ross received the Silver Circle Award at the 58th Annual Ohio Valley Regional Emmy Award, honoring her more than 25 years in television news in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and West Virginia.
From Indianapolis to ESPN, Ross has been a trailblazer.