Making Waves Blog

Having both younger and transplanted employees engage in a program like BOARDway Bound is a win-win-win for employers, the employees and the arts. Why? Here are just a few reasons

Cincinnati knows how to throw a festive party whether it’s all about baseball, music, beer, or innovation. It’s time to invite more of the world to our party, not just for the national spotlight and tourist revenue that these events provide, but also for the infusion of energy and exchange of new ideas that they inspire among our creative workforce. The more, the merrier… and the stronger our region becomes.

Contemporary Arts Center's One Night One Craft sessions offer adults the chance to make art and make new connections in the community.

In partnership with the Community Organizing Committee (@BatterUpCincy) and Downtown Cincinnati, Inc., ArtsWave created a series of pop-up arts performances at CVG Airport and around Downtown.

Summer brings so many opportunities to experience amazing arts across the Greater Cincinnati region --including many events that are FREE. Check out some of the no cost and low cost arts experiences coming up in the next three months.

At first glance, the field of engineering, the natural sciences, technology, and mathematics may seem to have little to do with a discussion about arts education. Yet one local organization is changing the way our community educates our students by embracing an attitude of collaboration across these fields in a practical way.

Sometimes you need a change in perspective. Each year, the Americans for the Arts convention offers me an opportunity to get the 30,000 foot view of the role of arts in our nation. Three things stood out for me this year at the annual gathering of more than a thousand local, state and national arts administrators, organizers, policy-makers, educators and advocates.

Our quarterly Culture Splash newsletter is designed to be your tour guide to the world of arts across the Greater Cincinnati region. Why not plan a staycation this year and visit the world with your families, friends and neighbors without ever having to leave the area?

ArtsWave announces $10.4 million in grants and initiatives to create a vibrant regional economy and bring people together through the arts. These investments are made possible by the thousands of people and organizations who contributed to ArtsWave’s recent community campaign chaired by Tom Williams. ArtsWave continues to be the largest united arts fund in the country, both in contributions and in number of donors.

“Art is for looking, not touching.” Most of us have been restricted by this phrase at some point in our lives, probably as curious children exploring an art museum. The Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM) is offering a place for that curiosity to run wild with the new Rosenthal Education Center (REC).

The arts fuel creativity and learning, encouraging the development of important 21st century skills like critical thinking, collaboration, and self-discipline. Yet, in the current climate of arts and education funding, many children in underserved communities lack equitable access to arts programming that could enhance their learning experience. In the spring of 2015, ArtsWave embarked on a project to bridge the gap between the arts and underserved schools with special support from the Gladys and Ralph Lazarus Fund and Ladislas and Vilma Segoe Family Foundation.

The development and production of new work is just one of the ways our largest arts organizations build the national and international reputation of our region. This summer, Cincinnati Opera produces the world premiere of Morning Star, a new opera by celebrated composter Ricky Ian Gordon. The piece received two workshops through Opera Fusion: New Works, a unique collaboration between Cincinnati Opera and University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music created in 2011 to foster the development of new American operas.

We, too, have a set of assets that distinguish our region from others, even if our history has been less about musical exports and more about building institutions. We can take a page from Nashville’s playbook by better leveraging our nationally significant arts and cultural organizations to drive economic growth and civic identity. We also have burgeoning festival, neighborhood, pop-up art, and maker cultures that have yet to be fully leveraged as thriving, complementary counterparts to our enviable legacy institutions. With all this going for us, what if we simply put a stake in the ground and declared, “Cincy is an Arts City”!?

I often am asked how ArtsWave makes grants with the dollars it raises through the annual community arts campaign. It’s a story we love to tell, with origins that date back decades ago.

The arts can play a powerful role in uncovering and celebrating our shared history. Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is bringing a new, uniquely Cincinnati story to our region with Cincinnati King, a new play about the legendary King Records.

Five women who are redesigning the world of arts and design in Cincinnati shared their stories with ArtsWave's Women's Leadership Roundtable members.

From outdoor concerts to experimental theater festivals, summer in Cincinnati brings a host of opportunities to enjoy our region’s amazing arts scene with family and friends. Here are just a few upcoming highlights at the start of the summer season.

The arts have been in the news a lot over the past two weeks. In response to these stories, I’ve heard more than a few times that these results are impressive for “a city our size.” As much as I understand the sentiment and our region's population size, I think we are selling ourselves short with this qualifier. Within the space of twelve days, Cincinnati has done something that other cities, large or small or in between, can only envy. We’ve shown our unique capacity for collaborative action around things that we value—namely, a thriving, innovative, and inclusive arts scene.

What does it mean to be the largest community arts campaign in the country? $12,250,000 in community contributions is a big number, but it doesn’t capture the full scope of our region’s amazing commitment to the arts. Take a look at a few more impressive numbers from the 2015 campaign.

The Cincinnati Fringe Festival brings 150 artists, 45 productions, and over 170 performances to the Queen City each year. Performers from across the region and the globe look forward to this innovative and cutting-edge theatre festival to put new works in front of new audiences.