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Arts & Entertainment News

Flags for Neighborhoods go Beyond Games

Cincy Flags is an initiative that is looking to instill pride and place in Cincinnati through the design of a unique flag for each of the fifty-two neighborhoods. The flags will be designed through public input sessions where that input is then handed off to a designer who will apply finishing touches to the final flag design.

The idea started with Henry Frondorf, who won the first ever Engage Cincy Grant for the Neighborhood Games in 2016. He says his inspiration for the Neighborhood Games started as a spark when he attended the Men’s World Cup Match viewing party on Fountain Square in 2014.

The Neighborhood Games are a series of events where teams from each neighborhood compete to win the Neighborhood Cup. The events mirror the Olympics where there are an opening and closing ceremony. After his first Neighborhood Games, he realized that not all neighborhoods have a representative flag.

Left to right: Henry Frondorf, Josh Mattie, Chris Cliff-Perbix.

Because of this, Frondorf, along with designers Josh Mattie and Chris Cliff-Perbix, came up with the idea to instill a sense of place in each Cincinnati neighborhood through a flag. They applied this idea to the Engage Cincy Challenge Grant Program were chosen from seventeen finalists to receive $10,000 from the city for this initiative.

The Engage Cincy Challenge Grant Program, which is awarded by the City of Cincinnati, is intended to be a community building competition that intends to use the funds for the “development, launch and promotion of innovative projects that better a specific neighborhood or the entire city.”

So far, the project is in its information gathering stage. They’ve been surprised at the feedback they’ve gotten from the survey so far, with responses to questions like “what do you wish more people knew about your neighborhood?”

“You’ll get feedback from people who respond saying that what is most important about their neighborhood is that they’ve lived there for forty years and all the connections they’ve made through that. That is hard to represent, and we are trying to physically represent that feeling,” said Chris Cliff-Perbix.

“The vibe of a neighborhood is determined by the people in it. A flag can be a visual emblem of the spirit of the neighborhood, and it can be a tangible communication of a community,” co-founder Josh Mattie told UrbanCincy. “People are eager to embrace the embodiment of what they feel about their neighborhood. It is interesting to see how people use the form as a way to speak their voice about the wide variety of feedback they can give about their community,”

The flags were flown at the Parade of Neighborhoods Opening Ceremony at the Neighborhood Games in 2019.

This year’s Neighborhood Games Opening Ceremony was July 21 at 7 p.m. at Washington Park.

While the third Neighborhood Games is in the books you can still tell Cincy Flags what you love about your neighborhood by filling out the survey here.

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Arts & Entertainment News

Gallery to Highlight How People Use Space

Space, the final frontier… This famous phrase immediately evokes thoughts of stars and interplanetary travel, but there is a more common type of space that we navigate every day. That space, or the creative utilization of space in the built environment is the highlight of a new gallery exhibit at GBBN Architects’ EDGE Gallery this Friday.

The exhibit titled, “’C’mon Space! Whatcha Gonna Do For Me?” features the work of GBBN in researching common space through pop-up public space interventions. The exhibition will include a collection of diagrams, video, imagery, digital and physical models that summarize the findings of the research; a chronicle of the journey of our research project; and present the successes and failures of typical common space.

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The idea to focus on how people interact with spaces is the evolution of a project that began in September 2016 with GBBN’s annual participation in PARK(ing) Day. PARK(ing) Day is an international event where individuals and groups take over public parallel parking spaces for a day and transform them into miniature parks called “parklets.” UrbanCincy has covered this event over the years.

Initially PARK(ing) Day was used as a vehicle to perform initial research on how people use and respond to pop-up lounge seating. After this years’ event, the firm continued the research by creating a series of pop-up interventions that presented other seating options and interactive exhibits and observed how people interacted to the options.

The EDGE gallery is a place to share GBBN’s research and participate in local design dialogue. The gallery name was inspired from the meaning of an ‘edge condition,’ which occurs where two or more distinct realms overlap and interface to create a unique situation. Conditions such as these allow for fertile and creative thought, and elicit unique challenges and opportunities to create lively discussions.

The exhibition will be held at the EDGE Gallery located at 332 East 8th Street in the 8th Street Design District from 6pm-9pm on Friday December 2. A Cincy RedBike station is conveniently located across the street. The gallery is also located along the #11, #16, and #64 Metro Bus routes and is two blocks from the 8th and Main Cincinnati Bell Connector stop.

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Up To Speed

Free and Cheap Things To Do in Cincinnati This Holiday Season

Free and Cheap Things To Do in Cincinnati This Holiday Season

It may be getting cold outside but there are still plenty of great things going on for the Holidays and through Winter in the urban core and around the region. Bridgett Raffenberg at 365 Cincinnati has a comprehensive breakdown of things to do that are fun and won’t break the holiday budget. More at 365 Cincinnati:

It may be cold and it may just snow…. perhaps a few of these fun free and cheap winter things to do in Cincinnati will help you get out and enjoy our fine city!

 

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Arts & Entertainment Business News

ArtsWave Announces Recipients of $10.4 Million in Grants

ArtsWave finalized their list of grants to arts organizations throughout the region last Friday. This year’s distribution doles out $10.4 million to 35 different local arts organizations, ranging from $12,500 for the Contemporary Dance Theater to $3,020,000 for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to what ArtsWave calls their impact grants, they also distributed $435,000 for small project grants and strategic local partnerships.

The money comes from a fund that ArtsWave officials say is the largest of its kind in the United States, distributing more than $50 million to regional arts organizations over the past five years.

“ArtsWave’s grants are a differentiator for Greater Cincinnati,” Mary McCullough-Hudson, ArtsWave’s outgoing CEO, stated in a prepared release. “It is absolutely unique for a region this size to have an annual infusion of more than $10 million in its arts sector each year, creating both a stabilizing and a catalyzing effect for organizations and arts-related activity that have unexpected benefits for the community.”

The organizations and projects that were awarded money, officials say, were selected based on the input of grant making committees that evaluate submissions and determine the amount of money to be awarded to each applicant.

The average grant amount awarded this year was approximately $250,000. The Cincinnati Art Museum ($1,635,000), Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra ($3,020,000) and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park ($1,210,000) were the only organizations to receive grants in excess of $1 million. When removing those outliers from the equation, the average drops to about $110,000.

Other large recipients include the Cincinnati Opera ($935,000), Cincinnati Ballet ($850,000) and Contemporary Arts Center ($405,000).

The money for these grants comes from an annual fundraising effort, which yielded a record amount last year of more than $12 million. In addition to supporting the numerous organizations and projects, the money also goes to support shared service operations arts organizations throughout the region, like board training, volunteer programs and fundraising expenses.

“Our region’s residents support this campaign because they see every day how the arts bring people together,” said Karen Bowman, Chair, ArtsWave Board of Trustees and Principal, Deloitte Consulting.

In addition to these grants, ArtsWave officials also announced that they would be awarding $45,000 to designated community revitalization organizations in Price Hill, Madisonville, Covington, Avondale and Walnut Hills as part of LISC-Cincinnati’s Place Matters campaign. Those funds, they say, will be used to support community-building arts programs in those neighborhoods.

“Successful creative placemaking is about the impact of local arts on people in these neighborhoods,” explained Kathy Schwab, Executive Director, LISC of Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky. “This exciting partnership with ArtsWave will help fuel community engagement and pride in the five Place Matters communities.”

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Arts & Entertainment News

Red Door Project to Debut Pop-Up Art Exhibit at Final Friday

Art sometimes has the effect of bringing people together. Sometimes it opens avenues for new connections and experiencing new things. Ten years ago, local artists were challenged to create a piece of art centered on a red door. That event a decade ago led to the beginning of close friendships that endure today.

That is the story gallery founder, Barbara Hauser, tells regarding that original Final Friday event in 2004; and while she was not leading the gallery known as The Project back then she was inspired to launch an event of her own.

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“Everyone sees art differently – and everyone deserves to have their work featured and appreciated,”  Hauser stated in a prepared release. “I’ve never considered myself an artist, but when I had the chance to see my work on display at a similar type gallery and have it purchased I realized that I wanted to create a space that celebrates the artist in all of us.”

The Red Door Project is a pop-up art exhibit that breath new life into this decade-old endeavor at the upcoming Final Friday in Over-the-Rhine on February 28.  Inspired by the idea that art is the eye of the beholder, Hauser says the gallery features artwork by dozens of Cincinnatians from many different backgrounds and walks of life.

“I’m sure everyone will interpret the theme differently. It could be a painting of a moon cycle or a photograph of a bicycle,” noted Hauser. “And really, that’s the beauty of it. You won’t know what to expect when you walk through the door, but you may find yourself walking out with a new piece of art to enjoy.”

The Red Door Project debuts this Final Friday’s festivities  at 1232 Vine Street – the storefront previously occupied by Joesph-William Home. The gallery will be open from 6pm to 10pm.

There is still time for submissions, which are due by February 22, and can be dropped off at the event location between 11AM and 3PM. This month the theme is “cycle” which is defined as a series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order.

Photograph provided.