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Arts & Entertainment News

43rd Annual Duveneck Art Show displays local artist works

This Mother’s Day, over 50 local artists will be represented at the 43rd Duveneck Memorial Art Show in Covington. The free show will take place from 12pm to 5pm, Sunday at the George Rogers Clark Park on Riverside Drive, near the foot of the Roebling Suspension Bridge.

Live banjo music will be played throughout the afternoon, and food will be available through the Twin Bistro of Covington. Attendees can browse, listen to music, purchase art, and vote for their favorite artists.


2010 Duveneck Award winner Joe Stewart, with event chairs Jon Moeller and Lisa Sauer. Photo provided.

Original artists in the fields of painting, sculpture, graphics and fine crafts will display and sell their work, and compete for awards totaling $3,000. Judges include gallery owners, teachers and other art professionals. This year’s winner is Joe Stewart

The art show is the largest annual project of the Northern Kentucky Heritage League, which reconstructed and beautified the park in 1969. “It’s a beautiful little setting,” said NKHL’s president Dick Murgatroyd.

The annual event honors Frank Duveneck (1848-1919), a Covington-born painter who studied and worked in Europe before returning to the area, where he taught at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. His work can be seen in museums worldwide, and at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

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Arts & Entertainment Development News

Framester takes event photography to the next level

Chances are, if you have a Facebook account, you’ve seen the pictures floating around your friends’ feeds. High quality photo booth style pictures, perfectly capturing the essence of an event or party. This phenomenon is the brainchild of local entrepreneurs David Dewitt and Adam Kleshinski. It’s called Framester.

The philosophy behind the event photography company is that, given the circumstances, every person wants the chance to show their creative, spontaneous selves… and to take the perfect picture. The self-timed setup – a camera, a backdrop, and a little red button – allows party goers to create their own portraits in a way that traditional event photographers can’t.

DeWitt, a former DAAP student at the University of Cincinnati, set up his camera one night at a friend’s party in 2008, and was taken aback at the response it received. “It took a lot of trust, to leave my lighting and camera equipment up all night, but no one messed with it,” David explained. “My friends loved it, and it turned into something bigger.”

Through various connections around town, DeWitt took his setup to local philanthropic events over the next year, experimenting with props, backdrops and photography techniques. Bars and parties began to hire him as a special addition to their shindigs- tagging and sharing the pictures on Facebook helped gather name recognition for the venues, as well as give everyone kick-ass profile pictures.

DeWitt and Kleshinski connected near the end of 2010, where the Xavier MBA graduate saw a business opportunity that couldn’t be passed up. “I couldn’t believe it was just [DeWitt],” said Kleshinski. “I knew it could be something bigger.” The two worked through a business plan, and launched the Framester brand in the beginning of May.

“The goal now is to expand through the Cincinnati area,” explained Adam. “We want it to expand organically, and with 2.5 million people in the region, there’s a lot of room for growth here. Things are changing and moving in the right direction. Cincinnati is a base of ingenuity and entrepreneurship and good business – it’s a great market.”

The duo feels that Cincinnati is a perfect test market – a microcosm with enough diversity to try out different things as they tweak the business model and prepare to grow.

The difference between Framester’s services and any huckster with a camera is the professional level of quality and attention to detail for each event – no two are alike. The service naturally offers a distinctive brand marketing advantage to event sponsors and venues by levering advances in social media technologies, and former clients have seen immediate results in collecting contact information from their attendees along with targeted brand exposure.

Ultimately, Framester is helping to celebrate and showcase the momentum that is driving Cincinnati forward. Kleshinski and DeWitt both say it’s been incredible watching the amount of energy building in Cincinnati’s urban core.

“For too long there’s been this theory that Cincinnati is boring – there’s nothing fun to do here,” said DeWitt. “We know that’s not true – and we’ve got the pictures to prove it.”

CityBeat Best of Cincinnati Party photo provided by Framester.

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Arts & Entertainment News

OTR Urban Kickball League gears up for second season

After a successful first season, the Over-the-Rhine Urban Kickball League is back for round two. The league, established by UrbanCincy in fall 2010 and run with help of community members, aims to create a relaxed, fun atmosphere where neighbors and friends get to know each other better and integrate into the community, making the neighborhood safer through play.

The new season will have up to 16 teams with up to 15 players each playing four nights a week. The past season saw 12 teams go head-to-head in friendly competition that often involved kids from the neighborhood participating in the games.

This year’s league play will run from June 6 through August, with playoffs beginning near the end of August. Teams will take turns to referee opposing teams, with play Monday through Thursday, games at 6pm and 7pm, located at Cutter Playground behind the former School of Creative & Performing Arts building (map) on Sycamore Street.

While some aspects of the league will change, the core remains the same: having fun and improving the neighborhood. If you are interested in forming a team this season, please Like the League page on Facebook and download the sign up form today.

Teams must fill out all forms, including liability waivers, and submit them along with admission fee ($5 per person) to The Famous Neons Unplugged between now and May 15.

Fall 2010 OTR Urban Kickball League photo by Jake Mecklenborg for UrbanCincy.

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Development News

Over-the-Rhine condominium development to be converted into 16 apartments

Urban Sites completed the renovation of 16 condominium units at the Belmain Building approximately one-and-a-half years ago. The residential project has struggled with condo sales, and is now being transitioned to apartment units in a better performing rental market.

As a result Urban Sites and the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) decided to transition the 16 residential units to rental properties just over a month ago. That decision has proved fruitful as NorthPointe Group has been able to lease 70 percent of the units thus far and has applications on the rest.

“The demand to live in Over-the-Rhine is incredible,” according to NorthPointe Group leasing agent JT Barse. “This is a place where people want to be, and a lifestyle that people want where they can be close to work and close to where they want to be after work.”

Even though many are moving into Over-the-Rhine to be close to work, Barse notes that some of the new residents moving in are just trying to take advantage of the urban lifestyle, and are reverse commuting to their jobs elsewhere.

“People have loved Belmain because they love being by Park+Vine and Neons Unplugged, and they love being on Main Street where it has such a vibrant community,” Barse continued. “Many people just want to live smart by being where they want to be.” The evidence of this smart living trend can be found in the projects for which NorthPointe Group is responsible.

The 48 rental units in Parvis Lofts filled up before the first unit was completed, and the development group is planning to add an additional eight to ten residential units behind Republic Street. Belmain’s 16 units will also be completely full by the time the first resident is able to move in on June 1.

Similar to the success at Parvis and Belmain, developers at The Banks saw 60 percent of its 300-unit first phase gobbled up before the first residents could move in. The success of the rental units in particular, Barse believes, is due to the demographics looking to move into the urban core.

“People are really recognizing that this is a great place to live, and for some people, it has been difficult to find this kind of quality at this price point. Plus, the success of downtown is helping drive success in OTR, and it’s all rolling together to be a good center city.”

LEED Silver-certified Belmain building photograph by Thadd Fiala for UrbanCincy.

Categories
Development News Politics Transportation

Cincinnati to break ground on smaller streetcar starter route this fall

Today Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and City Manager Milton Dohoney announced that the city will push forward with its modern streetcar project even with recent setbacks. The announcement included the debut of a new shortened phase one routing that will run from Fifth Street in the Central Business District to Henry Street in Over-the-Rhine just north of Findlay Market.

The 3.1-mile route will cost $95 million to build and $2.5 million annually to operate. City leaders currently have a total of $99.5 million to build the line, and have conservatively identified $4.1 million to operate the line annually. City leaders say that this will mean no money will be needed from the City’s General Fund for operations.

While some supporters have expressed discontent over the shortened Cincinnati Streetcar route, Mayor Mallory emphasized that the long-term vision has not changed.

“The vision for the project remains the same. We are going to build a streetcar that connected Downtown to Uptown, and then we are going to build out into the neighborhoods,” explained Mallory. “We are going to get started with the funding that we have in hand, but we must move forward in order to attract jobs and residents to our region.”

Project officials say that the shortened line will operate 18 hours a day, seven days a week and will utilize five streetcars instead of the original seven planned for the longer route. The shortened route, city leaders say, was chosen based on its unique ability to maximize economic investment.

“Over-the-Rhine and portions of the downtown area have some 500 vacant buildings, and it is where you have the bulk of the 95 acres of what today is surface parking,” City Manager Dohoney told the audience. “The explosiveness of the development potential rests in the area that we’re covering.”

City officials also announced that they are exploring the idea of running the streetcars on battery power instead of electricity. This technology is currently being examined for Washington D.C.’s modern streetcar system where concerns have come up over the use of overhead electric wires. Cincinnati officials believe that such a move would also reduce costs upfront and long-term.

The city says that it expects to break ground on the modern streetcar system this fall, and will simultaneously work to raise additional funds to build the system’s extension to uptown, and reconnect with The Banks to the south which in and of itself costs an additional $9 million.

“Clearly there is a need to expand the tax base. No one wants to pay more taxes, so we must find a proactive step to take to expand the existing tax base,” City Manager Dohoney explained. “A streetcar is one such tool to do that. There are people that have issues with this project, and there are folks that are responsible for moving this city forward. We are unapologetic advocates.”