Just Sent "Nothing" to the Tate Modern

In response to the recent open call to submit "nothing" to the Tate Modern, I just sent the following:

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William and Sarah Ross Soter Endowed Curator of Photography at Columbus Museum of Art

The Columbus Museum of Art announces the establishment of the William and Sarah Ross Soter Endowed Curator of Photography. The first endowed position in CMA history, this pivotal gift builds upon the Soter and Ross families’ commitment to photography. The Soters’ pledge of $1.5 million to the Art Matters endowment and capital campaign enables the Museum to present special exhibitions of photography, support original scholarship related to the medium, and provide educational and other programs for generations to come. Catherine Evans has accepted the first William and Sarah Ross Soter Curator of Photography appointment.

At age thirteen, Sally Ross Soter began volunteering at the Columbus Museum of Art. She inherited her commitment to the Museum from her parents, Elizabeth M. and Richard M. Ross. Mrs. Ross is a long-time Museum Trustee and founding member of the Museum’s Women’s Board.

“The Columbus Museum of Art is important to me because it is the first place I ever volunteered,” said Mrs. Soter. “The hours I spent there have given me a tremendous connection with the Museum even though Bill and I now live in Florida.”

Mrs. Soter’s interest in photography was inspired by her father, an avid photographer and collector. His commitment to photography led to the naming of CMA’s Richard M. Ross Photography Center, a gallery dedicated to presenting photography exhibitions.

The Ross family has been a long-time supporter of CMA’s photography program. The family gave CMA its first significant body of photography holdings, created a foundation and direction for collecting work by twentieth-century photographers, and supported the Museum’s acquisition of the Photo League collection.

“Photography has long been a passion of ours. Bill and I are pleased and privileged to be able to give this gift to the Museum,” said Mrs. Soter. "This gift will ensure that the photography program continues to grow in scope and prominence. I hope it will also inspire others to follow their own passions, endowing other positions that resonate with them.”

Catherine Evans’s tenure as The William and Sarah Ross Soter Curator of Photography will begin in January 2011. Catherine joined CMA in 1996 as the Curator of Photography and since 2004, has also served as Chief Curator. She has curated more than 45 exhibitions, giving several artists their first one-person museum debuts. In 2001 she spearheaded the successful acquisition of the Photo League collection, the most significant photography acquisition in CMA’s history. The Museum is now nationally recognized for its comprehensive holdings in this period. She has directed the development of major international exhibitions and partnerships such as Renoir’s Women; Edgar Degas: the Last Landscape, which had a second venue in Copenhagen; and In Monet’s Garden: The Lure of Giverny, which had a second venue in Paris. She was the principal author and curator of the exhibition A View from Here: Recent Pictures from Central Europe and the American Midwest, which toured internationally and nationally. She has been a portfolio reviewer in Santa Fe, Houston, Portland, and Atlanta. Prior to the Columbus Museum of Art, Evans worked at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and before that, at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, in New York and Montreal, Canada. She received her degree from Williams College in Art History and German Literature.

“I am greatly honored the Soters chose to ensure the sustainability of our institution through the endowment of a photography position at the Columbus Museum of Art,” said CMA Executive Director Nannette V. Maciejunes. “Catherine’s talent, passion, and knowledge have rightly earned her a national reputation that has, and will continue to, enhance the prominence of our photography collection.”

“This unprecedented gift affords me an incredible opportunity to devote my energies to growing the photography program,” said Catherine Evans. “I am honored to be part of this historic moment for the Columbus Museum of Art.”

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What is Culture in Greater Cincinnati?

Not long ago, Vanity Fair took some shots at the Queen City and local bloggers and Enquirer editor Tom Callinan came to the city's defense. Here we are only a couple of months later and Portfolio.com ranks Cincinnati 65th in the nation of cultured cities and the locals are lining up defenses again. You can read (if you dare) comments here that have begun listing our museums, festivals, the CSO, etc. Sure, we have lots of places to see culture (I offer tours to many). I don't think anyone has ever argued this, and certainly Vanity Fair and Portfolio.com do not criticize the number of events and venues. So what's missing? Cincinnati culture.

So, you want to challenge the ranking? Identify Cincinnati's culture. This does not mean, list venues for culture. What is the culture of Greater Cincinnati?

Can you identify it?

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Results of my art jury duty: 2010 Summer Issue of Visual Overture is now available

I recently had the opportunity to judge 185 works of art by emerging artists from around the world. The result is the Summer 2010 quarterly publication, Visual Overture.

You can take a peak here at the 7 artists whose work I selected. Order a copy to see the artists' complete profiles and my comments.

Thank you to all of the artists for submitting their work and thank you to Arlissa Vaughn and Visual Overture for this quarterly juried "exhibition in print.

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Greater Cincinnati Art Organizations Fail to Win NEA Awards.

Only one Greater Cincinnati art organization was awarded an Access to Artistic Excellence Grant from the NEA. Congratulations to The Westcott House, which was awarded $10,000 to support summer design studios for students, lectures, discussions and hands-on exercises at the Frank Lloyd House in Springfield, OH. Despite the number of arts organizations and programs to invite and encourage access to the arts here in Greater Cincinnati, no other grants were awarded.

Currently many of our local art organizations are working to drum up support for the Fine Arts Fund in these final weeks of their community campaign. Anyone who follows my blog knows where I stand here: the mantra that art is everywhere and access to the arts is depended on our support of the Fine Arts Fund argument has been tiring and misguided. But what has been most painful to watch are the local art organization Facebook pages posting "support the Fine Arts Fund" messages during this time when they are not permitted to do fundraising for themselves.

So here we are, in the final days of the Fine Arts Fund "community campaign" with the possibility of less access to the arts if the FAF fails to meet its goal again this year.

Well, there are thousands of dollars awarded to art organizations (outside of Greater Cincinnati) in order to secure access to the arts. Time spent campaigning for the FAF may be better used to develop innovative programming and successful grant writing and applications to the NEA.

As always, my wish is for working towards a stronger and more sincere support of the the arts here in Greater Cincinnati.

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Cincinnati Artists Featured in OAC The I of the Text at Riffe Gallery

The Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery will present The I of the TEXT from May 6 – July 11, 2010. Curated by Liz Maugans, the exhibition features the work of 16 Ohio artists who use words as the driving force to create an experience around the myriad associations and meanings of text. The artists focus on the ways that the meaning of text and our interaction with it are transformed by current events, technology, socioeconomic status and race.

“The artists employ language in the form of conversations, alerts, advertisements and petitions that…explore a chasm between private and public spheres,” said Curator Liz Maugans. “They catalog how language is inventoried and stored, critiquing larger issues of power and commerce and the impact it has on our domestic affairs.”

Join the Riffe Gallery for the opening of The I of the TEXT on May 6, 2010 from 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. with an opening reception from 5 – 7 p.m. Curator Liz Maugans will lead a tour of the exhibition on May 7, 2010 from noon – 1 p.m. Artists in the show include: Denise Burge, Cincinnati; Si-Yun Chang, Bay Village; Jeffry Chiplis, Cleveland; Kristen Cliffel, Cleveland; Dana L. Depew, Cleveland; Joe Immen, Columbus; Julie Mader-Meersman, Cincinnati; Deborah Orloff, Sylvania; Andrew McAllister, Akron; Herb Vincent Peterson, Columbus; Arturo Rodriguez, Toledo; Seth Rosenberg, Cleveland; Jennifer Schulman, Stow; Talia Shabtay, Columbus; Peter Tabor, Lakewood; Reid Wood, Oberlin. The Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery will hold a Creative Writing Workshop Monday, May 17, 2010 from 5 – 8 p.m. Educator, author and writer Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld will return for another round of aerobics for the imagination in the Riffe Gallery. Adult participants should bring paper and pencils, open minds, hearts, free spirits and a brown bag dinner! Register for this free creative writing workshop online at www.riffegallery.org by Wednesday, May 12, 2010.

The Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery will also hold a Family Day Workshop Sunday, June 27, 2010 from 2 – 4 p.m. During the workshop with local artist Talia Shabtay, children ages 6 – 17 will create original poetry using book pages and black markers. Words and sentences will shed their original meanings and adopt new ones, both visually and grammatically. Participants will then have the chance to illustrate their poetry using drawing and collage techniques. No poetry writing experience required! Registration is required as space is limited and all children must be accompanied by a registered adult. Registration begins May 6 and ends June 21, 2010 online atwww.riffegallery.org.

The Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery is located in the Vern Riffe Center for Government and the Arts, 77 S. High St., Columbus, OH. Admission is free. Gallery hours are Tuesday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Wednesday and Friday, 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Thursday, 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. and Saturday, and Sunday, noon-4 p.m. Closed Mondays and state holidays. Visit www.riffegallery.org or phone 614/644-9624 for more information. The Riffe Gallery is supported by the Ohio Building Authority. Media Sponsors include CD101, CityScene, Ohio Magazine, Time Warner Cable and WCBE.

Free group tours are available Wednesday through Friday throughout the run of each exhibition. To schedule a group tour contact Riffe Gallery director Mary Gray at mary.gray@oac.state.oh.us or 614/728-2239.

The Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery showcases the work of Ohio’s artists and curators, exhibitions produced by the Ohio Arts Council’s International Program and the collections of the region’s museums and galleries. The Riffe Gallery’s Education Program seeks to increase public appreciation and understanding of those exhibitions. Admission is free. For information, call the Riffe Gallery at 614/644-9624.

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A Call to Amateur Bowlers with Cameras

I grew up in a bowling family. My sister and I were bowling alley kids who spent at least one night a week playing video games and eating bowling alley food while our parents bowled in a league. Our parents still bowl in a league almost every year. My uncles bowled for years and I have a second cousin, Jim Ragnoni, who currently plays on a senior professional tour. I also have a nephew. Dimitri Harris, who seems to have inherited the Ragnoni bowling gene.

I, on the other hand, am not a very good bowler. This may be why I love pictures of amateur bowlers bowling. Who can resist pictures of gutter balls, funny bowling shoes, and glee over unexpected strikes. Whenever I see pictures of others bowling, I get the urge to go bowling. Pictures of no other sports or entertainment venues strike (intended pun) me this way. Slide shows of bowling parties or just of friends bowling capture genuine moments of expression. Well, most bowling slide shows do.

Star Lanes on the Levee had their grand opening party recently. While I didn't go, I looked forward to the slide show that was sure to appear on Metromix Cincinnati. I was certain as soon as I viewed the pictures, I'd make plans to go bowling. However, of the 36 pictures that make up the slide show, none show people bowling. None. In fact, if I hadn't known this was a launch party for a bowling alley, I may not have guessed. Few of the pictures include the actual lanes. I had to run through the slide show 3 times before I noticed any bowling balls. And the iconic shoes? Missing.

Now I know Metromix's slide shows have a formula that includes smiling pretty people all dolled up for a party. I get it. I'm willing to accept that I shouldn't have expected to see actual bowling league shirts. But if Metromix wants me to go Star lanes on the Levee, include pictures of people bowling; gutter balls, surprise strikes and spares, and yes....the bowling shoes.

So to all amateur bowlers with cameras out there, send me your bowling pictures. Metromix Cincinnati left me hungry for bowling....pictures.

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A City's History Reduced to a Cell Phone Slide Show?

Yesterday I posted about resisting the temptation to rely solely on photography to view architecture. Visiting old homes in Cincinnati in particular is the only way to truly experience place, history, and home.

Recently a judge required a tour of the Gamble House. What we are left with however is a slide show created by a cell phone. This legally imposed private tour seemed to present some interesting aspects profiling Gamble's life. Imagine what a more constructed and researched tour would uncover of our history. Certainly such a visit would offer so much more than what pictures can document.

The cell phone slide show instead reveals what we lose when we ignore our history.


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My Summer Plans in Greater Cincinnati: Touring Home

Last weekend I was reminded again of the inferiority of digital images when it comes to experiencing architecture. On Saturday I had the opportunity to visit the William P. Boswell House in Indian Hill. After a number of semesters as an undergrad learning about the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright through slide presentations, and then as a grad student at the University of Chicago walking by the Robie House almost daily, I knew my afternoon would be filled with right angles. To be honest, I was looking forward more to meeting new people or seeing familiar faces than touring the house during this official launch of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Conference taking place later this year.

The drive through Indian Hill to the house was beautifully teasing. Immediately, I wanted a closer look at all of those homes I passed on the way to the Boswell House. These seemed much more interesting to me than the grid I was about to enter.

The William P. Boswell House (blogger slide show) was completed in 1959. The familiar Prairie style structure was no real surprise to me until I walked into the house. The beautiful woodwork is much more soothing than I expected. I anticipated the hard-edged style emphasized in pictures, the efficiency of space and storage, and a compactness stressed by the pyramid roof that seems to further compress space. But this house is enormous! Since the house's construction its kitchen and baths (5 of them!) have been renovated. The size and spacious feel of the house is achieved through efficiency as well as Frank Lloyd Wright's ability to wed indoor and outdoor spaces. Both of these characteristics are lost when looking at slides of the Prairie House style. Unfortunately these characteristics have also been abandoned with recent house design in favor of studding our American landscape with "mcmansions."

I enjoy slide shows as much as anyone else. In fact, I've relied much of my work on the quality of reproductions of art and pictures of architecture. Fortunately, having access to and taking the time to actually visit these architectural spaces offer an experience we all know cannot be matched by a slide show.

Greater Cincinnati has many such structures: historic buildings, house museums, older homes. To see them, resist the temptation to simply visit websites. Instead, take a drive or walk this summer and experience them. This is my plan for the summer.

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Insider Ohio Has its Eye on Cincinnati

Insider Ohio has been doing its homework.

Currently they are featuring the the Arts, Dining and Music scenes of Cincinnati.

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Art Exhibition and Benefit for 2009 Taft's Duncanson Artist-in-Residence, Brian Joiner

The Robert S. Duncanson Society of the Taft Museum of Art annually recognizes the achievements of contemporary African American artists through the Duncanson Artist-in-Residence program. In 2009, the Taft named Brian Joiner. As the Duncanson Artist-in-Residence, Joiner was the creative director and teacher of a number of educational programs at the Taft Museum of Art.

This week, we in the art community learned that Brian is gravely ill.

Pamela and Lennell Myricks are planning an exhibition/benefit to be held on Friday, April 23 from 5-10PM at the studio of Mary Barr Rhodes above the Carl Solway Gallery, 424 Findlay Street, Cincinnati OH 45214. Carl Solway, one of the world's most important art dealers, will be showing his private gallery collection which few have seen. There will also be an exciting exhibition on the third floor in Aisle Gallery with the work of Terence Hammonds and Mark Patsfall. Eugene Goss and Billy Larkin are providing celebration music. This will be a major art world event not to be missed.

There will be a huge selection of work from every series Brian has completed. Prices will range from $50.00 to $12,000.00. For non collecting friends there are many options. Please attend to celebrate an incredible body of work. For Brian's care there will be a donation box for small donations. Larger donors may send a check to Raymond Thundersky Inc. for Brian Joiner.



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FAF Embracing Community Art Center Partnerships?

This week, the Fine Arts Fund announced on its blog a program that links our larger arts organizations, like the Cincinnati Art Museum to neighboring art communities north of the city. Fine Arts Fund Presents is designed to increase the presence of our celebrated art organizations with events scheduled in Blue Ash, Sharonville, West Chester, Fairfield, Hamilton, and Oxford.

This series presents another effort to engage our northern suburbs with the hope we can entice their residents to come to Cincinnati to visit the museums, see an opera, the ballet and other art venues. Ultimately, the goal is to present Cincinnati as the city it is; one with an artistic wealth that many other cities should envy (West Chester, ahem).

I've always been an advocate for sincere partnerships in the arts and real collaborative programming that honestly engages the communities. For this, I am excited about Fine Arts Fund Presents. I think it is a good way to close out the FAF Annual Campaign. At the same time, I get uneasy about any programming that functions through only recruitment strategies and neglect to include those that increase retention.

I do understand the importance of reaching out to our neighbors north of us, even as far north as Oxford hoping to grow and sustain arts patronage. I actively pursue this myself by marketing my art tour series in Mason and Fairfield and by simply assigning my Miami students to visit the CAM (making a museum visit and a written art analysis 40% of a student's grade, works wonders). But I do believe that community outreach can sometimes reach too far with risks of overlooking those in our own backyard. Big investments in recruitment efforts with no solidly planned retention programs is costly with little reward. I do imagine residents north of us are excited to attend many of the the Fine Arts Fund Presents events, but it doesn't really follow that this programming will result in their visiting the city. I expect instead when it is all over, the exciting and positive reviews will come in with most ending, "the people of (fill in the suburb here) look forward to next year when they will have another opportunity to get a taste for Cincinnati's art," or something like that.

The FAF enjoys touting "Art All Around Us," but honest engagement of art in our communities relies on seeing our art centers as partners in programming not as mere venues for art attractions. Community outreach is a valuable recruitment tool, but that is all it can do, recruit or entice new visitors. Programming that reaches the core of our community, our diverse neighborhoods, our history is the stuff that truly engages an audience through celebration and results in a sense of civic pride that will help retain our current residents and art patrons. Who would want to leave a city that is active in self-pride? Outreach is fine, but reaching in our communities to recover its wealth would almost certainly entice those who live in West Chester, Mason, Loveland, Liberty Township and even as far as Oxford to visit Greater Cincinnati to be part of our proud city.

I do wish success to the Fine Arts Fund Presents in attracting large numbers of people to each of these events. With this success though I hope the FAF and our larger arts organizations will explore more opportunities to develop programming that honestly engages the wonderful neighborhoods art centers within the city.

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My Review of the Jim Dine Portfolio in Aeqai

The Cincinnati Art Museum is hosting a gala on April on April 17th, during which Jim Dine will be honored with the Cincinnati Art Award. The museum has also invited 8 local artists to contribute to a portfolio of prints commemorating the Cincinnati-born artist.

You will find my review of the portfolio published in this month's Aeqai. It also appears in Express Cincinnati.

Cincinnati Art Snob Interview on WMKV

Here is the 30 minute interview.

Cincinnati Art Snob Interview

FAF Lists Grant Recipients

Today, the Fine Arts Fund posted a list of organizations awarded FAF grants last month. According to their website, the grants are awarded through a special competitive process and community volunteers made the awards after careful consideration of grant proposals at a February meeting.

Awards totaling $77,812 were granted to the following organizations:

Ballet Theatre Midwest, Inc.
Center for Independent Living Options
Cincinnati Art Club
Cincinnati Blues Society
Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Corryville Suzuki Project, Inc.
de la Dance Company
Dramakinetics of Cincinnati
Friends of the School for the Creative and Performing Arts
Grailville Retreat and Program Center
Hebrew Union College
Ink Tank
Lyrica
Media Bridges Cincinnati, Inc.
Melodic Connections
Peaslee Neighborhood Center
Showbiz Players
Voices of Indiana Limited
Woman's Art Club Cultural Center
Writers of Outstanding Words
YWCA

The Sculpture Center Names 6 Ohio Sculptors for Emerging Artists Series.

The Sculpture Center is pleased to announce the six Ohio sculptors and installation artists selected to present one-person exhibitions in the 2011 W2S Series - Jenniffer Omaitz, Qian Li, Daniel McDonald, Elaine Hullihen, Joshua Parker, and Annie Strader.

The Window to Sculpture Emerging Artist Series (W2S) was established by founder David E. Davis to provide critical promotion and support to early career Ohio sculptors and installation artists.

For more information of the artists see the Sculpture Center website.

MOCA Awards Jenny Holzer with Distinguished Women in the Arts Honor

The Museum of Contemporary Art , Los Angeles (MOCA), is pleased to announce artist Jenny Holzer as the recipient of the 6th MOCA Award to Distinguished Women in the Arts. Holzer will be honored for her extraordinary talent and contributions to the arts during an exclusive award luncheon on Wednesday, April 28, 2010, at the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. Hosted by one of the museum’s major support organizations, The MOCA Projects Council, this fundraiser benefits MOCA’s award-winning educational programming. Edythe Broad will present the award to Holzer and remarks will be made by MOCA Projects Council President Pamela J. Smith. The 6th MOCA Award to Distinguished Women in the Arts Luncheon is presented by BVLGARI.

“MOCA is thrilled to honor Jenny Holzer with the 6th MOCA Award to Distinguished Women in the Arts,” said MOCA Chief Executive Officer Charles E. Young. “This unique fundraising opportunity celebrates the work of a brilliant artist, who has created powerful statements of conviction and social commentary for more than three decades.”

“We hope that the community will join us in recognizing and celebrating the achievements of this accomplished and exceptional artist, and in supporting one of the leading contemporary art education programs in the United States,” said The MOCA Projects Council President Pamela J. Smith. “The focus of the Projects Council support group is MOCA Education, which has a long history of collaborating with artists and community organizations to bring the rewards and challenges of contemporary art to a broad audience. Its programs serve 30,000 students and community members each year.”

The MOCA Award to Distinguished Women in the Arts was established by The MOCA Projects Council in 1994 to recognize the many gifted women providing leadership and innovation in the visual arts, dance, music, and literature. Jenny Holzer designed the bronze plaque, which features one of the artist’s truisms: “It is in your self-interest to find a way to be very tender.” Past recipients include noted collector and patron Beatrice Gersh (1994), editor Tina Brown (1997), choreographer Twyla Tharp (1999), actress and director Anjelica Huston (2001), and artists Barbara Kruger (2001) and Yoko Ono (2003).

Holzer was born in Gallipolis, Ohio in 1950. She received a BA from Ohio University in Athens (1972); an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence (1977); and honorary doctorates from the University of Ohio (1993), the Rhode Island School of Design (2003), and New School University, New York (2005). Whether questioning consumerist impulses, describing torture, or lamenting death and disease, Jenny Holzer’s use of language provokes a response in the viewer. While her subversive work often blends in among advertisements in public space, its arresting content violates expectations. Holzer’s texts—such as the aphorisms “abuse of power comes as no surprise” and “protect me from what I want”—have appeared on posters and condoms, and as electronic LED signs and projections of xenon light. Holzer’s recent use of text ranges from silk-screened paintings of declassified government memoranda detailing prisoner abuse, to poetry and prose in a 65-foot wide wall of light in the lobby of 7 World Trade Center, New York.

Summerfair Awards Recognize Small and Mid-Sized Local Arts Organizations

Summerfair Cincinnati, a non-profit arts organization located in Anderson Township, has awarded grants to six greater Cincinnati performing and visual arts organizations through its Special Grants program.

Summerfair Cincinnati’s Special Grants program was established in 1976, and its initial recipients included the Cincinnati Art Museum, Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati Ballet and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.

Today the program focuses its support on small and mid-sized arts organizations providing grants to assist organizations with the creation of new programs, expansion of current programs, or assistance with production or presentation expenses. “There are so many wonderful small arts organizations in our area and we are happy to help support their initiatives,” said Krista Paas, Summerfair Cincinnati’s Board Trustee of Grants. “It’s important that we provide creative outlets and experiences for everyone and the grants help do just that.”

Criteria for receiving one of the grants included quality of the art performed/produced, diversity and number of people benefiting, innovative qualities, and potential for attracting a new audience for the arts.

The 2010 Summerfair Cincinnati Special Grant recipients are:

The Betts House
The grant will be used to fund art supplies for the
Family Fun Saturday program.

Cincinnati Sound Chorus of Sweet Adelines
International
The grant will be used to assist with fixed
operating expenses.

Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati
The grant will be used to fund three educational
outreach initiatives: the Prelude Program, Fairy
Godmother Program, and Community Performances.

Hamilton Fairfield Symphony Orchestra
The grant will be used to fund the new “Community
Outreach Initiative” to make live, professional music
more assessable to the entire community.

Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University
The grant will be used to assist with programming
promoting the creative expression capacities of people
with dementia.

Young Voices
The grant will be used for the summer educational
programming for both youth and adults.

Side by Side: Oberlin’s Masterworks at the Met

Twenty European and American masterworks from the 16th-20th centuries in the collection of the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College are on display in the galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York during spring and summer 2010. The works are integrated into the Met’s galleries, giving visitors the rare opportunity to see them with those by the same artists or from similar contexts from the Met’s world-renowned collections.

The AMAM’s Ter Brugghen painting St. Sebastian Tended by Irene, one of the most important Northern Baroque paintings in the United States, is displayed with the Met’s The Crucifixion with the Virgin and St. John by the same artist. These two works appear in Only in America: 100 European Masterpieces in American Museums Unmatched in European Collections (2006); there Pierre Rosenberg, former director of the Louvre, singled out the AMAM painting as the one painting in an American museum named most often by art historians and curators worldwide as unparalleled in Europe.

AMAM paintings by Domenichino, Sweerts, Turner, Monet, and Cézanne are also seen alongside important works by those artists in the Met’s collection. Despite its much smaller size, the AMAM has also loaned works by artists not found in the Met’s permanent collection of paintings and sculpture: paintings by Erhard Altdorfer, the Cavaliere d’Arpino, Giovanni Battista Gaulli, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner—along with the AMAM’s wooden sculpture by Kirchner—add new voices to the Met’s extensive holdings. The AMAM’s Rothko, Gottlieb, and Newman paintings are displayed in the Met’s Modern galleries; the first two were instrumental in the early definitions of the importance of abstract art in the United States in the early 1940s.

The AMAM is similarly loaning 20 17th-19th century works to the Cleveland Museum of Art this year.

The AMAM’s current building renovation project has provided the opportunity for works from the collection to travel widely. The project includes a comprehensive renovation of the museum’s electrical, mechanical, plumbing and other systems and an expansion of art storage. Many sustainable components are incorporated, including 18 geothermal wells. The renovation seeks to achieve a Gold LEED rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

In conjunction with the exhibition Side by Side: Oberlin’s Masterworks at the Met, the AMAM and The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Education department have teamed up to organize a series of gallery talks about the Oberlin works in the Met’s galleries.

Program Schedule


The exhibition will travel to The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., where it will be on view from September 11, 2010—January 16, 2011. It was organized by Andria Derstine, AMAM Curator of Collections and Curator of European & American Art, and Stephanie Wiles, AMAM Director, and is being overseen at the Met by Maryan Ainsworth, Curator in the Department of European Paintings and an Oberlin College alumna (1971).

Fashion Designer John Bartlett at the CAC

Internationally renowned fashion designer and native Cincinnatian, John Bartlett, takes a break from his busy schedule to speak at the Contemporary Arts Center during the last week of Marilyn Minter: Chewing Color. Bartlett, who hails from Anderson Township, runs his own eponymous menswear label and is Creative Director at Liz Claiborne overseeing the collection Claiborne by John Bartlett.

On Monday, April 26th at the CAC John Bartlett will talk about the relationship between fashion and art and his experience using creativity as a tool in his life. He will discuss his roots and inspiration in Cincinnati, and the vision he is pursuing with his flagship store in Manhattan's West Village as a "breeding ground of creativity and a collaboration of diverse local artisans."

Cincinnati Art Snob on WMKV

Cincinnati Art Snob will be featured on Around the Town with Mort Zemski. The 30-minute interview will air twice on WMKV: March 20th at 10:30am and March 24th at 2pm.

Be sure to tune in to WMKV 89.3.

Fine Art Fund Inclusion - By Invitation Only

Americans for the Arts has invited Margy Waller of the Fine Arts Fund to blog about their report on communicating for the arts.

Ms. Waller's initial blog post (Tuesday, March 9, 2010) is titled "Making the Case: Effective Messaging for the Arts." According to Ms. Waller, the FAF began in 2008 "to develop an inclusive community dialogue leading to broadly shared public responsibility for arts and culture." (emphasis is mine).

The Fine Arts Fund may have developed a research-based answer with catchy phrases like "ripple effects," but the conversation the FAF dictates remains exclusive, private, and by invitation only.

Consider yourself invited.

Art of the American Indians in Cleveland

Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection, a major traveling exhibition, developed by the Fenimore Art Museum, making its debut at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) this month, explores Native North American art from the Eastern Woodlands to the Northwest through more than 140 masterpieces spanning 2,000 years. The exhibition provides visitors with a broad understanding and appreciation of the aesthetic accomplishments and cultural heritage of this country’s first peoples. Art of the American Indians is currently on view, and runs through May 30 before traveling to Minneapolis and Indianapolis.

The objects in the exhibition are drawn from the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of Native North American Art, which was carefully assembled over the past two decades by Eugene V. Thaw, one of the art world’s most distinguished connoisseurs and collectors of art. This is the first time this collection is being treated as an exhibition and several key objects will only be seen at the Cleveland venue.

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to see an extraordinary range of Native North American works of the highest quality, each piece a paragon of creativity and artistic excellence,” said Sue Bergh, associate curator of Pre-Columbian and Native North American art, CMA. “In Eugene Thaw’s own words, ‘Indian material culture stands rightfully with ancient art masterpieces of Asia and Europe as their equivalent.’ We are delighted to offer visitors this opportunity to more deeply examine this fascinating dimension of the American experience and history.”

The works in Art of the American Indians are organized by geographic regions, moving from the ancient ivories and ingenious modern masks of the Arctic to the astonishingly beautiful and dramatic arts of the Pacific Northwest, which form one of the pillars of the Thaw Collection. The basketry of Native weavers appears in a section devoted to California and the adjacent Great Basin, home of Louisa Keyser (also known as Dat So La Lee), a renowned Washoe basket weaver and one of the most celebrated Native artists. Beacon Lights, Keyser’s most famous creation, will be a centerpiece of the exhibition.

The abstract art of the culturally complex Southwest will be shown in both its ancient and modern manifestations. From the Plains come outstanding examples of the colorful beaded, feathered, and painted works for which the region is most famous. Finally are the Eastern Woodlands, including the Great Lakes, and their visually quieter and more contemplative arts, which are another of the collection’s great strengths.

Please see the museum website for additional information and programing.

Shapeshifter at Country Club

I reviewed Shapeshifter now on view in the Oakley gallery for this month's issue of Aeqai.

Shepard Fairey: Greater Cincinnati Artists Engage the Debate.

With a couple of local reviews of the Shepard Fairey show, Greater Cincinnati artists are having the discussion the CAC has so far tactfully avoided.

Artist and Miami University adjunct, Alan Pocaro recently wrote this review of Fairey's work. And now artist and Aeqai founder, A.C Frabetti brings the debate surrounding Fairey's legal case to the surface of our local discourse. Further, Frabetti uncovers the moral (rather than legal) implications of Fairey's imagery. Dealing with art's moral role that should always be at the heart of discussion. The CAC's work to capitalize on Supply and Demand has so far rejected hosting this important conversation.

Back in April I asked if the CAC was on the wrong side of art. The promotion of Supply and Demand with no acknowledgement of its problems (failure to display or mention Manny Garcia's photo!), is shameful. Until they engage in an honest discussion about contemporary art, the CAC will be viewed as a mere venue for art parties. Fortunately, Greater Cincinnati artists are engaging the important debates the CAC ignores.