Have You Seen The Freedom Center Berlin Wall Monument?

Last summer is such a blur. With the ending of the school year, our kids happily retook command of our home and attention. This is my only excuse for not being aware of this permanent installation of a section of the Berlin Wall on the southwest lawn of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The fact the sites surrounding the NURFC seem to be under perpetual construction may have also contributed to my not noticing it.

This section of the Berlin Wall, a gift of the City of Berlin, honors those, past and present, who have died seeking freedom without walls. The wall was installed on June 23, 2010 and dedicated on July 3, 2010 at the Freedom Without Walls Dedication Celebration.

The dedication plaque reads:

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center stands as a beacon in the world, inspiring courage, cooperation, and perseverance in all global citizens. The City of Cincinnati and the Munich Sister Cities Association in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the relationship between Munich and Cincinnati, worked with the Freedom Center to commemorate the past while committing to a future where freedom is a basic right. Through the 2010 installation of Cincinnati's segment of the Berlin Wall, we bear witness to this symbol of the ultimate triumph of the human spirit.

Berlin Wall Partnership:
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Munich Sister City Association
City of Cincinnati
Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory
Cincinnati USA Sister City Association
Berlin Regierender Bürgermeister Klaus Wowereit
Munich Oberbürgermeister Christian Ude
Honorary Consul of Germany Richard E. Schade

Cincinnati needs more public sculpture and opportunities like this to make note of monuments to our history. Next time you are downtown be sure to stop and notice this historical marker of freedom.

It's Official: CAS and CVB Are Partners

Cincinnati Art Snob is now member of the Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau. The CVB is looking at a pretty exciting schedule, including the National LULAC Convention, Tall Stacks. and the World Choir Games.

This partnership will allow me a better opportunity to showcase the work of our local artists to those visiting Cincinnati from around the country and the world.

Essex Studios Art Walk dates for 2011

Here are the 2011 dates for Essex Studios Art Walk:

March 4th & 5th
May 6th & 7th
October 7th & 8th
December 2nd & 3rd

All Art Walks take place from 6pm-11pm. They are all free to the public and there are plenty of free parking lots available.

Make a note of this....I put them on my calendar over there on the right.

Cincinnati's Artistic Legacy Continues.

Housetrends Cincinnati is now featuring a story on the Herman and Bessie Wessel House. The story tells of Greater Cincinnati's most well-known 19th Century artists. The Wessels were students of realist, Frank Duveneck. As teachers, they continued to pass on Duveneck's ideals.

Housetrends focusses on the Wessel home as a scene for the art crowd during the 1920s. According to the story, the couple worked there as well as held large art-themed parties. For 20 years, after their deaths, the house was rented to art students.

While the story focuses on the house's past and it's possible future as a house museum and center for American Art, it also recounts a time in the city when artists (not p.r. handlers) maintained the artistic legacy of Greater Cincinnati. Herman and Bessie Wessel's preservation of artistic ideals, education, and conversation are keys to this end.

Best wishes to Carl Samson as he continues to preserve our artistic legacy.

CAC Dusts Off Street Art Swag

With the opening of Keith Haring: 1978-1982, the CAC will again be host to a party for local hipsters and others who support art parties. This show, like last year's Shepard Fairey show, will also give the CAC an opportunity to organize another summer public mural project.

The CAC claims major exhibitions and programs like these serve their mission to make contemporary art more accessible to a larger audience. It is true artists like Keith Haring worked to reach a larger audience by painting in public spaces. But this goal to engage larger audiences is not particular to street artists. All artists work to be part of a larger discussion.

And it is a discussion, not a spectacle for entertaining the masses.

Last summer's whitewashing of a couple of Shepard Fairey's murals I argued was the result of the CAC's refusal to lead any discussion on important issues surrounding Fairey's work. Large murals of child soldiers painted just outside a school was an opportunity for an important discussion....one the CAC refused to lead.

Like last year, there is yet no indication the CAC has the courage to discuss those issues that find a place in Haring's work. Some of the fundamental topics found in many of his whimsical paintings and drawings include power and threat, death and deliverance, religion, sexuality, heaven and hell. The show is opening this week, though the CAC includes no indication these topics will be discussed.

Failing to engage these tough topics, opting instead for parties, Raphaela Platow's commitment to expanding audiences and making art accessible is a false one.

Rep. John Boehner Responds to Miami University Professor

Dr. Sara L. Butler, Professor of Art History at Miami University, emailed John Boehner encouraging his support for the NEA. Here is a portion of his reponse:

"The Founding Fathers established a federal government for the primary purpose of securing a common defense. Is continued spending on art programs an appropriate use of federal taxpayer dollars?"

Dr. Butler invites us to express our opinion. Here is his contact information.

Representative John Boehner.

Cleopatra

A fascination with Cleopatra can be traced throughout a history of painting as well as our own American cultural history. Picking up from where the ancient Romans left off, American cinema and television has recorded versions of the story of the seductress who lured both Julius Cesar and Mark Antony in an attempt to control Rome and Egypt. Ironically, myths like these are attracting large audiences to more recent research (Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra: A Life is currently #5 in the NY Times Bestsellers) about Egypt's most famous queen. While intrigued by her portrayal, many really do want to know the truth about her life. This search for truth through underwater archaeology, and not theatrics, is what's most impressive about Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt opening this week at The Museum Center.

The exhibition features the artifacts, statues, jewelry, coins, and daily items uncovered by a team of underwater archaeologists led by Franck Goddio, as well as an excavation on land led by Dr. Zahi Hawass. Goddio began this search along the Mediterranean coast of Egypt in 1992. The exhibition includes underwater footage of his team retrieving artifacts not seen in centuries.

The find is incredibly breathtaking. Recognizing these objects in the context of Cleopatra's rule is certainly interesting. The uncovering of two ancient cities, Canopus and Heracleion, which had been lost beneath the sea nearly 2,000 years ago reveals more to us about the life of ancient Egypt. And it is this last point about Egyptian culture, more than Cleopatra, this viewer found most valuable.

It is the seeing of these objects not so much as part Cleopatra's story, but in the context of what is happening in Egypt today that is most interesting. The excitement of unveiling and seeing these objects from history matched that which I shared with Egyptians today. At the same time, a realization that the Egyptian Museum is now facing the loss of artifacts, made the opportunity to see these objects, much more powerful to me.

Walking through the dark galleries at the Museum Center, I felt as though I was the one on the search for Egyptian artifacts. Perhaps this was the intent of the designers. The dark galleries are the setting for this exhibition permitting lighting effects as well as easy viewing of what seemed to be a total of about 10 flat screens mounted throughout the exhibition. In the dark, the artifacts themselves glow, making them easy to spot, but not always so easy to see. Detailed engravings, and stylistic elements on many of the sculptures are sometimes difficult to make out in the shadows that dance throughout the exhibition.

Despite the dark galleries the greatest impact of the show is undoubtedly the pair of colossal 16-foot granite statues of a Ptolemaic king and queen from the 4th-3rd centuries B.C.E. The video of unloading these was shown weeks ago as a teaser, but like all art, you must see these pieces in person. Goddio told me these stood at the entrance of a temple Cleopatra and each ruler before her would have entered to pay tribute to the gods.

Goddio was in the gallery answering many of the media questions about each of the artifacts. He was so incredibly animated. Certainly proud of his work, but seemed more excited about each of the artifacts as he tried to impress upon us the importance of each piece to Egyptian culture and history. When I asked him what it was like to see the colossal sculptures in particular in the museum, I hoped to pull from him at least some of the awe I felt seeing them for the first time. Pointing to the space behind the heel of the foot of the king, Goddio said this was the first thing he spotted. Because of the granite under water, he couldn't tell what it was until he found the king's toes. With eyes so big, he shared the moment he uncovered and realized the scale of these pieces.

It is this moment, facing Egyptian history that is the pinnacle of this exhibition. We do this the same way Goddio does it, by engaging the artifacts.

I understand the attraction to blockbuster exhibitions. I really do get the need to attract not only typical museum patrons but the hope to tap into a wider audience. Technology, music, lighting, and special effects work to attract newer and bigger audiences to museums. National Geographic and Arts and Exhibitions International certainly know how to use these tool to this end and the Museum Center has benefited well with past exhibitions like Real Pirates, Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit, and America I Am.

Like these exhibitions, Cleopatra has a built in intrigue. The flat screens may draw people into the exhibition, but in another level of irony, the theatrics keep us further away from the stories the artifacts try to tell...further away from Cleopatra. These tools to engage instead keep Cleopatra on "the big screen." In fact, the exhibit ends with examples of paintings depicting Cleopatra throughout history and finally, a series of film clips of Elizabeth Taylor, Vivian Leigh, Claudette Colbert, and more recently Lindsey Marshal.

Though as a whole, Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt does provide a wonderful opportunity to learn more about her, Egypt, and the continuing excavations. The Museum Center is hosting a number of programs for children and adults, including a discussion with Franck Goddio about his work. This talk is tomorrow, Friday, February 18 at 7:30 pm and is free and open to the public.

The exhibition continues through September 5, 2011. While there seems to be plenty of time to see it, the tickets are timed and dated. You will want to order your tickets in advance.

For information on the exhibition and the accompanying programing, please contact The Museum Center.

Essex Studios Opens Logo Contest Rather Than Pay for Art

Logo contests have become a rather popular tool of marketing on the cheap. These contests promise artists recognition (for winning a contest?), an audience, but almost never money. I've seen a number of non-profit organizations and for-profit companies use this tool as a way to save money. In the end, companies and organizations own a logo for which they didn't have to pay. The benefit to the artists is nothing more than being able to say, "See that? I designed it....for free."

As unfortunate as it seems, I've come to expect such strategies to avoid paying artists for their work here in Cincinnati. But even in this pool of cynicism, I was disappointed to learn Essex Studios has just opened a call for submissions to a logo contest.

Essex rents studio space to artists and has events like Art Walks, in which artists can participate for a fee. With access to artists and artist's money, I would think Essex Studios would consider switching things up a bit and pay an artist for designing a logo.

Since when does supporting the arts mean artists supporting us?

UC Can Support the Arts By Making a Pledge to CCM

As ArtsWave celebrates this first Sampler weekend and marks the first million raised, the Enquirer reports the College Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati is facing debt that may prove debilitating to their status as an elite institution.

While this weekend may be the official launch of the ArtsWave capital campaign, the fundraising push began at least a week ago with an email blast to UC staff, faculty, and administrators. Dean Robert Probst from DAAP and Dr. Thomas Boat of UC Physicians are both UC Campaign Co-Chairs urging the entire University of Cincinnati community to donate to ArtsWave with a list of incentives.

In their work to support ArtsWave they argue,

"A thriving arts sector makes for a better place to live, work and raise a family. That’s why the University of Cincinnati proudly participates in ArtsWave’s Annual Community Campaign (formerly known as the Fine Arts Fund). Music, dance, theatre, museums, festivals, and more – create lively neighborhoods and revitalized communities, attracting residents and businesses. They also bring people from across the area together to share meaningful experiences."

With its students and faculty, programming, and the Preparatory Department, CCM can make the same argument but with a further, more international reach than ArtsWave.

Perhaps the University of Cincinnati should refocus its fundraising efforts to benefit CCM. As part of the university community, faculty, staff, students and administrators already have a vested interest in the Conservatory. What's more, UC, CCM and the Preparatory Department students are already lending themselves to ArtsWave during their capital campaign.

UC support of the the arts should be a pledge to their own CCM.

Wexner Center Wins Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant

The Wexner Center for the Arts and Ohio State University will use the largest programming grant in the center's history to launch a four-year initiative on the South American country's arts and culture.

A $782,300 grant from the New York-based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will help support exhibits, lectures, conferences, a film series, performing-arts events and educational projects about the emerging nation.

Starting with the 2011-12 season, OSU and the Wexner Center will forge relationships with key Brazilian artists, academics, critics, teachers and cultural organizations through trips, residencies and commissions.

See the Columbus Dispatch for more on the grant.

ArtsWave Should Be Having this Discussion

As they launch their capital campaign, ArtsWave is continuing to hone its mission and defining its future funding guidelines. They should be considering artists grants. As they've told me recently, they are not in the business of competitive grants for individual artists. But during a brown bag lunch, Ms. Mary McCullough-Hudson suggested that such grants may be something for ArtsWave to look at in the future.

Art in America has a good story on funding of individual artists. The article presents the challenges of setting up guidelines for such grants as well as some solutions.

As the article notes, when the NEA killed artists' grants in 1994, it pulled significant financial support and recognition of our artists. But the story neglects to point out though is that yanking was a powerful gesture to the art world that funding artists is simply not a worthy effort.

ArtsWave should reconsider its cue from the NEA and work to establish artist grants with the community support they hope to gain in the coming weeks during the Sampler.

Ohio Liberal Arts College Deaccessions to the Tune of $1.4 Million

A Roy Lichtenstein and works by Whistler were donated to Baldwin-Wallace College decades ago, but few saw them until they hit the auction block last March.

With a small storage space on the Berea, Ohio college campus, the artwork was at risk.

"We were one sewer backup from having the collection destroyed," said spokesman George Richard. "It would be irresponsible for us to do not do something." "They were quality pieces, but we had trouble preserving and maintaining them," said Richard. "We had obligations to protect it."

Protecting it by way of selling it to the highest bidder.

These donated pieces to Baldwin-Wallace were like cash under a mattress. Of the $1.4 million, $100,000 was placed as an endowment for the college art department and the rest will fund capital improvements.

College President Richard Durst said selling the collection was the right thing to do.

"It is a shame when you have works of art that nobody ever sees," Durst said. "Art is supposed to be used by people who appreciate it. There was never that opportunity here."

Though it seems as though Baldwin-Wallace appreciated the opportunity to use the art.

Want to Create a "Ripple?" Cut Out the Middle Man.

ArtsWave is launching their capital campaign by allowing Macy's to sponsor six weekend days of art activities and events throughout Cincinnati and surrounding communities. Promoting parties, plays, talks, concerts, and even an online game (?!), ArtsWave hopes to raise at least $11 million.

ArtsWave introduced a new name and a new and larger mission that includes supporting arts and cultural institutions based on impact. However, they are not sure yet how this $11 million will be dispersed. This year they plan to determine the new funding criteria before NEXT year.

So where will your money go?

If you want it to go to the arts, simply become a member of an arts organization of your choice or purchase art from local artists. Use the Arts Sampler to help determine which neighborhood arts organization you wish to support and fill out a membership form before you leave.

Hotel Art Goes Pop

I left Where We Are Now at the Cincinnati Art Museum wondering if all contemporary art is pop art. The works come here from the 21C Museum Hotel in Louisville ahead of the opening of the boutique hotel in Cincinnati. Accessibility to contemporary art is perhaps first and foremost to a hotel collection, and what's more accessible than popular culture?

With Batman, Superman, a hip hop artist, American flags, music from the 80's this collection is certainly accessible to just about anyone who would stay at 21C. In a museum though, I grew tired and for a moment wished I was in a hotel so I could nap. Perhaps that's the catch; "Where Are We Now" may not be a rhetorical but a trick question. As a 21C collection, the answer is a hotel. At an art museum it is an endorsement of hotel chain.

And that's where we are.

Contemporary Art CANNOT Mean Anything You Want It To.

Admittedly, there is much in mainstream media media regarding the arts that frustrates me, but the notion that Contemporary Art is open to mean anything the viewer wishes simply pisses me off. I read this claim again recently in a story introducing an upcoming collaboration between the Cincinnati Art Museum and the 21C Museum Hotel in Louisville, KY.

Prefacing stories about Contemporary Art with this claim permits reporters with no art knowledge to feel their way into the story, and gives them license to say whatever the hell they want about art. Oftentimes, this means omitting any meaningful or even basic information about Contemporary Art from the story. Deborah Dixon continues her story by singling out "cool" pieces of art in the show without offering a single attribution to an artist. One is a French artist, another is a "young artist who invited black men into his Harlem studio..." And the third? We don't know, but according to Dixon, the work looks like a Rice Krispie treat.

I'm sure the museum provided all of the artists' names to Channel 12, but if Contemporary Art can mean anything, the names of the artists mean nothing to Ms. Dixon.

The truth is, Contemporary Art deals with a number of very important themes and forces us to respond to not always so easy questions. It is becoming more common here in Cincinnati for Contemporary Art to be presented as a mere party favor for the masses.

Home Is Where the Art Is

Last week I had the opportunity to interview local advocate and writer, Gregory Flannery after visiting Isolation and Togetherness at The Carnegie. While I continue to engage the subject of homelessness and the arts, I wanted to also highlight the work by a few other artists showing as part of this show. Like the photographs in the main gallery, these artists explore images and notions of home through painting and sculpture.

Marcia Alscher is easily one of my favorite local artists. After 25 years as an architect, she began painting. Her small paintings of houses are expressions of color and geometric form. But while they are minimalist in style and exhibited together they may seem to be exercises in abstraction, each of these paintings are portraits. By eliminating the decorative elements of a building, Alscher reveals through color and line its core beauty. Normally we tend to look at architectural ornamentation that offer hints of history and culture. However, Alscher's precisionist approach exposes a culture of everyday life. This becomes much more apparent with this group of paintings that include not only 19th Century buildings in Covington, but also portraits of buildings in Italy. Architectural elements such as the dome of Florence, Italy set these buildings apart from those found near her studio. But the palette also changes. The colors recall for me the glow of the 17th Century Italianate landscapes. In these paintings, the color as much as the line help us to see the essence of home.

The work of Mallory Feltz also deals with notions of home and space. These works center around the familiarity of the two places the artist has lived, Cincinnati and Baton Rouge. Noting each city's tie to waterways, images and symbolism of bridges dominate the gallery. Her focus on familiar spaces though recognizes that home is not just the architectural building. Her assemblages are made of found pieces that reinforce the domestic space. Embroidery, yarn and fabric are elements highlighting the homemade. Feltz is also interested in our movement and interactions in these spaces. This is highlighted especially well in the repetition of bridges as symbol as well as actual spaces in both cities. Moving through the gallery space from images of Cincinnati and those of Baton Rouge seems to be an invitation by the artist to join her as she makes connections between the two cities, between objects and space, thus forcing a new familiarity on our connection to home.

These artists and others like Dominic Sansone, Sherman Cahal, Patrick Meier, and Alan Grizzell as well as the photography exhibit make Isolation & Togetherness at The Carnegie a remarkably engaging show exploring our connection to home and each other.

A Cincinnati Artist Spends Time with a President

Cincinnati's history of art patronage is grounded in recordings of relationships between politicians and artists. The venerable Taft Museum of Art stands as perhaps the grandest link between the arts and a president even if in family name only (Charles Phelps Taft, who lived in the mansion from 1873 until his death, was the half-brother of President William Howard Taft).

But before Taft there was a relationship cultivated between a Cincinnati artist and a President-elect. Until now, I don't believe I've ever heard of Thomas Dow Jones. In the NY Times you can read a wonderful story of the sculptor's work on a bust of Abraham Lincoln. It is an interesting bit of history that captures a relationship between an artist and his subject and the importance of portraiture. Interesting too is the dance between the mediums of sculpture and photography.

Cleveland Museum of Art Sends 32 Paintings to the Auction Block

In three sessions over two days starting Jan. 27, the Cleveland Museum of Art will offer more than two dozen European old master paintings in the largest sell-off from its collection in more than a half-century. The 30 lots from Cleveland, with 32 works overall, will be part of an auction of "Important Old Master Paintings" at Sotheby's in New York.

"These are pictures that probably don't have a place in the Cleveland Museum of Art context, but could have a happy life elsewhere," C. Griffith Mann, the museum's chief curator, said of the works to be sold.

Some of the hottest recent controversies in the art world have involved cash-strapped institutions selling artworks to pay operating or other expenses. But the Cleveland sale is unlikely to cause a ruckus. Most of the individual works to be sold are by minor masters; few have been exhibited in recent years.

Sotheby's estimates the total value of the Cleveland works to range from $706,000 to $1,022,000. The auction could attract bargain hunters; out of the 30 lots, 21 are priced with low-end estimates of $10,000 or less.

For more about the this sale and the CMA collection, see The Plain Dealer.

Who Sees (Portraits of) Homelessness?

There is no doubt that art allows us to address societal issues by providing a perspective that is often overlooked or simply ignored. Isolation & Togetherness at the Carnegie Arts Center is one such exhibition. The show includes a number of beautifully shot photographs, portraits of homeless individuals throughout Greater Cincinnati. The programming accompanying this exhibition include artwork by local artists dealing with definitions of home, awareness and advocacy for the homeless, and collecting non-perishables for Be Concerned. While events like this one are admirable ones, I wonder if such portrait exhibitions really work to draw the attention the artists hope.

In order to address my questions of social value of such exhibitions rather than aesthetics, I’ve asked Gregory Flannery to participate in a discussion with me. Here, I am less an art critic than a cultural or social theorist interested in learning more about how we look or don’t look at our communities and define our notions of home and homelessness.

Gregory Flannery has worked in local journalism in Greater Cincinnati for 30 years. He is the former news editor at CityBeat and the former editor of Streetvibes, published by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. His work exposed illegal wiretapping by the Cincinnati Police Department and led to the successful prosecution of three Catholic priests for sexually abusing children. Among the awards he has received is "Best Feature Story," from the International Network of Street Papers in 2009.

1. Greg, first I want to thank you for engaging in this conversation with me. I wanted to start by saying the portraits are very nice. They add monumentality to each of the individuals and even a dignity that is not often associated with homelessness. Each photograph captures well the individuality of the subject, the person. As such, the photos avoid presenting homelessness as a simple or single definition. These photographs and those like them reveal a various images of homelessness. Would you agree this is the ultimate goal of such exhibitions?

Capturing the individuality of the subjects and avoiding presenting homelessness as a monolith are goals that I support. It’s also worth noting that the opening reception was a benefit for the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, and visitors were encouraged to donate food.
This matter of dignity is interesting to me in that homeless people live such undignified lives, exposed to public view, denied privacy, prosecuted for doing in public things that people do everyday indoors (drinking alcohol, evacuating bodily waste, sleeping). Is dignity inherent in humanity, or is it a cultural construct? Should one be embarrassed (i.e., feel undignified) for sleeping on a park bench? Should one feel proud for being able to endure? Do mental illness and addiction, which often attend homelessness, diminish dignity?


2. There are a number of local art events like this one that devote time to the subject of homelessness. Do you see the visual arts being particularly effective in drawing attention to homelessness? Are there events or projects you would like to see sponsored here? Are there programs in other cities you see working or healthier dialogs we could engage in here?

I am working on a project that involves documenting conditions in homeless camps in Cincinnati over the course of a year. The project is somewhat controversial among social workers who serve homeless people because they fear that our work will either ennoble homelessness, lead to hate crimes against people living outdoors or lead well-meaning persons to provide assistance (food, water, blankets) to people living outdoors, thereby enabling them to stay outside longer, instead of accepting help in obtaining treatment and housing.
I think the visual arts are effective in drawing attention to the issue of homelessness; but the larger issue is how accurately the photographs capture the essence of homelessness, which is, of course, a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon. The goal of imputing dignity, for example, runs the risk of prettying up a condition rife with hazard, disease, isolation and deprivation.


3. While visiting the show and recognizing the beauty of the each of the photographs, I was still concerned as to how this helps the viewer rethink homelessness? In other words, while the photographs are beautiful, how does this show or help us to be aware of see homelessness?

I don’t think the photographs by themselves can accomplish either of these things. Beauty has no place in the daily lives of most homeless people, whose daily routine is defined at best by the struggle for sustenance and at worst by the desire to escape through substance abuse.


4. One of my favorite film quotes comes from Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King. The scene takes place in New York’s Grand Central Station. The character played by Jeff Bridges is speaking with a homeless Vietnam Veteran when someone in the crowd tosses a quarter only to miss the homeless man’s cup. Jeff Bridges’ character says, “He didn’t even look at you.” The homeless veteran responds, “He pays so he doesn’t have to look.”

Do photo exhibitions like the one at The Carnegie really bridge this disconnect or simply accept this tendency to ignore the issue as an ill of humanity hoping to capture a single moment or attract at least one more advocate for the homeless?

We tend to fear that which we don’t know. I think there is value in capturing the individuality of homeless people but I’m skeptical that this does much to change other people’s behavior toward them. If some of the homeless people whose portraits are in the exhibit were present to tell their stories to visitors, that would more likely humanize them to the public at large and perhaps motivate people to interact with them in meaningful ways.


5. One would think the visual arts would be a perfect medium to draw attention to our homeless population. Though while the photographs are beautiful, I cannot help but to recognize the gallery as a safe place to address images of homelessness. In the gallery, visitors can view the photographs while enjoying a glass of wine, food, music, friends, and then maybe stop somewhere for dinner before heading home. I suppose my greatest concern is the possibility these exhibitions permit us NOT to see homelessness. Do these photographs shield our eyes? Do they permit us to look so we don’t have to see?

I think you nicely summarize the limitations of this kind of exhibit. The artist’s stated purpose is telling: “The purpose behind making these images was to illustrate the humanity of these individuals, as well as to provide an opportunity for the observer to gaze upon those who are often rendered invisible in plain sight.”
The problem, of course, is that homeless people aren’t invisible at all; the opportunity to “gaze upon” them is manifold, but we are unwilling. We avert our eyes precisely because what we see is not beautiful, not dignified. Homeless people are poorly dressed, have unpleasant odors, are gap-toothed, ask us for money and often display the disturbing effects of mental illness: These are not the kinds of characteristics that make “normal” people want to engage with them. Yes, putting their photos in a gallery makes it safe to look and perhaps to feel compassion from a distance. At best, that makes the viewer feel a certain self-satisfaction, but it does nothing to help the people who are the subjects of the exhibit. If the subjects were cancer or AIDS patients, would viewers be inclined to go out and do something to help? Unlikely. If the subjects were children orphaned by war, would viewers rally to cut the defense budget? I think instead what this exhibition does is make people feel a kind of detached sympathy that ultimately produces no practical change in their behavior.
Art for its own sake is a worthwhile pursuit but it isn’t usually a tool for changes in public policy.

Cincinnati Art Snob Featured Art Tours

Cincinnati Art Snob will now make available a selection of featured tours. Unlike the tour series, these tours are generally a single-venue events lasting 2 hours or less. Of course you are welcome to pair them up to create your own tour series package.

You can make reservations right now for either The Art of Love in February or Art for the Foodie in March and April.

See the Cincinnati Art Snob website for descriptions, times and dates for each of these tours.