CINCINNATI — Live artistic performances and a film festival will take place at museums across downtown Cincinnati this weekend to mark the opening of the Truth and Inspiration Artist Showcase.
What You Need To Know
- The Truth and Inspiration Artist Showcase opens this weekend at three different downtown Cincinnati museums
- Events include a mixture of onetime and ongoing displays, including a mural gallery to performances pieces to a film festival
- Organizers said the pieces will lead to a mixture of emotions ranging pain and heartache to hope
- Some exhibits are free but others require admission to the museum
Featuring a mix of artistic disciplines and style, the works of 22 local artists aim to represent a range of perspectives on the theme of truth and reconciliation. Styles of work include visual art, film, music, dance and children’s literature.
To mark the return of the showcase, a ribbon-cutting Friday at the Cincinnati Art Museum, one of the event sites. Musician Margaret Tung played selections from the work “New Music for the Queen City and Beyond” in the museum’s Great Hall.
The full weekend program schedule is below.
“The themes of this year’s exhibition align closely with the museum’s mission to contribute to a more vibrant Cincinnati by inspiring and connecting our communities through the power of art,” said David Linnenberg, the Cincinnati Art Museum’s acting director. “We hope that the show’s artwork sparks conversations among our visitors and communities.”
While there are specific events taking place at multiple locations downtown this weekend, there’s also an ongoing visual art show at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Included in that exhibition are works by the following artists:
- “NEW MOON” by Asha Ama
- “Mood Altering” by Asha the Artist
- “REST” by Darnell Pierre Benjamin
- “It is Art” by Means Cameron
- “12 Commandments” by Michael Coppage
- “Amid Exhibition” by Iman Jabrah
- “Tepozzanilli: Live Stream Transmission” by Rebecca Nava Soto
- “Sanctuaries” by Michael Thompson
- “Story Share” by Kailah Ware
This exhibit is open daily in the Schiff Gallery at the Cincinnati Art Museum. It will remain open through Aug. 14.
Artists involved in the showcase received support from ArtsWave, a major funding source for many Cincinnati-area artists and arts organizations. The funds came from its Black and Brown Artist Program.
Organizers described Truth and Inspiration as displaying a mixture of emotions – pain and heartache, skepticism and futility. But they also display hope, imagination and commitment.
Started in 2020, the showcase expanded this year to three locations — the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Cincinnati Museum Center and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Events will take place at each site throughout the weekend.
Woody Keown, the Freedom Center’s president and COO, invited guests to come to visit his riverfront museum both Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday, the Freedom Center will host “Monarca – Lost Butterfly (In Memoriam),” a contemporary dance with film by Gabriel Martinez Rubio. Immediately after that will be a documentary on Japanese American’s incarceration in the United States during World War II. There will be a question-and-answer session that follows.
Keown also invited guests to visit Sunday to view artist Brent Billingsley’s ongoing mural showcase, “I’m Listening…”. The piece combines art with months of conversations between officers from the Cincinnati Police Department and residents in the communities they serve.
Guests will need to pay normal admission on Saturday. Admission on Sunday is free at the Freedom Center, thanks to a corporate sponsor.
Keown described the showcase as “something that can truly move our community forward” through “dialogue about equity and empathy.”
“Artists have a unique ability to stir something inside that moves you to emotion and inspires you to action,” he added. “Last year’s showcase did exactly that and, as you will see, this year’s will be just as powerful.”
Beyond capturing the themes of “truth” and/or “reconciliation,” each artist aimed to create works that involve an aspect of collaboration with community members and other partners.
The goal was to allow the public to take part in what ArtsWave described as “reconciling the moment and imagining a more just and equitable future” for the Cincinnati region. They also wanted to showcase the role the arts can play in that process.
Other project partners include City of Cincinnati, Duke Energy, Macy’s, the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, Hard Rock Casino and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
Programs and Events
Saturday, July 16
Cincinnati Museum Center
10 a.m. to noon – “On Her Shoulders” a masterclass by Annie Ruth
Cincinnati Art Museum
11:30 a.m. – “I Am Not Afraid of Spiders” book reading by Ashley Aya Ferguson at the Rosenthal Education Center
12:30 p.m. – “Mood Altering” panel discussion by Asha the Artist in the Fath Auditorium
1:45 p.m. – “Story Share” short film by Kailah Ware and testimonial in the Fath Auditorium
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
(All events in the Harriet Tubman Theater)
3 p.m. – “Monarca – Lost Butterfly (In Memoriam)” contemporary dance with
film by Gabriel Martinez Rubio
4 p.m. – “Namba: A Japanese American’s Incarceration and Life of Resilience” documentary by Emily Hanako
Momohara with Q&A
Sunday, July 17
Cincinnati Art Museum
Film festival
(All films in the Fath Auditorium)
11:15 a.m. – “Same Garden: An Identity Documentary” by Jonesy
12:05 p.m. – “12 Commandments” by Michael Coppage
12:15 p.m. – “laying the foundation” by Asa Featherstone IV
12:30 p.m. – “Black Arts Revamped” by Lamonte Young
1:30 p.m.– Break
2 p.m. – “Our Baby Knows” by David Chimusoro
2:15 p.m. – “REST” by Darnell Pierre Benjamin
2:55 p.m. – “Monarca – Lost Butterfly (In Memoriam)” by Gabriel Martinez Rubio
3:10 p.m. – “It Is Art” by Means Cameron
3:30 p.m. – “I’m Listening…” documentary by Brent Billingsley
Ongoing exhibitions
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
“I’m Listening…” mural by Brent Billingsley in the Everyday Freedom Hero Gallery.
On view through Sept 22, 2022.
Cincinnati Museum Center
“Regeneration” by Erin Fung, part of “America’s Epic Treasures featuring Preternatural by Michael Scott” on the Lower Level
On view through Jan. 8, 2023
