COVER

Fall Arts Preview

BLINK and FotoFocus are back, along with new theater, dance and classical music. BY CITYBEAT STAFF

SCHOOL IS BACK IN SESSION, pool season is coming to a close and the annual Riverfest rework display is about to signal the o cial end of summer in Cincinnati over Labor Day weekend. As we wave goodbye to one season, it’s time to welcome another — fall — and the urry of art activity that comes with it.

In CityBeat’s Fall Arts Preview, we take a look at two big events that are back this October, the BLINK art and light festival and the FotoFocus lens-based art biennial; explore new seasons for local theaters and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; and see what the Cincinnati Ballet’s new artistic director has in store for the future.

FOR FOUR NIGHTS this October, the streets and structures of Greater Cincinnati will be zzing with illuminations, immersive activations and — if 2019’s event numbers are any hint — 1.3 million people during the third BLINK festival. e large-scale event — back for the rst time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — touts itself as “the nation’s largest light, art and projection-mapping experience” (projection mapping is a technique that casts computer-programmed light, color and animations across three-dimensional surfaces). And Oct. 13-16, BLINK will convert 30 blocks of downtown Cincinnati, Over-the-Rhine and Covington into a lineup of literally and guratively glowing visual, auditory and kinesthetic encounters.

Justin Brookhart, who took over as the rst executive director of BLINK for the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber in January, says his goal for the 2022 event is to “curate the balance between making sure that we’re always showing o the incredible local talent that exists here in Cincinnati,” while simultaneously making the fest “a true international event that stands up to some of the larger events like this all over the world, like Vivid in Sydney [Australia] and the Lumiere Festival.” is will be Brookhart’s rst time both directing and attending BLINK. With previous experience as the chief operating o cer for the Chicago-based but internationally touring Renegade Craft series of arts and crafts shows, the freshly minted Cincinnatian says he’s been impressed by the city’s devotion to and collective excitement about BLINK.

“We’re a big spectacle light show, but at the end of the day, I really do think that we’re just a free public art event. And we do it at a grand scale and level of artistry that’s world-class and pretty amazing,” he says. “ e fact that hundreds of thousands of people line the streets and come out in droves to enjoy community and culture and art and light is pretty special.”

While some details are still being nalized — more information will be released in the coming weeks, and Brookhart says speci cs are subject to change — the core of BLINK is still

BLINK

Greater Cincinnati’s immersive art and light festival returns this October with new activations, old favorites and the loss of one of its founders. BY MAIJA ZUMMO

Is BackFOR FOUR NIGHTS Greater Cincinnati will be zzing with illuminations, immer1.3 million people during the third BLINK festival. e large-scale event — back for the rst time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — touts itself as “the nation’s larg-

made up of the same pillars attendees have come to expect: a kick-o parade, projection mapping on local architecture, interactive light sculptures, murals animated with projected visual e ects and live music.

But some things have changed, including the loss of founding partners Brave Berlin, the local creative agency that originated BLINK out of its 2013-2016 LumenoCity projection mapping events in Over-the-Rhine.

Brave Berlin helped produce BLINK in 2017 and 2019 with the Chamber, AGAR and ArtWorks with support from the Haile Foundation and ArtsWave (the Cincy Nice community collective came on board in 2019 and is a producing partner this year). But the group announced on social media in July that it had severed ties with the Chamber, writing, “Our presence at the leadership table was feeling to us more and more like an honorary courtesy than an active and collaborative partnership.”

In a statement to CityBeat, Brave Berlin owner and partner Dan Reynolds said, “We are happy to see how BLINK 2022 is progressing and are sure it will be another great event for our city. We are curious to see how some of the changes announced by the Chamber play out in October. We remain proud and con dent knowing a new iteration of BLINK is only possible because we thought to do it in the rst place and led the e ort to gure out how to make it a success in 2017 and 2019.”

Brookhart is quick to thank Brave Berlin for its vision and “everything that they helped make possible” and says he wants BLINKgoers to keep an open mind as they anticipate this year’s event.

“What I hope people understand is that there are lots of folks that are involved in making [BLINK] possible. We have a lot of our returning partners that are a part of that original founders group…and what we’re seeing is that so many artists and collaborators are making this event possible,” Brookhart says. “I just hope people understand that there’s lots of folks involved in bringing the event to life, and I want to encourage people to see what the creative opportunities are like this year. And please feel free to judge us after October.”

Brookhart does mention one big “philosophical change” that separates BLINK 2022 from previous events: widening the call for artist participation. He says the team opened up all disciplines, saying, “any artist that’s interested in being a part of the collaboration this year, raise your hand, let us know.”

“ at way, we can just kind of see both what the local talent pool’s level of interest is, but then also see how far our reach has grown,” he says. “We’ve done this event twice before, BLINK’s kind of gotten a little bit of a reputation internationally now and we wanted to see, can we get folks from all over the world that say, hey, we want to come to Cincinnati and bring our work here.” e rst wave of participants that BLINK has announced includes 14 international artists from four continents and 18 local artists/institutions. And those are just the starting numbers — Brookhart says more artists will be announced in second and third waves over the coming weeks. ey all will be variously contributing to the projection mapping experiences, activations and the creation of 17 new murals. is will be a blend of new faces, familiar events and novel installations, both in terms of artists and experiences, Brookhart says.

“We are bringing back some fan favorites like Architects of Air and Lightborne projection mapping onto the CAC,” he says. e U.K.-based Architects of Air will be setting up a new in atable luminarium at this year’s BLINK. It will be located in Ziegler Park and, similar to its installations at Washington Park in 2017 and 2019, will be the only ticketed BLINK experience.

“Some of our projection sites are familiar, like Memorial Hall, but have di erent artists assigned to them to mix it up and create some excitement,” Brookhart continues. “Some favorites like [South African artist Inka Kendzia’s] projection onto the Faith47 mural on Liberty Street will come back in a new form with new artwork/animations.”

But BLINK is also bringing unique pieces to Cincinnati, including the American premiere of “PULSE,” an immersive tunnel-like audio-visual experience from the U.K.’s is is Loop; a 20-foot in atable sculpture of pair of manicured hands called “ e Full Set” from art collective Mz. Icar; and a site-speci c collaboration between international mural artist Shantell Martin and ArtWorks near Findlay Market.

Among the Greater Cincinnati artists participating in this year’s BLINK are Jason Snell, who will be activating the “Ezzard Charles: e Cincinnati Cobra” mural he designed with ArtWorks; Michael Coppage, who will be animating a new installation from his BLACK BOX exhibit (originally on display in the 21c Museum Hotel’s Gano Alley); and Jessica Wolf, who turned a Findlay Market alleyway into a glowing paper art installation in 2019.

Collaboration is a through-line for BLINK. Coppage and Snell — a repeat BLINK artist — are working together on Coppage’s 40-foot animated installation, slated to be projected onto the facade of the Arono Center. Called “CARE BEAR,” it’s an extension of Coppage’s BLACK BOX mural series, devoted to “positively highlight[ing] Black men, promot[ing] understanding and empathy, and foster[ing] education and healing,” per an exhibit description from the 21c.

“We plan on a really vibrant, colorful and entertaining o ering. ere will be lighthearted sequences that re ect the city and the state — like the state bird, ower, sh, spider and snake all making appearances,” Coppage tells CityBeat. “ e animation will cycle through the four seasons and will be full of Easter eggs that touch on lots of current social topics like COVID, the social unrest of 2020, Roe v. Wade, LGBTQ and more. It’s important the project ties back to my studio practice but still be [rated] PG, family-friendly, fun and representative of the city.”

Local artists and members of the community will also be on display during the BLINK kick-o parade on Oct. 13. is year’s glowing procession — produced by Cincinnati’s ish Jewish and Israeli arts and culture group — will march through the Central Business District and feature the theme “Together: a constellation of shared cultures and unique identities; we illuminate joy through creative expression.” Parade participants will be utilizing light to celebrate their “unique attributes, symbols or cultural traditions,” per an event description.

International names taking part in BLINK 2022 include Portuguese illustrator Add Fuel, who will be “incorporating

Opposite page: Murals again will be illuminated with projections during BLINK 2022, like this Charley Harper mural was during BLINK 2017. Photo: Hailey Bollinger Top right: Architects of Air is bringing a new inflatable luminarium to BLINK 2022. Photo: Hailey Bollinger Above: BLINK 2022 will kick off with a glowing parade on Oct. 13. Photo: Hailey Bollinger

Here are five can’t-miss BLINK 2022 experiences, according to BLINK Executive Director Justin Brookhart.

THE AMERICAN BUILDING 30 E. Central Parkway, Downtown

Brookhart says this is the tallest projection mapping project BLINK has undertaken. Artist, animator and designer Sean Van Praag — who has previously illuminated the exterior of Memorial Hall for past BLINK events — will lead the effort to turn this Art Deco downtown condo building into a beacon of light.

“CINCINNATI TOY HERITAGE” MURAL 23 W. Court St., Downtown

“So many people tell me that’s one of their favorite murals in Cincinnati and so we’re really excited to be working on a collaboration between a projection artist from Spain named Graffmapping and the local artists that originally designed that work,” Brookhart says. Artist Jonathan Queen, who created the mural with ArtWorks, has sourced the original Kenner toys in the piece — things like a Care Bear, Strawberry Shortcake and Mr. Potato Head doll — to be 3D-scanned for the animation.

MOTHER OF GOD CATHOLIC CHURCH 119 W. Sixth St., Covington

“Mother of God Church in Covington is sure to be a showstopper,” Brookhart says. Italian artist Antaless Visual Design will be projection mapping onto the historic Italian Renaissancestyle structure, completed in 1871. “[Antaless Visual Design] is one of the best projection mapping artists in all of Europe — and the world.”

“PULSE” BY THIS IS LOOP Location TBD

U.K.-based art group This Is Loop is bringing “PULSE” to BLINK for its American premiere. According to the group’s website, the work is a “large-scale immersive audiovisual installation exploring the perspectives of visual and auditory perception.” It looks a little bit like a tunnel made up of mirrored rings, boasting “14,400 individually programmable LEDs.”

SHANTELL MARTIN AND ARTWORKS MURAL PROJECT 18 W. Elder St., Over-the-Rhine

International artist Shantell Martin is collaborating with ArtWorks on a special mural project near Findlay Market. “We candidly think [Findlay Market’s mural district] stands up to some of the mural districts that you see, like Wynwood in Miami and the RiNo district in Denver, Eastern Market in Detroit,” Brookhart says. Martin’s “iconic black-and-white drawings typically explore the themes of intersectionality, identity and play,” says a description from BLINK, so expect this site-specific artwork to riff on that. elements in uenced by 140+-year-old e Rookwood Pottery Company” into his work, per a release; London-based Afro-surrealist Vince Fraser, who worked with local Napoleon Maddox on a large-scale projection installation on the history of Little Africa; and Australia’s Wendy Yu, who is producing a dance-based projection in collaboration with local hip-hop arts center Elementz.

“Wendy is one of those international artists that raised her hand and said, hey, you know, BLINK looks awesome, I’d love to come and be a part of it,” Brookhart says. “And from our very rst conversations with Wendy, she said, ‘I really wanted to capture some breakdancers, some hip-hop dancers, but I don’t want to use my friends here in Australia. I’d love to collaborate with some local dancers in the Cincinnati area.’”

Yu’s completed work will feature ve di erent Elementz performers, animated in her style, projected somewhere on Fourth Street.

In addition to the expansive slate of artists taking part in BLINK 2022, the festival is expanding in literal size. e scope of the event necessitated more room, but Brookhart says organizers also wanted to adapt BLINK to re ect the way people attend large-scale events in a post-COVID world.

“We’re organizing this year’s event with the understanding that social behaviors have changed since 2019. Just due to public health concerns, people may want a little bit more space between them and their neighbors,” he says.

“We’re thinking about ways that we can kind of widen that footprint a little bit, but also go a little bit bigger with some of our installations. So we’re going to be projection mapping onto much larger buildings than we have in years past, just allowing people to view those from a little bit farther away and creating certain designated viewing areas for some of those installations.”

He mentions illuminating downtown’s American Building, “which I believe will be [the] tallest projection installation that we’ve ever done before,” he says.

BLINK’s main zones will include the urban core of Overthe-Rhine, downtown and e Banks/Smale Riverfront Park with events spreading across the river into MainStrasse in Covington. But BLINK will move “further west,” potentially near City Hall and Plum Street, and “a little bit further east” to Ziegler Park and along Liberty Street, Brookhart says. e Findlay Market mural district also will be expanding by a few streets this year.

Brookhart says BLINK took different “cultural, community and architectural assets” into consideration when planning this year’s festival map: “beautiful public spaces, historical buildings, dense walkable areas, and [playing] with the idea of discovery — discovering streets you may have not walked down, buildings you may have not noticed, alleyways that you discover anew under the lights of BLINK,” he says.

He says the team also considered logistics, like where people will walk from or how they can utilize services like the Red Bike bike share.

Dedicated anchor experiences and projections in each zone will help navigate people throughout the pedestrian-friendly event, but so will a handful of live music stages.

“We like to joke internally that BLINK is secretly one of the largest music festivals in the Cincinnati area,” Brookhart says.

Rob Mason, operations manager at AGAR (a BLINK executive partner), handles all of the talent booking for BLINK and has done so for both 2017’s and 2019’s events.

With co-bookers Justin Haley of Over-the-Rhine Bar Ghost Baby and Kick Lee of the Cincinnati Music Accelerator, Mason put out an open call for bands interested in playing BLINK and assembled a lineup of mostly local musicians across six stages (there may be some national headliners determined at a later date). Bands like Carriers, Freedom Nicole Moore, Jess Lamb & e Factory, Leggy, Mol Sullivan, Multimagic, Vacation and Siri Imani are some of the 60-some-odd artists slated to play over the four-day festival,

with stages located in Covington, e Banks, Fountain Square, Court Street, Washington Park and Findlay Market. “I think that [the bands are] kind of beacons that say, hey, there’s something happening here. And it’s good to kind of guide people in di erent directions,” Mason says. “You might be comfortable in e Banks, but you might not be willing to walk from e Banks to Findlay Market. But if there’s di erent things going along the way that are kind of pulling you there, I think that can just add for a lot of di erent discovery and excitement and the kinds of memories that only can be made during that kind of experience.” Like Brookhart, Mason relishes that idea of curiosity and natural discovery that BLINK engenders, as well as the positivity it brings to the city — a sentiment that seems to be shared by the Cincinnati community at large. “I think that’s why BLINK is so fun — because the city just lls with happiness,” Mason says. “I love the fact that there’s just so much opportunity for discovery throughout the city that whole weekend.” BLINK 2022 takes place throughout downtown Cincinnati, Over-the-Rhine and Covington Oct. 13-16. Info: blinkcincinnati.com. Onstageof our installations. So we’re going to be projection mapping onto much larger buildings than we have in years past, just allowing people to view those from a little bit farther away and creating certain designated viewing areas for some of those OfferingsHe mentions illuminating downtown’s American Building, Abound“which I believe will be [the] tallest projection installation that BLINK’s main zones will include the urban core of Over-

Cincinnati theaters offer everything from comedies and classics to hit musicals and horrors this fall. BY RICK PENDER

THE ADVENT OF SEPTEMBER means the start of theater season in Cincinnati, as local companies get ready to launch their 2022-23 productions. e lineups promise everything from dramas and comedies to hit Broadway musicals and the world premiere adaptation of a 1960s horror lm. e Playhouse in the Park is nding novel ways — and locations — to produce its shows as construction continues at its new mainstage facility in Eden Park. And Cincinnati’s community theater groups and universities are mounting classics worth revisiting. After two years of pandemic-related cancellations, limited capacities and perhaps too much streaming, it’s time for live theater again — and there’s plenty to choose from. Note: Check with each theater for the most up-to-date COVID-19 restrictions.

KNOW THEATRE

Know eatre’s Season 25 is themed “What we owe to each other” and features productions centered around “what it means to be alive, how our lives intertwine and what the risk of truly living can be,” according to the theater. It got the ball rolling early with Sunrise Coven (through Aug. 28), a sharptongued comedy about healers, pharmaceuticals and witchcraft. e theater makes a quick turnaround with another show, It’s Not a Trip It’s a Journey (Sept. 23-Oct. 9), a crosscountry road-trip tale about friendships among Black women. Know rounds out its fall season with Lizard Boy (Nov. 18-Dec. 11), an indie-rock musical and self-described “comic-inspired queer fable” about a scale-covered youth in search of love.

knowtheatre.com.

Broadway in Cincinnati’s fall season has a four-week blockbuster at the Arono Center for the Arts: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s award-winning mega-hit Hamilton (Sept. 6-Oct. 2) in a touring production. Later this fall, Tina: e Tina Turner Musical (Oct. 25-Nov. 6) explodes at the Arono with a comeback story about a powerhouse performer who broke barriers and overcame adversity on her way to becoming the Queen of rock and roll. cincinnati.broadway.com.

CINCINNATI SHAKESPEARE COMPANY

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company stages a classic tragedy, King Lear (Sept. 9-Oct. 1), using a concept inspired by the HBO series Succession about families torn apart by ambition and intrigue. Before it opens, you might catch one of the nal free Shakespeare in the Park performances of Twelfth Night, including one at Eden Park on Aug. 30. For a very di erent tragedy, check out the theater’s world premiere of e Living Dead (Oct. 14-29), adapted by Cincinnati playwright Isaiah Reaves from the classic 1968 horror lm, just in time for Halloween. It’s the company’s rst commission in an emerging new works program developing shows to be fully produced on its main stage. After that, it’s another classic with Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (Nov. 11-Dec. 3), adapted by Kate Hamill. e proli c playwright’s rendition of Pride and Prejudice recently was produced by the classic stage company. cincyshakes.com.

ENSEMBLE THEATRE CINCINNATI

Ensemble eatre Cincinnati has just one production this fall — an important and powerful drama very much in keeping with Artistic Director D. Lynn Meyers’s focus on works that wrestle with contemporary social issues. Lynn Nottage’s 2017 Pulitzer Prize winner Sweat (Sept. 17-Oct. 9) takes audiences to the forgotten heart of America, a neighborhood bar where old friends gather and share challenges in a fraying economy. Many have worked for decades in the same factory, but layo s now pit them against one another with a divisive, complicating overlay of race and class. Nottage did extensive research with people in Reading, Pennsylvania, to deepen her understanding of the impact of economic decline. She is a MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, and Sweat displays her ability to blend compassion, humor and suspense. ensemblecincinnati.org.

CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK

ree o -site productions by the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park happen beyond Eden Park as the theater nishes construction of its new mainstage, slated to open in March. Up rst will be the classic mystery Murder on the Orient Express (Sept. 25-Oct. 23) at the Arono Center’s Jarson-Kaplan eatre. Agatha Christie’s master detective Hercule Poirot is determined to seek out a killer in a crowd of glamorous passengers on a luxury train trapped in a snowdrift. Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of this ingenious golden-age detective story springs to life onstage. e Playhouse’s next production, a one-woman show, Frida … a Self Portrait (Oct. 15-Nov. 6), takes place at e Carnegie in Covington. It is a solo work about renowned Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, told with stunning creativity by writer and performer Vanessa Severo. e third “o -the-hill” Playhouse production will be e Lion (Nov. 12-Dec. 4) on the Warsaw Federal Incline eater Stage in Price Hill. In it, a singer-songwriter tells his family’s story using emotional monologues and original songs. It’s about the redemptive power of music, coming straight from the London stage for an exclusive engagement here in Cincinnati. cincyplay.com.

CINCINNATI LANDMARK PRODUCTIONS

e Warsaw Federal Incline eatre, operated by Cincinnati Landmark Productions, is currently staging Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic golden-age musical Carousel (through Sept. 11). At CLP’s other venue, the Covedale Center for Performing Arts, two shows are in the works. My Way: A Tribute to the Music of Frank Sinatra (Sept. 15-Oct. 9) features 55 songs from the Great American Songbook. at will be followed by the feel-good musical comedy, Sister Act (Oct. 20-Nov. 13), based on the hit 1992 lm about a spirited group of nuns hiding a lounge singer in need of witness protection.

cincinnatilandmarkproductions.com.

CINCINNATI UNIVERSITIES

Cincinnati’s universities often present classic shows worth seeing — or seeing again. Xavier University, for instance, has three productions: David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole (Sept. 16-18), about a marriage crumbling following a tragic accident; Something Rotten (Oct. 14-22), a very funny musical about Shakespeare and some 16th-century shenanigans; and ornton Wilder’s 1938 classic, Our Town (Nov. 18-20). xavier.edu.

In Highland Heights, the theater program at Northern Kentucky University will stage the intimate musical Violet (Sept. 23-Oct. 2) about a dis gured girl seeking to be healed and made beautiful. Later it will present Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Oct. 27-Nov. 6), a play based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s tale about a respected scientist who explores his darker alter ego. nku.edu.

At the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, the season starts with a tribute featuring works by renowned Broadway musical theater composer Stephen Flaherty, a CCM alum, on Sept. 23. Other productions on the UC/ CCM stages include adaptations of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Euripides’ e Trojan Women (Sept. 29-Oct. 2); the charming musical She Loves Me (Oct. 6-9); the Shakespeare-inspired musical comedy Something Rotten (Oct. 20-30); and August Strindberg’s unusual script about whether life is worth living, A Dream Play (Nov. 3-6). ccm.uc.edu.

COMMUNITY THEATERS

Community theaters also o er tried-and-true shows. Check out e Footlighters’ Newport production of Stephen Schwartz’s melodic fairytale, Pippin (Sept. 22-Oct. 9).

footlighters.org.

Or try Cincinnati Music eatre’s presentation of Leonard Bernstein’s musical Wonderful Town (Nov. 4-12) at the Arono Center’s Jarson-Kaplan eatre. Set in 1930s New York City, it follows two Ohio sisters and their adventures.

cincinnatimusictheatre.org.

Clockwise from top left: Vanessa Severo as Frida Kahlo in the Playhouse in the Park’s production of Frida...A Self Portrait Photo: Brian Paulette Playwright Lynn Nottage Photo: Provided by Ensemble Theatre Andrew May as Hercule Poirot in the Playhouse’s production of Murder on the Orient Express Photo: Zach Rosing

PHOTOGRAPHY IS IN FOCUS

THIS FALL

Greater Cincinnati’s FotoFocus Biennial returns in October to celebrate lens-based art with 100+ projects and a month-long series of events. BY NATALIE CLARE

WHEN YOU HEAR OR READ the phrase “world record,” what comes to mind? at’s the question more than 600 artists and curators are exploring during the regional 2022 FotoFocus Biennial, a month-long series featuring more than 100 artistic exhibitions, installations and events centered around photography and lens-based art. is year’s biennial, which takes place in October, is the Cincinnati-based nonpro t’s sixth iteration and represents the largest event of its kind in the United States, according to FotoFocus.

FotoFocus was founded in 2010 with the mission of “inspiring conversations about the world through the art of photography,” and it launched its biennial in 2012. Kevin Moore, FotoFocus artistic director and curator, tells CityBeat that more than in other artistic media, photographs can lead to discussions of what people care about. It makes the biennial — a signature program of nonpro t, which also supports other lensbased-art programming, exhibits and artists in Greater Cincinnati — an ideal opportunity to engage in topics around us through art.

“One of the things I think FotoFocus does so well is that we do things quickly. If you’re trying to do contemporary shows — things that relate to what’s going on in the world — museums are planning two or three years in advance. By the time they cross the nish line, there have been, like, 50 more gun shootings or a major upheaval in a country or some kind of climate issue,” Moore says. “A year in advance [of the biennial], we try to think about what’s really going to be on our minds when we arrive at this point.” is year’s theme considers photography’s extensive record of life on Earth. Under the banner of “world record,” audiences can expect to see artwork that prompts conversations about nature, science, climate change, humanity, energy and utopian and dystopian visions of man in nature, according to a release from FotoFocus.

Moore says the theme has double meaning: e planet has been experiencing world-record-breaking environmental events of late, but also, photography and lens-based art records the world through documentation of people and events. He says it’s important to remember that “world record” is also “about social life.” e FotoFocus Biennial’s core “Program Week” takes place from Sept. 29-Oct. 8. It includes not only art exhibits but also keynote lectures, screenings, receptions, tours and panel discussions with artists, curators and collaborators at museums, galleries and other venues across Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Dayton, Oxford and Columbus. Locally, there are more than 50 venues participating, ranging from the Cincinnati Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Center and Taft Museum of Art to Wave Pool, the Michael Lowe Gallery and Somerset.

Many exhibits will remain on view throughout October and beyond, but the main lectures and panels — including a keynote from Makeda Best, the Harvard Art Museums’ Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography — take place during that initial week.

A few of the local shows encapsulate what this year’s biennial theme is all about.

Moore and Best are curating On the Line: Documents of Risk and Faith (Sept. 9-Jan. 15) at Contemporary Arts Center, a series of photographs that “address a range of topics, spanning performance and the body, climate change, power, colonialism and identity, heritage, and territory,” per a description. Two other exhibits will be on view at the CAC to coincide with FotoFocus: Images on Which to Build, 1970s-1990s (Sept. 30-Feb. 12), which is a photographic exploration of the interconnected LGBTQ+ movements of the 20th century, and Baseera Khan: Weight on History (Sept. 30-Feb. 12), a solo exhibit that uses video, photography, sculpture and performance to explore “capital, politics and the body,” per a description.

Other major museums also are participating in the biennial this year, with FotoFocus-curated shows at the Cincinnati Art Museum and Taft Museum of Art. e CAM will mount Natural World (Sept. 30-Jan. 15), a collaborative exhibit of photos, lms, textiles and more from artists David Hartt and John Edmonds, poet Jason Allen-Paisant and curator Nathaniel M. Stein. e Taft Museum of Art’s Craft and Camera: e Art of Nancy Ford Cones (Oct. 1-Jan. 15) will explore the innovative photographic works of Loveland resident Cones, who was alive from 1869-1962. e National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is exhibiting ‘Free as they want to be’: Artists Committed to Memory (Sept. 30-March 6), which “considers the historic and contemporary role that photography and lm have played in remembering legacies of slavery and its aftermath and examines the social lives of Black Americans,” per a description.

“‘Free as they want to be’ is very much about how we remember things, how artists deal with historical artifacts to maintain history,” Moore says.

Moore also is curating Ian Strange: Disturbed Home (Oct. 1-Dec. 9), which will be on view at Art Academy of Cincinnati’s SITE 1212 and Annex. Strange is an internationally acclaimed Australian artist and photographer whose work incorporates elements of cinema, architecture and site-speci c structures. Per FotoFocus, he is known for “provocative transformations of damaged or abandoned homes” and worked with Art Academy of Cincinnati students and the Hamilton County Landbank during a three-month residency for this exhibit.

Disturbed Home features locally produced photographic works, drawings, lm and light-based architectural interventions, including a site-speci c installation at the Art Academy Annex, to generate conversations about how environmental concerns and economics have changed the populations of Cincinnati neighborhoods over time.

Moore says the exhibition will be “very striking.”

In Northern Kentucky, e Carnegie will present a group exhibition titled ese ings Are Connected (Oct. 1-Jan. 28), which is guest-curated by the venue’s Exhibitions Director Matt Distel. Distel explains that part of e Carnegie’s curatorial mission over the past few years has been to introduce and integrate local artists into the larger arts industry. e FotoFocus Biennial provides a unique gateway for that to happen.

Distel is bringing together ve curators from Minneapolis, Atlanta, Columbus and New York to select artists

From top: Ian Strange, “Twenty-Five,” 2017; Dejiah ArchieDavis, “The Stars Come out at Night,” 2021 Photos: Courtesy of the artists

to feature alongside those working in the Cincinnati and Covington area. e exhibition will include a wide range of photographic styles from observational to photojournalistic to historical to sculptural, re ective of the range of curators and artists themselves.

“ e way that we felt like we were connecting to ‘world record’ was a kind of criss-cross intersection of traveling, [with] the curators conceptually and physically and artistically traversing a large geography, which takes up a good chunk of the Midwest and the South,” he says.

This year’s biennial also includes a first-ever collaboration between FotoFocus and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Sun Dogs is a live program which will take place at Music Hall from Oct. 14-16. Four composers (Daniel Wohl, Arooj Aftab, Rafiq Bhatia and Dev Hynes) and two filmmakers (Josephine Decker and Apichatpong Weerasethakul) have created three compositions to be performed by the orchestra while their accompanying films are projected onstage. Composer Wohl tells CityBeat each of the three pieces explores extra-sensory ideas — a record of things that are felt but unseen.

Although Sun Dogs is a ticketed event, many venues included in the biennial are free and open to the public. FotoFocus also o ers a passport that can be obtained for free on the organization’s website and includes access to exhibitions during the month of October, membersonly events and the FotoFocus Biennial Program Week. e website also o ers descriptions of each exhibit and a map to help plan your experience. e events highlighted here only scratch the surface of the FotoFocus Biennial; hundreds of artists and curators are contributing to a far-reaching series of artistic experiences. e expansive nature of the biennial aims to prompt endless conversations about a variety of topics, which Moore has said is always the goal of photography. As he described in an April 2022 article for CityBeat, “You don’t show art as only a kind of solitary, contemplative experience. You show it to have a conversation.”

e 2022 FotoFocus Biennial takes place throughout October, with core programming Sept. 29-Oct. 8. Info: fotofocus.org.

Classical Meets Modern

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s 2022-23 season highlights innovation, inclusion and positivity. BY ANNE ARENSTEIN

THE CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’S 202223 season is one of positivity and light in the wake of the global events that have occurred in the past two years. Highlights of the fall lineup demonstrate why the CSO has become a touchstone for innovative and inclusive programming: an epic symphony, world premieres of lm and lm scores, and a renowned hiphop master making his debut as a Pops headliner. e season opener on Sept. 24 and 25 is a statement in itself: Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Resurrection. Maestro Louis Langrée leads the CSO, the May Festival Chorus and soloists Joélle Harvey and Kelley O’Connor in this monumental work that concludes with a rousing a rmation of transcendence.

It’s the perfect work to open the CSO’s rst full season in Music Hall since the pandemic abruptly ended the 2020 season in March of that year.

“ ose were times of uncertainty, fear and tragedy,” Langrée tells CityBeat. “So, we had to open our return to a normal season with a work that is more than the music, that celebrates a new beginning. Mahler’s second symphony struck me as the most necessary and the most appropriate.”

Human voices are an essential element.

“ e intertwining of the May Festival Chorus’s sonorities is so crucial to creating these intimate and powerful moments in the nal movement,” Langrée says.

Mahler experienced profound losses in the years leading up to the symphony’s premiere in 1895. He was inspired by a hymn, with text by German poet Friedrich Klopstock, that extolled the soul’s resurrection. If the concluding choral wash of sound isn’t as well-known as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, it packs a more emotional wallop. e vocal soloists have performed frequently with the CSO. Mezzo O’Connor was here in 2019, performing in Mozart’s Requiem.

For soprano Harvey, Mahler brings her full circle: She was scheduled to perform a Handel concert with the CSO in March 2020 when Langrée says the CSO’s director of personnel interrupted rehearsal to announce the symphony was shutting down. “None of us will ever forget that,” Langrée says. e symphony is an epic journey from despair to catharsis, especially for Langrée.

“As I study the score, each page becomes my favorite, but that nal choral passage is the ultimate, going from minor to major, from darkness to light,” he says. ree weeks later, the city truly lights up when the BLINK takes over Oct. 13-16. e CSO is teaming up with the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial — which also is taking place in October — to join BLINK’s city-wide festival with Sun Dogs, a CSO Proof presentation of three world-premiere lms and accompanying lm scores performed by the CSO.

CSO Proof began four years ago as a new format to experience orchestral music with cutting-edge artistic collaborations in an informal setting and for a lowerpriced admission.

“We’ve wanted to collaborate with FotoFocus, and after four years, it’s nally happening,” Nate Bachhuber, CSO vice president of artistic planning, tells CityBeat. He says that linking lm and music is more than an obvious connection.

“We’ve all experienced a lm whose music moved us as much as the cinematic elements,” he says. “I know that a lm sequence can inspire a composer and it goes the other way, too. We wanted to explore the process and see and hear the results.”

Bachhuber recruited Kate Nordstrum, artistic director of Liquid Music — widely acclaimed for its productions of new classical music — and electroacoustic composer and orchestrator Daniel Wohl as co-curators.

FotoFocus organizers helped to identify an international roster of emerging lm artists. Wohl and Grammy-winning Pakistani composer and vocalist Arooj Aftab are working with American lmmaker Josephine Decker. French-Senegalese director Mati Diop and French director Manon Lutanie previously have collaborated and will join forces to work with British composer Dev Hynes, better known as Blood Orange. ai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul is working with American Ra q Bhatia, the guitarist, composer and producer for the band Son Lux.

Sun Dogs is part of FotoFocus’s performing arts series, with ve opportunities Oct. 14-16 to experience world premieres performed in Music Hall’s Springer Auditorium by the CSO, led by composer and CSO creative partner Matthias Pintscher. All the participating artists will attend. And, as Bachhuber proudly notes, tickets are $5.

On Oct. 25, a hip-hop legend is the Cincinnati Pops headliner. Oscar-, Emmy- and Grammy Awardwinning artist Common makes a rare solo appearance with Pops principal guest conductor Damon Gupton. e rapper, producer, composer, poet, author, actor and activist made his CSO debut as a symphonic artist during the 2016 Classical Roots concert, performing his Oscar-winning song “Glory” from the lm Selma with soloist Capathia Jenkins and the Classical Roots choir.

“We had to rebuild the auditorium after that concert,” Cincinnati Pops maestro John Morris Russell says with a laugh.

Common equally was a ected by the experience, Russell says.

“You hear an orchestra on the soundtrack, but this was Common’s rst time hearing it with a live orchestra and chorus. He was blown away,” he says.

Russell adds that Common didn’t sequester himself in the green room when he wasn’t onstage.

“You could see him in the wings, taking in the whole thing,” he says. “When we concluded with the ‘ e Battle Hymn of the Republic,’ he was literally jumping up and down. And he greeted everyone coming o stage, orchestra, chorus, all of us.”

His previous Cincinnati stop also launched a series of appearances with top orchestras including the Houston, Chicago, San Diego, Pittsburgh and National Symphony Orchestras. Many of those performances were led by conductor Gupton.

Common’s music has never been con ned to one style or genre as any fan can testify. But as he’s said in numerous interviews, his heart is rooted in hip hop. His most recent releases (A Beautiful Revolution, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2) feature artists including PJ, Black ought and Lenny Kravitz.

Common has deep ties to Cincinnati, having spent summers here with his aunt’s family in Bond Hill, where he wrote his rst rap verses paying tribute to “the Bond Hill Crew.”

Now a hip-hop elder, Common remains an impressive artist, juggling multi-media gigs, and advocating for underprivileged youth through his Common Ground Foundation.

According to his website, the Pops gig is Common’s only scheduled appearance for the rest of 2022.

Common performs with the Cincinnati Pops on Oct. 25. Photo: Brian Bowen Smith

e Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra opens its 2022-23 season with Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony on Sept. 24-25. Info: cincinnatisymphony.org.

BUILDING BRIDGES AT THE CINCINNATI BALLET

New artistic director Jodie Gates has big plans for the company as it enters its 60th year. BY LEYLA SHOKOOHE

JODIE GATES IS TAKING the Cincinnati Ballet to new heights. As the new artistic director of the ballet, following the 25-year reign of previous artistic director and onetime CEO Victoria Morgan, Gates is inheriting an established company on the cusp of its next chapter.

“ is rst year, obviously, I’m going to do a lot of listening and assessing by being an observer, though I’m leading,” says Gates, who previously was commissioned to choreograph a piece for the Cincinnati Ballet’s 2014 season with local band Over the Rhine.

Originally from Sacramento, Gates started her dance career when she was recruited by Chicago’s Jo rey Ballet at age 16. She was later a principal dancer with the Pennsylvania Ballet, New York City’s Complexions Contemporary Ballet and Germany’s Frankfurt Ballet and has choreographed more than 60 original works. After founding the Laguna Dance Festival in 2005, she transitioned to academia and was most recently the founding director of the University of Southern California’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, a renowned national conservatory dance model.

“I know that sounds strange, but my hope is that the [Cincinnati Ballet] dancers start to develop a style, a community style,” she says. “A style that, for example, if a few of our dancers go out and do a community appearance somewhere across the nation, somebody will see them onstage and go, ‘Oh, wow, they look like a Cincinnati Ballet dancer.’ Wouldn’t it be great to get to that moment?”

Indeed, the company is primed for such a moment. Having outgrown its longtime home studios on Central Parkway with explosive enrollment and demand at its public dance academy, the company set its sights on an even bigger future and a facility to match. e brand new, 57,000-square-foot, $31 million Margaret and Michael Valentine Center for Dance opened in mid-2021 in East Walnut Hills. With a new home comes new opportunities — and a sharper focus on its public responsibilities.

“[We need to be] aware of popular trends, and looking at the voids in the eld — there is more of a recognition of the form,” Gates says. “We need to demystify it, and what I mean by ‘demystify’ is that it’s not just for the European courts, it’s still kind of a folk dance of sorts. Putting it in a position of any other form of dance and being able to talk about it. I think it’s going to take time... I think there’s something about ballet right now that we have an opportunity to reimagine what its future will be.”

A typical day for Gates, whose rst season with the ballet o cially kicked o Aug. 8, includes in-studio and in-o ce duties. She typically will teach a morning ballet class for the company dancers, which is both a technique refresher and warm-up for the rest of their rehearsal day. On the day she spoke with CityBeat, she spent three hours after class teaching and coaching dancers on a ballet to be performed later in the season. She auditioned a dancer at lunchtime and then went back into the studio with dancers for another hour, followed by administrative and press interviews.

“I’ve always been a pretty good multitasker, and I just know that I have something to o er these individuals,” she says. “I feel compelled to be at the service of this organization and support the organization’s forward movement to whatever the next place is. If that is more opportunities to tour, bigger scale productions, expanding the company number in size, I’m assessing all of that and seeing what’s possible.” ere is an expectation of art to re ect its community, both locally and more broadly, in its performances and storytelling endeavors. Part of Gates’ vision statement for her role as artistic director includes a commitment to uplifting new choreographic and artistic voices, particularly those of female-identifying and BIPOC individuals.

“Telling new stories, that’s going to take some time, because I’m really interested in that and have some thoughts on how I would love to do that,” Gates says. “But it will take a little time and resources to get there. Also, yes, I do think that not only should we [have] more representation on stage, but also everywhere in the organization, and going out and just listening to people in marginalized communities. How do they feel about ballet, and what can we do to bring it into their lives? Are they interested? Is it something [where] we can build some bridges, and not just do a one-time visit, but actually do something more meaningful?”

Gates is calling on her existing connections to broaden the Cincinnati Ballet’s horizons and is also – like any good Cincinnatian (transplant or otherwise) — looking in the ballet’s own backyard.

For example, in May, she reached out to David Choate, artistic director of Revolution Dance eatre, a diverse dance out t. Choate asked if Gates would be willing to have some Cincinnati Ballet dancers perform in the organization’s inaugural Black, Brown & Ballet Summer Festival on Aug. 14 in Washington Park, to which Gates readily agreed. While that was a one-time situation, Gates already is laying a solid foundation for future collaborations. e works in Gates’ rst season at the helm of the Cincinnati Ballet were selected by Morgan, her predecessor, but she is as knowledgeable — and contagiously excited — about them as if they were her own.

“I love this season,” she says. “I think it’s fantastic.”

Up rst is the next installment of the crowd favorite e Kaplan New Works Series, running Sept. 8-18 at the Arono Center for the Arts.

“New Works highlights three company choreographers, which I love that we do that,” she says. “I love that we’re giving an opportunity to our company dancers to make work.” at includes premieres from Daniel Baldwin, corps de ballet dancer; Taylor Carrasco, corps de ballet dancer; and Melissa Gel n De-Poli, principal dancer; all of whom have choreographed for the Cincinnati Ballet before. Local DANCEFIX tness class founder and New Works favorite choreographer Heather Britt also returns with a new work for the company. e nal work on the bill is a Cincinnati premiere from award-winning English choreographer Cathy Marston. e rest of the season plays like a Cincinnati Ballet greatest hits album: there’s the hugely popular Carmina Burana and Extremely Close on a double-bill at Music Hall the rst weekend in November, followed, of course, by e Nutcracker in December (which retains Morgan’s revamped choreography). February sees the return of Alice (in Wonderland), with the kid-friendly Family Series: Beauty & the Beast in April. e season closes in June with Bold Moves, another medley of new and existing shorter works, including one featuring a guest company, curated by Gates herself. e guest company will be announced in early September.

If this is what the beginning of Gates’ tenure with the Cincinnati Ballet looks like, one can only imagine the heights to which she will take it.

“I have a mission,” she says. “I’m not checking boxes. I want to take the time to actively listen. I probably will not succeed at all of it, but at least if we could just nd a few bridges, that would mean a success.”

One sign that Gates already is well on her way to becoming a bona de Cincinnatian?

“I love football,” she says. “I’m very excited that now I’m living in a town that has two exceptional teams, at the professional level and at the university [level]. I look forward to going to some games and getting to know the community. People have been so nice about extending and welcoming me from all over and I really appreciate that.”

Cincinnati Ballet Artistic Director Jodie Gates Photo: Hiromi Platt Photography

e Cincinnati Ballet opens its season with e Kaplan New Works Series Sept. 8-18. Info: cballet.org.