Life inside the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art
October 4, 2007
Odili Donald Odita will be here next week!
We are getting excited about Odili Donald Odita's arrival on 10/10. We even made a trailer about it!
“One of the most exciting aspects of contemporary art is that it is happening right now. We want to invite people into the creative process, allowing our audiences to experience it first-hand.”
Raphaela Platow, Director and Chief Curator, Contemporary Arts Center
The Contemporary Arts Center invites you to experience the creative process as Odili Donald Odita creates FLOW, a site-specific, wall-encompassing project.
Passers-by and visitors have the opportunity to experience the work – as well as the work-in-progress, whether or not they enter the space. See the artist transform the walls of the CAC’s Kaplan Hall Lobby with bold, dynamic colors.
“I hope people who pass by on the street will be curious about what they see. They should ask themselves, ‘What's going on in here?’ and not hesitate to walk in and find out.” Zaha Hadid, Prominent Architect who designed the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art.
“Coming into the space, I felt very energized by the design and the architecture. What I responded to in the space was the energy of being inside and outside at the same time.” Odili Donald Odita.
Odita will be installing Thursdays through Saturdays throughout October. FLOW will be on view in Kaplan Hall through Fall, 2008.
Tickets/Reservations Kaplan Hall is always free and open to the public.
Public Programs + Upcoming Events Saturday, October 27 • 2 pm • Members: Free. Nonmembers: CAC admission Conversation with the Artist Odili Donald Odita Kaplan Hall Lobby becomes the mind of Nigerian-born artist Odili Donald Odita as he shares the ideas and artistic processes behind FLOW, his vivid installation-in-progress. PUBLIC PROGRAM
Friday, November 9 • 7 – 11 pm • Free and open to the public Opening Night Experience new exhibitions Odili Donald Odita: FLOW and America Starts Here: Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler. OPENING
A night of lush, ambient improvisational music Saturday, September 15 at 8 pm at the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Downtown Cincinnati. Tickets are $7, and $5 for CAC Members, and are available online, in person at the CAC at 6th and Walnut Streets, or by calling 513.345.8400.
Performing together in this one-time-only grouping:
So, I have been asked to define the "value proposition" that I strive to communicate. I think that's an excellent question that got me thinking about just what single idea I want to encompass the Contemporary Arts Center.
There are several ways I tried to answer the question.
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
"Mind expansion! CAC offers unique, authentic experiences; moving, exciting contemporary artwork that can be seen with the eyes and understood with the heart (i.e. you don't need a PhD, just let your mind feel -- we'll provide the guideposts); inspiring social moments and fun, hands-on learning opportunities."
Sounds good. Then I decided to answer with our institutional meme:
"Experiences without boundaries"
Last October, we sat down in a very informing brainstorming session where we came up with our brand mantra.
BRAND MANTRA
We are a CONTEMPORARY organization speaking to a CURIOUS community that is seeking EXPERIENCES WITHOUT BOUNDARIES.
Essence: We all agreed that "Contemporary" is our essence. We will always present contemporary work, or present work in contemporary context. What is contemporary changes with the times, of course, but we will always be presenting the contemporary.
Character describes the community we serve and attract, and also speaks to who we are. Words we tried out included "experiential," "inquisitive," "engaged," "courageous" and "inspired." After much discussion, we agreed that the one thing that describes all our audience members is "Curious."
Identity refers to what our community seeks. We determined, after much discussion, that our community seeks "Experiences without Boundaries."
Maiza, one of our Curatorial Assistants, went to WGUC studios to talk about our upcoming season. Listen on Friday for a segment on Open House, and then we'll let you know about the next segment.
I was so excited that two of my friends who got engaged adorably in NYC -- are coming back to Cincinnati to get married. And they're scoping out the Center! Yay!
I got to give them a whirlwind tour of Julian Stanczak, Graphic Content and about 1/3 of Open House: Cincinnati Collects. I love showing off our exhibitions. Of course, they both went to DAAP so they know way more than I do about art, but nevertheless, it was very cool to have them here.
Not to be opportunistic here, but I think I should mention that we can host pretty extraordinary events here -- and weddings are one of our specialties.
Collecting history @ CAC reaches all the way to the beginning
So, I was looking in our archives for information about Donald Lipski for Sculpture Magazine, and guess what I found out?
Of course, the CAC, being one of the oldest contemporary art museums in the country, was founded in 1939. November 9, to be exact, and it was called "The Modern Art Society." Oh, and did you know that the first museum to be designed by a woman architect was also founded by women.
The very day after it was founded, the Modern Art Society exhibited Modern Paintings from Cincinnati Collections, November 10 - December 10.
Pretty cool, huh? We will be posting a more detailed exhibition history in our web archives. Keep looking!
Cool sidenote: I visited the Akron Art Museum, which just completed its capital expansion, more than tripling its exhibition space. As I was leaving, guess who I saw there? The Stanczak family! I was on my way back to Cincinnati, and they were on their way back to Cleveland. I wonder how many people perusing the galleries that day knew that such an influential and important artist was right there in their midst.
OK, here are some images from the gallery talk Friday night. I was trying not to use flash, so they are a little blurry.
I have always been a lover of the arts, but never did I imagine that I would work at an art museum, let alone a contemporary one. Since May of 2005, I have been employed by the Contemporary Arts Center. I started my career at the CAC as an education intern, which was an incredible experience. During my internship, I also worked in the visitor service department and selling memberships. Balancing undergraduate art history classes, model magic creatures and greeting patrons of the museum, I began to develop a great appreciation for the CAC.
(Photo: Ryan Leary guides an artmaking project in The UnMuseum®)
For the past 2 years, the CAC has opened my eyes in regards to not how a museum operates and functions day-to-day, but the CAC has challenged my definition of art. Like many art history students, the last period of art history we discuss (in-depth) is Modernism, circa 1960. Yet, my contemporary art education comes from this wonderful institution. I admit, I may not understand every exhibition that travels through here, but I always leave redefining my definition of art.
Today, I now work for the external affairs department for the CAC. I must say, I hardly imagined how fast-paced and innovative a department can be. Although I have been in this department for not even a month, I truly value the hard work and dedication these women (YES WOMEN ARE RUNNIN' THIS DEPARTMENT) to keep the CAC moving in a prolific direction. I must say, the CAC has impacted me as an artist, an art educator and art lover.
It's been important to the CAC's artistic programming not only to show exciting ideas that emerge within the last few years but also to provide historical context to enhance appreciation of contemporary works.
So even though the new stuff really gets my heart racing -- particularly what we'll be seeing in the Cartography exhibition, the Karaoke exhibition and the Idiot Joy Exhibition -- I am excited to view the career retrospectives of Sol LeWitt and Julian Stanczak. I also look forward to Space is the Place, which spans the last two decades providing not a historical perspective per se but instead a look at the evolution of art made from a particular source of inspiration: Space.
Cool stuff happening down at 6th & Walnut, and I don't mean the mechanical bull. Though that is kind of cool.
After more than two weeks away, I'm glad to be back in my PR seat.
Tuesday, we announced our new season. Sara Pearce gave us a lot of pixels (we used to say "a lot of ink" but this is of course on her blog).
To wit:
Seems to me that the Contemporary Arts Center spends a lot of time trying to point out its inclusion of local artists, fending off critics who say it is too remote, not attuned to the local scene. They're touting the local connections in the next season, too. It is ripe with them. But you know what? The past few seasons have been chock-a-block with area artists, too. Not so much as to outweigh everyone else but enough to be noticeable and that's about the right ratio. We don't want to be provincial.
Thank you to Sara for getting it right too. We have received criticism for not including local artists. The thing is that A) we do; and B) our mission is to present contemporary art.
The work we show must be representative of the best in current art trends and movements.
When a Cincinnatian happens to achieve international recognition in the contemporary art world, we include that artist in our museum as part of our presentation of contemporary art.
When a Cincinnati artist should receive international acclaim, we include that artist too.
You see, it is not only our responsibility to reflect the art world, but also to influence it.
We look to the outstanding Weston Art Gallery across the street to present the best in local art. And they do such amazing work, we feel the local visual art community is well represented between 6th and 7th streets on Walnut.
Charley Harper died yesterday. He was a beloved figure to everyone at the CAC.
I will never forget the day, right before the opening night of Graphic Content, that I visited Charley and Edie at their Finneytown home. Charley gave me a tour of his studio, showing me his favorite pieces and the tools he used to create his brilliant masterpieces.
Touched by the changing earth, Charley used humor to warn us of the perils of global warming. Near the end of his life he began painting apocalyptic scenes with clever wit -- such as the polar bear peeking over warm blue ocean water with a cardinal perched on his head.
We loved Charley, and we are so sad to say goodbye to such a great talent and a beloved Cincinnati treasure.
Help us remember Charley! Someone was shooting video of Vice Mayor Tarbell presenting Charley with the Charley Harper Day proclamation. Please e-mail me @ pr@cacmail.org if you have that video. Thank you so much.
This review by Jerry Stein is really interesting. Alexis Rockman was inspired by art history and evolutionary biology to create Romantic Attachments. Tony Matelli's battle-worn chimpanzees are obsessively, meticulously rendered to be biologically accurate.
But I couldn't count the pop-cultural references the works inspired in Stein:
Planet of the Apes
Beauty and the Beast
King Kong and Fay Wray
Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights
Dracula (followed by a very interesting conversation on the attraction/revulsion to vampires and even lower simians, the last inspired by Darwin's evolutionary writings)
The reference to Wuthering Heights was picked up by a blog called, I am not kidding, BrontëBlog, which tracks the Brontës' writings in contemporary life.
Check it, see. Stein's review was described as "The weird Brontë reference of the day."
If you're among the many, many people who attended the discussion Monday with Graphic Content artist Ellen Berkenblit and the incomparable Todd Oldham and the "genius curator" Matt Distel, you heard me snapping a million photos with an oversized camera.
Cincinnati Blog has linked to us! The blogger, Brian Griffin, has been known to frequent CAC events. Since his blog gets, like, 60 gazillion hits per day, it's cool to get a mention.
In PR, we get some strange questions and detailed requests, many of which never make it to print.
But this... this was the BEST question ever.
The Cincinnati Post called last week to ask whether A) We have Security Guards; B) Are they armed?; and C) Do they also have attack dogs?
I'm not one to prepare a canned response or memo of talking points, but this was so hilarious we pooled our resources to come up with something good. Here is what I told the reporter.
The Contemporary Arts Center in downtown Cincinnati has trained, paid security guards, spokeswoman Stacey Czar said. But, she added, "They are armed only with vigilance and an appreciation of contemporary art."
Back in 2006, the CAC exhibited a retrospective of ten years of the counterculture collective of "renegade architects" Ant Farm.
So although the opening of the Cincinnati Cadillac Ranch Restaurant, which boasts on its web site that it "combines country and rock-n-roll in a stylish western atmosphere" seems incongruous across the street from the CAC's towering Zaha-built Modernist structure, maybe there is a connection.
Below are some images of Ant Farm's public installation mocking the planned obsolescence of automobile models while showcasing the beauty of the tailfin.
The work is called "Cadillac Ranch," and it still exists in Amarillo, Texas. In fact, according to Wikipedia, Ant Farm coined the phrase with this work. And you know the Internet never lies.
Now gaze upon the gritty beauty of the original Cadillac Ranch...
And now gaze upon the gritty beauty of this animated mechanical bullrider I found on the Cadillac Ranch Nashville web site:
Incongruous? Hardly. And soon you'll see the staff of CAC daring each other to ride the bull across the street.
The artist puzzles out the tech design of his installation in CAC's Kaplan Hall
The crew surveys the progress of The Blues Quartet in installation
I always have a feeling of excitement during installation time. A friend compared the CAC to a theater company; it seems we're always tearing down one show and building another. As a non-collecting instituion with a constantly rotating exhibition cycle and new exhibitions all the time on six floors, we are always looking to the next exhibition and new ideas in contemporary art, while striving to provide historical context for today's current art world.
So it's exciting to watch an exhibition evolve and grow, to see artists working together -- most of our crew members are talented artists as well -- to propose a concept, create a design, install and build a new show, to light it, to write the intro and wall text, to envision a gallery's final state -- as if onstage on opening night. I'm just lucky to have the opportunity to watch the progress behind the scenes.
OK, so to everyone who has been clamouring for the CAC to start blogging, well, here you go! We're going to be posting on different aspects of life inside the CAC, from envisioning and creating exhibitions, to planning events, to visiting artist studios.
Charley Harper died yesterday. He was a beloved figure to everyone at the CAC.
Photo by 
