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Luci Mohr | Lead Page Designer
Many creative-based activites are scattered throughout Cincy; the Children's Museum, the Art Museum, and the Sign Museum are featured here (L-R).
Art has been an integral part of the history and culture of Cincinnati. The city offers a variety of art, including traditional paintings, signage, modern abstract works, and photography. The Cincinnati Museum Center, the Taft Museum of Art, the American Sign Museum, and the Contemporary Arts Center are just a few of the places around the Tri-State area that showcase the rich history of art in Cincinnati.
“Cincinnati is known for [its] arts, not just the visual arts; we have the Playhouse in the Park, we have so much of the arts. The city is known for it. There’s so much art, music, [and] dance,” Mrs. Broxterman, Anderson High School art teacher, said.
Cincinnati is renowned for its art, housing many major museums in a small area.
“Within the downtown area, there are 3 world-class museums [the Taft Museum of Art, the Contemporary Arts Center, and the Cincinnati Art Museum] that show work, and not a lot of cities have that,” Mr. Stanyard, art teacher, said.
The diversity of art around Cincinnati has helped preserve the history of the city.
“There [are] so many stories that you would’ve never heard about. It shows a lot of Cincinnati’s history during the Civil War, World Wars. It shows what Cincinnati was doing during those important time periods,” Anna Losekamp (11), art student, said.
The Cincinnati Art Museum is a traditional art museum. Built in Eden Park in 1886, this museum contains over 73,000 works spanning over 6,000 years. The museum aims to cultivate a more spirited Cincinnati through inspiring people and connecting communities. Among the permanent works, the museum also hosts several national and international exhibitions.
The museum is currently showcasing “Rediscovered Treasures,” which highlights rediscovering and conserving art of Eastern Asia.
“One of the neat things about Cincinnati is that the art museum is free. It is a world-renowned museum, and through [sponsors] has free admission,” Stanyard said.
In addition to the Cincinnati Art Museum, the American Sign Museum is a fan-favorite among people.
The American Sign Museum aims to promote the history of American signage through the preservation and restoration of signs spanning almost 100 years. Founded by Tod Swormstedt in 1999, the museum quickly outgrew its temporary home in another arts center as the collection grew. In 2012, the museum found its permanent home in Camp Washington.
“My favorite place [to see art] is the Sign Museum because of the picture opportunities. You can get so many really great pictures,” Losekamp (11) said.
The Contemporary Arts Center is another popular art museum here in the Tri-State area.
“The Contemporary Arts Center has one rule: the artist must be alive and currently making art,” Broxterman said.
Next, the Taft Museum of Art is one of the most popular art museums in Cincinnati.
“The Taft Museum is a private collection, and those people decided to leave their house and artwork,” Broxterman said.
Built around 1820, the Taft historic house was purchased in 1830 by art patron Nicholas Longworth. Longworth hired Robert S. Duncanson to paint 8 landscape murals in the entry hall. These paintings have since been recognized as the most important pre-Civil War murals in the United States. In 1927, Anna Taft gifted the house and her collection of 530 works to the people and city of Cincinnati.
Finally, the most notable museum in Cincinnati is the Cincinnati Museum Center and Union Terminal.
Union Terminal—a historic Art Deco train station and National Historic Landmark—is home to the largest half dome in the western hemisphere, as well as the inspiration for the Hall of Justice in DC Comics.
Constructed by Winold Reiss, the mural on the half dome is made of glass mosaic tiles. One side of the mural depicts the history of the United States, and the other side depicts the history of Cincinnati. In Reiss’s work, he illustrated several real-life figures, including a local engineer, a Union Terminal construction worker, Reiss’s brother, and three Blackfoot Native Americans.
“[Union Terminal is] so fabulously, artistically, skillfully done. It is historically brilliant and so original, most people when they look at it don’t realize that it was made of little tiny pieces,” Broxterman said.
All in all, the art around Cincinnati is incredibly diverse, as proven by the numerous world-renowned museums. While some may view art as boring or simply slapping paint on a canvas, art tells stories. It tells stories of the past, preserving history and culture. In this instance, art is preserving the history and culture of Cincinnati.
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