If you’re a regular urbanOut reader, you can attest to my love for Cincinnati. As I have said on here before, I think the city is one of the two most underrated cities in the United States (Pittsburgh being the other, although these days, I think the secret might be out on that one.) Aside from the fabulous geography and architecture, one of the main reasons I rave about and crave for Cincinnati is its neighborhood-oriented built form and mindset. Each city neighborhood is unique and interesting in its own right, practically all featuring a walkable neighborhood business district with a flavor their own. Recently, the city has embarked on initiatives and funded specific programs that reinforce this neighborhood mentality. One such program is MuralWorks, fueled by Artworks.
Founded in 1996, ArtWorks is a non-profit arts organization that connects local artists of varying ages with opportunities in the arts through inspiring apprenticeships/internships, community partnerships, and public art. Under the ArtWorks umbrella, MuralWorks has become a very successful and popular program. For those that don’t know, MuralWorks brings vibrant and exciting works of art to Cincinnati, Newport, and Covington, with aspirations of bringing a mural to every one of Cincinnati’s 52 neighborhoods as well as Northern Kentucky. The organization employs teenage and professional artists as well as community members and activists to create murals that speak to each neighborhood’s history, imagination, and future all the while acting as powerful images of neighborhood transformation, civic pride, and identity. To get a mural in a community, a neighborhood association or group has to apply to ArtWorks – a seemingly easy process that has allowed 28 murals to be created since 2007.
Needless to say, I am a huge fan of the program and think it has done great things for community level activity, fostered civic pride in places as diverse as South Cumminsville to Oakley, and enhanced each neighborhood’s unique cultural identity. Plus, these murals are top-notch, high quality, professional works of art that beautify each neighborhood while adding character to otherwise blank walls and surfaces. Seeing the successes of these murals and the attention they bring, private institutions such as the Know Theatre have begun creating murals on their properties, something that has further enhanced specific neighborhoods by effectively creating outdoor art galleries for anyone to see at anytime.
Ultimately, I praise MuralWorks for its neighborhood focus and its ability to reinforce the idea of Cincinnati as a place of neighborhoods, each identifiable and each a community center. This feature continues to be unique and special in a country full of places and spaces that have become generic, monotonous and unidentifiable. The city needs more programs like MuralWorks that reinforces the city’s proud neighborhood focus. If this is done, Cincinnati’s health and vitality will strengthen and the neighborhoods can continue to leverage their biggest assets: neighborhoods that are walkable, compact, community oriented, unique, full of life, and full of murals.
Below is a sample of murals recently installed across the city. My favorite: Camp Washington’s ‘Campy Washington.’ How…progressive and wonderfully funny. I mean come on, putting President Washington in drag – too good to be true. (And Bill Cunningham fans, no, the mural is not a racial black v. white thing, it’s a gay thing. Let it go.)
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