Impact Stories
Your gift to the ArtsWave annual campaign makes a real difference to our community.
Over 100 organizations serve the community with music, visual art, dance, theatre, festivals, museums and more - creating a ripple effect of benefits for everyone in the region.
For example...
For seven years, Cincinnati Opera’s “Opera Goes to Church” program has brought together dynamic congregational choirs, acclaimed international opera artists, and top local jazz musicians for free community concerts. This year, the program expands to include “Opera Goes to Temple” in partnership with Rockdale Temple in Amberley Village.
A Hip-Hop youth center located in the heart of Over-the-Rhine, Elementz offers inner city youth, ages 14 to 24, a chance to “tell their stories” using their creativity and the forms of Hip-Hop culture: music, dance, beat-making, DJ-ing, poetry/rap, and visual art. Students receive advanced instruction, performance opportunities, and a safe, positive place to learn leadership skills and build community.
From its new location in Roselawn, Bi-Okoto Cultural Institute offers classes in African dance, drumming, language and even cooking for youth and adults. Bi-Okoto performed and taught in over 100 regional schools this past year, in many cases providing students with their very first professional experience of African culture.
Know Theatre of Cincinnati is the producer of the annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival which presents over 150 performances in 12 days in over a dozen venues each year, drawing over 7,700 people to Over-the-Rhine and Downtown Cincinnati in 2012 alone.
To celebrate its 80th anniversary, the Taft Museum of Art has installed 80 framed reproductions in outdoor spaces throughout the region. The Taft partnered with community arts centers, libraries, city and county parks, and local businesses to help select the installation sites and engage the public with fun, free events.
Visionaries and Voices now supports more than 130 artists with disabilities in two studios, presents major exhibits in the V&V Northside Gallery and Corner Gallery, conducts outreach services for artists unable to attend the studios, provides job coaching for artists employed outside the studios and is working with 22 of the most promising artists to build professional portfolios and link them to galleries all over the United States.
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s professional musicians not only create extraordinary music heard all over the world, but also contribute to the success of over 65 other musical and educational institutions in our region from Cincinnati Opera and Cincinnati Ballet to chamber ensembles to community orchestras.
The Kennedy Heights Arts Center was created in 2003 and was run entirely by community volunteers until 2008. The Center is renovating a 32,000 square foot Kroger building into a new cultural center due to the success of neighbors in Pleasant Ridge, Silverton, and Kennedy Heights coming together, creating a “catalytic effect” on the surrounding neighborhood.
The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati reaches almost 195,000 children each year through touring and local performances all over the tri-state. Attending shows together, families grow closer and create lasting traditions that span generations.
The Carnegie Center for Visual and Performing Arts will provide over 17,000 hours of arts education in local Covington schools next year. The Carnegie is gathering data to show how arts instruction and integration improves literacy and helps schools succeed.
View more examples of the impact of the arts.
See a list and map of all the great arts organizations supported by ArtsWave.