Category: Arts & Entertainment

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Arts & Entertainment News

AIGA Liquid Courage offers love to Over the Rhine

As part of its monthly happy hour series, the AIGA Cincinnati chapter, a collaborative network for creatives in the design, marketing and advertising industry, is hosting Liquid Courage: the Love Edition on Friday, February 11 at YES Studio in Over-the-Rhine.

From 6-11pm, the gallery will be open with craft cocktails by Molly Wellmann, a DJ spinning tunes, and some Do It Yourself valentine screen-printing. Attendees will be encouraged to make Valentines for the places they love downtown and in OTR, which will be hand delivered to the owners on February 14th.

Many AIGA members may be familiar with downtown, but organizer LeAnne Wagner was interested in stretching her fellow members’ boundaries. “Part of the intention behind the event is get our members (who may not often come to OTR) up to Main Street and create some love and awareness for all the awesome things going on downtown,” she explained.”Main Street is home to a lot of new galleries and we want to help support that community and maybe change some perceptions about the neighborhood. ”

Choosing the YES Gallery as a venue was a no brainer for Wagner. “We knew YES Gallery was a great venue and they do a lot of fun events like Pinata Parties and “giant” game night, so we figured they’d be game for hosting our AIGA Valentine’s Party.” She hopes that attendees will tap into their creative spirit and show OTR some love, as well as have fun with learning to screen print. T-shirts and canvas bags will be available to purchase for aspiring screenprinters.

The first hour of the party, from 6-7, will be the 2011 mentoring kick-off with a speed matching session for mentors and mentees.

$10 ($5 for student members) at the door covers screenprinting, Valentine’s supplies, and all the booty shaking you can throw down. Cocktails and beer are open bar. If you’re still looking for love after the party, good times and live music will continue at MOTR Pub just down the street. Buy your tickets online.

The AIGA Liquid Courage: Love party is Friday, February 11 from 6-11 pm at the YES Gallery, located at 1417 Main Street in historic Over-the-Rhine.

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Arts & Entertainment News

Vanishing Cincinnati exhibit opens at The Betts House this weekend

The Betts House, one of Cincinnati’s best kept secrets, has a new exhibit opening this weekend featuring over twenty drawings by the husband and wife team of Barbra and David Day. Vanishing Cincinnati includes drawings that depict Cincinnati’s urban landscape from the mid 1800’s to the  mid 1900’s. They feature both very familiar landmarks such as Findlay Market and the Roebling Suspension Bridge as well as landmarks that have been lost as time moved on including the Albee Theater and the Bus Depot.

The Days are design consultants that work in Pendelton, and are fourth and fifth generation Cincinnatians that have taken many projects on around the city. Some of their work around the city has included the architectural restoration of the historic Enquirer building on Vine Street, the Over-the-Rhine Gateway Monument at Liberty Street and Reading Road, and the mosaic in the market house at Findlay Market which was installed to celebrate its 150th year of operation.

In interviews, David Day has said that through the multiple generations of his family there has been a David Day shopping at Findlay Market since the end of the Civil War. Clearly he and his wife have a passion and deep understanding of Cincinnati which should come through loud and clear in their drawings.

The partnership with The Betts House is really a match made in heaven as The Betts House has deep historical connections as well. Not only is it the oldest residential building in the Cincinnati basin, it is also the oldest brick house in the state of Ohio.

Built in 1804 as a part of the Betts Family Farm (a 111 acre piece of land that makes up today’s West End neighborhood), the Betts House is currently used as a gallery hosting various art projects through the year, there were five generations of the Betts family that called the house on Clark Street home and it basically sits unchanged today, after some restoration of course. The house and the exhibits are privatley funded through grants and sponsorships with donations and memberships available for individuals as well.

Vanishing Cincinnati, made possible by a grant from ArtsWave, will open this Friday, February 11 with a reception starting at 5pm and run through April 23. The Betts House is otherwise open Tuesday through Thursday from 11am to 2pm, and on the second and fourth Saturday each month from 12pm to 5pm.  Admission for Vanishing Cincinnati is just $2.

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Arts & Entertainment News

‘Aliens With Extraordinary Skills’ humorously grapples with immigration and love

L-R: Beth Harris as INS 1, Liz Vosmeier as Nadia, and MJ Jurgensen as INS 2. Photo by Deogracias Lerma.
Left to Right: Beth Harris, Liz Vosmeier, and MJ Jurgensen.

Over-the-Rhine’s Know Theatre opened its third production of the season on January 29.  Aliens With Extraordinary Skills, a dark comedy, tells the story of two Moldovan immigrants to the United States. As they struggle to find work, two immigration agents continually interfere, making their adjustment process that much harder.

While living and working in New York City, the immigrants, named Nadia (Liz Vosmeier) and Borat (Matthew Johnson) separately meet Lupita (Kaitlin Becker), who finds herself involved in the immigrants’ lives more than she ever imagined.

Despite the propensity for a play about immigration to be overly serious, Saviana Stanescu’s Aliens With Extraordinary Skills masterfully uses situational and physical humor to bring levity.

“Saviana Stanescu’s writing is what drew me to this show,” says director Eric Vosmeier. “Her manner of storytelling has an interesting and unique voice. She manages to find lighthearted commend in the struggle of trying to survive everday life as an illegal immigrant in a big city.”

Aliens With Extraordinary Skills runs now through February 26. For a full listing of showtimes or to purchase tickets, visit the Know Theater website or call the box office at (513) 300-5669.  All tickets to all Know Theatre productions this season are $12 in advance or $15 on the week of the performance, beginning Monday at noon. Flexible subscriptions are also available for $48.

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Freedom Center to debut new iPhone app tour this weekend

Cincinnati has historically served as a city that stood for freedom. It was a place of freedom to black slaves fleeing the south and heading north for a free life and the pursuit of that all elusive American Dream. The Ohio River was all that separated these individuals from a new life.

Today, on the Cincinnati riverfront of the Ohio River is the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (NURFC). The NURFC highlights this prolific journey and covers issues of slavery and human trafficking occurring today around the world. Since it opened in 2002, the NURFC has served as a regional and national destination for human rights issues and the education of thousands one of the most significant domestic migrations to have ever occurred in the United States.

New to the museum this weekend will be the debut of an iPod tour that will take visitors on an interactive experience that enhances exhibits, photographs and stories shared at the NURFC.

“Visitors will be able to hear accounts of enslaved people, Underground Railroad conductors, founding fathers, and even slave traders, while viewing additional photographs, videos, and maps on the iPod screen that will further bring to life the poignant and powerful story that is the struggle for freedom,” explained NURFC marketing and communications manager Jamie Glavic.

The iPod tour is narrated by Judy Richardson and was developed by Boston-based Audissey Media in conjunction with Richard Cooper at the NURFC to ensure accuracy and overall quality. The iPod tour is now available on iPod’s app store, and will begin this weekend at the museum located in downtown Cincinnati (map).  Purchase or preview the new app online.

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Arts & Entertainment News

Downtown Cincinnati as a skate park

Downtown Cincinnati is viewed by most as a place of business, entertainment, or residence. People live or visit downtown as the central destination for the 2.1 million-person region. There are others that use the city center for something a bit different, and in this case Daniel Stephens uses it as his personal skate park.

There is no skate park in within close proximity of downtown, so skate boarders and others are left to improvise with the urban landscape surrounding them. In this video, entitled Cincinnati A.M., Stephens takes advantage of narrow alleys, busy city streets, an odd concrete-heavy park near 5th and Elm streets where skate boarders often congregate, parking lots and the rear of buildings.

The video was produced and edited by Maxwell White.