Tag Archives: museums

Exploring ‘Creative Unity’ with the Taft ARC Program

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The Taft Museum of Art’s Artists Reaching Classrooms (ARC) program immerses high school art students in Cincinnati’s visual arts community, connecting them with artistic practices, exhibitions, marketing strategies, and careers in the arts. This semester, Drawing and Printmaking students are participating in the program, which includes one museum visit, four classroom visits, and culminates in a winter exhibition at the Taft.

As part of ARC, students are collaborating with Adoria L. Maxberry, a Cincinnati-based visual and performance artist, educator, designer, and founder of Most OutGROWing LLC. Guided by a belief in the power of creativity for personal and collective growth, Adoria creates immersive experiences that blend education, reflection, and community. Her work spans murals, fiber arts, illustration, and mixed media, often embedding hidden phrases and personal stories. She has led significant public projects, including Revolutionary Recipes: The Flavors of a Black Woman Amplified, and partners with organizations like ArtWorks. Adoria also teaches in schools, performs as a lead puppeteer and voice actress on the Emmy-winning children’s series Paige’s Place, and was recognized as a Black is Excellence: Unsung Hometown Hero by the City of Cincinnati in 2022. Through ARC, she will guide students in creating a large-scale collaborative artwork for the Taft exhibition.

During their recent museum visit, students toured the galleries and worked with Laura Kilian Jaster, Senior Manager of Learning and Outreach at the Taft. In the studio, they explored Creative Unity by making works representing their individual identities, then contributing to classmates’ pieces to reflect the diversity of the group. For many, it was their first time experiencing the Taft Museum of Art, a true community treasure.

OHHS Art and Design Student Awarded 2nd Place at the Taft Museum of Art’s ARC Exhibition!

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OHHS Art and Design students enrolled in Schorsch’s Drawing and Printmaking class had the opportunity to participate in the ARC program this year. The Taft Museum of Art’s Artists Reaching Classrooms (ARC) offers an immersive educational experience to Greater Cincinnati high school students that includes a range of activities, including museum visits, classroom sessions with professional artists, and studio tours.

Throughout the first semester, students had the opportunity to work alongside mentoring with artist Cedric Cox as they built an understanding of artists, art, and society, working artists’ methods, exploration of various careers in the arts and culture sector, and appreciation for the Taft Museum of Art as a local resource with a rich history.

The experiences culminate in the creation of original artworks, and one collaborative piece, for a juried exhibition at the Pendleton Arts Center Annex Gallery. Students were challenged to consider their interpretation of “The Beauty Within” and “Sacred Spaces” and generated works that demonstrate their approach to the term after brainstorming, project planning, and setting up their own resource images.

The Exhibition awards took place on March 8th, 2025 at The Annex Gallery, showcased the work of students from Aiken, McNicholas, Oak Hills, Princeton, School for the Creative and Performing Arts, Spencer School for the Gifted and Exceptional Students, Walnut Hills, and Western Hills High Schools. At the opening reception, Aurora Studenka received the Award for the Best in Show from OHHS and Baylee Moorman took home the 2nd place award!

OHLSD Art and Design Alumni and Teachers Exhibit in “Assemblage: A Juried Exhibition” at MSJU

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Studio San Giuseppe Gallery recently invited area artists, art educators, college students, and MSJ alumni to submit assemblage, found object sculpture, and/or wall mounted artworks for a juried exhibition. Cincinnati artists Michael Thompson and Jim Tucker adjudicated and curated the exhibit from the submissions.

Michael Thompson is a multimedia artist, designer, and poet. He takes on the role of artist as archivist; collecting things, spaces, and histories to add to his art and life. Michael has held positions as Artist-in-Residence at The Cincinnati Art Museum and The Contemporary Arts Center. His practice utilizes painting, sculpture, poetry, and installation as he explores creative empathy, human ecology, and nuance within the black experience. Michael recently received ArtsWave’s Truth and Reconciliation Grant for his project, “Sanctuaries” which gives insight into the sacred spaces of BIPOC creatives as a manner of combatting a trauma-focused narrative within media and culture.

Jim Tucker has worked with ArtWorks, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Art Academy of Cincinnati, the Contemporary Arts Center, and the Cincinnati Parks Foundation. As a muralist, he has produced and painted more than 20 murals, created in collaboration with ArtWorks. Jim has held the position of co-artist-in-residence for the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Rosenthal Education Center, where he co-created with Michael Thompson an interactive installation enjoyed by more than 50,000 museum visitors. Along with his fine art and mural practices, Jim works as an Illustrator and commercial artist. He uses his bold, dynamic style and love of storytelling to bring his client’s ideas to life.  These include Arizona State University, the Western & Southern Tennis Tournament, BrewDog USA, and several other Ohio-based breweries. 

Current and former OHLSD Art and Design teachers were selected to participate in the exhibition alongside several alumni!

OHHS Alumni exhibiting include:
Kylee Adams
Dahlia Baer

OHHS and MSJU Alumni and New Art Teacher:
Alyssa McRoberts

Retired OHLSD Art and Design Teacher exhibiting include:
Reyne Davis
Sylvia Dick
Sherry Middendorf-Fuller
Jan Thomas

Current OHHS Art and Design Teacher:
Jamie Schorsch

The exhibition will run January 17th – February 12th, 2025 in Studio San Giuseppe Art Gallery at Mount St. Joseph University. An opening gallery reception will take place on January 26th, 2025 from 4:00-6:00 pm.

OHHS AP Art and Design Students and Visiting Artist Rachel Linneman

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Artist Rachel Linneman recently visited the AP Art and Design students for an interactive workshop as a part of this year’s Contemporary Arts Center School Outreach Program. The CAC SOP offers students from grades 2 through 12 a comprehensive, immersive experience with contemporary art. Running from September through May, this year-long program includes an in-school orientation, two guided tours of CAC exhibitions, a classroom project tied to the exhibition led by a local artist, and a spring visit to an artist’s studio. Program docents work with the same class throughout the year, fostering continuity and rapport with the students. Many docents have developed long-standing relationships with the schools and teachers they support, providing consistent guidance and engagement year after year.

Rachel Linnemann is an Appalachian artist teaching at the University of Cincinnati where she received her Master’s in Fine Art in 2021. She graduated from Northern Kentucky University in 2012 with a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art and a minor in Psychology. Linnemann was chosen for the Revealed early career artist series for the Sculpture Center and will have a 2024 solo show. She has worked as a professional Artist, Educator, and Preparator for various organizations such as the Cincinnati Art Museum (OH), Bucknell University (PA), Artworks Cincinnati (OH), and Applied Imagination (KY). Linnemann recently completed a residency with the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio where she exhibited for the show Emerge. Her work has been shown in Ohio, Michigan, Greece, Louisiana, Indiana, Maryland, and Kentucky. She works across media to develop a language surrounding mental health, growth, resilience, and joy.

Linnemann is a found objects artist, utilizing recognizable objects of labor and femininity to celebrate her Appalachian ancestors. Reflecting on her upbringing, she is examining generational trauma and generational knowledge and its connection to labor. She often heard stories of hardship partnered with stories of gratitude and strength. There was an understanding of the darkness of the world balanced with the gratitude for the present moment and an emphasis on knowledge being protection from the past. Like a butterfly perched on barbed wire, one a symbol of freedom and something delicate, another a symbol of strength and oppression, Linnemann’s memories are a balance of opposition.

During the workshop, students explored concept of identity through individual collages and selected, and archived, found objects of personal significance in the creation of a collaborative ‘community pie’ piece. The idea of constructing multiple views of the self, and components that make up community, created connection to the Barbara Probst exhibition at the CAC, ‘Subjective Evidence’, that focused on multiple vantage points capturing a single scene and moment in time. Throughout the year, students will create artworks inspired by their experiences with the CAC SOP and will participate in an exhibition in the Spring of 2025.

Exploring ‘The Beauty Within’ and ‘Sacred Spaces’ with the Taft ARC Program

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The Taft Museum of Art’s Artists Reaching Classrooms program (ARC) immerses high school art students in Cincinnati’s visual arts community, artistic practices, exhibitions, and marketing strategies while exposing them to careers in the arts. This year, Drawing and Printmaking students are participating in this amazing program which consists of 1 museum visit and 4 classroom visits during the 1st semester, culminating in an exhibition at the Annex Gallery in the winter. This year, students will be working alongside Cedric Michael Cox to experience the practices of a professional artist firsthand. Cedric will also lead students in the creation of a collaborative artwork, and an individual piece, for the Annex Gallery exhibition.

Cedric Michael Cox is best known for his paintings and drawings that merge surrealism and representational abstraction. As a student at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP), Cox was awarded a fellowship to study at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. After receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting in 1999, he began to exhibit regionally and nationally. In addition to his work being in corporate collections, Cox has executed several large murals in various public and private schools in The Cincinnati Region. Cox’s past exhibitions include The Contemporary Arts Center of Cincinnati, The Weston Art Gallery, The Columbus Art Museum, the Dayton Art Institute, Five Myles Gallery in Brooklyn, the Museum of Science and Industry and Gallery Guichard in Chicago, and The Taft Museum of Art. In 2019, Cox’s work was exhibited at the 21c Museum Hotel in Cincinnati; in 2020, he had a solo exhibition at James Ratliff Gallery in Sedona, Arizona. A 20-year retrospective exhibition was created for Caza Sikes Gallery, along with a commissioned body of work for the Kinley Hotel Cincinnati in 2020. In 2021, a series of 64 paintings were installed for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. In 2022, Cox created work in the Metro Dayton Library west branch; and this past summer, he executed four new murals for the community of Avondale that stand as monuments to the healing spirit of joy and community pride.

The Drawing and Printmaking students recently visited the Taft Museum of Art where they engaged in docent-led tours of the galleries and worked alongside Cedric in the studio. Students synthesized Cedric’s approach in generating the composition for the collaborative piece the classes are painting together and created individual designs based upon the abstraction of their initials. This was the first time that most of the students had ever visited the community treasure that is the Taft Museum of Art!