In Our Neighborhood

Kennedy Heights Art Center Cincinnati, OH September 2008 culminating exhibition in the center galleries October 11- November 8, 2008

www.kennedyarts.com

Using the concept of a neighborhood as being multi-centered, many layered and focusing on bringing contemporary personal experience together with historical experience this residency began the day of Hurricane Ike's devastating winds. The aftermath of downed mature trees and resulting loss of power for much of our area (lasting over a week for many) created a historical context for our exploration into the significance of place.

The resulting exhibition included:

Drawings of the core group. Made of drawing ink applied with a brush on heavy paper. Individual adults in the core group used their memories and thoughts about the neighborhood of Kennedy Heights as inspiration for their work.

Under Our Canopy- Made by students at Woodford Paidea School, a Cincinnati Public elementary school not too far from the center, inspired by the importance of trees to our neighborhood's residents. Watercolor, crayon, and black marker over photocopied images of the leaves of a mature catalpa tree on the school's campus. Combined with enlarged images of a tiny aster from the garden at the art center. Flower and leaf images were given wire stems and attached to a large expanse of white theatrical netting –which was suspended from the ceiling in a gallery at the art center.

In Our Flower Garden- residents of G Residents of the Margaret Bullock Geier Apartments , an independent living facility for adults with developmental disabilities – located less than 2 blocks from the center, used drawing ink (applied with a brush) on enlarged gessoed maps of the neighborhood to create a lush colorful garden of flowers. This was inspired by the discovery during our research that Kennedy Heights was known as the “Garden Spot of Hamilton County”.

Our Stories

Middle school students and teachers who participated in the center's summer art camp came back to interview elders from the community. Recordings of the interviews were part of the final exhibition. I took close up photos of the elders' hands holding a photograph or other item that had significance for them about the community or their place in the community.

In Our Living Room –Residents brought in a large assortment of family photographs that filled the shelves on either end of the center's beautifully restored living room- surrounding the slide show projection of In Our Neighborhood.

In Our Neighborhood- slide show of text and images- neighbors holding objects, photos or other items- that express an important neighborhood memory- combined with historical images of the area- projected as the center piece of installation: In Our Living Room

This slide show is available at right.

*Note: historical photograph provided by Arthur Glos Pleasant Ridge History Collection, Courtesy of Pleasant Ridge Branch Library, Cincinnati, OH


In Our Neighborhood Detail

In Our Neighborhood final installation

In Our Neighborhood *

In Our Neighborhood picture of a brick

In Our Neighborhood Lashawn's train

In Our Neighborhood neighborhood photograph

In Our Neighborhood opening image

In Our Neighborhood decorated map

In Our Neighborhood Final Installation detail

In Our Neighborhood canopy detail

In Our Neighborhood exhibition

View the In Our Neighborhood SlideShow

(This is a large file and may take a while to load, so please be patient and enjoy the show)

 

 

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