Jan
28
Meet Our Alumni Council President

Meet Our Alumni Council President, Christine Carli

Christine Carli pictured with Isabel Uria (BFA 2008)

“The first time I walked through the doors of the Art Academy, I knew I was home. Today, it is a great privilege for me to serve as President of the AAC Alumni Council, and I hope to make the Art Academy a home base of support, camaraderie, and inspiration for all our Alums—both near and far. In the coming year, we are planning new ways for our alumni community to re-engage with Art Academy and with one another. We envision an Alumni Council that connects, promotes, and supplies opportunities for all. We want to hear from you, and more importantly, we want you to know that you will always have a home here in Cincinnati. Stay tuned, be well, and make art!” 

Christine Carli, 2008 Alumnus

 

Christine currently works as an independent communications specialist, combining her design skills with her love of writing to create meaningful online content, speeches, and corporate communications. Formerly, Christine worked as the Director of Communications for ArtWorks. The Art Academy has played an integral role in her career path from the very beginning. She landed her first job in book marketing at F&W Publications based on the skills she learned from the Art Academy’s community education classes. She later enrolled full-time at the Art Academy to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Communication Design. Christine also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Media Arts with a minor in Spanish Literature from the University of Arizona.

Christine graduated from the AAC in 2008 with a degree in visual communication design. Christine has also been a docent at Cincinnati Art Museum for 20 years now! In her free time, Christine enjoys making ceramics and dabbling in printmaking.   

The Alumni Association is thrilled to have such a strong, determined woman to lead us in this next chapter. We look forward to all that Christine will do for the Alumni, AAC, and the community! 

Please join us in welcoming Christine as our Alumni President by sending congratulations and hello to alumni@artacademy.edu.  

 

Jan
19
Paul Stephens Retires after 52 Years

It’s Really Time to Diddy-Bop: Paul Stephens Retires after 52 Years

A Letter from Denise Watson

Dear Paul,

While I was likely watching That Girl, Bewitched, and Jeopardy with my mother in Corpus Christi, Texas, you were beginning your work at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. It was July 7, 1969. I followed 35 years later. 

As I was about to begin working as the Eden Park Office Administrator in 2004, Nancy Glier said “You are going to love Paul.” How right she was. I met a veteran of the United States Navy, who ran and oversaw massive ship engine control rooms – places I didn’t even know existed before you explained to me in detail all the steering gears, calibrators, air pressure valves, water cooling pumps, cylinders, gaskets, reverse start switches, and stringent checks and balances necessary to power a ship. In describing all those precision-dependent operations, you never mentioned the one key factor that made your ship engine control rooms work like clockwork – a meticulous, methodical, and mathematical mind that makes the difference between sinking and sailing.

Your descriptions helped me hear and see those levers, controls, machines, and valves, and I helped you imagine them all being painted various shades of pink and lilac. I found your funny bone and your ticklish spot, and I found in you someone whose trust and integrity are iron-clad. Period. Our talks have shaped much of my experience of the Art Academy. The halls and walls will not be the same without your voice, your laugh, and your eyes, which have seen everything – including Shonny, a tiny doll you suddenly found resting on your shoulder when I introduced you two.

Your dreams, stories, warnings, advice, poker-face jokes, and quiet observations will be with me for a long time. I will miss our conversations about your fascination with the history of Egypt and your desire to understand as much as possible about falling pins, tumblers, bolts, codes, and fake key holes after learning about Egypt’s highly complex wooden locks. Your enthusiasm ignited your passion and led to your becoming a locksmith and inventing some of your own locks – especially headlocks you’ve had to administer to thugs worthy of such treatment.

That aggressive jeepney driver who intentionally drove you off route into harm’s way in the Philippines learned a life lesson as he watched you pound the faces off of four fools who thought they were going to kill an American sailor traveling solo. What did he expect? You had to fight for your life, and I am so glad you did.

Thank you, Paul, for giving me a view into your dreams and your fears and for entrusting me with your gentle tears along the way. You are one of the most sweet-tempered people I know, and I will miss you.

When we celebrated your 50th Anniversary in 2019 – at that time one third of the history of the Art Academy – several AAC people thought it was your retirement party. Thank you for giving us two more years. Over these last 52 years, students, alumni, staff, and faculty have cherished you, and now it is hard to say goodbye. It doesn’t seem real. We all wish you the very best.

Love,
Denise

Jan
15
Celebrating a Community Hero at the Art Academy
AAC Prof Lindsey Whittle working at a sewing machine.
AAC Professor, Lindsey Whittle working on a Hero Flag

Celebrating a Community Hero at the Art Academy

Looking back on a less-than-stellar 2020, the Art Academy’s Academic Dean Paige Williams can identify at least one bright spot. In the middle of team-teaching a senior thesis class last semester, she received an unexpected honor.

“We were interviewing [Lindsey Whittle] for our class—as an alum and an active artist in the community—and at the end of the interview [co-teacher Matt Hart] asked Lindsey if she had any recent projects she was excited about…”

So Whittle began describing her work as a Lead Artist for the local nonprofit ArtWorks, where she guides groups of paid Youth Apprentices in making art for the community. In the spring, they sewed face masks for essential workers, and over the summer they made personalized flags for one-hundred locally-nominated Community Heroes across Greater Cincinnati.

It was at this point that Whittle, who was being interviewed remotely, burst through the classroom door to present Williams with a Hero Flag of her own making, designed to honor Williams’ above-and-beyond contributions to the Art Academy over the past 30 years. She was surprised and blown away.

“She is always present for anyone who needs her at the Art Academy,” says Whittle, explaining her nomination of Williams. “And I feel like she just went really above and beyond during the pandemic […] She never asks credit for it, or asks for anybody to notice. She just naturally steps up and supports people.”

Williams stepped up, for example, to help coordinate the countless logistics involved in keeping a school running safely during a pandemic. This meant establishing new systems, regulations and room sign-ups; installing touchless toilet flushers and water filters; and acquiring all the necessary PPE.

“We formed a COVID task force, and we meet every week. And every decision we make has to be reconsidered and can change at any minute,” says Williams, admitting to some sleepless nights. “The reason it worked [last semester] was because students followed the guidelines […] I’m really proud of them. They were awesome.”

 

 

 

Williams’ respect for students comes through in her unofficial status as “Art Mom” and ally, which Whittle highlights on her Hero Flag. The flag’s design also reflects her love of painting, jogging, and keeping a sketchbook.

“I have this thing where I’m obsessed with paint chips from the paint store,” Williams adds, explaining the flag’s yellow paint-chip backdrop with embroidered color names. Then there’s the shimmering silver grid—a nod to her 2018 mylar installation at the Carnegie.

 

“I have just always looked up to Paige as an artist and teacher ever since I was a student there,” sums up Whittle (AAC ’07), who is now an AAC faculty member, teaching classes in Garment Design and Performance Art.

The Community Hero Flags were installed on Central Parkway, and two Art Academy students were among the apprentices who made them. Both LaDe Richardson and Lauren Fredrickson were recognized by ArtWorks for exceptional work, and Richardson was designated Top Apprentice for 2020.

“I feel like this [past] year gave us a lot of opportunity to see things in people that maybe cause us to lose hope… to stop believing in people a little,” says Whittle. “[But] ArtWorks was like ‘no, there’s still a lot of people that we should be inspired by.’”

(with special thanks to the National Flag Company for supply donations)

Jan
14
Alumni Mentorship Pilot Program

Alumni Mentorship Pilot Program

 

The Alumni Mentorship Pilot Program is a pilot program created by Professional Development and the Alumni Coordinator to help engage students who are in the final steps of their programs with alumni.  Our goal is to create connections between students and alumni so that they can help mentor, foster growth, ideas, and be there for students about to graduate and enter the ‘real world’.  With the tools and experience of alumni who have been through the BFA, MAE, and associate programs at AAC, as well as navigating life after art school, we hope that this can be a guiding light to those who are ready to move on to this next stage of life and their careers.  

This pilot program will be implemented in 2020/2021, with the intention to grow this program to be a part of an overarching mentorship program that includes both peer-to-peer and alumni mentorship and spans the entire AAC student and alumni experience.

The AAC Mentorship Program is designed to:

  • Provide an opportunity for incoming students to make an immediate connection with a Peer Mentor who can provide them with a full picture of life at the AAC
  • Cultivate community and support within the AAC
  • Offer leadership opportunities for Peer Mentors
  • Create connections between students and alumni so that alumni may help mentor, foster growth, and support students as they prepare to graduate and enter the ‘real world’
  • Offer leadership opportunities for Alumni Mentors

Get Involved

The Alumni Mentorship Pilot Program is currently looking for Alumni who are interested in becoming a mentor this year, starting February 1st.  If you can donate 1-2 hours per month from February-May please email our Alumni Coordinator, Caroline Bell, at caroline.bell@artacademy.edu.

Dec
16
AAC Alumni Coordinator

The Alumni Coordinator is a vital role to the Art Academy of Cincinnati (AAC). Fostering an environment of success and support reflective of the AAC’s mission and vision by working with the AAC Alumni Council. As Alumni Coordinator will represent the AAC in our community and promote new and existing alumni policies and programs. The Alumni Coordinator will work with the Alumni Council in developing, coordinating, and evaluating programs and projects that promote alumni relations. The Alumni Coordinator will also be facilitating and overseeing any alumni related event or fundraiser.

Meet Caroline Bell

Hello, my name is Caroline Bell, I am a recent graduate of the AAC, a 2020 pandemic grad! My major was in Photography with a Minor in Art History. I have a passion for education and creation, my future goal is to get my MFA and become a professor, so that I can help foster the growth of new artists! When not working, you will find me editing film scans, creating in my studio, enjoying the great outdoors, or hanging out with one or all 3 of my cats!

Nov
18
AAC Alum Print with Ohio Prison Arts Connection

Pull Club Studio

Pull Club Studio (PCS) is a printmaking and design studio made up of Chelsey Hughes (AAC ’10), Amy Scarpello (AAC ’10), and Linda Winder (AAC ’09.) PCS was formed in 2015. Pull Club focuses on textile and paper rint goods, with screenprinting as the central process.  

Learn More

Q & A with Pull Club Studio 

Pull Club Studio recently collaborated with the Ohio Prison Arts Connection (OPAC). They shared their knowledge of printmaking with a group of women at the Art Academy of Cincinnati print media classrooms.
 
Have you taught classes before?
Yes! We love teaching classes and sharing print magic. In the past we have lead classes at the American Sign Museum, Columbia Tusculum Center for the Arts.
 
How did Pull Club Studio get involved with OPAC?
We were introduced to OPAC through Wave Pool who recommended us for printing. We were able to build out a larger program to support artists creating posters in a project around awareness about returned citizens and facts about incarceration. This is what led to the class. 
 
Why is OPAC important?
The Ohio Prison Arts Connections supports individuals who are impacted by the incarceration system in Ohio by cultivating community and connecting individuals with programs that provide arts education, training, and other resources. We along with OPAC believe in the transformative power of art and support greater access to the arts for those who are incarcerated. OPAC uses the arts to humanized individuals impacted by the justice system. As artists, we know that being able to express oneself in this way is important to overall health and well-being. 
 
What are you teaching the students?
With this class, we were working to prepare artists designing posters that we will be screen printing. Our aim was to introduce the artists to the screen printing process so they could design with an understanding of how the works would be produced. Participants were able to experience creating a two-layer hand-blocked print over the four-hour class. We also share tips and tricks for designing for print including color economy and the rules of visual hierarchy. 
 
How will the students be able to translate these new skills into real life? 
Did you have a favorite moment from the first class? We always love seeing the process click once we get to the hands-on part. Some students were confused about what would print and what wouldn’t if they were drawing the positive or negative. Once we had them start filling in the screens and then seeing them pull the second layers they detailed we could see the “Aha” moment. This is always satisfying.
 
Will you be teaching and additional classes with OPAC?
We hope to stay connected with the organization! This is the only class we are leading with them for now but is part of a larger project we are working on with them. Since the class the artists have been working to create individual poster designs that we will print this winter as 3 – 4 color full size posters. The works will be on display in Columbus in spring 2021 and available for purchase to support OPAC‘s mission.

Nov
10
Tyra Patterson, Wrongly Imprisoned for Two Decades Receives Honorary Bachelor’s Degree

Wrongly Incarcerated Artist and Activist, Tyra Patterson, Receives Honorary Degree from the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

Tyra Patterson was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. On December 25, 2017, she walked out of prison after serving 23 years for crimes she did not commit.
Today, Tyra travels the country speaking at law schools, colleges, prisons, conferences, and high schools, leveraging her story to educate people on social justice, mass incarceration, and wrongful convictions.
She currently lives in Cincinnati and works at the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, where she serves as the Director of Community Outreach. Tyra also maintains paralegal duties at OJPC working on cases on behalf of people, both guilty and innocent of the crimes for which they have been convicted. She is also an Ambassador for Represent Justice.

During the Art Academy’s 151st Commencement Celebration, at the Carnegie in Covington, Kentucky, artist, and activist Tyra Patterson, addressed the graduates as the commencement speaker.

Patterson’s story of resilience championed the class of 2020 to realize their creative visions and to be emboldened to change the world during a time of such division.

Patterson shared her history of being wrongfully incarcerated, serving 23 years for crimes she did not commit. Her story has been shared worldwide from ABC News to the Guardian.

“I’m so humbled to be your commencement speaker. But I have to admit my imposter syndrome kicked in,” said Patterson.

“I dropped out of elementary school when I was only 11 years old. I went to prison, not knowing how to read or write. I’m good at a few things, but I don’t consider myself an expert in anything. But there is one thing I know better than almost anyone, and that is to…never give up.”

Patterson’s perseverance and how that has fueled her activism was a theme in her address.

“People typically ask graduates to go out and accomplish their goals and make the world a better place. While that is still true, today, in 2020, the plea for you is a little bit different. In a time of segregation, both mandated and self-imposed, we need you to be emboldened to change the world. We need artists unlike ever before.”

After her address, Art Academy President Joe Girandola awarded Patterson a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa and the 2020 Creative Perseverance Award.

“When Tyra Patterson enters a room, the Earth stands still and listens,” said Girandola.

“Tyra speaks wisdom from the depths of sorrow and sadness to the heights of sheer joy and social justice. The ability to express that everyone on this planet breathes the same molecules of life, connecting us together, enables us all to move forward with compassion and creativity, is Tyra’s gift to humanity.”

The Art Academy of Cincinnati is honored to welcome Tyra Patterson to the class of 2020.

Oct
21
Sunny Blu at 1212 Jackson

“A great cup of coffee, good music, and love are key ingredients to being a cornerstone in the family.”  

Walter Lee (Sonny) Chancellor, Sr.

 Sunny Blu Coffee gets its name from the grandfather and father of two of its founders. The original Camp Washington location opened its doors in April of 2019. Now they’re partnering with the Art Academy of Cincinnati at 1212 Jackson Street.

The Art Academy is happy to announce its brand new coffee bar!

Now open in the AAC Student Commons—Monday-Thursday, 8am-4pm—Sunny Blu is serving to-go coffee & espresso drinks, loose leaf teas, fruit smoothies, and food items for breakfast and lunch. 

The menu will be ever-evolving based on feedback and seasonal specialties. Offerings include caffeinated and non-caffeinated, as well as dairy and non-dairy options. 

“We are always open to suggestions, so whatever wants or needs or thoughts [anyone] may have about what we should carry […] we will do our best to offer it,” says co-owner Janalyn Turner.

Sunny Blu sources high-quality ingredients from local and regional suppliers, such as La Terza Coffee in Lockland and the Bagelry in OTR. Currently there’s a caramel apple cider drink on the menu, made with local apple cider. Flavoring syrups are made in-house. Even the half-and-half is hand-mixed using fresh ingredients from a regional dairy.

This is all part of the art, and the science, of figuring out how to provide quality ingredients at a reasonable price. “We are really big on value,” says Turner. “We want to provide things that you would feel like you couldn’t make at home.”

So stop by the Commons for a delicious beverage or snack. And meet the rotating staff of baristas behind the counter—Daniel, Tiffani, Jada, and Tameka—who also help design the drinks and the menu. They are happy to answer any questions and to take feedback.  

For the full “Sunny” experience, check out their main location over in Camp Washington. 

Welcome, Sunny Blu! 

Picture of a menu board.

Oct
12
Remembering John Ruthven

I was kind of a born naturalist and could draw, and my family realized both of those situations and they geared me towards that,” said wildlife artist John Ruthven, often called “the 20th-century Audubon.”

John Ruthven 1924 – 2020

It is with great sadness to share that the Art Academy of Cincinnati alumnus John Ruthven has passed. John has remained a big part of the Art Academy family since he was a student in 1946. He will be remembered for his art, philanthropy, kindness, and as a person who cared deeply for his community and the conservation of nature. Below we have shared a few examples of the work John contributed to the world and his beginnings at the Art Academy of Cincinnati.
“When I was 10 years old, my family signed me up for Saturday morning drawing classes at the Art Academy,” he said. “My teacher’s name was Mr.Goddard, and he was a stickler for capturing the moment. I never forgot it. He would give us a subject… and he’d give us 15 minutes to capture the moment. That was a major thing in my artistic career.”
Ruthven served in the navy during World War II, then spent a year and a half at the Art Academy on the G.I. Bill, receiving a certificate in 1947, and another year at the Central Academy of Commercial Art run by Jackson Gray Storey.

“I rented one room on Gilbert Avenue, right near downtown, and called it ‘Ruthven Studio,'” he said. “I put a sign in the window, ‘I paint anything and everything.’ That really did it. I wasn’t too self-conscious about it because I really could draw. Someone walked into my studio one day and said, ‘I saw your sign in the window. Do you do cartoons?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’ He said, ‘Well, I’m starting a new business. It’s going to be called Play-Doh. I need a Play-Doh boy.’ And I said, ‘I’d love to do that.’ Talk about an opportunity. And so, for 15 years I did most of the Play-Doh company’s artwork.”

In 1960, Ruthven painted the Federal Duck Stamp, and his career took off. He specialized in wildlife paintings, especially birds. “I knew birds very well,” Ruthven said. “From my early association with Audubon and studying wildlife in general, I was never without my binoculars, studying birds.”

Ruthven’s formal relationship with the Great Parks began in 1973 when he dontated an original painting of a chipmunk to the park district for use promoting the successful 1973 park levy campaign. Though Ruthven says he crafted the painting at Woodland Mound, it, fittingly, is displayed at the Sharon Centre in Sharon Woods. Sharon Woods was a favorite park of Ruthven as a child and it remained his favorite county park throughout his life. 

Cincinnatians may be most familiar with Ruthven’s mural “Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon” at the corner of Seventh and Vine streets. The original painting was created to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Marth’s death, and the extinction of the species

Ruthven Talks About Martha

In 1972, Ruthven earned the distinction of being named the first Artist of the Year by Ducks Unlimited. Ruthven contributed paintings for prints that have raised nearly $2 million to protect and preserve wetlands in North America. His painting of a cardinal for Ohio’s most popular license plate raised more than $5 million for the Ohio Division of Wildlife. 

He will be greatly missed. We love you John.

Sep
15
Enriching Art Education in Public Schools

A photograph of Amanda Hudson

Amanda Hudson is a Cincinnati-based abstract painter who serves as a Community Education Instructor at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. In this role, she teaches after-school art to kids in Norwood City Schools through a program called Avenues for Success.

Enriching Art Education in Public Schools

Hudson still remembers the look on students’ faces when she showed up for a class with thirty boxes of pantyhose from the Dollar Store, along with wire cutters, wire, needles, and thread. Everyone was skeptical.

“They were looking at me like ‘this isn’t an art supply,’” recalls Hudson. But once she introduced them to artist Lee Bontecou, it began to make more sense.

“I try to base [projects] on an artist in history and what they were influenced by and why they used these materials.”

So by the end of their Bontecou-inspired project, everyone had taken their canvas, poked holes in it with wire, stretched pantyhose over the wire, and painted the pantyhose. Because “anything is an art supply!”

With Avenues for Success, Hudson is consciously carving out space beyond the pressures of the school day. If kids have been using a pencil all day, she wants to bring in other materials. If they’ve been following instructions non-stop, she wants to support them in exploring and expressing their own opinions.

Growing up in small-town Indiana came with its own pressures and challenges, says Hudson, but working with “at-risk” kids in Indianapolis during art school opened her eyes to another level of pressure. The stakes can be really high to get good grades.

“I just feel like they’re so scared of saying the wrong thing—[like] they’re gonna get docked for it somehow.”

So when Hudson moved to Cincinnati and began teaching through the AAC, she had some specific ideas for enriching art education.

“I did not want the class to be arts and crafts. And I didn’t want it to feel like an extended time at school… I didn’t want there to be any kind of pressure. I just wanted them to be comfortable with the materials and to be versed in art […] I’ve tried to bring in art history and put it on a level of primary school, to where [kids] could understand… We [also] look at things around the city.”

Whether it’s Charlie Harper at the Cincinnati Zoo or the murals at Union Terminal, if a student can recognize an artist that’s familiar to them, it helps reinforce art as something relevant and accessible.

Hudson is quick to identify the ways that teaching in urban neighborhoods has shaped her work in the studio.

“I couldn’t turn it off when I went home. And if I couldn’t turn it off, of course, it was going to come out in my work,” says Hudson. “The places—that’s kind of what spoke to me. Those places where I knew what went on, I knew who lived over there […] I would take pictures of architecture and then abstract them into my paintings.”

As a practicing artist, Hudson pulls lessons from her own work and brings them back into the classroom.

“Yes, I am a painter—that’s what most of my shows are,” she tells students, “but you don’t have to stay within the square of the painting. You can go outside of that.”