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Nov
20
AAC Hosts the Regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
  • Posted By : Art Academy of Cincinnati/
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  • Under : AAC News, Community Education News, FEATURED News

Art Academy of Cincinnati Hosts the Regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

For its third year, The Art Academy of Cincinnati (AAC) will produce the Regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and Southeast Indiana on our urban campus in historic Over-the-Rhine. Established in 1923, Scholastic is the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious national recognition program. Participation ranges from grades 7 to 12.

Through the Regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, students from public, private, and home schools receive rare opportunities for national recognition, exhibition, publication, and scholarships. Last year, students from across the country submitted a record-breaking 346,000 original works of art and writing. These submissions were in 29 different categories with nearly 5,000 submissions from the Cincinnati region.

The Awards Ceremony will host both art and writing awards recipients.

Selected art and writing works will be on display at the Art Academy (1212 Jackson St., Over-the-Rhine) presented by Summerfair Cincinnati from January 28 to February 8, 2019. A celebration and awards ceremony is set for February 1, 2019, at the School for Creative and Performing Arts. The event will draw thousands of visitors from across the Tri-state. 

Each June, national Gold Medal recipients from across the country gather in New York City to attend the National Ceremony.  Over the years, numerous artists have been recognized by these awards when they were still students.  Notable alumni include: Andy Warhol, Robert Redford, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Steven King, Sylvia Plath, Charles White, Kay WalkingStick, Ken Burns, John Baldessari, Mozelle Thompson, Joyce Carol Oates, Hughie Lee-Smith, Zac Posen, and Lena Dunham. Cy Twombly, Donald Lipski, and Tom Otterness.

Submissions are accepted until December 12, 2018. For more information about the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards or how a teen can participate, visit www.artandwriting.org or https://www.artacademy.edu/scholastics


Picture of Emily Momohara's billboard
Oct
17
For Freedoms: Never Again is Now
  • Posted By : Chelsey Hughes/
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  • Under : AAC News, FEATURED News

About For Freedoms Billboard

Two years ago a billboard appeared in Pearl, Mississippi that sparked confusion and conversation. The image on the billboard was of an iconic photograph from the civil rights era with the words, “Make American Great Again”.
It was the work of For Freedoms, an organization using art to promote democratic participation.

Now they’re commissioning artists from across the country to create billboards addressing political and social issues of their choice.

Professor Emily Momohara Responds

Art Academy Associate Professor, Emily Momohara was commissioned to create two of these thought provoking billboards.

One billboard is currently located on I-75. It depicts a young Japanese girl in an internment camp with the words, “Never Again is Now!”. During WWII, Momohara’s family was incarcerated because of their Japanese heritage. This was a result of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unconstitutional use of power, when he signed Executive Order 9066 incarcerating all Japanese Americans. In turn, families were separated.

Recent accounts of children being separated from parents at the U.S.-Mexico border have inspired Momohara to speak out through art. Using documentation of the WWII incarceration to compare today and the past, Momohara stands firm with immigrants in Never Again is Now!

 

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Image of Art Academy President, Mark Grote
Aug
14
It’s a New Day
  • Posted By : Chelsey Hughes/
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  • Under : AAC News

It’s a New Day

Interim President, Mark Grote, says “it’s a new day” for one of the oldest art schools in the country.

Native Cincinnatian Mark Grote replaced John Sullivan following his retirement. Grote spent thirty years at P&G as Director of Research and Development leading some of the company’s most innovative products.

Grote spent the past 10 years as President of Grote Consultants, where he specializes in strategic planning. He’s created strategic plans for organizations such as Great Parks of Hamilton County, Chatfield College, and Greater Cincinnati Collegiate Connection. Now he brings his expertise to the historic Art Academy.

“The new vision for the school will attract the most creative young minds to our city, and keep that talent in Cincinnati,” says Grote.

The Academy had a vision for the future that few others could see when we boldly moved from Eden Park to Over-the-Rhine in 2005. Thirteen years in and we’re still pushing boundaries and looking towards the future.


Camp Art Academy student November Hardy's artwork
Jul
11
Camp Art Academy to BFA: A CE Success Story
  • Posted By : Chelsey Hughes/
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  • Under : AAC News, Community Education News, FEATURED News

Camp Art Academy to BFA

A CE Success Story

Illustration by, November Hardy

November Hardy has just completed her sophomore year at the Art Academy of Cincinnati (AAC). It all started when she attended Camp Art Academy at nine years old.

Hardy is an example of a successful Community Education transition into art school. Experiences in camp helped to encourage her interest in art and discover her creative ideas. As a result of her artistic passion she enrolled into the BFA program at the Art Academy.

“I feel that my exposure to art at camp influenced my decision to attend art school. I never really thought about having a career in art or going to an art college. Therefore, having grown up attending art camp every year, it stimulated my interest in art,” said Hardy.

Hardy is now a Camp Art Academy Teaching Assistant. “Assisting at the camp is fun to do and I like having a teaching role. Having students genuinely interested in learning how to draw is a great experience. I also appreciate the kids looking up to me for advice and ideas.”

Hardy plans a future in art. “Majoring in illustration and minoring in design will hopefully open many different paths for me. I would like to freelance as it would afford me the opportunity to work on variety of projects. But I would be glad to just work in a design firm or illustration studio, and freelance when I can. I just would like to be doing something creative”.

“I hope to take away from all the experiences I’ve had from the various projects and people I’ve met here. Learning from the ‘real life’ projects with clients and just the way you can work with peers and professors is exciting to me.”

“Just to take the atmosphere of the Art Academy — where everyone will help you if you need it, and helping others if they need, when I leave would be rewarding.”

You can find Hardy this summer assisting Camp Art Academy teachers.

 

Sign Up For Camp Art Academy HERE.

Written by, Katherine Beck


Photo of Noel
May
18
Q&A with Wilder Winner Noel Maghathe
  • Posted By : Chelsey Hughes/
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  • Under : AAC News, Alumni Featured, Alumni News, FEATURED News
Q&A with Wilder Winner Noel Maghathe

Artists draw inspiration from many places including the environment that surrounds them. The opportunity for a change of scenery can prove especially valuable. At the Art Academy of Cincinnati the Stephen H. Wilder Traveling Scholarship provides just that, affording art students of all disciplines the chance to explore the world around them as fuel for their creative expression.

Noel Maghathe is a Mixed Palestinian American artist and graduate of the Art Academy. Dedicated to radical gender and identity politics, Maghathe uses performance, photography, sculpture, and installation to advance socially conscious dialogues centering queer voices.

Check out a Q&A with Maghathe below to learn more about Noel’s experience traveling on the Wilder Scholarship.

Q: You were one of last year’s recipients of the Wilder Traveling Scholarship. Where did you go and how did you use this award to continue your practice and research?

I was lucky enough to travel with my father to his home in Halhul, West Bank, Palestine.

I decided to use Wilder Traveling Scholarship to experience being a queer person/femme in Palestine first hand, but to also reconnect as an adult with this whole side of my life. Using several social media outlets, I connected with other queer Palestinians to listen to their experiences and collaborate.

Q: Can you share with us your experience in Palestine?

I spent the majority of my time in the small town of Halhul, where my grandmother lives. My father was born and raised in this rural town.

It was a wild experience full of ups and downs; two men asked for my hand, conversations of marriage, conversations of equality. I gained and lost feelings of wonder, revisiting a home after seven years brings comfort but distortion.

It became so much more than me being queer, but re-birthing the home in my heart for this place. When creating with my new friends, I felt happy and strong finally being here after all of this hard work.

I sat and spoke with my friend Rawand from Ramallah for an hour as we did each other’s hair after we’d just met. I thought back to my childhood where I spent hours sitting with my sisters straightening our hair for school the next day, we spent so much time laughing and intertwining. After our hair, we did our makeup and she took me to the old city of Birzeit, where we interacting with the space using my cellophane forms I had been making in Halhul.

It was an enduring experience with a lifetime friendship, I plan on coming back and studying at Birzeit for gender studies in the next couple years.

Q: How did your experience in  Palestine change your work?

It changed the way I thought of art making and what it can impact.

Q: After returning, you went on to become an Agent of Change delegate to this year’s UN Commission on the Status of Womxn. Was this a continuation of your work during your time in Palestine?

This was a continuation of my path as an artist. I was shown and recommended this opportunity by a new friend, Mitchell Sutika Sipus.

He spoke at graduation last May and we connected after hearing about the work he has done overseas. I was encouraged to apply after he expressed that we need more artists outside of this form to be involved in global conversations.

Q: Could you tell us more about your experience as an Agent of Change?

It was an overwhelming time!

I loved being in NYC and to be at the United Nations HQ every day was hair-raising. I spent every morning taking a train and bus over to Manhattan then heading to a conference room full of people from all over the world. I’m just sitting here two seats from the minister of women of New Zealand, speaking of the economic empowerment of rural women in NZ.

I’m in awe that I am here and able to be a part of the conversation. Speaking and hearing views of these gender issues and the lack of universal conversation of the trans and gender non-conforming community really pushed me to my choice of gender studies for masters.

I hope to connect more with ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association ) in the future for this matter, they were the only group to truly address these issues within the whole commission. Shout out to Zhan Chiam! I met so many people that were doing amazing things to help further the gender equality from Fiji to Indonesia to Estonia.

I am so thankful for the time I spent not only at the United Nations, but the people I met in New York. What a beautiful time I had.

Q: Where do you see your work going from here and how do you feel your art/design will make an impact on the world?

I see myself going in a completely new direction after this conference, I was very torn on whether to continue fine arts in grad school, but I have decided to dive into gender studies as well as Arab studies.

I will always make work and perform, but I need to be involved in these issues and use my art and performances in those environments as one. Especially with what is happening this moment with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with the Land Day peaceful protests, I can’t just bury my head.

Q: How do you view yourself as a change maker?

I’m still learning how I can make a change. Thus far I’ve been advocating as much as possible and my performances are becoming more political and facing these issues head-on.


Cara and Carly win the Wilder Traveling Award
May
08
2018 Wilder Traveling Award
  • Posted By : Art Academy of Cincinnati/
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  • Under : AAC News, FEATURED News

The Art Academy of Cincinnati is pleased to announce that seniors Cara Gallagher and Carly Simendinger are the recipients of the 2018 Stephen H. Wilder Traveling Award, one of the most coveted awards given to graduating seniors.

As a result, Gallagher will pursue performance work in England, and Simendinger will travel to India.

Since receiving this award, Simendinger has embarked on a six-week journey across India.

“When I graduated from the Art Academy of Cincinnati in May of 2018, I was awarded the Wilder Scholarship, which is an award specifically for graduating seniors to continue your education and broaden your horizons through travel. I chose to go to India to study zen meditation and immerse myself in the beautiful patterns and colors that this country is known for. My first few weeks will be spent in a zen ashram in Tamil Nadu and then I will continue up the west coast to the beaches of Kerala and Goa, then to Mumbai and Agra before finishing my journey in New Delhi. I can’t find the words to fully express how grateful I am to be here and for this opportunity. I have already learned so much about myself and I am so excited for the places I will see, the cultures I will experience, and the people I will learn from along the way.”
-Carly Simendinger

Carly Simendinger's thesis exhibition. 2018 Wilder Traveling Award.
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The Stephen H. Wilder Traveling Scholarship was first awarded in 1947.

In 1941 Edith Carson Wilder endowed the scholarship in memory of her husband. In turn, it was specified the scholarship be given to deserving students for travel.

Funds serve as a travel stipend for special research in fine art or design in the United States or abroad.

Each applicant must submit a proposal that includes a budget, itinerary, senior thesis, and portfolio. In addition, students must submit a description of how the experience will benefit their artistic goals.

Full-time faculty members, the Academic Dean, and the President vote to select the winners of this award.

 

 


Sydney Rains in their studio
Feb
27
Poetry 4 the People: Sydney Rains
  • Posted By : Chelsey Hughes/
  • 0 comments /
  • Under : AAC News

On February 19th, Art Academy of Cincinnati hosted a night of poetry reading full of dedicated, strong-willed, and politically activated poets. Below is the poem read by AAC student, Sydney Rains.

 

“Untitled”
 

I’m walking home tonight
in the heat of my month
and my frustrations begin
to calm again, by the street lights
glow upon the asphalt, by the
soft breath of the warming wind,
by the growing volume of
a fire truck’s siren somewhere
close by, and I stay still as I listen.
Trying to make up where they
could be going, and I remember
the house fire nightmare I had
night after night as a child
when I lived in that old yellow
house my father painted white.
My revolution burned there and I
want that shit back. But now, all I see
in this house are maggots and roaches
and dust everywhere and I am
sneezing all the time, and that’s
how I know that this is not a dream,
anymore. This is a pack of rhinoceroses
stampeding down the runway through
your cities and down your blocks,
Like sleep paralysis when you’re fucked up.
Like how the stone cold chest of a gorilla
that used to live down the street was shot
dead and replaced by a baby hippo.
That is how I know this is not a dream.
but I am home now with the roaches
and maggots that cuddle close together
as living things. They’re my only friends
for tonight and sleep peacefully in my
motherly palm. And in the morning I will
answer the door with palms out wide and whisper,
America, here is your child,
you are a mother now.

 


Piece by Cody
Feb
27
Poetry 4 the People: Cody Dawn Bechtol
  • Posted By : Art Academy of Cincinnati/
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  • Under : AAC News, Admissions Featured, Admissions News, FEATURED News

On February 19th, Art Academy of Cincinnati hosted a night of poetry reading full of dedicated, strong-willed, and politically activated poets. Below is the poem read by AAC student, Cody Dawn Bechtol.

“PSA THIS IS NOT OKAY 2018”

 

I am tired of my bleeding going unappreciated
I am tired of my wounds never healing

 

Open and seeping they wait for you to prod them again
Anticipating the pain as if it’s intrinsic to womanhood at this point

 

 

 

He never hit me but boy did my body suffer

 

Sleepless nights
Black under eyes from rubbing rubbing rubbing

 

 

 

 

Staring at the wide and plush moon
Gently dissociating

 

 

 

 

Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons
Tasers & Tampons

Clinging tightly to my taser and my tampons

 

 

 

You pass me with that bald eagle on your license plate
Men in pickup trucks scare me more than almost anything else in this world

 

 

 

859-667-2958
213-922-7046
513-299-7254
859-927-3001
513-438-2183
575-418-6124
513-449-1492
651-529-3240
513-401-6852
513-880-5358
513-428-6124
513-665-3892
213-237-1091
470-305-0873
513-665-4341

 

 

You think your time has come but you’re wrong
I fantasize about stooping to your level
What if we all literally began to fight back
Hurting the men who slink behind us down alleys
And follow us through department stores

 

 

You get off on the look of discomfort painted across my face
Whispering creepy nothings to me in the line at Home Depot

I imagine the look of surprise on yours when I pounce

 

Women are not a threat to you
Why do you treat us as such

You hit us with no provocation
Your rape us while we are fully clothed

 

 

We refuse to be powerless anymore


Thesis exhibition
Feb
27
Poetry 4 the People: Hailee Herin
  • Posted By : Chelsey Hughes/
  • 0 comments /
  • Under : AAC News, FEATURED News

On February 19th, Art Academy of Cincinnati hosted a night of poetry reading full of dedicated, strong-willed, and politically activated poets. Below is the poem read by AAC student, Hailee Herin.

 
 
“12/14/16″
  
I am a maturing pomegranate.
My heart
my mind
my emotions, so juicy
and you have to be so intimate with it
get it to open,
not crushing the seeds,
avoiding the declining ones
So tender,
unapologetic in her forwardness,
“may I touch myself?”
Not a survival tactic,
Meekness.
 

 


Mandy Clements poem
Feb
27
Poetry 4 the People: Mandy Clements
  • Posted By : Chelsey Hughes/
  • 0 comments /
  • Under : AAC News

On February 19th, Art Academy of Cincinnati hosted a night of poetry reading full of dedicated, strong-willed, and politically activated poets. Below is the poem read by AAC student, Mandy Clements.

 

“Mandy-Lore”

First, let me clear some things up.
I’ve heard there is lore about me.
Mandy-lore.
People have come up with stories about how I, a queer woman, have children.
I’m a lesbian, I have always been a lesbian.
I just didn’t always know it.
But of course, I always knew.
When I was 10 and introduced to the school band, I wanted to play drums.
I wasn’t allowed, drums were for boys.
There was a girl in my class, with big curly dark hair who wore AC/DC shirts who played the drums
I think her name was Christina.
What is the deal with parents of the 80’s and the name Chris?
Christ without the t.
My brother is Chris,
My wife is Christin,
There are Chrissys and Christas and Chrystals and Kristis and Christians and Christophers.
Tofer Grace tried to get away from the name,
Tofer is just an absence of Chris and isn’t that the same as being a Chris? At least in this case?
Growing up I wished my name was Kris or Dawn, my brother’s names.
They thought I was going to be a boy but when I was gendered at birth, I lost the privilege of having those names. I became a Mandy. Stuck with this stupid Barry Manilow nick name. All because I’m a girl. And because I’m a girl who was raised in a conservative family, I was supposed to like boys. And because I’m a girl and have to earn the right to be treated with civility, I did as I was told.
But I like girls.
When I was 14, I watched MTV while babysitting the neighbor’s kids and learned the word bisexual. I immediately clung to that label. I could like girls and boys! Who knew?
I told my boyfriend that I wanted to break up because I liked girls and I needed to learn more about that.

He convinced me not to.
It wasn’t hard. My life was shit and he was nice.
All the while I crushed on Ronnie and Rae (both girls) and my bff was my gbf, he just hadn’t come out yet, I was
unknowingly living out classic gay culture.
When my dad kicked me out of the house at 18, the boyfriend became my husband so I wouldn’t become homeless.
Remember, my family is very conservative.
While I never condoned any of my parents’ cult-like mentality, I still deeply wanted their approval.
So there I was. Married to a man.
Watching lesbian porn on the sly.
Hopping from one part-time job to another unhappy with minimum wage expectations.
School wasn’t an option for me. This was long before my ADHD diagnosis and I was convinced I was too stupid
and too flawed to even attempt going to college.
What do you do when you are married and have no marketable skills? You have babies.
So I became a mom, and let me tell you, I am a damn fine mom. I researched everything. I gave birth to 4 (4!)
boys. I breast fed, I made their baby food, I had my youngest at home with a midwife, I homeschooled and raised chickens so my city kids would know where food came from.
I lost myself completely.
To be fair, I never had a firm grasp of who I was so losing myself was easy.
Then I was 33.
The magical forever-age of Christ.
33 is a universal age of enlightenment.
I was done having babies.
Most of my kids were in school.
And it wasn’t so easy to be lost.
When I found myself, I cried.
I am so gay.
I mean of course I was.
I never wore my wedding ring.
My favorite song has always been “What’s Up” by 4 Non-Blonds.

I was deeply in love with my best friend (and a couple other women through the years).
This isn’t a new hair style for me.
When I was 15 I dressed up as a rainbow for Halloween.
My friends said they knew.
My husband said he knew.
How was I to reconcile the life I had been living with who I am?
How was I supposed to look at the man who knew and fucked me anyway?
I couldn’t.
Obviously.
And even though divorce makes Jesus cry, I left my husband.
Well, actually, I made him leave.
I broke up with Jesus while I was at it.
His expectations and his followers had only ever brought me pain.
In the name of Jesus, my mother broke up with me.
For some reason divorcing your kids does not make Jesus cry.
I’ve only been building this life as a queer mom and college student for a few years.
The Mandy-lore makes me happy, though.

 

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