Call Liberty Hill's Rick Sowash a grasshopper and you won't be far off. From his home of the edge of downtown, the accomplished chamber music composer also works as an author, Cincinnati tour leader, public speaker, sometime house painter and publisher of books, musical scores and cds. Oh, and two days a week he works as a guard at the Cincinnati Art Museum.
The smaller buses that traverse the streets of Mt. Adams, downtown and the West End offer more than colorful exteriors and a route guaranteed to please museum-goers and downtown workers alike. Route #1 helps re-define Cincinnati's bus commuting scene with a sitting-room setting and a cast of friendly regulars. Soapbox's Jane Durrell takes a ride.
In Sandy Kesner and Sasha Hart's Cincinnati homes, five-course meals become works of art. But as for the menu? "It's a Secret." The two friends welcome guests to their "underground restaurant," and share an evening of fine dining and unexpected treats for a palatable fee.
Local artist Cedric Michael Cox's latest exhibition, "Art Shapes Us," takes a look at how our environment influences who we are. Cox finds his painting muse in Over-the-Rhine, but to further prove the point, as part of his exhibition he'll host 25 students from all over the city in an OTR art studio and teach them how to reflect on their own neighborhoods and surroundings and, perhaps, find inspiration to shape their own art.
This week, Cincinnati welcomes British performance artist Luke Jerram and his brightly colored, outdoor pianos. Brought to the Queen City by Cincinnati Public Radio in celebration of their anniversary, Jerram and a team of talented local artists will paint playable pianos in public spaces over the next month.
Cincinnati's local art scene bristles with creative collectives. Brimming over with new ideas and unique ways to present them, talented artists are banding together, crossing disciplines, and facilitating discussions about not only how to make art but fund it as well. Soapbox writer Jane Durrell takes a look at a few of the Queen City's collectives like Project Mill, CS 13, and the Marburg Project, who were recently selected by their peers to be funded to produce art at an innovative dinner.
One of the city's oldest and, as it happens, most innovative companies stands on a Camp Washington street that is more or less a neighborhood secret, as it lacks street signs for much of its length. Osborne Coinage Co., is America's oldest private mint and has been quietly changing with the times since 1845.
Conversations with Aaron Betsky, Cincinnati Art Museum director, are likely to wheel around to architecture. He and Jane Durrell settle down to talk on that subject itself, beginning with Betsky's "Of course, architects never do what you expect them to."
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