 |
Photo By Jymi Bolden
|
Greg Smith remains committed to moving the Art
Academy to this building in Over-the-Rhine.
|
Five minutes is all it takes for Cincinnati artist and gallery director Bill Seitz to walk from his Prospect Hill home to his fourth-floor studio inside Over-the-Rhine's Pendleton Art Center. During his daily strolls, Seitz can't help but notice how the surrounding world changes drastically. In Prospect Hill, a Mount Auburn neighborhood overlooking Over-the-Rhine and office towers in adjacent downtown Cincinnati, Seitz walks past 19th-century townhouses elegantly restored by middle-class buyers. Prospect Hill's recent gentrification is impressive and complete. After crossing Liberty Avenue and walking down a flight of steep steps to Pendleton Street, he enters a gritty and rough-and-tumble stretch of low-income apartment buildings clustered closely together on Over-the-Rhine's east side.
Inexpensive rents attracted Seitz to the Pendleton Center about seven years ago. He was one of the first visual artists to convert space inside the former Shillito's Department Store warehouse into a studio loft. Today, the Pendleton boasts a capacity crowd of 80 artists. An open house, scheduled on the last Friday of every month, continues to attract onlookers to the various studios.
At 40, Seitz has seen a lot from his Pendleton windows. He's also surprised by what has yet to happen outside the warehouse building's massive doors.
"I've seen drug deals gone bad and gunfire," he says, walking through his expansive studio. "But I come here at all hours of the day, every day, and I've never felt unsafe."
Seitz is a slight man with a sharp voice and a sharper pair of eyes. He listens intently to our conversation. At times, there are moments when I feel like he's staring right through me.
Colorful, abstract canvases and sculptures comprised of found objects fill his studio. He's cheerful and forthcoming, displaying a personality that's as buoyant as his artwork.
Repeating a trend practiced in other American cities, Cincinnati artists came to the one-time German immigrant community of Over-the-Rhine in search of cheap places to live and work. Galleries, renovated apartments, restaurants and bars soon followed. An influx of dot.com start-ups in the late 1990s quickly boosted the value of Over-the-Rhine's historic, low-flung buildings. Real estate speculators combined arty visions of SoHo and Chelsea in Manhattan with the hi-tech affluence of Silicon Valley. Big changes were predicted.
The recent downturn in the high tech industry, however, put a damper on Cincinnati's "Digital Rhine" enthusiasm. And then everything drastically changed on April 10, when street riots tore through Over-the-Rhine.
Violence halts progress
It was a late Tuesday afternoon, during a sudden rainstorm, when various businesses along Vine Street in downtown Cincinnati began being vandalized. A crowd of angry protesters were on their way from City Hall. Three days earlier, teen-ager Timothy Thomas was shot by Cincinnati Police near his Over-the-Rhine home.
The crowd was angry. They wanted some answers. When they didn't get any, they took their frustrations to the streets. Windows were smashed all the way up to Over-the-Rhine.
Staffs at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati (ETC) and Music Hall were quickly evacuated. Businesses boarded their doors. Cincinnati police formed a barricade to contain the bulk of the riots to Over-the-Rhine.
A few days later, a citywide curfew finally put an end to the rioting. On April 16, the staffs of ETC and other Over-the-Rhine businesses returned to work.
As Cincinnati business and political leaders struggle to address the causes behind the riots, artists and arts organizations continue to look toward Over-the-Rhine as the city's premier arts district. Their position harkens back to CityBeat's State of the Arts issue last year (Cincinnati Tees Off on the Arts, issue of May 4-10, 2000), which proposed arts corridors intersecting at Walnut and 12th streets in Over-the-Rhine.
"The T" would begin downtown at the corner of Sixth and Walnut, the future site of the new Contemporary Arts Center, and extend north along Walnut past the Aronoff Center and the Main Public Library. The arts avenue would end at the block between 12th Street and Central Parkway, site of the now-shuttered Emery Theatre.
The April riots jump-started a summer-long series of violent crimes throughout Over-the-Rhine. Artists and arts organizations intent on remaking the neighborhood into the city's cultural district faced a public relations nightmare.
In the minds of many people who live outside Cincinnati city limits, Over-the-Rhine had become a dangerous place to be consciously avoided. The effects of April's street violence were being felt in the pocketbooks of Over-the-Rhine businessmen.
Before the riots, the outlook for Over-the-Rhine arts and artists was bullish. Four months later, the forecast for Cincinnati's avenue of the arts is less clear.
"The violence has definitely given pause to the momentum," says David Smith, owner of DesignSmith Gallery on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine. "My business is fine because I do a lot of Internet orders. But I immediately noticed that there was a huge drop in people attending the Final Friday gallery walks. Still, I don't think the riots will permanently stop the momentum. I already feel like things are going back to normal."
Like most urban neighborhoods, Over-the-Rhine has suffered setbacks before. A grassroots effort to build the new Cincinnati Reds baseball stadium at nearby Broadway Commons failed under pressure from the political and downtown business communities. In 1989, plans to relocate the CAC to the Emery fell apart. Hope for a new Over-the-Rhine Kroger grocery store remains unfulfilled. Last year, the Marta Hewitt Gallery left its long-time home on Main Street to relocate to Louisville.
The April riots made easy solutions unlikely. Luckily, there are people and arts groups who remain undeterred in their commitment to Over-the-Rhine.
New voices in OTR
The forces of art and capitalism come to a head at Kaldi's Coffeehouse and Bookstore on Main Street. Along its copper-top bar, dot.com staffers sit elbow-to-elbow with aspiring artists and local residents. Beer and espresso flow freely.
A Kaldi's bartender sums up the neighborhood's current situation matter of factly: "A friend of mine is staying at my apartment around the corner. I just tell him all those rat-tat-tat noises in the middle of the night are fireworks. You know, whatever makes him feel better."
At a nearby table, Katie Harper and Gabrielle Fox share their own dreams about Over-the-Rhine. They're the executive directors of the Cincinnati Book Arts Society, a fledgling arts group dedicated to promoting traditional methods of book, paper and printing artistry.
Fox's workshop in Mount Lookout is too small to handle the number of people interested in taking Book Arts Society-sponsored classes. Their goal is to raise funds to open the Cincinnati Center for Printing, Paper and Book Arts. They've seen similar book arts centers in San Francisco and Manhattan and want to start one in Over-the-Rhine.
"I'm not from Cincinnati," says Harper, an award-winning book artist who teaches at several area colleges. "So I don't have any preconceptions about Over-the-Rhine. But I've driven through the neighborhood many times, and I feel that this is the right place for us to be."
The grit that's part of Over-the-Rhine's urban charm comes with its share of petty criminals, prostitutes and drug abusers. Lately, the criminal element has taken the spotlight away from dot.com companies and artists. But Fox and Harper remain convinced the Cincinnati Book Arts Society can help remake Over-the-Rhine into the city's leading cultural district.
Fox and Harper aren't the kind of movers and shakers who determine the success of so many cultural campaigns. In many ways they're out of their league. But when discussing their plans for a book arts center, their voices chirp with enthusiasm.
They envision renovating one of the neighborhood's many vacant buildings into a street-level gallery. A print shop and offices would be on the second floor. Classroom spaces to teach bookbinding and printing would occupy the third floor.
Educational outreach to Over-the-Rhine residents is a priority. Already, Fox and Harper are putting the finishing touches on their project's proposal. They've sought advice from other arts directors. They plan to make a formal announcement next year.
"Think about all the children in this neighborhood who can't afford books," Harper says. "A book arts class will give them the chance to write, design and construct a book to take home. I have no doubt that this center can make a great impact on Over-the-Rhine."
Projects remain on track (sort of)
Chances are that most Cincinnatians have already heard about Over-the-Rhine's long-percolating arts projects. A clean brick exterior and fresh coat of paint offers external proof that the College of Applied Sciences portion of the Emery Theatre complex has been successfully converted to 62 market-rate apartments and three floors of resident parking.
Looming over Central Parkway, the boulevard that separates downtown from Over-the-Rhine, the building is as polished as any Prospect Hill townhouse. Inside, the Emery's 1,800-seat auditorium remains a darkened eyesore.
Last year, the Emery Center Corporation (ECC), the non-profit group heading the effort to restore and redevelop the Emery, failed to convince state of Ohio and city of Cincinnati leaders to provide the $2 million it needed to begin necessary stage house restoration.
Despite the interest of Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Men's Choir, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and Cincinnati Opera in performing at a renovated Emery Theatre, plans to reopen the historic auditorium have hit a lull. The hope is that attention drawn from the Emery's new apartments combined with other nearby housing projects might give the theatre new life.
The heated battle between Cincinnati Pops Conductor Erich Kunzel's controversial proposal for a new and expanded School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) to be built adjacent to Music Hall and supporters for the Drop Inn Center, an Over-the-Rhine homeless shelter, has faded due to fundraising problems. Cincinnati Public Schools appears committed to a K-12 SCPA housed in a new facility built specifically as an arts preparatory academy.
Because recent cost estimates soared as high as $92 million, the Cincinnati Board of Education requested that SCPA supporters raise more than $20 million in matching funds. A lot can happen between now and 2003 -- the projected year a new SCPA would open -- but if private fundraising turns up short, the school's opening will have to be pushed back.
In the 16 months since Art Academy of Cincinnati President Greg Smith stood in front of the Pembrook Building on 12th Street and announced the art college's impending move, he's slowly moved forward with a feasibility study for undertaking the necessary capital campaign.
Asked if the April riots have slowed down the academy's plans to relocate to Over-the-Rhine from its 115-year-old home in Eden Park, Smith says, "I haven't felt that there have been hindrances or road blocks put in our way. Our progress has started a little slower than I would have expected, but maybe that's just my personal perspective. We're working on our fundraising, and we have to determine if we can raise enough money before we face a move-ahead-or-not decision. Right now, we're in a forward progress position."
Current plans call for the six-story Pembrook -- familiar to most for its street-level tenant, BarrelHouse Brewing Co. -- to be converted into classrooms, student studios, administration offices and a first-floor student gallery.
Smith remains convinced the Art Academy facility, scheduled to open in 2005, will find itself in the type of neighborhood that will be attractive to potential students and faculty. A relocated academy certainly would sit in a pivotal point in Cincinnati's proposed arts "T."
Holding out hope for the master plan
Around the corner from the Art Academy's proposed home, a group of neighborhood men linger along the 12th Street sidewalk. Outside the entrances of the social agencies clustered around Washington Park, panhandlers and trash make for depressing sights.
After more than 100 years as Over-the-Rhine's great landmark, Music Hall has become an island unto itself. When director Steven Soderbergh needed scenes of urban squalor for his film Traffic, it's no surprise he came to Over-the-Rhine.
There's a desperate vitality felt along 12th Street. The question is whether an Over-the-Rhine arts renaissance can make things better for everyone. The argument voiced by Bonnie Neumeier, an outspoken advocate of community rights, and Pat Clifford, general manager of the Drop Inn Center, is that projects like a relocated SCPA and a renovated Emery Theatre help only the patrons who use them.
"I do think that there are different organizations who have different views about the future of Over-the-Rhine," Greg Smith says. "But I happen to believe that commercial development can benefit poor people as well as the economically well-to-do. Poor people in Over-the-Rhine are suffering from a lack of amenities."
City investment remains focused on downtown and the riverfront. Look down Elm Street and you'll see the metal girders of Paul Brown Stadium. The Taft Museum will soon expand. Construction continues on the new Contemporary Arts Center at Sixth and Walnut. Plans for the Underground Railroad Freedom Center continue moving forward.
What level of financial support the city of Cincinnati will bring to Over-the-Rhine and its prospective arts projects remains unclear. The question is whether the city will step forward and truly support Over-the-Rhine.
Before leaving his city council seat to become a Hamilton County commissioner, Todd Portune proposed city funding to study a downtown "Avenue of the Arts." The proposal was rejected.
Recently, Portune failed to convince the downtown booster group Downtown Cincinnati Inc. (DCI) to expand its jurisdiction into Over-the-Rhine.
"We were too far along in our renewal process to investigate adding Over-the-Rhine to our district," says Rick Griewe, DCI's chief executive officer. "We're going to offer our marketing and promotional benefits to Over-the-Rhine businesses. We believe that customers don't distinguish between Findlay Market and Over-the-Rhine businesses and downtown. To them, it's everything that's in the basin.
"After the civil unrest, our job was to rebuild confidence in shopping downtown and Over-the-Rhine."
Later this year, Cincinnati officials will unveil the city's master plan for redeveloping Over-the-Rhine. While details about the plan remain unclear, it's certain that new commercial development will eradicate the rundown storefronts, corner bars and carry-out stores that give Over-the-Rhine the appearance of a ghetto eyesore.
One major plan component would place a city-funded garage combined with retail spaces and market-rate apartments at the corner of Central Parkway and Vine Street.
Already, some changes have taken place in Over-the-Rhine. Vine Street has returned to two-way traffic. A series of new flower boxes dot neighborhood building facades, the result of a project by Councilman Jim Tarbell. At the corner of Race Street and Central Parkway, the cable access organization Media Bridges prepares to open its new facility.
It's hard to know exactly what will happen to Over-the-Rhine in the next few years. Development often attracts higher rents, and so it's possible Cincinnati artists might soon be forced out along with others who can't afford to pay. Already, the Brighton Corner neighborhood in the West End has become the headquarters of local "Generation Next" artists.
The intended goal in Over-the-Rhine is that development of the neighborhood need not displace the low-income residents who want to stay. The new battle cry for people like Smith and Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce President Chris Frutkin is that there's room in the neighborhood for everyone and everyone benefits from the increased diversity.
"Artists are the people who come to an area and change peoples' lives," Frutkin says. "Artists make daily life better, and Over-the-Rhine can prosper by celebrating all the walks of life expressed by artists."
Inside the Drop Inn Center's brick exterior, hard-life realities make it difficult for some residents to welcome Over-the-Rhine's proposed arts projects. An arts renaissance means nothing to them.
As part of the master plan study, new committees are tackling quality-of-life issues that address the entire Over-the-Rhine population. It's a new approach that hopes to unite all parties behind the cause of improving the neighborhood.
In the wake of April's events, long-time Over-the-Rhine residents and arts tenants realize that business as usual is no longer enough.
Aware of the antagonism toward the arts community, Tamara Harkavy, director of ArtWorks, says, "If we can show people the impact the impact the arts makes, I think that would be a good thing. It requires marketing, outreach and synergy. It requires groups to take a new angle other than screaming, 'Look at us! Pay attention to us!'
"You have to serve the entire population and show them they can do better." ©
