March 2010 Commentary

Margy Waller
Vice President, Arts & Culture Partnership, Fine Arts Fund

We kicked off the 2010 Annual Community Campaign for the Arts this year with something new: pop-up art surprises – music, painting, dancing, and storytelling – all across our region.

The Fine Arts Fund organized the surprises by secretly inviting artists to join in the fun.

Artists Pam Kravetz, Carla Lamb, and Karen Saunders organized young people from Harrison, Cincinnati, and West Chester to turn buses into mobile galleries. Inspired by the Newport Aquarium and Krohn Conservatory, they created the art in secret at the bus terminals on each side of the river. Passengers who boarded certain buses on TANK and Metro routes shared a magical experience of color, imagination, and creativity.

Meanwhile, dancers from Anaya Gypsy Dance filled the public space at the Fountain Place Macy’s with tribal belly dancing throughout the lunch hour. And people in Carew Tower’s Arcade were surprised by Liz Vosmeier accompanied by Music Director Alan Patrick Kenny singing “I’d Rather Watch You”, from “Adding Machine: A Musical,” a hit show at Know Theatre.

Finally, on other transit routes on both sides of the river, members of Pones Inc. took over buses with their form of guerilla art: original storytelling, movement and song.
The transit art was an incredible hit with the riders of buses on both sides of the river.

I rode along with Pones Inc. members Ian Forsgren, Allen DeCarlo, Kim Popa, Lacey Montgomery and Britney Sullivan. We waited with other commuters at Government Square on 5th Street between Walnut and Main Streets. We fit in with the rest of the workers waiting to head home a little after 4 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon in late February.

We boarded a #19 bus bound for Northgate Mall on the west side of Cincinnati via Over-the-Rhine, Clifton Heights, Clifton, and Northside. The seats on the bus were full and people were standing in the aisles.

As we rode through Clifton, the five members of Pones started their surprise movement. They had designed a few performance routines specifically for riding the bus and the performers started moving from a seated position.

Gradually the riders began to notice the routine. At first, there were just some startled glances. Then other riders began to stare – and to smile – and to talk to each other about the performance. They wondered openly about what was happening. The dancers became impossible to ignore when they stood up and danced in the aisles. When the first routine ended, they simply sat back down as the riders speculated.

Alan, a member of Pones who was sitting next to me, shared a text from Kim, another dancer: “It’s funny how they think we can’t hear what they are saying about us!”

One of the most vocal riders asked, “Are you gonna do some more? I enjoyed that!” After a second routine, I shared fliers about the annual free events of Sampler Weekend, which was scheduled to start a few days later.

One of the other riders looked at the schedule of over 100 free events – music, museums, make-and-take art, song, dance, and more – and said: “This surprise on the bus is a great way to promote the arts!” We could not have imagined a better response. We expect to repeat this transit surprise event someday – on a streetcar!

Greater Cincinnati is incredibly fortunate to have so many supporters of the creative things happening in large and small ways throughout our region. The arts connect people and make our neighborhoods vibrant, benefiting us all. We should all be proud of what we’ve created here and make sure we keep the arts all around us.

The annual community celebration and campaign – when people all across the region contribute to support the arts – runs for ten weeks and wraps up on April 29, 2010. Through contributions made to the annual community campaign, the Fine Arts Fund supports nearly 100 large and small local arts organizations.

To donate to the Fine Arts Fund:
www.fineartsfund.org
Join the email list to be in on future “secret art.”