Ohio Arts Council

Today and throughout this weekend, communities across Ohio are celebrating Juneteenth. For this week's , we're highlighting the Cincinnati Juneteenth Festival presented by the Kennedy Heights Community Council and the Cincinnati Juneteenth Committee.

The free festival traces its roots back to 1988 when the first iteration was held as a small community event in Cincinnati's diverse Kennedy Heights neighborhood. It was first held in community's Daniel Drake Park with both attendees and vendors reflecting the racially integrated neighborhood.

The family-friendly event has continued to grow in popularity over its nearly four decade history, and has since come to be held in Eden Park along the banks of the Ohio River. Visitors to the festival can experience a variety of activities, like traditional story telling, magic acts, historical reenactments, sweet potato pie bake-offs, and more.

Musicians offer performances featuring a wide range of genres, ranging from African drumming and dance to jazz and reggae, and more. Vendors offer food and fashion alongside folk and ethnic art.

This year marks the 38th edition of the festival, which runs June 20-21.

Images of the 2025 courtesy of the organization

Today marks the opening of applications for our Individual Excellence Awards (IEA). To celebrate, we're highlighting Cleveland-based photographer and IEA recipient Lori Kella.

Kella, who lives along the coast of Lake Erie, has focused her recent work on the interplay between nature and human activity on the lake's shoreline. To create the series of images seen here, Kella used translucent paper and natural materials to create detailed models. She then photographed these models in a large lightbox or on a neutral backdrop.

With the grant funding, Kella invested in equipment and supplies to expand her creative practice and prepare for future projects. This included a new lens, lighting equipment, large photographic prints, and frames.

Learn more about our IEA program at oac.ohio.gov/iea.

Images courtesy of the artist

One of the most rewarding parts of creating the Ohio Women’s Monument has been watching each figure evolve from clay to bronze.

These images show the remarkable transformation of one of the monument's figures, from Brenda Councill's original hand-sculpted clay model to the finished bronze version. While the materials changed, every detail, expression, and gesture was carefully preserved through the casting process.

It's a powerful reminder that every finished monument begins with an artist's vision, patience, and countless hours of craftsmanship.

It's , and this week we're celebrating Ohio fiber artist and quilter Susan Shie of Wooster. Shie is the recipient of the 2026 Ohio Designer Craftsman Outstanding Achievement Award for her distinctive style and her dedication to the continuation and development of the artform.

Shie grew up creating different kinds of art, including drawing, painting, writing, sewing, and clay work. She went on to earn a degree in studio art from The College of Wooster and an MFA from Kent State University.

Today, Shie's art quilts don't fit perfectly into any one category. Instead, they combine the practices of painting, fiber art, and writing to share stories about her life or provide commentary on current events. Shie considers herself an outsider artist. “To me,” she says, “an outsider artist is one who creates intuitively, according to her own passions, regardless of the amount of education she has.”

Each art quilt begins its life in sketches. She then stretches a large canvas on the wall and uses an airbrush to instinctively draw and paint images onto its surface. “It won’t look exactly like I sketched it, but it’s just an idea," Shie says. "When I expand it onto the cloth, I’m flexible about how it turns out.”

Finally, she uses an air pen to write her spontaneous thoughts onto the quilt. “It’s like writing a diary about my life and what’s happening in the world,” Shie says. “It’s what I’m thinking about. It’s a time capsule—I can look back and see what I was thinking about at the time.”

Image 1: Cary & Stephanie Hulin, creators of the award artwork, with Susan Shie and her husband, James Accord
Images 2-3: Susan Shie work in progress
Image 4: A completed quilt

Images and the original story provided by Ohio Designer Craftsmen, an OAC Statewide Arts Service Organization grantee

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: Grants for Arts Projects (GAP), a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, is currently accepting applications for their current funding cycle. Supported projects can include those that help communities experience art; celebrate America's artistic heritage and cultural legacy; bring arts education to people of all ages; or support people's well-being.

Funding for arts projects is available in the following disciplines: Arts Education, Challenge America, Dance, Design & Our Town, Folk & Traditional Arts, Literary Arts, Local Arts Agencies, Museums, Music, Opera, Our Town, Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works, Theater & Musical Theater, and Visual & Media Arts.

The intent to apply deadline is July 9, 2026. Learn more at www.arts.gov/grants/grants-for-arts-projects.

What happens when a group of business owners band together to invest in and inspire their community? In Lima, Ohio, the answer is Legacy Arts, a nonprofit organization created to support art and entrepreneurship across the community of about 36,000 residents.

For this week's , we're shining our spotlight on the organization's Street Party. Last year marked the sixth edition of the free event, supported by an OAC ArtSTART grant.

Traditionally, Street Party was held on Main Street, but unanticipated construction in 2025 lead the organizers to move the event to Pangle Pavilion at the Greater Lima Region Park and Amphitheater. This allowed Legacy Arts to reimagine the event and provide a new experience for visitors.

Every year, the event primarily centers dozens of local artists, makers, vendors, and musicians, and is supported by a team of dedicated volunteers. The 2025 Street Party was no different. An afternoon of music performances featured local bands alongside a guest duo from Chicago. There were also family-focused artmaking activities hosted by Legacy Arts and ArtSpace Lima.

Enjoy a selection of photos, courtesy of Legacy Arts

Two Ohio nonprofit theatres have received Shakespeare in American Communities grants, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. Combined, they will receive $52,500 of more than $1 million in funding across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Each will use the funding to support paid apprenticeships for early career administrators and technicians.

Read the full announcement at artsmidwest.org/about/updates/announcing-the-2026-shakespeare-in-american-communities-grantees/.

As work continues in the foundry, the figures of the Ohio Women’s Monument move closer to completion. Each bronze section is individually cast, refined, and assembled before becoming part of the final installation at the Ohio Statehouse. Even the smallest details, from facial expressions to hand placement, are carefully preserved through every stage of the process.

The monument represents generations of Ohio women whose impact helped shape communities, rights, education, and opportunities across the state. With each piece brought together, that history becomes more permanent and more visible for future generations.

Soon, students at Kalida High School (Putnam County) will be able to explore the world of rock & roll through a new class. The change in the school's curriculum has its roots in a recent TeachArtsOhio-supported residency, the focus of this week's .

The residency started with the idea of expanding student access to music education beyond the traditional experiences found in concert and marching bands. It also continued to build on the previous year's residency focused on establishing stronger foundations in percussion and rhythm studies across various grade levels through private and group lessons, focused time in K-6 music classrooms, expansion of the elementary percussion ensemble, and the integration of percussion in choral ensembles.

Throughout the 2025-2026 school year, students worked with Shane Roney—a percussionist, educator, and sought-after performer—to learn about the foundations of making music as a rock band. This included performance techniques like rhythms, improv, and how to work together as an ensemble. Students also had opportunities to perform in the community, including an end of the year concert which featured the three rock bands that formed during the residency.

Find out more about the final concert and hear about the impact of the residency at https://www.hometownstations.com/news/kalida-high-school-students-rock-the-stage-at-unique-end-of-year-concert/article_bb8c9581-e2b7-4da1-a409-05d14ef63319.html

Images courtesy of Kalida Local Schools and WLIO-Lima/Your News Now