Staci Dennison is with the Cincinnati Museum Center, advancing arts and culture priorities for the past 8 years across our region and state. She is this year’s Ohio Museum Association’s Museum Professional of the Year award.

Cincinnati is “singing” as an art-rich and artist-friendly city. Seven individual artist grants of up to $6000 will be awarded through a new Artist Fellowship program.

Starting June 26, 2012, the City will be accepting applications from individual artists who work professionally in art disciplines, including but not limited to dance, music, theatre & visual arts, poetry/fiction writing, interdisciplinary/performance art, and media arts. The applicant must be a City of Cincinnati resident during the entire duration of the program, July 1, 2012 – May 31, 2012. The program is being administered through the Cincinnati Recreation Department.

Mayor Mallory has appointed a new Cincinnati Arts Allocation Committee to select the winning local artists.  The group has tweaked and streamlined the application and reporting process and will choose up to a dozen finalists to be interviewed in September, before final selection of the seven Art Fellowship recipients. CAAC Fellowship Chair Todd Wurzbacher will present details of the new Art Fellowship program Tuesday, June 26 at noon in Council’s Strategic Growth Committee.

Councilmember Laure Quinlivan got Council support for $50,000 in funding for individual artist grants and came up with idea to have winning artists participate in two public presentation/performances at the end of the grant period, to showcase their artwork and explain their inspiration.

“The public performances by artists next spring at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center and Emery Theatre will add excitement and involve citizens,” says Quinlivan.

A former winner of the city’s individual artist grant program, now on the CAAC selection committee, is visual artist Cedric Michael Cox. “It’s an honor to support local artists who will launch a new era for Cincinnati being recognized nationally as a strong arts community,” says Cox.

“Arts Fellowships will make Cincinnati a more creative place to live, work and play,” says CAAC member Tracey Lynn Conrad.

 To apply: http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/arts/.

Cincinnati Arts Allocation Committee Members

 CAAC Chairman Todd Wurzbacher is President and owner of Novastar Group LLC, with a background in both venture capital and government affairs. He serves on the Board of Trustees of both the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Contemporary Art Center.

CAAC Vice Chair Carla Walker is President and CEO of her own project management consulting firm. She served as Chief of Staff to Cincinnati Mark Mallory from 2005 to 2010.

Jan Brown Checco is Art Administrator for the Cincinnati Park Board, designer and project manager for the Black Brigade Monument in Smale Riverfront Park, and the designer of the past five Butterfly Shows at Krohn Conservatory.

Cedric Michael Cox is an artist best known for his paintings and drawings, which fall between surrealism and representational abstraction. The City of Cincinnati awarded Cox the Individual Artist Grant in 2009.

Tracey Lynn Conrad is the President of the Young Philanthropist Society of Cincinnati, Center Stage Board Associate of the Cincinnati Opera Board of Trustees, Executive Board Member of Mayor Mallory’s Young Professional Kitchen Cabinet. She also volunteers for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, May Festival, ArtsWave, and the Junior League of Cincinnati.

Staci Dennison is with the Cincinnati Museum Center, advancing arts and culture priorities for the past 8 years across our region and state. She is this year’s Ohio Museum Association’s Museum Professional of the Year award.

Kate Kern is a visual artist who makes drawings, artists’ books and installations. She has been an artist in residence through the OAC’s Arts Learning program for more than twenty years, and the recipient of a Cincinnati Individual Artist Grant.