There are a lot of ways to stay on top of what’s happening in the arts in Greater Cincinnati — like reading arts and culture coverage in CityBeat every week. But finding a comprehensive calendar that covers the full array of the arts has been an elusive dream. Not so much now, thanks to ArtsWave, the organization behind the annual community-wide drive to raise more than $12 million in support of arts across the region.
Go to cincyartsguide.com and you’ll find a new, eminently searchable, user-friendly site that lets you apply filters such as date or art form to locate performances, exhibitions and events. You can look at specific categories such as music, theater, dance, museums, visual art, culture, heritage and festivals — and numerous subcategories.
So what prompted this great leap forward? ArtsWave has been doing some heavy-duty strategic planning that has shifted its perspective from hardcore fundraising for arts organizations to more of a focus on what arts consumers desire. With this new mindset, ArtsWave seeks to make its pursuit of support both more relevant and more immediate.
Alecia Kintner, ArtsWave’s president and CEO, says, “We’ve long recognized that Cincinnati’s arts organizations each contribute to making this region unique and vibrant. We believe that by working collectively, arts organizations can make a larger impact on broader community imperatives like talent, workforce development and cross-cultural understanding.”
Guiding ArtsWave’s efforts is a new “blueprint for collective action” that defines areas of activity supporting a vision for a more vibrant and a more connected community. In particular are assertions that “arts put Cincinnati on the map” and “arts deepen roots in the region.” Attracting talent, especially adults 40 and younger, to come to and stay in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky is a hoped-for outcome.
The creation of the Cincy Arts Guide is a tangible outgrowth of ArtsWave’s strategic planning. “For years, our donors and local arts organizations have asked for a calendar that includes all the arts events across the region,” says Kintner.
She adds that the site helps ArtsWave achieve its vision of arts participation and engagement in the community.
“Collaborative marketing of the region’s arts is a new role for ArtsWave, but one that makes sense,” she says. “As the region’s largest funder of the arts, we can coordinate efforts, leverage scale and amplify impact. The more people can discover events in their neighborhood and become actively engaged in the arts, the greater the ripple effect of benefits for our community.”
Cincy Arts Guide is a useful tool for numerous interests. Families can identify age-appropriate events for tots (ages 0-4), kids (5-12) and teens (13-18). There are categories for young professionals, free arts events, arts fundraisers and volunteer opportunities. ArtsWave plans to highlight streams of seasonal content, such as a collection of Halloween events during the month of October.
“We wanted to launch with content from as many organizations as possible, but we are really just getting started,” says Rebecca Bromels, who oversees communications and engagement for ArtsWave and manages the calendar project. “Now that the site is live, we are inviting more organizations, venues and performing arts groups to create free profiles and add content. Our goal is to include as many organizations and events as possible.”
In addition to the online calendar, ArtsWave is launching a second digital resource, Arts Atlas, a GIS mapping tool focused on arts education and neighborhoods. It offers maps that can be overlaid with regional data on demographics, socioeconomic factors and more to provide a better visual image of patterns and relationships.
According to Dr. Tara Townsend, ArtsWave’s chief impact strategy officer, Arts Atlas is an exciting next step in ArtsWave’s efforts to measure the social impact of the arts, demonstrating in a highly visual and interactive way how arts and culture play an integral role in the region.
For more information about ARTSWAVE’s Cincy Arts Guide, visit cincyartsguide.com.
This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 6, 2015.
