Instead of presenting its fifth FotoFocus Biennial and lens-based art celebration in October 2020, the nonprofit organization has decided to gift its budget to its Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Columbus and Dayton partner arts organizations and venues. That means there will be no FotoFocus event this year, but the nonprofit is instead investing in the future of art in the region.
According to a release, FotoFocus will “grant an immediate and unrestricted $800,000 to over 100 Participating Venues and Partners that were selected to present as part of the 2020 FotoFocus Biennial.”
“After many discussions about how we should move forward with this year’s FotoFocus Biennial, we kept coming back to the same conclusion — the best thing we can do to help the arts survive this crisis is reconfigure our grantmaking,” said Mary Ellen Goeke, FotoFocus executive director. “We are about to move into our second decade and we need our community with us. We hope this money will help our partners get by at the time they need it most,”
The list of major grantees includes the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati Art Museum, Taft Museum of Art, Wave Pool and Weston Art Gallery in Cincinnati; the Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus; the Dayton Art Institute in Dayton; and The Carnegie in Covington.
The release says, “The $800,000 is inclusive of all grants that would have originally gone to these venues for Biennial programming, plus an additional 10% for each grant in honor of FotoFocus’s tenth anniversary.”
In addition to those arts bastions, FotoFocus is gifting 15 academic institutions with more than $177,000 (collectively). Those include the Art Academy of Cincinnati, Miami University, University of Cincinnati and Xavier University in Cincinnati; Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus; Wright State University in Dayton; Northern Kentucky University and Thomas More University in Northern Kentucky.
They will also support smaller venues with their grant, including Art Beyond Boundaries, Basketshop, Clay Street Press, Kennedy Heights Art Center, Manifest Gallery, PAR-Projects and Visionaries + Voices in Cincinnati and The Contemporary Dayton in Dayton.
“The theme light& is as timely as ever: our response to this crisis, and to going forward as an organization, is to choose hopefulness over isolation, support over attrition,” said Kevin Moore, FotoFocus artistic director and curator. “We are choosing the silver lining, which is to reaffirm our creative community and to use the time, and funding, to create an even brighter future.”
The next FotoFocus Biennial will take place in October 2022.
Here is a full list of venues that received grants, provided by FotoFocus:
- 1305 Gallery
- 1628 Ltd
- 21c Museum Hotel
- Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery
- Antioch College: Herndon Gallery
- Art Academy of Cincinnati: Convergys Gallery
- Art Academy of Cincinnati: Ruthe G. Pearlman Gallery
- Art Beyond Boundaries Gallery
- ArtWorks
- The Baker Hunt Art & Cultural Center
- BasketShop
- Beeler Gallery at Columbus College of Art & Design
- Behringer-Crawford Museum
- Blockfort Gallery
- The Blue House Gallery
- Brazee Gallery at Brazee Street Studios
- CampSITE Social Sculpture Park
- The Carnegie
- Christ Church Cathedral: Gallery South
- Cincinnati Art Museum
- Cincinnati Preservation Association at the Cincinnati Museum Center
- Cincinnati State Student Lounge Gallery
- Clay Street Press and Gallery
- Clifton Cultural Arts Center
- Contemporary Art Matters
- Contemporary Arts Center
- The Contemporary Dayton
- DAAP Galleries:: Meyers Gallery, University of Cincinnati
- DAAP Galleries:: Reed Gallery, University of Cincinnati
- The Dayton Art Institute
- Dayton Society of Artists
- Dick Waller’s ArtPlace
- DIY Printing
- Eisele Gallery of Fine Art
- Eva G. Farris Gallery at Thomas More University
- Evendale Cultural Arts Center
- Fitton Center for Creative Arts
- Hoffner Lodge Gallery
- i.imagine at the Purple People Bridge
- Indian Hill Gallery
- Iris BookCafé and Gallery
- Keily Gallery
- Kennedy Heights Arts Center
- Ledge Gallery at the Brew House
- Lloyd Library and Museum
- The Lodge KY
- Manifest Drawing Center
- Manifest Gallery
- Memorial Hall
- Miami University Art Museum
- Miami University Center for Community Engagement
- Miami University College of Creative Arts
- Miller Gallery
- The Mohawk Gallery at Robin Imaging
- Mount St. Joseph University: Studio San Giuseppe Art Gallery
- Northern Kentucky University: Visual Arts Galleries
- Off Ludlow Gallery
- OTR Bagel Bar
- Oxford Community Arts Center
- PAR-Projects: Studeō PAR-
- PAR-Projects: The Nook
- Pendleton Street Photography
- PIQUE
- Pizzuti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art
- POPPED ART
- Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum
- Redtree Art Gallery & Coffee Shop
- Rosewood Arts Centre: Rosewood Gallery
- ROY G BIV Gallery
- Ruth’s Parkside Café
- Sidewinder Coffee
- Sinclair Community College: Burnell R. Roberts Triangle Gallery
- St. John’s Unitarian Universalist Church: Haehnle Gallery
- Stair House
- Stivers School for the Arts: Fifth Street Gallery
- The Summit Hotel
- Taft Museum of Art
- University of Cincinnati Clermont College: Park National Bank Art Gallery
- University of Cincinnati: Tabula Rasa Gallery
- University of Dayton: Radial Gallery
- Visionaries + Voices Northside Gallery
- Wash Park Art Gallery
- Wave Pool
- The Welcome Project
- Woman’s Art Club Cultural Center: The Barn
- The Woodward Theater
- Wright State University: Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries
- Xavier University Art Gallery at Gallagher Student Center
- Xavier University Art Gallery at the A.B. Cohen Center
- Xavier University Library
Find more information about FotoFocus at fotofocus.org.
This article appears in Apr 15 – May 5, 2020.
