Cincinnati has a history of artist-run spaces in spades. This project seeks to document them.

Arguably since the birth of our city, Cincinnati has been an incubator for experimental, outsider, and diy arts activities. Some would argue that it’s because we’re in a flyover state, or perhaps due to a lack of robust institutional support for local artists, or maybe it’s simply because of a lack of a strong collector and commercial gallery system that artists here are more willing to step outside of the conventional white-walled box to create unique art experiences. Whatever the reason, Cincinnati has a history of artist-run spaces in spades.

There is a joy, a freedom, a willingness to “make it work,” that is found almost solely in artist-run spaces. Artists identify a void in the offerings of the cultural centers in our region and aim to fill it. Often begun with little to no experience, budget, or supplies; these spaces become the ultimate learn as you go laboratories, and being artist-run, the spaces are often more artistic endeavors unto themselves than curatorial models at all.

There is a sincere and pressing need to archive these endeavors as part of the cultural legacy of Cincinnati. These spaces, consciously or subconsciously, play an impactful role in the cultural evolution of our region, the trajectory of hometown artist heroes, and the programmatic pivots adopted by some of our mainstay artist institutions.

For Fotofocus 2024, we are creating an audio/visual history tour of underground art spaces of Cincinnati. This will include a physical bus tour during the Biannual festivities, complete with an audio tour host, pre-recorded clips of interviews from artists and site organizers, as well as live entertainment for the times between sites. An open-air bus will be equipped with magnets/wraps for branding and a DJ to accompany the host as we travel between destinations. Each of the sites will include physical signage and a large photo print of the space when activated installed on the exterior of the building so folks can also tour the series on their own, using a QR code to listen to the audio segments for each created by artist and researcher Britni Bicknaver. A small photo booklet with the written histories will also be produced, designed by artist and administrator Calcagno Cullen, and archived with the library to live on as a physical archive documenting these stories.

This archived history will also exist online through a website and digital archive intended to continue to accumulate and grow as more histories are uncovered.