KENNEDY HEIGHTS ART CENTER
6546 Montgomery Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45213 www.kennedyarts.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: To enhance the life of the surrounding community through arts and cultural experiences that embrace diversity, foster creativity and build community.

Kennedy Heights Arts Center provides a wide range of arts education programs for diverse youth and adults, on our campus and in outreach locations including schools and libraries. Through classes, workshops, summer camps, and artist residencies, students learned from and worked alongside professional artists in a variety of mediums such as drawing, painting, ceramics, fiber arts, animation, and game design. Kennedy Heights Arts Center partnered with public elementary school Woodford Academy to implement an Arts and Culture initiative, offering a rigorous, standards-based curriculum enriched by the powerful and expressive force of the arts. Activities included: artists-in-residence, fine arts field studies, and teacher professional development training in arts integration. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, arts education programs were offered remotely through a combination of virtual/online learning and take-home kits. KHAC provided 2,760 free Creativity Kits to families, distributed along with free meals at a local school. High school students collaborated to produce Tellus Zine, an online publication of art and writing by teens, for teens. Artist-in-residence Leesa Haapapuro collaborated remotely with area residents to create a series on outdoor art installations sharing messages of hope using "floriography", the coded language of flowers.

In 2020, Kennedy Heights Arts Center (KHAC) presented 7 art exhibitions featuring established and emerging artists in a diverse range of media. We opened the year with Revolutionary: Being American Today, diverse artists exploring what it means to be a citizen in the United States. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we presented our annual student art exhibition online; and we created an outdoor gallery with ten display boards installed along the driveway, allowing visitors to view the exhibitions as a drive-through experience or explore on foot. UPRISING featured works by ten Black artists calling for racial justice. Retold, a collaboration with the Art Academy of Cincinnati, featured commissioned new works by AAC alumni re-envisioning traditional winter holiday folktales with a contemporary lens.

While community events and group gatherings were limited this year due to COVID-related safety concerns, Kennedy Heights Arts Center employed creative, socially-distanced approaches to help residents feel connected. In Play in the Street, KHAC collaborated with local artists to create pop-up experiences for resident in 4 less resourced areas in the neighborhood, sharing free food, music and arts activities for residents of all ages. As our Joy Mobile travelled down streets, neighbors joined in the fun safely from their front yards and porches. We partnered with Episcopal Retirement Services on Joy Delivery, a program to help reduce isolation for area seniors. Residents were invited to create handmade items and cards, using take-home kits, which were delivered to older adults living in ERS facilities.

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