BLINK Cincinnati releases map to find must-see installations here

frame. Yeah, Thanks josh. Alright. Hello everybody. Can you hear me okay? Great, Great, Well thank you all so much for being here today. It’s so great to be here. Um to be joined by our partners, our collaborators and our supporters and talking about what this year’s blink is gonna look like. So we’re right at about the 80 day mark until blinks gonna be kicking off. So *** little under three months. And we’re really excited to be here with you today to share *** little bit about some of the artists and the collaborators that are helping to make this year’s event possible. So, joining me here in *** little bit, is gonna be the rest of the partner group. That’s gonna share *** little bit about our wave one artist announcement that’s going live this morning. Um you know, I have *** lot of energy this morning. I feel like it was *** really vibrant weekend in the city. And, you know, between Cincinnati Music Festival, I learned that Commissioner Alicia Reece, that was *** really good party this weekend when I went to the black Music walk of Fame induction ceremony. And as I was out and you know, really out in the city and seeing the vibrancy seeing people hopping the streetcar and seeing people active as *** new resident of Cincinnati was really encouraging for me. And I was just coming in today, just thinking about how in 80 days we’re gonna have people excited by all we’re bringing to blink this year. So I’m gonna keep my remarks short because I want to get the opportunity for some other people to talk *** little bit about what this year’s blinks gonna look like and all the incredible artists that we’re working with to make this year’s event possible. But first I want to thank *** few people for making this year’s event possible. Mostly I want to make sure to thank our team at Arts Wave. So I want to thank Alicia Kittner. Um, President Ceo of Arts wave for being are illuminated by sponsor. Um, Alicia and her team do so much to support the arts in this community and making it possible is *** huge part of what they’re doing this year to really bring the arts back in *** vibrant and enthusiastic way. So please join me in welcoming Alicia Kittner presidency of Arts Wave to share *** little bit. Thanks so much and good morning everyone. Arts wave is thrilled to return as blinks, illuminating sponsor. One of the things we’re most excited about this year is the caliber of the artists and visionaries and partners that have been assembled and selected to transform our city once again into an illuminated animated multisensory art experience. Like no other Arts wave is the Cincinnati regions engine for the arts, fueling big events like blank with the support of tens of thousands of individual donors. This year’s 2022 arts wave community campaign is our 83rd consecutive year bringing the public together in support of the arts. Your gift to arts wave. Makes big things possible like blank. And it fuels hundreds of additional arts experiences by the region’s many phenomenal artists and arts organizations, blink is *** free public art event. Over four spectacular days. We invite everyone who enjoys it to consider *** donation to Arts Wave to enable and support great experiences like this and the incredible artists that we’ll be hearing about. And from today, the creative team behind blank, led by its first executive director, Justin Brookhart. The creative team has already done *** phenomenal job putting the pieces in place for an amazing experience. I couldn’t be more impressed with their imagination and the quality of execution that all the partners have demonstrated thus far Art. So I can’t wait to welcome the region’s residents and guests to experience our city and invite them to immerse themselves in an elevated art event that will be blank 2022. I’d now like to introduce another arts visionary who had *** marvelous weekend Hamilton County Commissioner. Alicia Reece who also has *** great something about the name Alicia. Great, great moms. Think *** lot that’s *** t shirt creators. Um, I’m excited to be here. I am *** little tired because we had an incredible weekend and not just that weekend. I also had emergency knee surgery. So I’ve been down for two weeks and on crutches and I just got off my crutches last week. So I’m just happy to be standing. But let me just say on behalf of the Hamilton county board of commissioners, I’m the vice president, Stephanie Some road Dumas is President and commissioner Denise Driehaus. We know how important the arts are to our community, we know how important tourism is to our community and we also know how important economic development is to our community. So we decided that we would make two very important investments to bring back to important events that bring *** lot of economic impact to Hamilton County to the city of Cincinnati and all the 48 other municipalities. And so we made *** major Investment in assisted music festival for the first time. $690,000. We also made an investment in blink that we’re happy to be one of the presenting sponsors or either the presenting sponsor at $720,000. Uh, so we definitely put our money where our mouth is. We believe that these events are important for the vibrancy, the future of our county. It puts us on the map, not only citywide statewide, Countywide but also nationally and internationally. So we’re excited to be *** part of that. We have invested in the newest tourism attraction called the Cincinnati Black Music Walk of fame and we are building it on the Ohio Banks across from Paul Brown Stadium and next to the Andrew brady music center. We’re creating *** music corridor for the first time in history on the banks. And so this weekend we had our dedication and second class of inductees. Uh now we have eight total, we’ve got Bootsy Collins dr Charles fold, we have Wilbert Longmire, we have Penny forward, we have the Eisley Brothers. Uh we also have Hi Tech, we have Midnight Star that I miss any Quentin because those early in the morning and we have Otis Williams of Otis Williams and the charms and so the stars were put in the ground for the first time. And so we are excited that this year, not only are we making *** financial, major financial investment into blink, we’re excited about the new leadership and what’s gonna happen. We’re excited about the partnership, the diversity and the creatives that will bring this to light and will be have will become an international thing where people can come from all over the world. But more importantly, we’re excited that our newest tourism attraction, which is still being built and developed, is going to be interactive. It has technology when they were putting it together and tell them, bring me Disney world, we have *** retiree from Disney World that is putting all of the technology and it will be open on twice 23. So blink, we have *** we have *** huge event this weekend, 3000 people people from all over. It was great. It was, I mean I had someone tell me it was better than the Hollywood walk of fame induction. Better than any other and they were from Hollywood. Uh so we have the momentum and now blink is gonna take us into the technology world, into the creative world and it’s gonna have this illumination. And so this is today were announced that we’re happy to have that partnership as one of the major locations for blink. And I’m excited to be able to work with the creatives uh to help curate what’s gonna come to life through *** major outstanding illuminated futuristic activation. So thank you all so much. And uh I’m excited to get to work. Well, give me two days to get to work in two days. Thank you so much. Mr Reese. Um blink has only made possible thanks to our incredible supporters like Arts Wave and and like the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners. It’s also only made possible because of the incredible partnerships that uh we’re able to really bring the level of collaboration to life. So I’m excited to be joined up here by some of those partners um here in *** second. I’m gonna introduce Andrew Salzberg from one of the co founders of blink. Um the team at Agar, but here joined with me today is also some focus on the team at artworks and then some new partners with us that we joined and added to the collaborative circle this year. The team at cincy, nice building destiny thomas, we’re really excited to have here with us and the team at ish as well. We’re really excited about having them come on board as our parade partner this year. And they’re gonna be sharing *** little bit about this year’s blink parade and *** little bit about one of the installations that they’re working with on one of those international artists that we’re announcing here today. So please join me in welcoming Andrew up to the, to the microphone. Thanks. It’s tough to follow you Alicia who brought *** lot of energy that I think *** lot of us are still trying to find this monday morning. So thank you for setting the bar so high. Uh, Good morning guys. My name is Andrew Salzberg run. And uh, as one of the co founders of blank, really just thrilled to get into this final thrust before our third edition of blank. And you know what I want to talk about today is *** little bit of *** look back in the history books. Uh, we’ve we’ve been working on the idea of blink for, for almost *** decade now, which is crazy to think about because it feels very fast. Um, and, and one of the things that we set out to do *** decade ago was to work towards this idea of *** future city and to be able to take the Cincinnati region and put it on the world stage. And so what I’m really thrilled by in this announcement today is the fact that I think we we have done that um this year’s event is gonna be unlike the previous two and that we are bringing in some of the best artists in the world and we’ve done that through *** new process of doing an international called artists and the artists have responded. And while we’re doing that we also want to give the biggest opportunities to our local artists to be on the world stage. And so um we’ve got some of those artists here today, they’re gonna tell you *** little bit about some of the things that they’re working on. Uh and I’ll let them do that. But I wanted to call out some of the highlights to for some interesting collaborations that I think are gonna make blink really special this year. Um That looks like bringing in *** Portuguese muralist named add Fuel who is going to be collaborating with the Rookwood pottery company who his work is informed by historic tile patterns. And we couldn’t think of *** better way to uh share our heritage in in that art form by bringing them together to work on this project. We’re also doing *** collaboration between Australian visual artist Wendy. You and our local Elements Cultural Center that I think you may have seen *** couple behind the scenes sneak peeks over the last two weeks as we began that project doing some some filming at Light Born. Uh it’s gonna be pretty pretty fantastic. And then um and finally to uh wanted to announce our our mural led by uh London based artist Chantelle Martin who is also collaborating on that project with artworks and their new mural studio. Um so you can see where some of these synergies and these crossovers are happening on *** global scale. We’re just thrilled by that. We’re excited about um uh this announcement and the multiple more that still have to come, this is *** slice of *** very, very big pie that we’re just honored to be *** part of and um I’m gonna hand it over to destiny thomas to talk *** little bit about what uh since the nice is bringing to the table and then we’re gonna hand it to some of the local artists to talk about their work as well. Yeah, I’ll just keep it *** little broader, I think we are just so excited for blink to be returning this year and to be part of the team. We’ve been I’ve been behind the scenes *** little bit in 2019 working on the event on the operation side. Um we had the honor to kind of create an insulation uh in 2019 that really imagined how we can use this blink platform to open up um opportunities for even more diversity and more viewpoints and we’re excited to kind of elevate that even further. Um you’ll see there’s there’s so many more artists to be announced. Um but you’ll find that some of the partnerships and collaborations really cross, I mean, international lines uh definitely cultural lines, there’s *** lot of sense of of the artists this year that have been selected to really look at these themes of identity and humanity. It’s been three years since we’ve been able to put this event on *** lot has changed, *** lot of *** lot has happened *** lot as *** team has happened in terms of of figuring out how best we bring this back and keep people safe and and also really looking to To be *** little more thought provoking and um to push uh the art even further. Um and we’re just really excited to be part of that. Um there’s I mean, I think there’s like 25 artists or so that got announced, that’s *** tiny person. Um and outside of that percentage you have the artists that are working together to help those artists put it together. And it’s it’s just the multitude of what this um event provides for the city is super incredible to see from from this side and and to be part of helping to share that all. Um and then I would love to bring up artworks um to share *** little bit more about what you guys are working on. Yeah, morning, everybody, I’m Liz miller, I’m the director of creative projects at artworks. Um as Andrew mentioned, um we have the opportunity this year to get our youth apprentices involved in the artwork in *** new way. So collaborating with Chantelle martin, um, the, the studios are first year round employment opportunity for local young adults aged 18 to 24. So they’re going to have the opportunity to work directly on that mural. But we are also collaborating with Massari Studios out of boston. Um, For those of you that were with us in 2019, you probably remember the bridge being lit up. Um, that is misery. And we have four local youth apprentices that are going to collaborate from afar with miss, sorry to bring an addition of their project massively distributed to Cincinnati for blank. So we are just thrilled. Um, and that is just *** small snapshot, high level view of how our apprentices are gonna be involved this year. So with that Megan with the print, Good morning everyone. My name is Megan role and I’m the director of programs and operations at ish. So Ish is *** community engagement organization centering jewish arts and cultural traditions to bring people together and we’re just thrilled to be the producing partner this year on the blank parade. Um, so currently the parade. Um, call for applications is open so people can go to blank’s website and apply to be part of the parade to bring, you know, floats and kinetic sculptures and lanterns and all kinds of, you know, performances to the streets of Cincinnati on October 13 for the parade. Um, and if people are wanting to learn *** little bit more about how they can be involved as we do have some new um opportunities around the parade this year. We actually have um an info session tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. so that will be at the kenton County Public Library at the Covington’s branch on Scott Street. Um, so we hope to see *** lot of people there to just learn about how their organization and group can be involved in the parade. Um, another thing that was mentioned was that Ish is working with O G. E, which is an amazing um social light architectural group from Israel. Um so they’ll be coming over from Israel to create *** an amazing inflatable installation called together and they’re looking for um, you know, the community to be involved and to interact with the piece by contributing images of butterflies, flowers and birds. So you can go to the festival website, which is ish festival dot org. So, I S H festival dot org to upload your imagery so that you can see them um, you know, projected onto this beautiful installation um during blink. So yeah, thank you everybody thanks so much Megan and thanks again to all the partners for all the work that you do behind the scenes to make this event possible. I really wanna, you know, turn the microphone over now to *** lot of the true talent and the true stars of blink and that really is our incredible artists and collaborators. So we have ***, *** few that are standing in the back, if y’all wouldn’t mind if anyone wants to come up here and join us, you can come up as *** group, Don’t be shy, feel free Damien, if you want to come up here as they’re kind of joining us, I’ll, I’m first gonna pass it over to, to Damien Hoskins from, from elements. So giving you the heads up now, Damien, um, uh, and you mentioned *** little bit of the collaboration that we’re working with, with the elements, um, this year. So we’re working with this really incredible um, Australian based visual artist named Wendy. You and when Wendy first reached out and said, hey, I’d love to bring an installation to this year’s blink. She said, you know what I do is I really capture movement and dance. And I really want to make sure that I’m showing off the form, the athleticism, the beauty and their performances. But I’m based here in Australia. You’re in Cincinnati Ohio, I don’t know any folks there who can you put us in touch with that could help curate um, some dance performances for us so that I’m capturing local dancers so that we’re keeping this event with an international flavor and still having *** local connection and um, I happen to be introduced to Damien by email. I believe it was from arts wave actually. Um, and Damien was so kind and generous. Damian said, hey you’re new in town, there’s probably *** million people pitching you projects. I don’t want to pitch you *** project. And I said, well I actually want to pitch you *** project, Damian. So um I want to invite Damien up to talk *** little bit about elements of collaboration in this year’s event. It was actually pretty serendipitous. We were sitting in, I’m Damien Hoskins by the way, executive director of Elements hip hop Cultural Arts Center. We were sitting in our office trying to figure out how to engage in blink. We’ve participated as we were patrons of blink for the last few years. Uh but we weren’t necessarily *** part of blink and uh you know, as *** hip hop cultural arts center, we were really sort of trying to focus on leveraging and incorporating hip hop cultural art into blink as *** broader construct, these wonderful dancers in our in our midst. And one of them brought up the notion of the movie, I don’t know, I’m gonna test you guys real quick. The movie The Wiz, right? There’s *** scene in the movie, The Wiz. Thank you miss Council. That’s right. So there’s *** scene when Dorothy goes into Oz and she meets the munchkins and they are painted on the wall. Uh they’re stuck there as graffiti and then these are all Alvin Ailey dancers and then they come to life and the thought was, could we do something similar for blink And then serendipitously I get an email from just uh from Janice Liebenberg to introduce me to Justin and then Justin said have this wonderful artist out of Australia who does light based kinetic performances. And I said well we got an idea, so let’s bring some stuff together. And this was really sort of the birth of this, this this idea, Camille jones who is our senior manager of advancement really and she’s also *** wonderful hip hop dancer, brought the idea to bear this collaboration again as serendipitous and as *** hip hop cultural arts center we’re super excited about about bring these two worlds together. I also used to work for arts waves. So I’m really really intentional about doing the kind of work that bridges cultural divides. Uh and I think this does that on an international level and as well as on *** local level. And then we’re also really keen about about fueling creativity and learning. And so we basically also want to provide an opportunity for the young people that we serve to see every aspect of creative cultural events, the creative economy uh seeing it from the production side as well as the performance side. So this for us I think is going to be *** major step in something that’s completely futuristic and future bound. And we’re really, I’m super excited about the opportunity. So thanks again to Justin who is now one of my new best friends Uh, and also thanks to Arts wave and and Alicia Reece and everyone who has provided the kind of support that’s necessary to put Cincinnati on the map and it’s really, really important, meaningful and sustainable way. Thanks, thank you so much Damien. I appreciate and that’s just *** lesson. If you email me, I will pitch you an idea. Um, no, I’m kidding. Um, next up, I wanna invite another collaborator and another new friend, um, Michael Copepods. Sorry, Michael, I didn’t want to get it wrong on microphone, but I want to invite Michael up to tell *** little bit about the work that he’s done, I’ve learned *** lot about Michael’s work just over the past few months and the way he travels with the work and really the intentionality behind what it does, and I think this is part of the sort of new flavor and *** little bit of some of the new inspiration *** little bit more. The thought provoking work that we’re hoping to bring to blink this year. The destiny alluded to. So please join me in welcoming Michael to share *** little bit about his project. Good morning I too. I’m suffering from the lingering effects of the weekend. So if uh, if I stammer, you know, give me some Grace. Uh my name is Michael Capaz, I’m the creator of Black Box. Black Box is *** community engagement project aimed at grounding black people in their humanity. Uh Black Box has reached over *** million unique individuals in 14 countries, six states, and Puerto rico. Uh and I’m extremely fortunate to be *** part of blink. This year I’ll be doing *** 40 ft 2 60 ft install on the facade of the Aronoff. Um and I turned it, I plan to turn one of my guys into *** care basically. Uh he’s kind of spreading love enjoy and messages, uh, positivity affirmations, uh just, you know, in consideration of the collective trauma that we’ve all gone through in the last few years. Uh I really wanna ground this project and humanity for for everyone that comes into contact with it. So hopefully folks will have *** sense of joy, *** sense of wonder. Uh they’ll leave saying that was awesome. And uh and it’ll be one of the fan faves. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. Um next joining us here is another artist that I’ve gotten to know *** little bit over the past few months, but it’s been *** long time blink collaborator. Um please join me in welcoming Jason Snell up to the microphone to share *** little bit about his project. Jason. Yeah, thanks again for coming out this morning. Um Wonderful artists, supporters collaborators. I’m super excited. I’ve been able to work with blank for the, for its beginning. Actually working with the charlie harper estate, working to tell, help to tell the King Records story on on some pieces throughout the city. Um I’m just really excited this year working with artworks on the 100th mural, I designed Ezra Charles to bring that to life. Um So many great artists involved with that were *** little older now, but *** lot of fun to bring them back. And I’m really excited. You guys have heard from from Michael to work *** little bit. I don’t wanna give too much away, but I mean I’m really excited to work to work with him, *** big fan of his work and just discovering him as well. So yeah, thank you guys for having me back, I really appreciate it. Thank you, Jason. And then please join me in welcoming another attorney artist for us this year. Mallory felts wanna have Mallory join us to talk *** little bit about her project. Thank you. Thank you everyone again. My name is Mallory felt, I’m *** Cincinnati artist, *** sculptor and installation artist. And I am truly honored to have been selected again for this is my third year participating in blink. So in 2017 I created *** piece called Easy breezy, which was um suspended umbrellas in the Michael Bay knee alley where people could walk through and motion sensors allowed those umbrellas to dance. Um in 2019 I created *** series of seven giant night lights that were installed around Findlay market again with motion sensors so that when people walked by the night lights would illuminate. So, participation is *** big thing, interactivity is *** big thing in my work. Um also using familiar objects, night lights, umbrellas, things that people recognize in my work because blink is open to everyone and it’s accessible for everyone. And that’s really important for art to share creativity and discovery and joy and wonder. And that’s the beauty of blink. That’s what it does for everyone who gets to visit. So for this year I’m creating *** piece called linger which again will use common household objects, but it will also have an interactive part to that piece as well. So people directly get involved with the artwork and that’s really important and I think that’s one of the best things about blank people can be *** part of it. So thank you, thank you so much Mallory. Um thank you everyone for coming out here. Those are all the guest speakers for today, but happy to answer any questions myself and the partners will be happy to to answer any questions the group may have about this year’s event. If not we are fine concluding, Thank you all again for

Navigating BLINK Cincinnati: Use this map to find all the must-see installations here

Updated: 2:33 PM EDT Oct 3, 2022

Want to know where to go during the BLINK light festival? Look no further.Organizers of the glowing lights adventure released the official installation map for 2022.There will be 101 installations that span over 30 city blocks from Cincinnati into Covington.“After months of organizing, seeing BLINK officially take shape is amazing,” Andrew Salzbrun, Managing Partner of AGAR, and Executive Partner of BLINK, said in a statement. “Over the next 10 days, Cincinnati and Covington will begin to see artists transforming familiar places and bringing their installations to life.” The map categorizes the installations by mural, lighted installations, lighting effects, music and more.Several Cincinnati landmarks will be featured, including Fountain Square, TQL Stadium, the Freedom Center and more.There will also be vendors participating, including Asianati, which will open an Asian Night Market during the lights festival, bringing the sights and sounds of a traditional night market experience to BLINK.The BLINK parade route will be announced later this week. “We’re so excited to share BLINK with the Cincinnati region,” Justin Brookhart, Executive Director of BLINK, said in a statement. “The collaborations with so many artists and individuals within the community make BLINK truly a nowhere else experience.” Click here to view the map. A digital version of the map will be released on Oct. 11. The art, light and culture festival is returning from Oct. 13-16. So far, there have been two widely popular BLINK festivals — with the last in 2019. Spanning more than 30 city blocks, BLINK includes hundreds of art installations – the largest light, art and culture event of its kind in the nation.So, what is BLINK exactly? It’s an outdoor art phenomenon, with 100 installations, including large-scale projection mappings, murals and interactive light sculptures and art. The city will literally be glowing — from luminous facades to twinkling alleyways.The inaugural four-night event in 2017 saw the largest gathering of people ever in downtown Cincinnati and Over-the-Rhine. Organizers recruit local, national and international artists to partake in the massive citywide extravaganza.This year’s event will return under new leadership. Justin Brookhart has been named the executive director of BLINK Cincinnati. Brookhart has more than 15 years of working in the private sector and nonprofit group leadership experience in the arts and culture space and will lead the collaborative of producing partners, including AGAR, ArtWorks, Brave Berlin, the Haile Foundation and the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.

CINCINNATI —

Want to know where to go during the BLINK light festival? Look no further.

Organizers of the glowing lights adventure released the official installation map for 2022.

BLINK Cincinnati

There will be 101 installations that span over 30 city blocks from Cincinnati into Covington.

“After months of organizing, seeing BLINK officially take shape is amazing,” Andrew Salzbrun, Managing Partner of AGAR, and Executive Partner of BLINK, said in a statement. “Over the next 10 days, Cincinnati and Covington will begin to see artists transforming familiar places and bringing their installations to life.”

The map categorizes the installations by mural, lighted installations, lighting effects, music and more.

Several Cincinnati landmarks will be featured, including Fountain Square, TQL Stadium, the Freedom Center and more.

There will also be vendors participating, including Asianati, which will open an Asian Night Market during the lights festival, bringing the sights and sounds of a traditional night market experience to BLINK.

The BLINK parade route will be announced later this week.

“We’re so excited to share BLINK with the Cincinnati region,” Justin Brookhart, Executive Director of BLINK, said in a statement. “The collaborations with so many artists and individuals within the community make BLINK truly a nowhere else experience.”

Click here to view the map. A digital version of the map will be released on Oct. 11.

The art, light and culture festival is returning from Oct. 13-16.

So far, there have been two widely popular BLINK festivals — with the last in 2019. Spanning more than 30 city blocks, BLINK includes hundreds of art installations – the largest light, art and culture event of its kind in the nation.

So, what is BLINK exactly? It’s an outdoor art phenomenon, with 100 installations, including large-scale projection mappings, murals and interactive light sculptures and art. The city will literally be glowing — from luminous facades to twinkling alleyways.

The inaugural four-night event in 2017 saw the largest gathering of people ever in downtown Cincinnati and Over-the-Rhine. Organizers recruit local, national and international artists to partake in the massive citywide extravaganza.

This year’s event will return under new leadership. Justin Brookhart has been named the executive director of BLINK Cincinnati. Brookhart has more than 15 years of working in the private sector and nonprofit group leadership experience in the arts and culture space and will lead the collaborative of producing partners, including AGAR, ArtWorks, Brave Berlin, the Haile Foundation and the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.