Art Program Celebrates Ten Years, Creates Community and Campus Sculptures

An innovative arts program that teams local youth with DAAP students is celebrating its 10th anniversary. As part of the celebration, youth and students in the program created two sculptures - one now installed in DAAP and the other located in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.

For the past ten years, the University of Cincinnati's Art in the Market program has mobilized local urban teens and students within the internationally ranked College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning to aid and improve local neighborhoods - specifically Findlay Market in Over-the-Rhine - by creating public art.

Past projects have included murals, banners, benches, chairs, planters, sculptures, street signs and even brightly painted playgrounds.

The teens involved in the program not only collaborate in designing and creating the public art projects, they also attend art-related courses in DAAP.

During spring quarter 2008, 13 DAAP students teamed with ten local high schoolers to create two celebratory public sculptures to mark the 10th anniversary of the program. One sculpture was placed in Over-the-Rhine while the other was installed in DAAP. The students worked under the direction of Flavia Bastos, associate professor of art education, and UC alumna Deb Brod, an artist in residence at the college. Brod's participation in the Art in the Market program was funded by the Ohio Arts Council's Artist-in-Residence program.
Art in the Market students
Students carry one of the Art in the Market sculptures in UC's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning.

According to Bastos, the Art in the Market program serves the local community in many ways. It honors and adds to the 19th-century architectural heritage of Over-the-Rhine and Findlay Market, which was established in 1885 and is one of the oldest operating public markets in the United States.

The program also provides what is often the first experience that local youth have with the arts. "For many of the teens," said Bastos, "It can be the first time that they are creating artwork that reflects and gives voice to community issues and concerns. They learn to give creative expression to ideas and feelings both generally and individually."

And in so doing, the local teens and the DAAP students they work with become a community unto themselves, often forging close bonds. That community atmosphere within the project was what planning student Anthony Bridgewater, 23, from Trinidad, found when he enrolled in the spring quarter Art in the Market effort.

"The best part was the atmosphere in the class," he said. "We had a range of activities throughout the quarter, lots of personal interaction among a wonderful group of people along with hands-on work. It was busy but relaxed, a great environment."

He added that he appreciated, as a university student, the chance to play a role in the lives of local youth. "The program provides the teens exposure to college generally and to DAAP specifically. It increases their interest in college because they see all the great work coming out of this program and out of the college as a whole. We DAAP students are role models for them, and it's great to know we may play a part in changing someone's life. Not to mention that we're changing the face of the community."
Flavia Bastos and AITM students
Flavia Bastos and Art in the Market students hang one of the recently made sculptures in DAAP.

The sculptures just created are brightly painted wood slats bearing the names of students involved in the Art in the Market project. The sculpture placed above the DAAP café will be seen by the college's 4,000 students daily. The sculpture placed in Over-the-Rhine will be viewed by hundreds of thousands of pedestrians every year. It's estimated that 250,000 people visit Findlay Market annually.

The Art in the Market program has received funding from The Ohio Arts Council and support from the Corporation for Findlay Market and UC's art education program.