UC Art Collection
History of the UC Art Collection
The Art Collection at the University of Cincinnati is an important resource for the University, local arts community, and for the region. Ranging from Greek and Roman antiquities to Local Icons and Modern Photography, the Collection spans a wide array of cultures, adding to and enhancing the educational and artistic resources at hand.
The College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning in collaboration with UC Libraries are pleased to serve as its newest stewards. We are committed to the Collection's preservation, cultivation, and presentation for the educational enrichment of both the University community and the general public.
Our commitment to introducing the University's Art Collection to you goes hand in hand with our sincere belief that art plays a crucial role in our lives and brings us to a more meaningful understanding of who we are as human beings. Art assumes a critical role in the University community and should be an integral component in the intellectual development and education of all our students and beyond into the community at large.
We hope you will find this site both informative and engaging, and encourage you to explore the entire UC Art Collection Catalog , Collecting Art Displayed on UC Campuses, and the UC Public Sculptures Tour.
UCAC Operation
The Office of the University of Cincinnati Art Collection has been charged with the care and management of some 4500 works of art ranging from paintings, drawings, photography, textiles, and prints to three-dimensional works. From miniature to monumental public sculpture, works from the collection can be found throughout the grounds and buildings of both east and west campuses. Nearly half of the collection is on loan at any given time, primarily located on the University campus but also at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Taft Museum, and Cincinnati Observatory. Works not on loan are stored in our climate-controlled collection storage facility and are provided museum level care. In addition to the physical displays, works from the collection can also be viewed digitally on this site and public works can be viewed on our 3-D virtual walking tour
The tasks of asset tracking, care/preservation, documentation, packing/transporting, exhibiting, and providing access for teaching and research are but a handful of the responsibilities conducted by the UC Art Collection staff. The oversite of the collection is the responsibility of the collection director and the collections assistant in addition to our many co-ops, interns, and graduate assistants. Providing direct assistance with the care, documentation, and display of works, students gain professional training as part of their studies. Many of our interns and co-ops work with the Art Collection and Galleries or other UC Collections to fulfill the internship requirements for the Museum Studies Certificate Program or the co-op as a component of their major. These opportunities provide direct invaluable access and training embedded within a collection to learn current collections management practices within a working archive and collections lab facility.
Past UCAC Exhibitions:
Saturday Dec. 6th, 2025 – Sunday April 5th, 2026
Contemporary Art Center (CAC), 44 E 6th St, Cincinnati, OH 45202
This exhibition showcases a careful selection of works that reveal collecting practices over 200 years. A special attempt has been made to contextualize the university’s contemporary holdings with examples from history. These offer cultural, conceptual, and technical comparisons.
Great universities hold great art collections that offer inspiration, knowledge, and learning. They present opportunities to appreciate and interact with original works and enrich our overall human experience. They are vital resources for the local community and beyond. They connect creativity across millennia and inspire future generations to dream.
UC’s student organizations, faculty, and staff, as well as benefactors and patrons, stimulated and contributed to the growth of the university’s holdings. The collection is particularly strong in works by regional artists, many of whom have connections to higher education both past and present.
Location: Contemporary Arts Center, 2nd Floor Gallery, 44 E 6th St, Cincinnati, OH 45202
Curators: Aaron Cowan, Kristi Nelson & Robert Probst
Sponsors: Neville Pinto, President, Office of the Provost, College of DAAP, UC Art Collection & Galleries, and UC Libraries
Collecting Art: Reflections on Works at the University of Cincinnati
Terrence Corbin, The Music of Everyday, circa 1985, acrylic on paper, 37 1/2 x 46 in (95.25 x 116.84 cm)
June 23rd - November 10th, 2025
Meyers Gallery, Room 418 (Ground Floor), Steger Student Life Center, 500 UC MainStreet, Cincinnati, OH 45221
In 2020 the University of Cincinnati’s Art Collection, Galleries, and Museum Studies program were unified under one umbrella - the UCAC – with the goal of making the UC Art Collection more accessible for teaching, research, and immersive learning. In less than 5 years, this initiative has resulted in the production of five exhibitions, three innovative research projects, the use of artworks for classroom lectures and tours, the hiring of more than 24 co-op students to date, and the direct access to works by numerous scholars for research purposes.
After nearly three years of planning, documentation, research, editing, and design, one of the most significant accomplishments of these efforts is the production of Collecting Art: Reflections on Works at the University of Cincinnati, a book that brings to life the richness and depth of the university's art collection. This publication and accompanying exhibition in UC’s Meyers Gallery bring to the forefront the history, strength, and present utilization of the collection.
UC’s art collection includes more than 5000 works of art, craft, and design dating from antiquity to the present. Roughly 2500 of these works are on loan throughout campus and can be found on display in more than 60 buildings across the university, as well as at the Clermont and Blue Ash campuses. Additional works are on loan to the Cincinnati Art Museum, Taft Museum, Cincinnati Observatory, and Getty Museum, Los Angeles, for the exhibition, The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior-Princes of Ancient Greece, until January 2026.
This project has been made possible through the leadership of Emeritus Provost, Kristi Nelson and Emeritus Dean, Robert Probst, with contributions from student co-ops, alumni, staff, and university faculty. Neville Pinto, UC’s President, deserves special recognition for his enthusiastic support of this project. This exhibition features selected works from the publication of the same name, highlighting both the quality and breadth of the university collection. The book will be released this September and broadly available at retail book sellers. It is with great pride that we present Collecting Art: Reflections on Works at the University of Cincinnati for your enjoyment.
Curator: Aaron Cowan
Sponsors: UC Art Collection and DAAP Galleries
New to Us: A Selection of Recent Acquisitions to the UC Art Collection
unknown, Leaf from a Book of Hours, late 15th century
February 16th - April 13th, 2025
Closing Reception: Thursday April 10th, 5-7pm
Meyers Gallery, Room 418 (Ground Floor), Steger Student Life Center, 500 UC MainStreet, Cincinnati, OH 45221
The DAAP Galleries in collaboration with the University of Cincinnati Art Collection (UCAC) are pleased to present a selection of recently acquired works. These works have been generously donated by artists and collectors throughout the region and beyond. Many of these donors have close ties to the university, having attended as students, taught as faculty, or both.
The UCAC’s origins can be traced back to the university’s formative years and the thriving community of artists and philanthropists. Founded upon the generosity of university friends, the majority of the art collection is composed of works gifted by local and regional artists and collectors. A portion of the acquired commissioned works can be credited to Herman Schneider’s initiatives (UC President 1929–32). In recent years, most of the
works commissioned or purchased were financed through the Ohio Percent for Art program and represent a substantial part of the public art collection, which is principally comprised of large-scale outdoor artworks visible throughout UC’s campuses.
Until recently, the UCAC’s primary function has been for the beautification and enlivenment of the campus environment, in the hope it would encourage art appreciation. Presently, more than 2500 works are on loan, displayed in 60+ buildings throughout East and West Campuses, as well as Clermont College and UC Blue Ash. Additional works are on loan to notable institutions such as the Cincinnati Art Museum, Taft Museum, and Cincinnati Observatory.
In 2020, the UC Art Collection, Galleries, and Museum Studies were unified under the UCAC to utilize the collection for teaching, research, and immersive learning through co-op positions. In less than 5 years, this initiative has resulted in the production of four exhibitions, three distinct research projects, educational tours of the collection’s facility, and intimate access to artworks for classroom lectures, as well as the emersion of 20+ co-op students within the UCAC and DAAP Galleries’ operations. In result of these efforts a multi college authored book about the UCAC will be released early fall of 2025. This publication will examine the history, strengths, and the utilization of the UCAC.
Recent initiatives to expand the collection’s application have led to new acquisition efforts to build upon the already formidable holdings of 5000+ works of art, craft and design. This exhibition highlights some of the more recent gifts accepted into the UCAC.
We present these works for your enjoyment and deeply thank the artists and collectors for their generous support to the UC Art Collection::
Dr. Allen Bernard, Denise Burge, James F. Dicke II, Gary Gaffney, Joe Girandola, Peter Huttinger, Meighen Jackson, Cynthia Lockhart, The Martin Family, Dr. Paul E. Potter, Abby & David Schwartz, Jim Sims, Academy in Exile, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, and T.U. Dortmund, 2023
Curators: Aaron Cowan & Allyson Coffren
What We Brought With Us
September 5, 2023 - November 22, 2023
Meyers Gallery, Room 418 (Ground Floor), Steger Student Life Center, 500 UC MainStreet, Cincinnati, OH 45221
Each of the eighteen photographs in “What We Brought with Us" represents a single object selected by a person whose time in exile was or is supported by Academy in Exile, the purpose of which is to harbor scholars and cultural producers at risk in order to advance academic freedom through its fellowship program. These objects were carried by some of Academy in Exile’s fellows when they fled from their countries of origin to Germany where they were hosted by University of Duisburg-Essen, Free University of Berlin, Forum of Transregional Studies and Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) Essen.
“What We Brought with Us" was developed by Academy in Exile, which is now based at TU Dortmund, one of the three universities that comprise the University Alliance Ruhr, which is a University of Cincinnati International strategic partner. University of Cincinnati Taft Humanities Center symposium, Humanities in Exile (October 17, 2023), is in conjunction with this exhibition. UC offers both the exhibition and the symposium in the spirit of collaboration with one of its important international strategic partners, and with concern for those who are forced to live in exile as a result of oppression by authoritarian regimes around the world.
This exhibition was also on view at the Goethe-Institut New York, located at 30 Irving Pl, New York, NY 10003, from October 18 to November 15, 2023.
This extension highlights the universal relevance of the exhibition's themes, fostering broader dialogue and engagement.
Noel Martin : An Notations
June 12th - August 18th, 2023
Meyers Gallery, Room 418 (Ground Floor), Steger Student Life Center, 500 UC MainStreet, Cincinnati, OH 45221
The DAAP Galleries in collaboration with the UC Art Collection are proud to present the works of Noel Martin, a graphic designer whose work set the standard for museum graphics during the post war American boom. Born in Syracuse, Ohio in 1922, Martin studied at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, and later taught at the University of Cincinnati. He was hired as the Cincinnati Art Museum’s first graphic designer in 1947. He worked on the museum’s logo, installations, catalog layouts and more, which put the museum on the map.
Martin’s work has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions across the nation to critical acclaim, showing how his minimalistic and modern designs, influenced by both European Modernists and classical motifs, make art more appealing to the younger museum visitor.
A small selection of works by Noel Martin is here on display, courtesy of a generous donation from the artist’s family. These designs, created in the last years of his life, show the exacting attention to detail and sheer abundance of creativity that changed an industry.
Paul Briol: Passed Forward
September 11th - November 20th, 2022
Reception: Thursday, October 6th, 2022 5-7pm
Meyers Gallery, Room 418 (Ground Floor), Steger Student Life Center, 500 UC MainStreet, Cincinnati, OH 45221
The DAAP Galleries in collaboration with the University of Cincinnati Art Collection will exhibit a wide selection of works by noted journalist and photographer Paul Briol. With more than 400 prints in the collection, this survey of will delve into the archive to examine Briol’s documentation of the built and natural environment during the first half of the twentieth century. The prints feature sites that define Cincinnati’s past, resonate in the present and promise to inform the shape of its future. These images, shot and developed in numerous iterations often on an 8-by-10-inch view camera mounted on a tripod, demonstrate a pursuit of aesthetic and technical perfection, with an astute sensibility for light and composition. Briol, known for his photographs of current iconic landmarks while still in their infancy, also thoroughly captured images of the Ohio River Valley and the seven hills of Cincinnati, and later, of his mid-century travels west leading to the coast. These documents capture the fleeting shadows and the still-enduring landmarks that form a shared sense of place, identity, and community. This collection stands as a testament to Briol’s contributions to the art of photography, while capturing a formative era in Cincinnati’s history.
Paul Briol: Passed Forward is part of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial. Now in its sixth iteration, the Biennial activates over 100 museums, galleries, universities, and public spaces throughout Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Dayton and Columbus, Ohio in October 2022.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Office of the University of Cincinnati Art Collection
513-556-9674
UCPublicArt@ucmail.uc.edu