Exhibition Types: Current Season Kennedy Gallery

Ebb and Flow

Ebb and Flow is a juried exhibition of ceramic artworks by local artists that explores the inevitable cycle of life and death, and pulls inspiration from the past life of Kennedy Heights Arts Center’s physical building as a funeral home. This show coincides with The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) in March 2023.

From the 1950s to around 2000, the building Kennedy Heights Arts Center now inhabits operated as the Stanley High Funeral Home. For decades, this organization provided the community with a vital service of supporting families in honoring the lives of their deceased loved ones. It is with our knowledge, understanding, and reverence for the past of this physical space that inspired the theme for this exhibition.

Ceramics have historically played a large part in funerary ritual practices and have provided insight into cultures around the world – as decorated urns, symbolic objects placed as gravesites, reliquaries for precious relics, and mementoes of loved ones. Clay is a material that holds memory, and there is an intimacy between the material and the maker. Coming from the earth, there is a connection between the material and the cycle of life.

The artworks on view are reflective of our history as a funeral home, while also delving into the complexity of death and how we respond to it as humans in these contemporary times. Our building has a rich history; one of the many reasons why our community rallied behind saving the building from demolition. With its past life as a funeral home, many residents still connect to our space on a personal and emotional level. Currently, the building has another life as art center, and the arts can play such a strong role in processing, coping, and expressing all of our thoughts, feelings, and emotions as we traverse through different life events – including death.

The title, Ebb and Flow refers to the passage of time, with all its ups and downs, and the cycle of life and death. Death is something that affects all of us, and we have a history with our building that gives us a special opportunity to showcase artworks that address this topic.

Exhibiting Artists: Margaret Ackerman, Scott Aleshire, Betsy Allaire, Erika NJ Allen, Sabrina Barilone, Susan Byrnes, Nina Caporale, Emily Casagrande-Pike, Sue Cline, Cori Crumrine, Laura Davis, Desi Distel, Kelly Frigard, Molly Green, Tina Gutierrez, Ian Hersko, Sage Hummel, Aaron Kent, Julia Lanham, Brandon Lowery, Emily Malott, John Mason (deceased), Jennifer Miller, Andy Overton, Jessie Rienerth, Jill Ruschulte, Charity Rust-Jordan, Zach Sabatelli, Karen Saunders, Kateri Sparrow, Jon Stein, Ora Vichitchot, Jocelyn Coulter Welch, Amber Wood, Zoe Yates

Opening Reception: Saturday, February 4, 2023 from 6-8pm. Free, open to the public, light refreshments served. 

Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, 10am to 5pm and Saturday, 11am to 4pm.

Special gallery hours during the week of the NCECA conference: Monday, March 13 – Friday, March 17 from 10am to 5pm, and Saturday, March 18 from 11am to 4pm.

Brandon Lowery, Denial, ceramic, glaze, iron oxide wash, luster

15th Annual Student Art Show

Each year, Kennedy Heights Arts Center celebrates our talented students with an exhibition featuring original artwork in all media created by the youth and adult students enrolled in KHAC classes. This show presents a wide range of works in fiber art, painting, collage, ceramics, and more, and is sure to inspire artists of all ages! 

Opening Reception is Saturday, April 8 from 6-8pm. Free, open to the public, light refreshments. 

Image credit (left to right): Gail Dold, Class: The Art of Collage, Instructor: Karen Saunders / Evelina Reedy-Kay, Class: Young at Art (9-12), Instructor: Kim Watling / Laura Hay, Class: Clay Hand Building, Instructor: Lynne Gibb 

Color Breathing: The Work of Lyric Morris-Latchaw and Casey Dressell

Color Breathing: The Work of Lyric Morris-Latchaw and Casey Dressell features an experiential, immersive environment that engages the senses through painted imagery, natural materials, and thoughtful color. “Color Breathing” is a meditation on the present moment and the sense of well-being that comes from experiencing our mind free from distraction. 

Opening Reception is Saturday, June 10 from 6-8pm. 

Gallery Talk is Saturday, June 24 at 1pm. 

All events are free, open to the public, light refreshments served.

***Join us on Wednesday, June 21 from 6:30-8pm at Kennedy Heights Park as Lyric and Casey lead participants in a nature-based community art project during Play in the Park!

Image credit: Installation view of combined artwork 

Lyric Morris-Latchaw is an oil painter and muralist living and working in Cincinnati, Ohio. She moved to Ohio in 2015 after studying art at Northwestern College in Iowa, where she grew up. Her work has been exhibited across the midwest, and has upcoming solo and two-person exhibitions at Wave Pool Art Center (Cincinnati), ROY G BIV Gallery (Columbus), and Kennedy Heights Art Center (Cincinnati).

Casey Dressell is a practicing painter and installation artist living and working in Cincinnati Ohio and Louisville Kentucky. Her interests lie in the intersections of art, nature, craft and the built environment. She teaches at Miami University and is the curator/exhibition coordinator at The Indian Hill Gallery in Cincinnati and owner/operator of Capacity Contemporary Exchange in Louisville, KY. Casey received a BFA at The University of Cincinnati and a MFA at Miami University and has exhibited her work nationwide in exhibitions, including outdoor installations at Bernheim Arboretum and ArtPrize, and has her work in private, institutional, and public art collections. In addition to her studio practice, Casey is passionate about learning, education, and helping her community through her community initiative work.

Kennedy Collective Exhibition

The Kennedy Heights Art Center is pleased to announce the exhibition ARISE, the annual group show featuring new works by Kennedy Collective members, on view November 4 – December 30, 2023 in the Kennedy Gallery, located at 6546 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati, OH 45213.

The show includes new and previously unseen works in all media by local artists, including paintings, photography, collages, sculptures, fiber, and more. The exhibition also features Off the Wall: a collection of smaller works for $50 each with half the proceeds going to support Kennedy Heights Arts Center.

The public is invited to join us at the Opening Reception on Saturday, November 4 from 6-8pm. 

Get your holiday shopping done early by browsing our Art Shop & Holiday Art Market with handmade goods made by over 40 different local artists.

IMAGE: Jamin Toran, Face in the Sky, Photograph, 20”w x 16”h (from 2022 Kennedy Collective Exhibition)