Image © Jose & MidJourney
I spent a few days in Cincinnati, and with no offense to all Cincy lovers, this city never really came up in my head as a destination, nothing bad, nothing good, just didn’t come up. So, I arrived with no expectations, and that is probably a good thing. I went because of two events that aligned blissfully, not by chance but by careful planning by the organizers of CODA Summit and BLINK!
I attended the first CODA Summit in 2012, I am not sure, but I don’t think there were more than 50 attendees, but you could immediately feel this was a great idea. This is the brainchild of Toni Sikes and a part of the CODA Worx offering, this organization sits in the confluence of those who commission art, artists and creative teams, and industry resources or enablers. CODA Summit is a celebration of Public Art, I believe this year there were 500 attendees, and Toni was still at the door, greeting everyone by their first name, what an energetic connector, a visionary she is.
I had seen a lot of imagery from BLINK, it is s such an content rich event that it’s hard to miss it. BLINK started in 2017, though Andrew Salzbrun/ co-founder, talked of an event that preempted this one. From the beginning, they have tried to nurture a sense of community and connection through public art, it’s a biannual event celebrating its fourth edition, it attracts artists from all over the world, and 2 million people that walk several miles to see murals and projections, that together, create a whole new medium. They say that it provides a $126M economic impact to the region, and you can see all the wheels that are turning for and because of all that. This festival needs to be experienced, all imagery you see does not convey what you experience when walking around.
Let’s be honest, what you see as you traverse the entire BLINK area, is a social and physical transformation of profound impact, beyond the economic impact. Much of the area covered in one side of the river is the Over-the-Rhine (OTR) neighborhood, which has a rich history starting in the 19th century with German immigrants (the Rhine…), the area became a vibrant German-American enclave, known for its breweries, architecture, and cultural institutions. Then, in 1920 when Prohibition hit, the area was deeply impacted. Post WW II, many white residents moved to the suburbs and the African-American population grew, without the opportunities and the investment, it became one of the most crime-ridden areas of Cincinnati. Folks got together in the 2000s and started to transform the area, BLINK is just another component, what we could call “gentrification by art”, and I am not being mean of facetious. There is no doubt that BLINK has been a transformative event for Cincinnati and OTR, contributing to economic growth, cultural vibrancy, and public engagement, while also raising important questions about equity and community impact in the context of a rapidly evolving urban landscape. You could see and feel this tension everywhere, it’s happening.
But I wanted to really commemorate the joyous combination of these two events, with so many people attending both events, sharing so many experiences, so much art and artistic expression, so much music and sound, so much light! My heart is full, it will take a while to deflate all this happiness.
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