Claire Bryson on Creating Community Stewards through Public Art
“Cincinnati Is Beautiful.”
This simple and colorful mural in Camp Washington, just off Martin Luther King Drive near its overpass with Central Parkway, catches my eye every time I drive past it to get to the University of Cincinnati. Heading downtown, as I walk or drive around Over-the-Rhine, I take a closer look at the doors and walls of some boarded buildings and am often surprised to find them painted with cute doorknobs, windows, and flower boxes.
I did a little digging to find out what organization and who is behind all these murals and artworks. I talked with Claire Bryson, Co-Director of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful’s Arts Program to learn more about how she promotes public art through community engagement and what the art means to her.
Written by Janet Chu. Photography by Emily Palm.
Tell us more about Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and its Arts program.
Keep Cincinnati Beautiful is a local nonprofit that started in 1978. The city started it as a separate nonprofit to leverage grant dollars, individual giving, and funds from corporations or different fundraising campaigns to help address issues throughout the city. We are one of the largest and more comprehensive affiliates of Keep America Beautiful. In the last 20 years, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful has taken a step further to be a first responder to community engagement and community blight. We work with communities and volunteers to not only clean up communities but to create sustainable change within the neighborhoods in different communities.
We view public art as a way to intertwine art into the everyday experience. Art doesn't have to be in a museum, on a wall, or framed under surveillance. Art should be for everyone.
Out of the five program areas, the Arts program started in 2009 to address all of the vacant and boarded-up buildings throughout the city. At the time, there was awareness specifically in Over-the-Rhine because an enormous portion of it was still boarded-up. People would go in and clean up litter, but it wasn't creating sustainable change. So we got some funding for the Future Blooms program – it was about mitigating environmental blight like graffiti, trash, litter, weeds, dilapidated cars, broken windows, and other environmental conditions that create a sense of despair in the community. By making small transformations, we saw that our art could be used as a catalyst for change in those spaces. That was how the program started.
But quickly after we painted these buildings, the wall next to it was tagged. We thought about furthering the mission of creating positive change through art by using different applications. And so we started doing community murals and some other projects. It has steamrolled into this whole department with the mission of using art as a tool for community engagement and community empowerment. We have two program areas – the Community Murals and Future Blooms. We also did a number of fence weavings.
How has the Arts program impacted people in different communities?
Over time, we've painted over 1,300 buildings and about 82 murals of varying sizes. We’ve seen an impact on the community. Blight is reduced by 17%. Economic development in the areas where we work has increased by 48%.
As you can imagine, the communities that we work with are often underserved. These communities are often the same communities that don't have exposure to arts programming. We view public art as a way to intertwine art into the everyday experience. Art doesn't have to be in a museum, on a wall, or framed under surveillance. Art should be for everyone.
By becoming intertwined in those communities and having ongoing discussions with surrounding community councils and members, you become more ingrained in the neighborhoods. You have a better understanding of the dynamics that are at play and the social obstacles that they're trying to overcome.
A big portion of our job is community engagement. It makes for a more systemic and lasting change when you have those ingrained relationships with people in the community. At the end of the day, we're creating stewards out of those people and the kids that live in and around the work that we do.
We talked at the beginning about how you started your job with a summer contract, and you have stayed for ten years. What keeps you here?
My coworkers and my creative freedom. I have a master's in architecture and I was working in New York City for my co-op. I did not find fulfillment working in an office, sitting at a desk, and making changes to documents. The work environment was kind of unhealthy, and I really saw myself having a better work-life balance and enjoying the work I was doing day in and out.
When I started here in the contract position, I was doing a series of eco-art installations up on Short Vine for some vacant storefronts. I made a bunch of art out of recycled things, and it was so amazing and fun. For me, being out in the community and working with my hands made me feel like I was doing something and making a change.
Along the way, I get to have these great coworkers. I wouldn't be here without Katie, my partner who manages the Arts program with me. The two of us have been able to grow the program from simply painting some boarded-up buildings to expanding to other areas and making systemic change in the neighborhood and communities that need it. I also love my coworkers that run the other programs.
What is your long-term vision for the Arts program?
There's a lot of potential in new, exciting partnerships and collaboration. In the last four years, we've been reaching out to other arts organizations and nonprofits to combine missions and pull resources to do bigger and more innovative projects. For instance, in 2016, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and Artworks started a partnership. We have a project that we run every other year. We do a series of murals and we are expanding to light installation in an alley network adjacent to Main Street in O.T.R. Artworks is amazing because it is well-connected with local artists in the community and the partnership meets both organizations’ missions. We’ve done around 35 murals in the alleys and the area is now transformed.
That goes for internal collaboration as well. Our Greenspace Coordinator transforms vacant lots into little pocket parks and community gardens based on community needs. We're now working on incorporating more earth art into public space that's not necessarily two-dimensional, but three-dimensional. We've been toying around with the idea of pulling materials out of a dumpsite and using them to create awareness about illegal dumping.
Why is community engagement important to you?
All of this work is for the community. A community changes and evolves, and you have to meet the community where they are. At the end of the day, it's not my mural; I might've painted it or helped facilitate it, but it's theirs. That's why we like doing them with volunteers from the community or people who live in and around the area because they take pride in seeing it succeed. And if it has to be changed or painted out, that's a decision that comes from the community, not from us.
Ultimately, we want to create stewards for our communities and neighborhoods. Again, we can think “Cincinnati is beautiful,” because it's a collective “us” keeping it that way. So much of the work we do is talking with people and making sure they're aware of the impact of the project; if you don't have those conversations, the project will not succeed.
What would be the one message you’d like to share with someone who’s reading this article?
One of the best things about public and community art is that it has the ability to transform spaces and uplift neighborhoods. Our role is to encourage community engagement and community pride through public art. That is the vessel or tool that we use to get people excited about their neighborhoods and take pride in the spaces that they live and work in. While some may do that through other means, we do that through art. That's probably the biggest takeaway – art has the power to transform.
Tell us about an influential woman in your life.
I would say, my mom. She just retired this year after teaching art for 36 years. She always allowed me to pursue creative endeavors not only as a passion but as a viable job opportunity. Making a living wage as an artist is hard, but she's always given me the opportunity, resources, and space to create and pursue those creative endeavors.
She's also instilled in me a crazy work ethic – any opportunity you're given, you can do with it as you may. Seeking work here, there's this kind of relentlessness, determination, grit, and figuring ways to get projects done. Creative thought is used in every part of my life. It's not like, "Oh, I'm out painting something," it’s also, "Oh, how do I overcome this obstacle?" That's always been how I've been taught to think. When I didn't feel like those needs were being met while working at the architecture firm, my mom said, "Well, then what's next? This isn't a dead end. It's just a fork in the road." She's a huge inspiration.
She also loves taking care of my kids and that's been really helpful this year as childcare was very messy with COVID-19. Having a supportive network of people around is really important.
Community Mix is our monthly hodge-podge of content from the voices of a hodge-podge of beautiful Cincinnatians.
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