ARTS & CULTURE
Artistic rendering of FotoFocus’s new building P H OTO : J O S E GA R C I A D E S I G N + C O N ST RU C T I O N
A New View Cincinnati lens-based arts nonprofit FotoFocus breaks ground on a new event and exhibition center in Over-the-Rhine BY N ATA L I E C L A R E
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he future’s looking brighter than ever for FotoFocus, the Cincinnati-based nonprofit that celebrates the art and history of photography, film and lens-based media. For the past 12 years, the organization has been relying on partnerships with local venues to present its own curated events. But come 2024, it will have a home of its own called FotoFocus Center at the corner of Liberty and Sycamore streets in historic Over-the-Rhine. “I’ve wanted us to have our own building from the beginning,” FotoFocus artistic director and curator
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Kevin Moore tells CityBeat. “When you collaborate with other institutions, you’re meeting their expectations or parameters a lot of the time. Sometimes that’s great — it sends you off in unexpected directions. But for us, it’s going to be a chance to do, creatively, anything we want.” Founded in 2010 in Cincinnati, FotoFocus provides programming and support for projects that make lens-based media accessible to the public. Signature programming includes the Biennial, which is held every two years in October and offers a month-long series of events relevant to photography, film and lens-based art.
APRIL 20, 2022 - MAY 3, 2022
Unified by a single theme, Biennial events are held at galleries, museums and other venues throughout Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Dayton and Columbus. It represents the largest gathering of its kind in America, according to FotoFocus’s website. Other signature programming includes day-long symposiums about art in the current social climate, in-person talks, virtual conversations and film and video screenings. The organization describes the soon-to-be-built FotoFocus Center as “a world-class venue purpose-built to present a wide range of curated exhibitions, educational events and film screenings each year, furthering FotoFocus’s mission of enriching our understanding of photography.” It will include 4,500 square feet of gallery space, an 835-square-foot outdoor terrace on the upper level and 2,200 square feet of office space. The project is estimated to cost $6-$7 million.
FotoFocus is collaborating with Jose García Design + Construction to bring the new venue to its feet. The design company was founded by architect Jose García and boasts a visually stunning portfolio of projects, including the sleek studio space at Lightborne Communications in Over-the-Rhine, where FotoFocus staff have been operating. Moore says the FotoFocus Center will have a flexible, open-plan space that can convert to accommodate different shows and functions. “The space is tailor-made to exactly what we think about and what we see of the future of an exhibition space for photography and lens-based art and what it will look like and how it will need to function,” Moore says. He says the center is designed to accommodate a social component, too. “You don’t show art as only a solitary, contemplative experience. You show it to have a conversation. So people being there, talking about it, talking with each
