A Conversation with Cameron Kitchin
Cameron Kitchin, the new director of The Cincinnati Art Museum, firmly believes that “public service is in the DNA of this institution”, referring to the museum itself. He and I sat down for a combined conversation/interview on Monday, November 3rd, which lasted for just under two hours. Although he had only been on the job […]
Jane Alden Stevens Photography in Motion
“Creativity is a lifelong process which requires courage, perseverance and hard work,” said Jane Alden Stevens. Winner of the university-wide Dolly B. Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching at the entire university in 1991, Stevens had an illustrious career as a teacher of photography at University of Cincinnati’s College of DAAP. Stevens was described in […]
The Loss of Leisure and Its Social Cost
Everyone in the working world is busy, overwhelmed. Even students’ days are filled to the brim. Yet if many are living comfortable, engaging lives, is there a problem, a downside, to being ever busy? A number of observers, from the ancient, democratic Athenians, to Henry David Thoreau, to several contemporary observers and historians all point […]
ART FOR A BETTER WORLD
I. Images For A Better World: Kelly and Kyle PHELPS, Visual Artists Identical twin brothers Kelly and Kyle Phelps are Associate Professors at private Catholic universities in Ohio. Kelly is an Associate Professor and Chair at Xavier University (Cincinnati, OH) where he oversees the sculpture department; Kyle is an Associate Professor at University Dayton (Dayton, […]
Cincinnati Preservation Association Celebrates 50 Years and Makes 2014 Awards
Cincinnati Preservation Association was founded in 1964 as the Miami Purchase Association. An attractive exhibition about CPA and its work, “Celebrating 50 Years of Working Together to Save Historic Places,” which was curated by CPA and the Cincinnati History Museum, is on display in the Culture Gallery of the Cincinnati Museum Center. It s free […]
Book Review: Some Luck by Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley’s novel One Thousand Acres, which won the Pulitzer Prize, is compelling and gripping not only because the book builds to a surprise and horrifying climax, but also because Smiley understands the rhythms of farm life, the influence of weather, the very soil of Iowa, in which her characters are seeded and grow. Smiley […]
Book Review: Mr. Bones: Twenty Stories by Paul Theroux
Books of short stories are often difficult to review, particularly when the stories do not overlap, one to another, almost like a novel in short stories. But I have long considered Paul Theroux to be one of America’s most important writers in three different genres: travel writing, fiction, and short fiction. Theroux burst on the […]