ArtsWave is launching an 18-month celebration of the centennial of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote. The "Power of Her" initiative is slated to include hundreds of arts events and performances.
"(It's) a collaboration amongst dozens of arts and cultural organizations throughout Greater Cincinnati," says Alecia Kintner, president and CEO of ArtsWave. "We're inspired by the 100th anniversary of women voting, the 19th amendment in 2020, but we're also inspired by the number of women founders of Cincinnati arts institutions that are celebrating milestone anniversaries over the next couple of years."
Kintner says events include plays, musical performances, artworks, cultural activities and more drawn from women's voices and their influence, both in history with the suffrage and civil rights movements, and in their communities at large.
"Today, Cincinnati has more professional arts organizations led by women than many, many cities in the United States so we have many things to celebrate," Kintner says. "It's all with the common denominator of women's voices influencing and improving society."
One participant, ArtWorks, is creating a voter registration initiative. Kintner explains teen art apprentices who work on ArtWorks' summer mural will also spend the summer creating a guide to how to vote and why it's important.
Another participant, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, will perform more works by women composers, host women musicians, and more "women commissions than ever before for their 125th anniversary season."
The idea came collectively from the region's various arts organizations.
"When we realized how many organizations were celebrating anniversaries - in addition to the CSO, we also have the Contemporary Arts Center in its 80th anniversary; we have the Cincinnati Opera with its 100th anniversary; the Children's Theater with its 100th anniversary; and the list goes on and on - that coincidence made us look more deeply at the women founders of these institutions and realize we were celebrating something ... locally at the same time the country will be celebrating women voting," explains Kintner.
Power of Her events will be planned through 2020.
