With more showmanship than substantive debate, Cincinnati City Council “awarded” $1 million for capital arts projects Thursday.

        Under a proposal by Councilman Jim Tarbell, eight arts groups will split the $1 million previously earmarked by City Council for capital arts funds. Mayor Charlie Luken proposed the fund as a way to spend part of the $2.1 million that came back to the city from the U.S. Postal Service's failed relocation to Bond Hill.

        The eight groups are:

        • Taft Museum of Art, $400,000 toward its $18 million expansion effort.

        • Cincinnati Opera, $300,000, part of a $3.2 million renovation of the north wing of Music Hall.

        • Cincinnati Ballet, $50,000 to expand its Over-the-Rhine offices.

        • Cincinnati Museum Center, $50,000 to develop space at the former Union Terminal for traveling exhibits such as the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Baseball as America.

        • Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, $50,000 to upgrade facilities at its downtown theater.

        • Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, $50,000 for repairs of its Over-the-Rhine building.

        • Cincinnati Preservation Association, $50,000 toward the Walnut Hills Community Arts Center in the former Walnut Hills Presbyterian Church.

        • Pleasant Ridge/Kennedy Heights Community Arts Center, $50,000 for a new public arts center on Montgomery Road.

        Mr. Tarbell's proposal has yet to be approved by the Finance Committee or the whole City Council, but that didn't stop the Charterite councilman and long-time champion of the arts from awarding the grants at a highly produced ceremony at his committee's meeting Thursday.

        Mr. Tarbell defended his unorthodox way of awarding city money, saying it wasn't a formal grant process.

        “When it comes to council, we get a lot of discretion, and I took full advantage of it,” he said. “There was no public advertisement of this fund. It was a risk I took, I guess, in making these choices.”

        While the awards were not debated publicly, Mr. Tarbell does have the consensus of eight members of City Council. Only Vice Mayor Alicia Reece has not signed off on the proposal.

        Mr. Tarbell said part of building that consensus was to extend the awards beyond the two intended recipients — the Taft Museum and the opera.

        “That it went from two to eight was a pleasant surprise for everybody,” said Dick Westheimer, president of the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival. “Those other, bigger organizations need us. They need the smaller organizations to nurture a new generation of theatergoers and arts patrons.”

        Indeed, the funding would run the gamut from the Taft Museum, supported by a $114 million foundation, to the nascent neighborhood arts groups in Walnut Hills and Kennedy Heights.

        The idea of transforming Walnut Hills Presbyterian Church into a community-based center for arts and culture came together a month ago in response to a threatened demolition.

        The church, at Gilbert Avenue and Taft Road, is neighbor to the Alexandra Apartments, which the city has paid a major role in renovating. City officials hope that saving the Samuel Hannaford-designed church with new use will help stabilize one of the city's landmark intersections.

        Mr. Tarbell called the proposal for the the Pleasant Ridge/Kennedy Heights Community Arts Center “arguably the most intriguing” because of its public art aspect.

        Led by Dubliner Restaurant owner Mike Kull, the art center would be housed in the one-time Kennedy Heights mayor's mansion, whose rooms would be converted to studios, galleries, classrooms and a kitchen.

        The 2.2-acre grounds would be renovated to include sculpture gardens and outdoor studio and gallery space.

        Plans include providing space to artists who practice nontraditional art, encouraging developers to include public art as part of all development projects and creating an aesthetic for Pleasant Ridge and Kennedy Heights that would be seen in park benches, bus stops and street improvements.
       

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