Mission Statement:
Manifest enhances the role of art and design in
society by cultivating and focusing the transformative power of creativity
in the visual arts. Manifest benefits people in the global and local
community, including professionals, students, and the public, by creating
quality-centered experiences focused on contemporary visual arts and
related activities in the context of creative exploration.
Manifest Gallery serves as a venue for the display and experience of insightful, thought
provoking art and design, and functions as a hub for creative research
and innovation at all levels of artistic endeavor.
Manifest Drawing Center promotes, features, and explores drawing as a rich and culturally significant
art form through the pursuit of scholarly activities.
Manifest Press documents the organization's
activities through well-designed publications and investigates and
implements methods for making works of art and design
in limited but accessible editions for public availability in collaboration
with professionals and students.
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More...
Founded
in May of 2004 by Jason Franz, Elizabeth Kauffman, and Brigid O’Kane,
the Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center is located
in East Walnut Hills in Cincinnati, Ohio, occupying the formerly
vacant storefront property of 2727 Woodburn Ave. minutes away from
downtown Cincinnati, School for the Creative and Performing Arts,
Northern Kentucky University, Art Academy of Cincinnati, University
of Cincinnati, and Xavier University.
Manifest’s formation was, in part, a reaction to conclusive studies
in major cities across the nation that have clearly established that
the arts play a catalytic role in the revitalization process of depressed
communities. Our location, occupying a formerly vacant storefront,
on Woodburn Avenue in East Walnut Hills (an urban neighborhood of Cincinnati,
Ohio) is ideally suited to contribute to the ongoing revitalization
of
that area, both as a viable business district and a culturally rich,
diverse, and desirable place to visit or dwell. Our vision is of a
creative space where the visual art and design fields can mingle, and
where new
creative processes, concepts, and questions can be brought forward
for consideration. We believe this represents an important aspect of
a healthy
community. The Walnut Hills/East Walnut Hills collaborative vision
statement (06 Vision 2010), wherein the arts are named as desirable
contributors
to future growth and quality of life, clearly echoes our vision.
Manifest is not an art retailer representing artists or dealing art
to consumers. However, sales are encouraged with proceeds benefiting
the
artists, the operation of the gallery, and the community. Our primary
mission is didactic in nature, engaging the viewing public with new,
insightful, and challenging creative works and supporting the positive
growth of the visual arts in the region.
Manifest’s programming, in addition to exposing the community to
high quality works of art by regional and national artists, includes
exhibits designed for or including students of elementary, secondary,
and college art programs in the immediate area. For educational purposes
Manifest serves as a resource for high school art teachers and students,
offering a chance to interact with a down-to-earth yet professional arts
organization in their school’s neighborhood, thereby encouraging
the consideration of a career in the visual arts as a viable option,
and helping to mentor children towards preparedness for college art
study. Manifest works to raise funds to establish scholarships for
art and design
study for both high school seniors as well as undergraduates in college
programs in the greater Cincinnati area.
Manifest seeks to involve college level students of art and design,
offering opportunities for collaborative exhibits, internships, and
experimental
displays. Furthermore, we believe that students of art and design at
the many regional institutions will benefit from more interaction with
each other so Manifest strives to provide incentive for such cross-cultural
academic mingling, which will inevitably result in a stronger creative
community for the city of Cincinnati.
Drawing is a key skill underlying every visual art field. To learn
to draw is to learn to see, and the way we make things look is directly
related to how we see. For these reasons drawing is inseparable from
our vision. Aesthetic quality affects one’s state of mind, therefore
an ongoing goal of Manifest is to be a “Drawing Center” whereby
that fundamental discipline is promoted, featured, and explored.
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