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Three Northern Kentuckians receive $5,000 project stipends from ArtWorks for new Jump Start program


ArtWorks has announced the seven artists selected for Jump Start, a new program for emerging local artists, and three recipients are from Northern Kentucky.

Each project will receive $5,000 as a project stipend with additional project support from ArtWorks and 10 youth apprentices, ages 14-21, starting this summer.

“At ArtWorks, we want to support artists as change agents in our community, which is why we started Jump Start,” said Colleen Houston, CEO and artistic director. “We’re committed to lifting new and diverse voices from our artistic community and give this rising talent the support to thrive here. I’m enthusiastic about each of these artists and how their new projects are responsive to the challenging present moment. They will help bring us all together.”

-Batres Gilvin, an artist collaborative of Karla Batres Gilvin and Bradly Gilvin from Morning View will curate and facilitate Give A Minute Cincinnati, a physical and digital space where Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati community members can share creative knowledge with one another in the form of one-minute videos. This project seeks to demonstrate everyone has something they can teach and something they can learn from their community.

Original artwork by Batres Gilvin, an artist collective of Karla Batres Gilvin and Bradly Gilvin. Both Northern Kentuckians, they met while studying at the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

The physical aspect of this project will take the form of an open studio space where community members will be provided with filming and lighting equipment and general supplies. These learning videos that will spark curiosity and creativity will be posted online on a project website and social media The artists hope this project will safely bring together diverse audiences that would otherwise never interact due to socio-economic differences, geography and COVID-19.

There will be a final culminating event and celebration.

-Jay DeFazio, an artist from Newport will produce Inside Out: Greater Cincinnati, a hybrid art empowerment and visibility project for the transgender community. It will consist of multiple in-person workshops to create a self-portrait and the permanent online exhibition of the portraits. The project’s goal is to unify and connect the community of Cincinnati through the creation of positive self-image and shared experience of growth and acceptance.

Too often transitions take place alone where they can be lonely, awkward and frightening. This project brings together unique perspectives of a shared experience, fostering a sense of kinship and appreciation between members. DeFazio will capitalize on Cincinnati’s wide variety of trans community organizations to represent the widest range of transgender experience.

ArtWorks is an award-winning Greater Cincinnati nonprofit that transforms people and places through investments in creativity. The organization creates jobs for youth, ages 14-21 with the majority from underserved households, providing competitive 21st-century career-readiness skills through mentorship by professional artists.

From ArtWorks Cincinnati


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