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Ohio Arts Council

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Ohio Arts Council

The Ohio Arts Council (OAC) is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences.

The Ohio Arts Council was created in 1965 to foster and encourage the development of the arts and assist the preservation of Ohio's cultural heritage. With funds from the Ohio Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts, the OAC provides financial assistance to artists and arts organizations. The OAC accomplishes this charge in two primary methods; first, through the various grant funding

programs that the Council operates to provide support to artists and to make arts activities available to a broad segment of Ohio's public; and secondly, by providing services that help to enhance the growth of the arts.

09/04/2026

It's , and this week we're shining our spotlight on the Three Sisters Intertribal Pow-Wow. Held in Mineral City, Ohio, the two-day, family-friendly event focuses on preserving and sharing Indigenous culture. This year's event will be October 4 and 5, and is partially supported by an OAC ArtsRISE grant.

Central to the pow-wow is the idea of cultural exchange, where native and non-native communities can learn and share experiences together. Over the course of two days, attendees of the pow-wow will have the opportunity to learn about, experience, and honor Native American culture, traditions, and artistry. This includes dance, music, crafts, storytelling, food, demonstrations, and more.

A significant part of this will be accomplished through the presentation of five traditional dance styles and other performances. Dancers will wear traditional regalia, which are handmade works of art, representing personal, family. and tribal identities. Storytellers will also walk viewers through each dance's origins, historical significance, and evolution into its modern form. There will also be a chance for attendees to participate in social dances.

Images courtesy of the Three Sisters Intertribal Organization

09/03/2026

Ohio Open Doors returns next week and runs September 10-20! Curious if that historic building, place, or space in your community is participating in this statewide initiative? Events are happening across the Buckeye State. Check out the listing of special tours and programs, including an interactive map, at www.ohiohistory.org/ohio-open-doors-map/.

09/02/2026

: Earlier this week, we published the latest ArtsOhio News and Stories Edition! In it, you'll find a message from OAC Executive Director Donna S. Collins; a reminder of our soon-closing Governor's Awards deadline; stories highlighting an artist working in large-scale printmaking, the unveiling a years-long renovation, and our latest Ohio Heritage Fellow; a curator's tour of OAC Riffe Gallery's latest exhibition; and more!

Explore all of this and more at https://mailchi.mp/oac/enews-august2026.

09/01/2026

The 2026 Peter Capell Award for Midwestern Creativity & Entrepreneurship is now open and accepting applications from Ohioans!

The award will honor a visionary creative sector leader from the Buckeye State in recognition of their entrepreneurial thinking and business acumen. If you–or someone inspiring you know–have worked in creative or cultural programming for 10 years to expand access to arts and creativity in your community, apply by noon (12pm) ET on October 6, 2026.

Learn more at: artsmidwest.org/about/updates/now-accepting-2026-peter-capell-award-applications-from-ohio-arts-leaders/.

08/29/2026

From fabrication to installation at the Ohio Statehouse.

The engraved stonework for the Ohio Women’s Monument is now being carefully installed on site. This behind-the-scenes look captures the precision that goes into placing each individual piece and assembling the design that will serve as the foundation for the monument.

Seeing the words Justice, Liberty, and Equality take their place in front of the Statehouse marks an exciting new stage in the project.

The vision is becoming a reality, one piece at a time.

08/28/2026

For this week's , we're revisiting Maketank Inc. and their Illustrated Memoirs Project. First supported in its pilot year by an OAC ArtsNEXT grant, the project has continued to make an impact on students through the support of an OAC Arts Partnership grant.

For this edition of the project, Maketank worked with 17 high school students, many of whom emigrated to the United States, at Aiken New Tech High School. The students each produced a book featuring true stories from their lives complete with original drawings, paintings, and collages. Students, as well as their classroom, received a copy of their work.

The project didn't stop there, as students were invited to read their memoirs to younger students at College Hill Fundamental Academy and Frederick Douglass Elementary. In total, nine students were able to share their stories and engage with their younger counterparts. Additionally, two students were asked to share their stories on video with the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library.

From start to finish, the project was a positive one for participating high school students expressing that it helped them gain confidence in their writing and overall communication skills as well as a sense of belonging.

Images courtesy of the organization

08/27/2026

Just over two weeks remain to submit a nomination for the 2027 Governor's Awards for the Arts in Ohio! If you need help getting started or bringing your nomination across the finish line, we've assembled several resources to help you craft a competitive nomination.

Find these resources at: rebrand.ly/GovernorsAwardsNominationResources

08/25/2026

For this month’s , we are thrilled to announce that Daria Hulak-Kulchytsky is the 2026 recipient of the OAC’s Ohio Heritage Fellowship. Hulak-Kulchytsky, who lives in North Royalton near Cleveland, is a master icon painter/writer in the Ukrainian tradition whose work has adorned churches, museums, and homes for the past 40 years.

Hulak-Kulchytska’s father, a painter and an agronomist, was her first art teacher. Their family fled Ukraine in 1944 and lived in a displaced persons camp in Germany before moving to Canada when she was eight. She became a science teacher, but art remained a strong passion. Because her husband was a university professor, she was able to take free art and art history courses at Youngstown State University in the evenings. Then on a trip to Ukraine in 1984, she had an experience that changed the course of her life.

In the city of Chernivtsi, she saw piles of rubbish outside a Catholic church, and among the rubbish she saw a mangled icon. Inside the church she saw another destroyed painting, as Soviet and communist authorities sought to remove all traces of religion from everyday life. She was devastated to see these pieces of religious art destroyed, and decided at that moment to become an icon painter/writer and help preserve this endangered tradition.

Hulak-Kulchysty has painted/written icons in three full churches, and at her home studio she is finishing the final pieces for her parish of St. Andrew Ukrainian Catholic Church in Parma, Ohio. Her work hangs in the Ukrainian Museum Archives in Cleveland, as well as other institutions throughout the United States and abroad. For members of the Ukrainian community, she is often commissioned to paint icons of the Virgin Mary and Jesus for brides and grooms.

As her nominator wrote, “Perhaps most importantly, her work ensures that traditional arts remain a functional part of her community’s daily life, rather than simply a relic of the past. In this context, art is not just seen, it is lived. It serves as a visual anchor, reminding the public of their shared identity and the continuity of the Ukrainian cultural fabric.” Congratulations Daria Hulak-Kulchytsky!

08/22/2026

The Ohio Women’s Monument is officially taking its place at the Ohio Statehouse.

Installation is now underway as crews carefully set the engraved stonework that will form the foundation of the monument. The words Justice, Liberty, and Equality are now being placed into the site, bringing another major piece of the design from the workshop to its permanent home.

After years of planning, sculpting, fabrication, and collaboration, these elements can now be seen exactly where they were designed to stand, transforming the Statehouse grounds into the permanent home of the Ohio Women’s Monument.

08/21/2026

Melissa Haviland is an Athens, Ohio, artist and a four-time OAC Individual Excellence Award recipient. She credits her most recent award with growing her capacity to connect with artists and art lovers. This week, we're highlighting Haviland a part of our series.

Haviland's work explores the themes and states of water and the color blue. Her artwork draws on the practice of "bluing." Throughout history, blue dyes have been added to paper and textiles to counteract yellowing and to suggest improved quality of the material. She ties this together with explorations of climate change, which is why travel and time in the field are critical for her practice.

Working in multiples has long been part of Haviland's practice as a printmaking-based installation artist. Recent large works have included more than 1,500 individual prints made using technology that allows for the easy creation of multiples. She then immerses the audience in her work by stacking and layering them to reference waves and the reiteration of ideas.

See her work in person, currently on display in the OAC's Riffe Gallery as part of the exhibition, "Metamorphosis."

Interested in an Individual Excellence Award? The deadline to apply for the current round is September 1. Find information and application at oac.ohio.gov/iea.

Images courtsey of the artist and OAC staff member Andrew Paa

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