As the summer concludes, Wave Pool, a contemporary art fulfillment center in Camp Washington, introduces new residencies focused on feminism and criminal justice, driving community engagement and artistic opportunity.
Wave Pool was founded in 2015 by Cincinnati-based artist Cal Cullen. Wave Pool works to channel communal change through both artistic and civil support. Currently, Wave Pool hosts exhibitions and community spaces that provide residents with a free pantry, community meals and creative opportunities. Wave Pool hopes to continue hosting these shared events and plans to expand upon them throughout the remainder of their 2024 season.
On Aug. 10, Wave Pool opened a new exhibition as part of the Vance Waddell Artist in Residency program. The exhibition highlights Florida and Georgia-based visual artist Jessica Caldas. Caldas’ exhibition, Library of Birthing and Unbirthing , will be open until Sept. 14 and aims to build an archive of stories about the complexity of reproduction and motherhood. This exhibition and archive intends to highlight the ongoing fight for reproductive justice.
“For the Vance Waddell Residency, we always look for somebody who's interested in subjects that involve feminist concerns; that could be gender identity, that could be sexual identity, that could be circumstances that only happen to a certain gender,” Maria Seda-Reeder, Director of Exhibitions and Artist Support Initiatives at Wave Pool, says.
“Art Space Is Your Space” is another Wave Pool residency that features local, national and international artists who want to incorporate aspects of Cincinnati culture into their artistic practice. This residency typically centers around Camp Washington but can concentrate on many aspects of the city’s lifestyle.
“This past year, [...] we had an artist in residence, Okyoung Noh, who is from Michigan. She came and specifically worked with [Cincinnati-based] massage therapists, hairdressers and nail tech artists; she captured their stories through documentary footage, creating artworks that held space for those conceptual ideas. It was a way for her to connect with Cincinnati-specific communities,” Seda-Reeder says.
Olivia Nava is the Welcome Project Manager at Wave Pool. The Welcome Project (Welcome) is Wave Pool’s more public-facing storefront, which includes a free pantry for the Camp Washington community, a teaching kitchen and an informal gallery space, according to Seda-Reeder.
Welcome’s current exhibition is organized by the Returning Artists Guild (RAG), a group of formerly and currently incarcerated artists. The exhibition, entitled Imagining Abolition , pushes for an end to mass incarceration through the artists’ stories of lived experiences within the carceral system and their “dream about a free future.”
Beyond simply highlighting the voices of those incarcerated artists, Wave Pool is hosting a Yard Day event on Sept. 14 at the Camp Washington Playground. Yard Day is, according to a Wave Pool press release, “one day every summer, in every prison, that is something like a holiday.” Wave Pool’s Yard Day event celebrates summer, community and family, while remembering “those who are not yet free and long to join.” The event will include games, snacks, music, performances, dancing and pictures with friends.
Both Nava and Seda-Reeder have both seen firsthand how Wave Pool exhibitions and events resonate with community members.
“We had this gentleman [...] who said, ‘I get this. I was myself incarcerated,’ sharing with us that he's a tattoo artist who lives in the neighborhood. I think if it's just one person, a one-off experience of someone being witnessed by other artists, and seeing ‘this as possible. I can do this too.’ That's ultimately a success story for us,” Seda-Reeder says.
Nava has similar stories of artists coming into Welcome and sharing their passion for art and their appreciation for the project. Seda-Reeder explains that they are in a period of “heavy philosophical lifting” after Cullen left the organization last year. Despite that obstacle, both Seda-Reeder and Nava see new opportunities to prioritize community needs in upcoming exhibitions.
“I would say we're really trying to include the community needs in the next phase of Welcome. With all of our proposals it really starts at the top, with the people that we are choosing to serve, who we can show up effectively and efficiently within our skill sets and resources,” Nava said.
Wave Pool is trying to expand pre-existing projects such as Welcome, and implement more need-based projects such as additional affordable meal opportunities and driving school for the Camp Washington neighborhood. Nava and Seda-Reeder acknowledge that they are still learning exactly what their community needs.
“[We can't] pretend to know everything. We can have the best ideas, but if [Camp Washington residents] are not invested in it, it's probably not going to do well,” Nava said.
Nava discussed the trial of a local farmers market event. She says that “the attendance was pretty low,” and realized a weekly farmers market may not have been the best approach for community needs.
“I quickly realized there was a lot of heart behind this particular program, but maybe not the knowledge that you grow into a weekly farmers market with the demand — with the enthusiasm and the participation from the community — and they will see you through, they will show up. So you just learn from it; you pivot, you let it go. [...] I think in 2023 and 2022 we tried a lot of things. It was our experimental years just to see what worked and what didn't work. Really sitting and reflecting on all the things we have done and seeing what we can take with us into the next phase,” Nava says.
Seda-Reeder also explains the importance of knowing Wave Pool’s limits in helping the local community and providing aid where they can as artists.
“Ultimately, we're artists. Working with communities, you want to have the heavy lift. [...] Just the fact that we've all been trained in Narcan use and because there is a large captured audience in our neighborhood of folks who are experiencing addiction. And so, as artists and creatives, we want to show up, but there's also the limits of our own skill sets. I think it's [the future of Wave Pool] reexamining the resources and partnerships that we have. Partnerships and collaborators are a big part of that, and who we're inviting to the table might have a better skill set than we're able to. Yet also not acting as if these issues aren't existing within our neighborhood. You can't call yourself a community-engaged gallery if you're just trying to engage with the community that's in New York City or OTR, or whatever, right? We exist in this neighborhood and so I think [the future is] thinking strategically about the ways we can efficiently do that,” Seda-Reeder said.
To learn more about Wave Pool and its upcoming exhibitions and community initiatives, visit wavepoolgallery.org .
This story is featured in CityBeat's Aug. 21 print edition.
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