The Lens

Much has happened since the spring. With the pandemic preventing the Biennial from proceeding as planned, FotoFocus redirected its funds to support arts organizations of all sizes. Here's a look at how local partners have implemented their emergency grants to support and expand their missions.

In April, ​FotoFocus pledged part of the 2020 FotoFocus Biennial budget to financially support the region’s art community during the coronavirus pandemic. Over 100 Participating Venues and Partners received a total of ​$800,000 in the form of the... Continue reading How the Cincinnati Region Has Used the FotoFocus Emergency Art Grant

Thirteen esteemed artists and curators who have contributed to a decade of FotoFocus programming join from their homes around the world to reflect on where they've been, where they're headed, and the fundamental need for creativity and humanity in times of crisis.

FotoFocus is 10 years old. What started as an organization to promote photography through public exhibitions and lectures in and around Cincinnati soon evolved from funding a Visiting Artist and Lecture Series to producing a Biennial and Symposium for photography and lens-based art. Since 2010, FotoFocus... Continue reading FotoFocus at 10: A Video Road Trip with Past Participants

The Camp Washington art center worked fast to act on their mission of "pairing a community’s needs with artists’ sense of possibility" by distributing food and art, transitioning projects—and finding ways to pay artists.

For anyone familiar with the work of Wave Pool Art Center and its director Calcagno Cullen, their stunning agility and creative vision tied into social action is hardly a surprise. Throw in an unprecedented global pandemic, a screeching halt of society as we know... Continue reading Wave Pool Pivots to Launch New Projects in Light of Covid-19

Originally published on April 30, 2020, in The Art Newspaper, Mary Ellen Goeke, FotoFocus Executive Director, and Kevin Moore, FotoFocus Artistic Director and Curator, discuss why, as the coronavirus pandemic raised concerns about the FotoFocus Biennial's 10th anniversary plans, the organization decided to cancel the event and use the funds to support the local arts community instead.

A recent New Yorker cartoon shows a building façade with windows full of self-isolated children, and one of them saying: “Remember, when we get back outside,... Continue reading Why We Cancelled the 2020 FotoFocus Biennial and Dispersed its $800,000 Budget as Arts Grants

FotoFocus announces today that in lieu of presenting the fifth FotoFocus Biennial, originally slated for October 2020, it will pledge its Biennial budget to financially support the Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Dayton and Columbus, Ohio art communities during the coronavirus pandemic.

FotoFocus will grant an immediate and unrestricted $800,000 to over 100 Participating Venues and Partners that were selected to present as part of the 2020 FotoFocus Biennial. These collaborators work every other year towards making the FotoFocus Biennial a success, including 8 of the regions most prestigious arts venues: Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati Art Museum, Taft Museum of Art, Wave Pool, and... Continue reading FotoFocus Pledges 2020 Biennial Budget to Emergency Art Grant