After two years of having to announce the cancelation of the live, in-person Columbus Arts Festival, I am excited to be able to invite everyone back to the riverfront for my favorite event: the Columbus Arts Festival. AND we are celebrating its 60th Anniversary! To officially open the festival, we…
As a baby, Quianna, would lay on her back and click her feet to the beat of the music floating through the room. She was already connected to movement at a young age. But her mom was uncertain if she would ever dance. Quianna was born bow-legged. Without reconstructive surgery,…
It is time for the Greater Columbus Arts Council to deepen its private funding pool and build a robust, diverse revenue stream, and it is time for us to raise our level of investment in individual artists. Tom Katzenmeyer, CEO, president of the Arts Council I have…
The pandemic put so much on pause. We started 2020 with ambitious plans for new programs, but as our major funding sources dried up, we had to regroup. One of the initiatives that we were excited to launch last year was the Neighborhood Arts Connection Fellowship. Now, thanks to Crane…
The Art Unites Cbus project came about as a solution to an immediate challenge, how to turn broken windows into messages of support for Black Lives. Columbus businesses and organizations hired artists to paint the temporary plywood with messages that ranged from calls for justice, humanity and hope to expressions…
Today, with a heavy heart, I have to announce that we are canceling the 2021 Columbus Arts Festival. I can’t believe that I have to write this again; however, there is simply too much uncertainty surrounding the pandemic to responsibly host an event that draws hundreds of thousands of people…
Are you registered to vote? Is your circle of friends and family registered to vote? Have you started making a voting plan? These are questions I find myself asking everyone I come into contact with these days. It’s important. Tom Katzenmeyer, president & CEO of the Greater…
I’ve been practicing gratefulness a lot more lately. It’s an interesting twist of human nature that we often struggle to truly appreciate and feel thankful for the good things in our life–until they are gone. Tom Katzenmeyer, president & CEO of the Greater Columbus Arts Council But…
We are coming to the close of another year, and as we step toward a new decade I am feeling hopeful and full of gratitude. It took many years and many hands, but we head into 2020 with new revenue streams to support the arts in Columbus. This is monumental.
January 31 is National Inspire Your Heart with Art Day. It is a day to pause and reflect how art touches your heart—how it can move us to tears, cause us to bust out laughing, make us think, broaden our perspective and feed our humanity. To celebrate, let’s take a moment to…
Last week Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin unveiled a bold and forward-thinking plan providing revisions to the Greater Columbus Arts Council’s ticket fee proposal. I am immensely grateful to City Council for demonstrating their belief that public funding for the arts strengthens our city and neighborhoods. Columbus has grown…
One of our biggest weeks is here: the week of the Columbus Arts Festival. Thousands of hours of work by hundreds of people results in a memorable weekend of art, music, craft, food and family activities on the downtown riverfront. Both the presenting artists and Festival guests travel from…
