Common Good for the Common Wealth: Creating Community, One Space at a Time: Designing a More Vibrant Commonwealth

How do the arts shape the places we call home?

In this episode of Common Good for the Commonwealth, host Nancy Grayson sits down with Rachael Parker to explore how creative placemaking is transforming communities across Northern Kentucky. From public art installations and artist residencies to BLINK, murals, and community-centered design, Rachael shares how the arts can strengthen local identity, spark economic growth, and create more vibrant, connected places for people to live, work, and gather.

Drawing on her journey from Maysville, Kentucky, to leading regional creative placemaking efforts, Rachael discusses the power of investing in artists, expanding arts access for young people, and building partnerships that leave a lasting impact on communities. She also offers a behind-the-scenes look at exciting projects underway in Covington, Newport, and Florence, as well as ArtsWave's vision as it approaches its 100th anniversary.

Whether you're an arts enthusiast, community leader, or simply curious about how creativity can drive positive change, this conversation offers an inspiring look at the role the arts play in building a stronger Commonwealth.

Guest: Rachael Parker, Director of Northern Kentucky Creative Placemaking, ArtsWave
Host: Nancy Grayson, President & CEO, Horizon Community Foundation of Northern Kentucky

Transcript

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Welcome to Common Good for the Commonwealth, where we feature the uncommon advocates for Northern Kentucky who work every day to make our region more vibrant. I'm Nancy Grayson, your host, president and CEO of Horizon Community Foundation of Northern Kentucky. And I'm thrilled to have Rachel Parker here with us from ArtsWave, who is the director of Northern Kentucky Creative Placemaking. Thanks so much for joining us today, Rachel. Thank you so much for having me, Nancy. This is a pleasure and privilege to have a conversation with you about placemaking in Northern Kentucky. Well, I love the arts. There's so much to discuss. But first, I'd love for our listeners to hear about your background. I mean, your roots, you you too are a Kentuckian as I am. You grew up in Maysville. So tell us a little bit about your roots, your journey to where you are today professionally. Yeah, so I'm from Maysville, Kentucky, which is right along the Ohio River. Beautiful town. Yes. We have the Cox Gallery, we have our community theater. Of course, we do claim the Clooneys, yes, Mary and George. Oh, George. And I'm like they too. So yeah. Me too. And Nina. Yes. The whole bunch. Yes, it's a good crew. It's a beautiful place to grow up. And of course, being from a small town, it was so important to my mom to make sure I had exposure to the arts. And so we would come to Cincinnati and a region up here to go to museums, to go to festivals, to go to plays, to make sure that I was really getting to see what how big life could be. How long of a drive was that? Exactly. Yeah, that's not too bad. I know there's some people who commute from Maceville to go to work here in Northern Kentucky or Cincinnati. So it's it's gorgeous. If you haven't been, please do pay a visit and maybe drop by Augusta too. It's a beautiful area. Yes. So when did you uh decide to move here and work here? And what drew you to the art specifically? Because you've had several roles uh throughout your career in different fields. Yes. So I think it really did start in my time in Maysville growing up. I had the best public art teacher, Stephanie Martinez, I'll name drop. She is incredible. And she actually moved with me. We were so lucky as a class. I had her elementary, middle, and high school. And she really was one of one of the formative mentors who made it possible for me to explore a future in the arts. And that's what brought me to Berea College. Which is known widely for its arts culture. If folks aren't familiar, uh further south on uh 75, really uh a little bit south of Lexington. I loved getting by the pottery and some of the other uh handwoven baskets that are sold down there, and it's really known for kind of Kentucky craft culture, I would say, in terms of artisanal support. Um, and and now here you are promoting the arts specifically for Northern Kentucky. And actually, um, your title with creative placemaking, what exactly does that mean for those maybe who aren't familiar with it? So I'm the director of Northern Kentucky Creative Placemaking for ArtsWave in partnership with Meet and KY. And when when we are talking about creative placemaking for Northern Kentucky, it really is how do we use design, the arts, our community to really elevate and amplify our communities and what positive impact are we having on our communities? And so that includes identity, physical placemaking, our social, our economic environments, and how all of those things really are cohesive and that the arts are an infrastructure and background for our success and vibrancy. And then, you know, we we talk often about northern Kentucky being a region. Um we we want to operate as a single unit. Having grown up in Lexington, um, we always saw Northern Kentucky as part of Cincinnati. Then having lived in Cincinnati for law school, I know Cincinnatians said, oh, that's Kentucky, it's across the river. When uh our family cheated on Northern Kentucky, lived in Boston for three years, they said we don't even really think about northern Kentucky much at all. The the beauty of it though is that it is um diverse set of smaller communities. So when you think about specific placemaking, it's not going to be monolithic, I would imagine. And so speak to me about um you you do cover the full three county footprint. And so how do you address that? I mean, you have urban, suburban, rural, creative placemaking is going to look different in each of those kind of subsets of the community. Yeah, and I think what you said is really beautiful to know, and like when you've lived in different environments. So I've I grew up on a farm, I've lived in a rural environment, I attended Berea College in Central Kentucky and Appalachia. Um, very much consider myself Appalachian identity. Of course, I did four years of textile weaving, and um I was a part of the student crafts program and a manager on the student crafts on the square. And so I'm very much in the vein of rural arts, but then also with Teacher America right after I graduated from college, that's what brought me to Cincinnati in a region, and so I very much went into an urban environment. And so using my skills and interpersonal skills to be able to thrive in all of those environments and see how we can be inclusive with the communities, which are different. Very different. Uh, I know a while back uh we partnered with BLDG, who was uh a local company in northern Kentucky and in Covington, and they had this uh kind of awesome idea to connect different basketball courts, and we've done one to date. So if anyone is listening and wants to pick up on this or if Arts Wave and the NKY want to discuss this, let's chat. Um, but we brought art to the basketball courts because there aren't often vertical spaces that you can put murals on. And then we had these kind of very um community-informed conversations around which particular design that they liked, and then they got to have them put, and then there is this now piece of art that is on it as a mural that is a basketball mural. It also mirrors some of the pickleball lines, so very geographic, so people can still play the games that they want to play, and there's clear demarcations, but it's bringing a sense of community to that local court, and and I it made me think differently about kind of the live space and where you can bring um arts into an everyday kind of setting, maybe in a different way than you otherwise would have thought of. Um, so I get excited when I think about all the different uh projects that I know you're leading. Uh so beyond obviously we did the basketball courts, we're in the one in KY Center now. There is a lot of art that's being installed. In fact, yesterday you were busy installing some art. Talk to us about the, I guess it's an artist in residence program at the 1 in KY Center. Um, we actually, this is the inaugural artist in residence program coming to life. And so it will be the spring of 2026, is our first artist in residence program, and she will be in the building until September of 2026. The show runs April 24th to September 10th, and our first artist in residence will be Susan Burns, who is a local artist, and she does um ink drawings on cottage paper, which is an MBM textile paper, and then she'll also have these polyurethane, like colorful, bright, um, high viscosity paintings to like really complement one another in the space. The artistic merit and excellence are beautiful for the center, and I think it's just gonna be when you come in, art is at the heart of the building, and it really does welcome you and give you that warm hug that you want coming in to any space, and it gives us this beautiful lived-in identity, and hopefully it opens up conversations and perspectives to how the arts play a role in our everyday lives. They have to apply to be an artist in residence. Is there a jury that makes a decision? I imagine there is. We have 40 applications in our first um panel. Yes, and so if someone's listening who is an artist and might want to have their work displayed, would they go to Artswave? Okay. Um we typically do a press release and send out an art grants and resources marketing list, but we also do public press releases. So typically they will be biannual. This year is a little different because of blink. Sure. So in October, we're hoping to have a blink activation. So we may be off cadence this first year, but typically they will be by hand a spring and uh uh oh, yes. Like a semester. It's easy to think of a school semester there. Yeah, and then I'm grateful my team uh said yes that they uh were open to us actually commissioning some work in our own Horizon Community Foundation office space. We just had an installation um eight by eight mural by Christian Dallas that has flowers and the three flower pots representing the three counties, and there's a lot of intention behind which flowers were chosen and the meaning behind it. Um, Emily Wolf did a barn quote for us and she's doing another piece. We have Keith Meltner doing a piece of art that he's installing that looks kind of Warhol-esque, I would say. So I love that the main floor will have this kind of juried opportunity for people to see, and then we hope folks will visit us in our our office space on the fourth floor, the top floor of the 1AKY Center, because we want to make sure that we have uh that celebration of our local artists as well. Um, you mentioned Blink. Yes, I love Blink. I uh the first time we had Blink in our area, my uh husband, full disclosure, is on the Artsmade board. I believe this is his second round. He turned down and loved it so much that he went back on. Thank you, Alicia Kenner, for being back. Um, but he had explained to me ahead of time there is this, you know, you know, kind of big effort to have what was being done in Washington Park with these light installations and projections into this citywide free type of exhibit that families could take part in. And I thought it sounded absolutely insane. It sounded bonkers to me. And he sent some videos. And then the first time it happened, we had some friends in town from Boston and New York, and they said this is maybe one of the most incredible things that they had ever seen. And they asked, Is this like a regular occurrence? At the time, we had no idea that this would be happening every other year. So it is it is a tremendous effort to put it on. I know Artswave has been the primary funder for the last several years, so thank you for your investment in the community. The murals that are left behind are absolutely stunning and unique and really have put Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky on the map in terms of placemaking. What are you looking for this year for Blink? I know we're we're spending time looking at sites in northern Kentucky. You've had tours with different community leaders. Tell us a little bit about um ideas that you're seeing being brought to life and maybe the corridor if you're allowed to share a little bit about where the installations might be. You can expect the same um permanent pathway throughout Covington as you've seen in years past in our last year, 2024. We will be cutting up Scott and Madison with activations. And I know for this year we are committed with the Blink team and having more leave-behind pieces of art, which is that really sweet spot of creative placemaking. You have this huge festival every two years that brings over two million people to our region, which is incredible. It's by artist for the people, it attracts visitors, it attracts business for our region, but also what happens on the years in between. And so really being intentional about selecting sites throughout Covington that are on the permanent pathway for Blink and will be, and also how can we have that art continue to be a part of the legacy of Blink and the community? So those leave behind pieces are going to be feature this year. And that and that's part of what I love the most is just knowing that when people are investing in this, and this is something that people are giving and you philanthropically are supporting this, and there's corporate support too. Um, but but that there is an investment in the community that you can see for for decades to come. And so I'm really glad to hear that there'll be more leaf behind. I I really loved a lot of the interactive like pieces on both sides of the river less sure. What what was your favorite spot or a few of your favorites? I know it's hard like thinking children be your favorite. Absolutely, yes. In blocks in Covington, yes, and then wait, uh the tentacles were. Oh, yes, right in the middle by Sue Justice. Yes, that was that nice and there's a lot of large-scale installation there. Oh, very subtle. Um, and then of course Clive the Alien, and that's a really great way, creative lace making. Clive is representative of Covington, like keep the code cool and funky, and that's what Clive does. And he gets to be illuminated on the biggest nights of the year for the arts. And so seeing Clive the Alien lit up, and then of course, I loved our international artists come in to our region. We had over 950 applications from every continent of the globe except for Antarctica. Bigways might have some art ability, but you know, we don't go. Okay, it was just incredible. And so there was a group out of Bangkok who was in Newport. And so to have all three cities, two states activated for this one weekend bringing everyone together, um, is just the best. That is what quality of life is when you can all come together, experience something beautiful, and have these lasting memories with one another, that connectivity that we're looking for. And I love seeing the families, I think when you're walking around and also just um kids getting to experience it, but also different uh communities, neighborhoods, and businesses, even our our church, Trinity Episcopal, which uh listeners have heard me talk about before, they have kind of their own pop-up activations which aren't officially sanctioned by blank, um, but are the part of it and allowing the kids to have maybe take home uh things that engage them in art or the experience overall so that they're they're you know seeing it, they're hearing it, they're touching it, but then there's something that they're able to engage with. How how do you see, because of your um past experience with Teach for America, how do you see that weaving in with arts and youth and education? That's such an important piece that we need to you know fight for in our local school systems, but how are you embedding that into maybe some of the work that you're doing right now uh in Northern Kentucky? We actually launched more Arts More Kids in the Lovelo schools last year. That was our first time partnering with the Northern Kentucky School System. Yes. And so More Arts More Kids, for those who don't know, is how can we help schools and students experience their first field lesson in arts? And so we have partnered with Cincinnati Public Schools, and now we are expanding into Northern Kentucky schools to help fund the buses and the ticket prices for schools to have their first arts experience with their students. And so this is scaffolded from kindergarten up to fifth grade right now, I think is the highest grade. And so they get an individual, unique field trip every year, moving up through their childhood. And we hope that it's not only exposing them to the arts and letting them know that this is in their backyard, they belong in these environments. Also, we hope that they will want to stay and be stewards of these institutions and our culture as they grow up and become successful contributing citizens. And we we have, in my opinion, one of the best arts cultures in a city, even outsize of our class. Um, if you think of the size of Cincinnati and northern Kentucky overall, our MSA being smaller when we lived in Boston, um, there were certainly long-standing arts institutions there. But I often commented they didn't feel quite as accessible as they are here locally. And I think a lot of that has to do with Arts Wave, which was uh the Arts Find and is, I believe, the oldest in the United States and the largest. And there's a significant birthday that's happening. Yes, talk about some of the celebrations that are occurring with that. So Arts Wave was founded in 1927 by Charles and Anison and Taft, and it is very much a legacy of our entire region. When they founded Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund in 1927, they pledged a million dollars of their own money and said, we will do this only if the public comes forward and says, we really want this, we'll match this funding. The public within three months had raised 2.5 million hours and that's the Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund. And um, now Arts Wave was born. And so from there, it's it's grown from, of course, the 10 fine arts institutions in 1927 to now beyond what the tasks could ever imagine. We serve over 150 organizations. We've invested over $350 million into arts over the past 99 years. And so right now it's what does the next 100 look like? And so that's really the vision for the future, and how can we continue to innovate and be supportive of our arts organizations, our individual artists, our communities. And so that's really through our blueprint for collective action that we'll see through to our next uh centennial. And we're so excited to be celebrating this with the region that helps contribute to the campaign and to all of our eco, our arts ecosystem. And I would love to hear from your perspective, having been an artist, um, you are an artist and working in this space, what has changed over the last few decades that you've seen in terms of art? Is there um progression towards maybe more technology incorporated? I mean, how does AI even pack the arts? I'm sure there's some conversations happening internally with ArtsWave and then the leading institutions locally. What are some trends that you're hearing in the art space right now? I think that's absolutely right. So we founded the ArtsWave app going into the last plank. And so that is a way for us to not only have arts going, but giving in a very convenient location for people in our city who want to contribute to the campaign on a micro scale, and then be able to have us in their pocket to say, oh, there's 50% off of tickets at Playhouse in the Park. Not only is that helping our patrons, but it's helping Playhouse in the Park who may have extra tickets to a show that otherwise wouldn't be sold. And so we've seen large growth in those tickets being sold and restaurants being visited. We have not only um passes to arts events, we have restaurants, businesses, other unique experiences on the app. And so that's one way that we've used technology in the past couple of years to really be have a more personal experience. And what people can just download the app. The app is free. Yes, yes, it's our way would be their particularly yeah. Okay, great. Making sure that our listeners that they want to download and get some of these and access tickets too. Um, one of the things that um my family's really enjoyed in recent years is the flow program, which uh celebrates artists, um, black artists, and really across multiple media, I think. So we've seen ballet, actually, we have coming up in a few nights um playhouse in the park, um, opera. I think that angle is celebrating uh people of color and maybe folks who might not have been as recognized previously. I want to commend Arts Wave for stepping up and doing that. And I think it's a program that will keep continuing. My hope is is that it will be celebrated. But um, for those of you who are listening, it's worth when you're looking for tickets, considering to the flow program as well, which is very reasonable. It is, it is, and we do we have a show coming up on Friday night at Playhouse in Art and August Wilson's piano, and we we hope Flow continues on. And um we also have the Inspire grants for black and brown individual artists, and so that showcase will happen at the CAC in July, and that will be open to the public as well. And so that's that's helping emerging artists and established artists, and we have like a mentorship program where our established artists can help our emerging artists really work toward their first showcase. It's beautiful, and so that will be in July. In July. And then give us a sneak preview as we wind down our conversation a little bit, if you can. If a little bit of the vision of what we'll be doing in northern Kentucky with Creative Placemaking, is there a project or two that you can give a little insight in or a teaser or something that you're really excited about in terms of the work that you're getting ready to? Yes. So I I'll have to hit Covington, Newport, and Florida short as I love off. Oh, please, all these two. We have time, let's talk about each city. Yeah. Um so with Covington, what's really exciting and coming up is The CCR site. Yes. I always think it's CCR, the musical van because my mom likes their lot revival, and those who are playing in my head. But the Covington Central Riverfront site, we were so excited to have the first public art installation selected this past fall. And so that will begin fabrication very soon. What does that look like? It it will be announced publicly. Okay. We don't get the scoop now, friends, but we will. And so one is a professor adept, the other is a northern Kentucky resident. And so they work together to really build this unique way findings. And it represents all of the neighborhoods in northern Kentucky. There is and it what we found so neat was the sustainability aspect of their materials. So they're using waste aggregate. So it is like environmentally friendly yet durable. Yes. It's very, it's a great concept, and we're really excited to see that. So that's Cavington. Yes. For Newport, we are working on the day. Oh, thank goodness. I think well, and I say thank goodness for those listening because one of our giving circles, uh, they both have merged, which we talked about in a prior uh podcast session. But um originally the 410, uh, the very first grant that was awarded was for that floodball, one of the murals. We were so excited to be the first one to go up, and it's still one of the few that are still there. We need to complete that that whole kind of swath of opportunity with murals. So let's let's talk about that. It's our leading example. Yes, we are so happy to have that as something that will continue to determine the color palette and the rest of the panels and also inspire the history and what we need show through the panel. So we're looking at 19 panels while you calendar. Yes. I know a few have already been um, you know, staked claim um the way finding off of 471. There are several remaining at a very reasonable price. They're getting ready to launch all of the details, but really excited to see this be an activation for Newport, and especially after them finally passing a mural ordinance last year. Yes, they passed their first mural ordinance ever in the city of Newport. And so this has really led way and has served as the catalyst to finishing this long-term project that I know people are very excited about. Well, and down the road, maybe it can be activated for Blink, which I think all of these projects, how they could all be an installation that could be lit up or you know, active. Right. And the Purple People Bridge. Oh, wait, yes. Right. Exciting. A lot of opportunity there. Do you should you share with our listeners more about that? Well, of course, the lighting outlets that's coming, and we know that there's going to be major renovations and right now with Street Bridge. But hopefully, once we have accessibility back, yes, you know, would love to see Newport back in the lake, just like it was last year. I agree. It was awesome. It was fun to expand. And then uh you mentioned Florence as well. So Florence is working on their nature park right now, and so potentially doing nature-inspired um sculptures and having statues added to their landscape, and so that's something I've been working with the city on. And hopefully we'll see that come to life here in the next couple of years. With this role, creative placemaking doesn't happen overnight. You need to have the relationships and the trust building process with not only your municipal supports, but also your culture bears, your community members. I do think it takes tiny baby steps to lead to something very impactful and monumental for our region. And of course, ArtsWave is very committed to that process as is Meet NKY, and knowing that it does take time to build something really strong and wonderful. And I think it's great that it can be the leading edge, and then communities can see they could maybe replicate or tweak it or do something similar and think differently about art in their own local area, the community. And having that relationship with the CDB. Yes. When Julie and Alicia have first started talking about this idea, we really don't know of another relationship like that across the country. We hosted Afticon last year. I actually led a panel on creative placemaking and the partnership. It truly is a groundbreaking partnership between Arts Viva and EMKY because some of some of our people from other minority funds don't even have a relationship with their CBB, let alone the supportive partnership with one. And so we're just so grateful for the organizations that support us, our corporations, and our community members who give to the campaign. It it really truly allows us to function and make waves for now and the future. And it's put us on the map international. Like I believe there was a trip. Were you on that trip to London? I saw there was a trip to London by a lot of the convention of visitors, bureau folk, and then also some arts wave just to promote Blink. Yes. And it was just so exciting to see us on an international landscape and to have London and Brand. Oh, Paris too, right? Yes, yes. Yes. Um it was just incredible to see how our region is punching above its weight in this industry. As we leave, what makes you hopeful for Northern Kentucky? I think what makes me so hopeful is the enthusiasm and the true groundswell of support that I felt since starting this role. I feel like the refrain I hear is, oh, we really needed a person here on the ground to be a part of this work to help us amplify and elevate and really put a spotlight on our wonderful organizations who have been doing good work for a very long time. And also to help us grow new ones, like with the Northern Kentucky Creative Placemaking Grant. We had four new organizations to the Artsway family from the Northern Kentucky Creative Placemaking Grant who had never received funding from us. And so now they're a part of our family, and we're able to help their communities in Bankin and Campbell County. And so that's what this role is all about is bringing us together as our patient. And so that's what makes me hopeful. Um, and to know that we're having that impact on quality of life for everyone here. And I love that there's a visible representation of it too. And we're so grateful you're in the role that you're in. You're the perfect fit for the shop. Thanks for joining us today, and thank you for listening. This is Common Good for the Commonwealth. We'll catch you next time.