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SNAPSHOTS OF OVER-THE-RHINE

The Over-the-Rhine Museum is grateful to partner with members of our Community Engagement Committee to co-curate this glimpse into an often forgotten piece of Over-the-Rhine’s past. Many of today’s visitors to Over-the-Rhine are discovering the neighborhood for the first time. They see upscale bars and restaurants, carefully restored buildings, breweries, and boutiques–a beautiful, enjoyable, and expensive place. What they don’t see is the Over-the-Rhine that existed before the present.

This exhibition highlights personal snapshots of Over-the-Rhine and Over-the-Rhine families between 1960 and 2001. Subjects are celebrating holidays and family celebrations, dressing up for parties, making art, working, and playing in a neighborhood that, though economically impoverished, was rich in community, connection, and joy. Today, many long-time low-income residents find themselves displaced from Over-the-Rhine to other neighborhoods far away from the homes, churches, and memories featured in these photos.

The museum offers this exhibition to document and celebrate an important part of Over-the-Rhine’s past and to ask viewers to consider how we might maintain a version of Over-the-Rhine that can be home to all kinds of families regardless of age, race, religion, or economic status. What will it take to keep these snapshots of Over-the-Rhine alive?

Snapshots of Over-the-Rhine is part of the 2024 FotoFocus Biennial: backstories. Now in its seventh iteration, the Biennial activates over 100 projects at museums, galleries, universities, and public spaces throughout Greater Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and Northern Kentucky in October 2024.

This exhibition has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of Ohio Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities."

Co-curators: Dorothy Darden, Jacqueline Dean, Russell Hughes, Rita Dean-Kelley, Cora Robbinson, Anne Delano Steinert

Project Managers: Donna Harris Destiny Moore

Exhibit designer: Studio Henri

Fabrication by: Decal Impressions

Special thanks to: Model Group

Curating the Photos 2024

Copyright Over-the-Rhine Museum, PO Box 14026, Cincinnati, OH 45250 | (513) 813-7309 | hello@otrmuseum.org

The Over-the-Rhine Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization

The views and opinions expressed by program presenters are theirs alone and do not necessarily represent the views of the Over-the-Rhine Museum. The museum believes in sharing the broadest possible range of experiences, memories, and histories to expose audiences to the breadth of stories embedded in this neighborhood. We encourage all to engage critically with the stories we present to build their own understandings of Cincinnati’s past.