In case you missed this event or would like to see the presentations again, click below to watch the video recording.
Join us for the next installment in our story-sharing series, “Three Acts in Over-the-Rhine” on Wednesday, June 14th at 6:30pm at Memorial Hall (1225 Elm Street). This program will feature three discussions designed to change the way you view and use a unique subset of public infrastructure: alleys and staircases. Speakers Christian Huelsman, Derek Scacchetti, and Jenny Ustick will talk about their efforts to bring attention and beauty to the neighborhood spaces that help us get to where we’re going, sometimes providing unexpected vantage points. Huelsman will share historical highlights focused on alley and staircase construction, and the work being done by non-profit Spring in Our Steps. Scacchetti will explore personal revelations from navigating Cincinnati by foot and the social connections fostered by the Urban Rangers Midwest. Ustick will discuss her professional role in mural artwork, including an experimental effort to improve public health using community-involved art to staircases to transform the City’s pedestrian network.
Doors open at 6:00 pm and the program begins at 6:30 pm. Tickets can be reserved on a “pay what you would like” donation basis at. We recommend $5-10 per person. A cash bar will be available throughout the event. This program can also be viewed live via facebook.com/OTRmuseum.
PROGRAM SPEAKERS
Christian Huelsman
Huelsman is Co-founder and Executive Director of Spring in Our Steps. Founded in 2012, the nonprofit is committed to bringing a brighter future to the city’s public alleys and stairways through organized cleanups, programming, advocacy, and preservation efforts. His experience also includes five years of leading the Minneapolis Alley Initiative for Neighborhood Stimulation, focused on inventory and tours of public art and historic paving. Huelsman received both his Bachelor of Arts in Urban Planning and Master of Community Planning degrees from the University of Cincinnati.
Huelsman will focus his presentation on the historical threads that make up our walkable public corridors, how they were constructed and used by communities, how and when materials evolved, changes in funding and public perception, and the critical value of renewing focus and improvement within these inherently walkable public spaces.
Derek Scacchetti
For years, Scacchetti has been involved with urban-oriented organizations including the Cincinnati Preservation Collective, The Rustbelt Coalition, and Queen City Bike. These groups motivated him to encourage folks to get outside and explore places on foot or by bicycle. In 2017, he founded Urban Rangers Midwest, a community that meets monthly to take urban hikes around the Cincinnati region and elsewhere in the Midwest. While Scacchetti’s full-time work is as a designer, he spends most of his free time as a local guide. He is a 2010 graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of DAAP, where he studied Urban Planning and Design.
Scacchetti will present on how his infatuation with Cincinnati’s public steps became the impetus for Urban Rangers Midwest. He'll describe how his interests in travel, urban design, and nature moved him to hike the hills of Cincinnati with strangers and how sharing the city steps with others has been paramount in building the Urban Ranger community and developing an urban pedestrian trail network.
Jenny Roesel Ustick
Ustick is an Associate Professor of Art in the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati, and one of the most prominent muralists in our region. She has created numerous large-scale public murals with ArtWorks, and supported visiting muralists including Eduardo Kobra and crew. Ustick now works primarily on independent projects that have included commissions from the US Soccer Federation, 21C Museum Hotel Cincinnati, Hard Rock Casino, and multiple local establishments. Her “Mr. Dynamite” (James Brown) mural has earned international attention. Jenny has created or contributed to murals in Tennessee, New Mexico, Illinois, Kentucky, and Florida. In 2022, she worked with UC students to create a mural for BLINK that included projection mapping developed by School of Design faculty and students. Internationally, Ustick has participated in mural residencies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Graniti, Sicily. She has exhibited in numerous galleries and museums, and participated in art fairs including Governors Island Art Fair, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and ArtPrize. Her work has been featured in Forbes, American Quarterly, Hyperallergic, and the Huffington Post.
For this event, Ustick will talk about the beginnings of her mural career with ArtWorks in 2008 and the work she has done in the intervening years. This has included involvement in Step Up to Art, a collaborative art and signage program for Cincinnati’s public stairways, intended to improve public health and neighborhood connection. She will also weave in community engagement and the role that various stakeholders play.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Three Acts in Over-the-Rhine is an innovative lecture series designed to expose attendees to stories of the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Each event features three, fifteen-minute talks on stories of Over-the-Rhine. Presenters will answer questions together at the end about their talks.
The Over-the-Rhine Museum welcomes your support for these provocative stories. Donate online at www.otrmuseum.org/donate.