In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the convention industry continues to rebound as a major driver of the U.S. economy. According to the U.S. Travel Association, thousands of meetings and events around the country in 2024 generated travel spending of $126 billion. But with dozens of venues competing for business, cities are seeking ways to set themselves apart. At the newly expanded and renovated Cincinnati Convention Center, a major differentiation is art.
To create a standout program of public art at the facility, Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC) and the city of Cincinnati partnered with four local organizations – ArtWorks, Black Art Speaks, the Art Academy of Cincinnati and Agar – to commission and create new installations by local artists, transforming the convention center into what 3CDC calls a “cultural gateway that reflects the voices, histories and artistic leadership of Cincinnati itself.”
“This is an exciting step as we anticipate the opening of the new reimagined convention center,” Cincinnati City Manager Sheryl Long said. “Each piece of art is a part of the building’s soul and a signal to the world of what Cincinnati is all about.”
The convention center’s interior spaces now boast 12 new artworks,including murals, sculptural works and digital media installations. Spring will see the addition of four more works on Elm Street Plaza located outside the center’s main entry (currently where the city’s seasonal ice rink is situated). An investment of $1.7 million covered the cost of the new works from the center’s $264 million renovation budget. Local artists created the newly commissioned pieces, all owned by the city of Cincinnati, many with the help of student apprentices.
“We chose a group of local, contemporary artists working in specialized materials and processes,” said Liz Miller, director of creative projects for ArtWorks, about her organization’s contributions. “We also prioritized collaborations with a diverse range of artists so that the installations would be as unique and fresh as the architecture and the thoughtfully designed spaces within the center.”
The choice to commission artists exclusively from the Greater Cincinnati region was also an intentional business decision.
“A lot of convention centers might do a national call to artists, but those dollars may not be invested locally,” said Colleen Houston, CEO and creative director of ArtWorks. “I think what is really beneficial to understand is that 3CDC and the city of Cincinnati made an investment in art that is entirely local. It represents more jobs and more economic impact directly for Cincinnatians.”
In addition to the new works of art, the convention center also retains six existing installations from before the renovation began – most notably Winold Reiss’ “Industrial Mosaic Murals” from 1933 (famously saved from the wrecking ball when Union Terminal’s concourse was demolished in 1974) and Charley Harper’s “Space Walk” from 1969-70. ArtWorks took the lead in deinstalling and “rehoming” an additional nine existing pieces to make space for the new additions. The beneficiaries of the older works include the Mercantile Library, Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library, Cincinnati Recreation Commission and Keep Cincinnati Beautiful.
After deciding which existing installations to keep, the challenge became how to incorporate those works within the center’s new public art program while simultaneously encouraging consistency across the spectrum of newly commissioned works – created by four separate arts organizations working with more than 17 different artists and makers – in the absence of a singular curatorial voice leading the process.
“ArtWorks offered our services to be an integrating force, because there were so many different creative partners,” Houston said. “One of the ways we were successful was identifying a theme, ‘convergence,’ which brought some continuity. We felt like it could be a really good common thread.”
Working with the group of stakeholders, ArtWorks proposed the official theme “Convergence: Pieces Creating a Whole” as a guiding creative direction for the center’s art installations. The concept speaks not only to what literally happens inside a convention center – a space designed to connect people, ideas and experiences – but also to what 3CDC describes as “the intersection of individual identities, stories and perspectives that form a larger, interconnected narrative” across all the works, both new and existing.
In addition to creating four new works for the center, the Art Academy of Cincinnati will play a year-round role in exhibiting large-scale, contemporary works by Cincinnati artists inside the center’s dedicated gallery space. Scheduled to open in 2026, the space will showcase a rotating program of art installations. These temporary exhibitions will reinforce 3CDC’s goal to introduce convention visitors to Cincinnati’s distinctive culture and diverse artists, further elevating the center from its competitors in other cities.
“3CDC and the city of Cincinnati have created a model for integrating public art into civic spaces in ways that are accessible, intentional, and reflective of the community,” said Alandes Powell, president and CEO of Black Art Speaks. “We are proud to be part of that vision, ensuring artists and stories rooted in this city are visible at the scale they deserve.”
The Cincinnati Convention Center will officially open Jan. 7, 2026, following a public ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m.
*This article originally appeared in the Cincinnati Business Courier.