72 Hours of Art in Cincinnati
Observer · · g4508722
BLINK and the FotoFocus Biennial transform the city every other October, but its museums, murals and theaters reward a visit in any season. Here's where to stay, what to eat and the sights not to miss.
Seen in the abstract, Cincinnati sprawls. In reality, the city’s downtown is very walkable, and even the sights farther out from the city center are a relatively short drive away. Culturally rich, it punches well above its weight class in art, architecture, theater and food. (It was known as the “Paris of America” in the late 1800s after a rapid cultural, fashion and building boom.) Once fairly buttoned-up and conservative, it’s a lot quirkier than you might expect, with an art scene rooted in history but very much aligned with our present moment. World-class cultural institutions established in the 19th Century continue to thrive today while new museums and gallery spaces—like the FotoFocus Center—grow up around them.
It’s also one of several cities Observer has visited that have gone all-in on murals. There are now well over 250 across dozens of neighborhoods, many thanks to the efforts of ArtWorks (now 1001 Colors) and, since 2017, via BLINK, a huge biennial celebration of public art featuring light installations, performances, projection-mapped art and permanent public art.
It’s hard to overstate just how deeply the city engages with BLINK, which recently closed its fifth edition. It blankets the riverfront, the business district, Over-the-Rhine and Covington, Kentucky, across the bridge with light sculptures, glowing installation art, illuminated murals and projections mapped onto building facades . The effect is of a city throwing itself a party—people of all ages, covered in glow necklaces, light-up capes and blinking rings, swarm 30+ blocks to see live painting, moving murals, interactive art pieces and performances. On the third night of the festival, Washington Park was packed shoulder to shoulder to catch a Music Hall installation by Brett Bolton , who uses analog drums, a touch controller and custom-built audiovisual systems to create projection-mapped video art that responds in real time to his music-making. There’s street food, dancing, adult beverages with light-up ice cubes and music, but it’s the creativity that keeps people coming back.
While there’s always art on in Cincinnati year-round, there’s something to be said for visiting in October, which is when Cincinnati Art Week unfolds. In even-numbered years, BLINK and the FotoFocus Biennial —the world-renowned region-wide photography festival—further activate Queen City’s art lovers (of which there are many). With all three running at once, art spills into storefronts and onto building facades, there are exhibitions everywhere and the crowds stay out well past dark.
Here’s our itinerary, which you can still follow even if it’s not a BLINK/FotoFocus Biennial year:
Cincinnati’s Fidelity Hotel opened in July 2026 inside the Beaux-Arts tower commissioned by Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt in 1913, which later served as Procter & Gamble ’s headquarters from 1935 to 1956. The rooms are spacious, especially for a city property, with cozy linens, warm robes and plush carpets that make returning after a long day of walking an especially appealing proposition. The on-site restaurant serves dinner and craft cocktails; Cora’s All Day Café next to the lobby is where we grabbed a quick breakfast each morning.
Cincinnati regularly makes it onto lists of the best cities for street art. Since 1996, the nonprofit 1001 Colors has commissioned professional artists and paid thousands of local teens and young adults to decorate the city’s walls, and every edition of BLINK also leaves new permanent murals behind (see this year’s ) while restoring those of previous years. Many of the walls are nods to history and civic memory. Jenny Ustick ’s Mr. Dynamite honors James Brown and King Records, the local label that recorded him. Jonathan Queen ’s Cincinnati Toy Heritage celebrates Kenner, the hometown company behind the original Star Wars and Care Bears toys. And Lucie Rice ’s Fiona and Bibi pays tribute to the Cincinnati Zoo’s hippos, who were viral sensations in 2017. Others are just plain cool, like artist duo Medianeras’s two-building piece near our next destination, Findlay Market. There’s no official mural walking tour, but you can set your own neighborhood-based itinerary using 1001 Colors’s discovery page .
This is Ohio’s oldest continuously operated public market; its iron-framed main hall in Over-the-Rhine is packed with independent shops, some of which have been helmed by the same families for generations. For lunch, we recommend the smoky pulled pork at Eli’s BBQ, though if you’ve never had goetta (a variation of German grützwurst), Eckerlin Meats makes an amazing breakfast sandwich at a price you won’t believe. There are also dumplings, gelato and spices you won’t find at just any old supermarket. On weekends, the market spills out onto the streets, and Jane’s, on the Elm Street side, is a wonderful spot to linger in between activities.
Cincinnati might not have a subway system, but it does have a streetcar that runs on a 3.6-mile loop through sections of the city out-of-towners won’t want to miss: The Banks has the riverfront, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and both stadiums. Downtown has the Contemporary Arts Center, Aronoff Center, Fountain Square and the best hotels. Over-the-Rhine has Cincinnati Music Hall and the city’s best restaurants and bars. The Connector is free; just step aboard when it arrives. Plus, it comes frequently—about every 10-15 minutes—and service runs late on weekends.
Cincinnati has only a handful of commercial galleries— Miller Gallery is the oldest, established in 1960; during our visit, it was showing “Rhythm of Light,” an exhibition of colorful abstract works by Eduardo Monteagudo . Carl Solway Gallery is also worth a visit, but from there, we recommend checking out the city’s collective art spaces. Pendleton Art Center has 150,000 square feet of studios, with more than 250 artists working across the historic warehouse’s eight floors. On the last Friday of each month, the building opens to the public and you can walk the floors, talk to the artists and buy directly from them. Essex Studios , northeast of downtown, also holds regular public ArtWalks and other events. But if you’re here during Cincinnati Art Week , you won’t need a specific destination, as makeshift galleries pop up all over Over-the-Rhine in empty storefronts and other cultural spaces. This year’s included Art Noire ‘s “The Heart of It All,” Andrea Sabugo ‘s visually compelling and highly personal “Lotería” and the 3D printwork show “POTS.SHOP,” among all kinds of other activations. The CAW Art Market, full of frankly amazing pieces by local artists, was our favorite stop— Nasir Lamumba ’s figurative works were some of our favorites.
Alternatively, FotoFocus is worth a stop, whether or not it’s a biennial year. It spent more than 15 years staging photography exhibitions in borrowed spaces before settling in its own home in May 2026, when it opened a 14,700-square-foot building designed by Jose Garcia . During our visit, it was showing Brooklyn-based artist Trevor Paglen ’s “ the most merciful thing in the world ” (on through Jan. 23, 2027), with photography, video and sculpture spanning two decades of his career. We particularly enjoyed the video work Code Names of the Surveillance State (2014) for its duality: nonsensical on the surface, yet critical of the unseriousness of government. (Beyond the center, some of our favorite biennial presentations were “ Paul Mpagi Sepuya: Compressed Tenses ” at Weston Art Gallery and “ Accra Shepp: Bearing Witness ” at Art Academy of Cincinnati: SITE1212.)
Over-the-Rhine has the city’s densest cluster of theaters; in April 2024, Cincinnati officially designated one multi-block section of the neighborhood as “Theatre Row.” The Music Hall houses the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera and Cincinnati Ballet. The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati (which hosts contemporary productions) are near Washington Park. Know Theatre is the producer of the acclaimed Cincinnati Fringe Festival. If you’re looking for dinner and a show, there are loads of options around venues, from Teak OTR (sushi and Thai) and Sotto (Italian) in OTR to Nicholson’s in the business district, which does themed menus for whatever is playing at Aronoff Center for the Arts. Alternatively, grab some street food. We ate at the Asianati Night Market while members of the Au Lac Lion Dance Association and River Lotus Lion Dance performed traditional dances.
End the night 40 feet beneath Vine Street in a 170-year-old lagering tunnel dug for Champion Brewing. (To get there, we walked through Sew Valley ‘s BLINK installation, Threaded Light .) Ghost Baby takes its name from a local legend about contractors hearing the sound of crying babies during the restoration of the tunnels, though the atmosphere is anything but spooky. Stone arches, chandeliers, fringe and crushed velvet make the space feel a little bit Prohibition, a little bit 1980s. The front bar, the Rattle Room, takes walk-ins for those looking for craft cocktails. The Den, farther in, requires reservations; there’s no food, but there is live music.
The CAC was founded in 1939 as the Modern Art Society; it’s one of the oldest contemporary art institutions in the U.S. Designed by Zaha Hadid —the first U.S. art museum designed by a female architect—the building that houses the non-collecting institution has a semi-modular interior design that can be reconfigured for each exhibition. During our visit, the second and third floors were dedicated to FotoFocus Biennial shows: “ Widline Cadet : Seremoni Disparisyon (Ritual [Dis]Appearance),” Cadet’s deeply personal examination of family, memory and belonging, and “In the Interest of Time,” a moving group show of work by seven artists with ties to Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. ( Elijah Howe ’s stories from Chained Rock, Kentucky, were particularly intriguing.) In the lower gallery, Urban Native Collective’s “Indigenous Peoples’ Day Convergence” showcases work by Jaque Fragua “Mobil Savage” (Pueblo), Robert Franklin (Diné), Steph Littlebird (Grand Ronde), Kobi Morgan (Diné), Cole Reuben (Seneca), Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos), Mariana Varela (Mexican), Hiro Cash (Diné), Jeremy Dennis (Shinnecock), Carlos Ramirez (Mexican) and Solstar (Mayan).
The hotel was initially part of the boutique chain that began in Louisville, where collectors Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson transformed the lobby into a contemporary art museum. The Cincinnati location has changed ownership but keeps the 21c name and the founders’ model: publicly accessible art galleries open around the clock, plus site-specific installations. “This We Believe,” on view through Aug. 13, 2027, looks at religious, political and economic belief systems and at what loyalty to them costs and includes work by Carlos Aires , Zhang Dali , Omar Victor Diop , Mitch Epstein , LaToya Ruby Frazier , David Magnusson , Lindsay McCrum , Dread Scott and Hank Willis Thomas .
If it looks familiar, that’s because John A. Roebling ’s suspension bridge, which opened in 1866, served as a working draft for the Brooklyn Bridge. Stop in the middle for open views of the skyline, Great American Ball Park and Smale Riverfront Park. Once you hit Kentucky, Roebling Point Books & Coffee is a good first stop. For lunch, try The Gruff for brick-oven pizza (plus local bourbon and craft beer) or Noche for something more upscale. Bourbon lovers can start the self-guided B-Line tour here. BLINK crossed the bridge in 2026, but Covington already had its own suite of downtown murals. Don’t miss The Wenzel House by the collective Immersion Alley, a trompe-l’oeil interior of a 12-foot-tall Victorian shotgun house painted floor to ceiling with doors you can open and close.
Head back over the bridge and into the commanding copper building facing the riverfront for a journey through our nation’s history. Far from the punishing experience one might expect, the Freedom Center does not soften the history of slavery in the U.S.—and the reality of present-day slavery around the world—but keeps the focus squarely on hope and the power of collective action. Its organizing principle is the belief that together, we can do better. During our visit, the special FotoFocus exhibition was “Witness to the Journey: Matt Herron and the Deep South,” which showcased the work and life of the renowned civil rights photographer.
Wildweed began as a series of hundreds of pasta pop-ups before settling on Walnut Street. These days, the menus feature wild-foraged and local ingredients, with a heavy emphasis on homemade, hand-formed pastas. The menu changes with the seasons and the availability of ingredients, but if you can get them, we recommend the one-bite tuna tartlette, the veggies with the pistachio emulsion and the striped chicken tortelli. The cocktails can lean toward the savory; the Laurus was our favorite. (If you can’t get a table, the city’s recent James Beard Award finalists, Nolia Kitchen, Sudova and Kiki, are strong alternatives.)
Smale Riverfront Park stays open until 11 p.m., and the Roebling Bridge outlined in light is a sight worth staying out late for. The Banks is a designated outdoor drinking district, which means you can grab beer, wine and liquor to go from nearly 20 bars and restaurants. Sip a cocktail and watch the nighttime barges from the Rosenberg Swings, a row of oversized porch swings hung from stone pillars. On weekend nights, there’s often live music (and a lively crowd). During BLINK, it was packed with people there to see Dream Slide by William Nemitoff of Curious Form and Lindsay Glatz and Nemitoff’s Cloud Swings .
With a permanent collection of more than 73,000 works spanning 6,000 years, Cincinnati Art Museum offers a comprehensive look at human creativity across time. Its placards tend toward the exhaustive, but they’re worth reading, as this museum is unusually willing to unpack challenging histories rather than tidy them up for brevity. We particularly liked that the geographic galleries place historical works alongside contemporary pieces with related themes, which keeps ancient artworks from feeling embalmed. Don’t miss the folk art gallery, Saul Steinberg ’s mural for the Terrace Plaza Hotel or the wing of works that tell the story of Cincinnati’s artists and artistic evolution between 1788 and 1870. In the museum’s FotoFocus Biennial presentation, “ Nancy Rexroth : Secrets of My Power,” on view through Jan. 3, 2027, the photographer’s abstracted color work from the 1980s is the strongest material.
Cincinnati chili was created in the 1920s by Macedonian immigrants and has very little in common with the chili most of us are familiar with. Less of a stew than a finely ground beef sauce, it is seasoned with cinnamon, cloves, allspice and a little cocoa, more Greek than Texan. Oh, and you eat it over pasta. At Skyline, you order by number: a 3-way is spaghetti, chili and a mound of shredded cheddar. A 4-way adds onions or beans, and a 5-way adds both. (A small order looks tiny but is plenty.) As is often the case with hyper-regional cuisine, the citizenry’s loyalty is split between Skyline and Gold Star, with independent parlors holding their own at the margins.
This is one of the city’s most underrated gems. The collection moves from the hand-painted wooden signs of 1900-1940 and gold-leaf glass signs with strong Art Deco lines, lobby cards and movie posters through to mid-century plastic signs and the large neon signs of the ’50s and ’60s, which are arguably the stars of the collection. Housing these is an indoor Main Street lined with brightly lit faux storefronts that have a Disney-esque charm. There’s even a working neon shop, where you can watch artisans creating the signage of tomorrow.