5chw4r7z

5chw4r7z

As it says in my bio, I am a life-long Cincinnatian who moved Downtown 3 years ago. I have lived in various places in the Tri-State region, but Downtown is my favorite area of residence. I love the growth I have seen Downtown (and OTR) and look forward to more progress being made in the region. Whenever I tell someone I live Downtown I get a wide range of reactions and questions, so I will have many posts about city life.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I am a big sports fan. Of course being a Cincinnatian most of my sports fandom has been filled with disappointment. “Wait til next year” is a common reality that a Bengals and Reds fan faces. Along with watching sports, I try to stay active. One of the most shocking developments in my life is I have become a runner. When I attended the best high school in Cincinnati (Walnut Hills, and I will fiercely argue with you if you disagree!) I could barely finish the mile in gym class. Fast forward to 2011 where I completed my first marathon and now consider a 5k a short run.

I studied Radio/TV at Northern Kentucky University, but lately I have discovered a passion for photography. I have a lot to learn and am by no means a professional, but taking the camera out and taking photos of the various sites in town and the country has become one of my favorite hobbies. Of course I still do have a love for TV and motion pictures. I do enjoy a lazy day on the couch watching a marathon of my favorite shows and movies.

One of my favorite subjects to take photos of is my dog Dexter. My girlfriend and I adopted Dexter the Pug from the SCPA in January and he has become a very welcomed addition to our household. Dexter had a rough life before we adopted him, he was a stray and almost died at the SPCA with a severe case of kennel cough. Luckily he survived and we arrived to rescue him! After this experience we highly recommend adopting from the SPCA if you are looking for a pet.

Food, downtown, sports, digital media and my dog Dexter, that basically sums up who Clint Spaeth is.

Her passion moved me.

As I crossed Hamilton Avenue at the pedestrian crosswalk in front of Northside Tavern, a truck sped up when he saw I would do the unthinkable and actually use that pedestrian crosswalk with traffic speeding past. He opened his window, shouting meaningless obscenities.

I’m a bit of a militant pedestrian, I know that I do in fact have the right-of-way, so I kept walking. He stopped, though in reality he would have had to have stopped in another fifteen feet regardless, there was another car ahead. I smiled at him, somehow drawing power from Aung San Suu Kyi. I felt her passion.

Onward towards Take the Cake for lunch. As I crossed Blue Rock Ave, I looked up and realized Northside is blessed with two Shepard Fairey murals, and one features Aung San Suu Kyi, and that Aung San Suu Kyi mural was right in front of me. This made me smile.

I took a picture. It made me smile.

Shepard Fairey mural, Northside, Cincinnati, OH featuring Aung San Suu Kyi

After a Take the Cake lunch, I walked back past the mural, turned around and looked again, and thought about how Aung San Suu Kyi, even after fifteen years of political detention under an oppressive regime, had such positive passion about her life and those all around her. She saw change as inevitable and still possible and still happening despite the negative political forces still all around her. I smiled again.

Again crossing Blue Rock, I noticed some Northsiders playing in the snow. With tools. They’d tapped into their passion. They’d built a fantastic snow unicorn at the edge of Hoffner Park along Hamilton. I took a picture. And it made me smile.

Snow Unicorn, Hoffner Park, Northside, Cincinnati, OH

The snow builders then eagerly showed me their other creation, a snowman, a snowman who had been taken down by snow sharks. I took a picture.

The snowman that had been consumed by the snow sharks: (look closely)

Passion. This made me smile.

GeekJames

Flash forward 12 years later and I sat in the back of a classroom at Morehead State looking at the score to Mozart’s The Magic Flute my mother’s words echoing in my mind.  My peers were engaged in a lively discussion regarding the piece and I sat frantically trying to write down every word feeling like a spy in a dark alley peering into a lighted window.

This past April I walked into the Fine Art’s Fund BOARDway Bound program these thoughts again flittered just behind my pupils; I was once more crashing the party.  Earlier that month, I had written in my journal all the reasons why I shouldn’t apply for the program: I wasn’t traveled enough, networked enough, rich enough, connected enough, skilled enough…simply not enough.  Who did I think I was doing something like this-me? On an art board?  I put down my pen, wrote a Letter of Intent, updated my resume, filled out the application and dashed off an email.  My justification: I simply wanted to learn something new.

The program consisted of 3 meetings with 8-12 hours of online work between each meeting.  We covered Board Member Responsibilities, Financial Management and Staff Responsibilities, and Fundraising and an Overview of Engagement.  The meetings were informative and focused on application of what we learned on the website.  We heard from various Directors from Clifton Cultural Arts Center, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, and The Carnegie. The idea behind this program is to put together a Board Bank or a collection of individuals who are interested in participating on an art board within the smaller arts organizations in Cincinnati and the surrounding communities.  The Fine Arts Fund appears to be taking more of a community development direction with this program and The Arts Ripple Effect - billed as a “Research-Based Strategy to Build Shared Responsibility for the Arts.”

I learned much from this program; how an art board functions, the mission of an art organization and the how that mission effects financial decision-making.  However, the best was a new defintion of art and how art fits into my own life.

What makes a person rich? seeing a mural on a wall; teaching a child the art of clowning; painting a street; hearing original, independent music on Fountain Square; or seeing an original, contemporary play.  That which makes an individual rich is what makes a community rich.

Last weekend I saw my first Cincinnati opera, La Boheme courtesy of tickets from Enjoy the Arts. 

Hey mom, I’m one of the rich people now.

BOARDway Bound Video

*All photos courtesy of Fine Arts Fund

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We really couldn’t have asked for a better weekend, spring arrived in a timely manner for both events.

It all kicked off Saturday night with a few words by Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls


And was followed by a sunny Monday Morning.

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