Left to Right: Janet Albright-Captain, Jacquie Eaton, Tony Drummond, Ann Driscoll, Sarah Corlett, June Alexander, Dionna DeeDee Flowers, Jeremy Neff and Key Beck as part of a series at Storefronts at buddy's place.(Photo: Joe Walsh and MC Rietz/Provided)

In the middle of Over-The-Rhine's entertainment district is an art collective made for and by community members.

Some are artists, others are educators andstudents,and some are longtime residents.

The work featured as part of the "Storefronts at buddy's place" series varies from cutoutsto live performances andlight installations.

And it's all housed on buddy's place, a building with 20 units of permanent affordable housing for former homeless residents. The building itselfis recognizable by a giant mural on its side that features sunflowers, people and a sign that says "Over-the-RhinePeoples Movement."

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buddy's place was named after buddy gray, a homeless advocate andfounderof Cincinnati's Drop Inn Center. buddy did not capitalize the "b" or "g" in his name and buddy's place has continued the tradition.

Storefronts was formed in 2017with the goal to allow residents to produce art shows that address issues that impact their lives, such as development and gentrification in the community.

"For many of us, even folks who weren't here since the beginning, we've always wanted something to do," said Key Beck, an organizer, collaboratorand board member of the OTR community council. Becksaid that Storefronts feels like something theycan do.

On various projects, Beck has served several roles from community member to participant. "It shows you what intentional community work looks like. The voice of the community is always being heard."

Dorothy Darden as part of a series called "Vigils" at Storefronts at buddy's place.(Photo: Storefront at buddy's place.)

The first exhibit at Storefronts was called Vigil. Community members dressed in black stood in the windows with signs that said things like, "We need to support affordable housing," and "Neighborhoods are nothing without neighbors."

The process has evolved over the years at Storefronts.

Mary Clare Rietz, the facilitating artist for Storefronts' art series at Miami University's Center forCommunity Engagement, first would bring the concepts to the community. Since then, OTR residents now work together to flesh out ideas for the Storefronts presentations.

Tony Drummond says he'slived in OTR for 12 years and has met more than 50 people since joining Storefronts. He currently lives at buddy's place and was part of Storefronts' Blink presentation called "Time for an UPdate?"

"I wore a big hat on with lights, and I'm a big man, so I guess I drew a lot of attention," Drummond said. "But we had a lot of educational stuff there, people looked at that and read that. It wasn't just a big light show. People were stopping. People were learning. People were seeing things they didn't know nothing about."

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June Alexander has lived in OTR for more than 20 years and saidStorefronts reminds her of the Harlem Renaissance.

"Without that expression that ability to say, in a healthy way, what's going on with us and have that support there would be other things going on," Alexander said. "This is what people need to see. Grassroots people, people in your own community, must have supporters."

Student involvement differs for each project. Sometimes they help with facilitating conversations or gathering props. Other students design posters and artwork or create costumes for exhibits.

Students from Miami University as well as the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning have also assisted with projects.

"The good thing about working with the students is that they're often involved in different portions of the project," Beck said.

"It's kind of a good partnership between students who are working in this kind of environment from an academic perspective and communities coming from the experiential perspective and together we have a unified goal of representing something," Beck said. "It's more like we're doing work with the students and working together."

End Times exhibit by Dionna "DeeDee" Flowers at Storefronts at buddy's place in Over-the-Rhine.(Photo: Storefronts at buddy's place)

The summer art project was bolstered by Black Lives Matter protests happening in Cincinnati and across the nation.

"With the powerful emergence of this most recent movement for Black lives and all of the other storefronts being covered with wood and then art," Rietz said. "Some of us decided it might be a good idea to have art in our windows."

This current series will feature several single-artist shows for the windows, rather than the usual collective approach.

Dionna DeeDee Flowers created the art for the first installation of BLACKLIBERATION. The second part of the series will premiere on Aug. 28as part of OTR's Final Friday art programming.

"It has been a very moving experience for me to be a part of this movement," Flowers said. "Whether they be rich, poor, professional, street person or whatever, what have you, Over-the-Rhine community folks, new ones and nostalgic, this is getting us together and getting us to communicate with one another."

"Wonderland" exhibit at Storefront at buddy's place.(Photo: Storefront at buddy's place)

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Storefronts at buddy's place: These windows in OTR offer a voice to the community - The Cincinnati Enquirer