KENNEDY HEIGHTS CULTURAL CAMPUS
A Brief History of the Cultural Campus
About the Campus
After six years of planning, the long-awaited Kennedy Heights Cultural Campus at Kennedy Avenue and Montgomery Road opened on August 28th 2015. The event marked one of greater Cincinnati’s most dramatic revitalizations as the formerly derelict building, which once housed a Kroger, will open its doors as a destination for exploring and experiencing creative expres-sion. Among its occupants are the Kennedy Heights Arts Center’s Carl, Robert, Richard, and Dorothy Lindner Annex and the Kennedy Heights Montessori Center.
The Kennedy Heights Montessori Center relocated and expanded their award-winning, not-for-profit parent cooperative school that educates 2 to 6 year olds with the core values of Diversity, Respect, Peace, Relationships, Honesty, and Compassion. Call 513–631–8135 or visit kennedyheightsmontessori.org for more information.
KHAC’s Lindner Annex includes a multi-purpose space for dance, theatre and music classes and performances, as well as private events; Scripps Howard Media Center offers arts education programs in video, photography, animation, website design and graphic design; a small gallery, and ten individual artist studios. For more information, please visit: kennedyarts.org or call 513–631–4278.
Campus Objectives
For over two years, the KHDC has been coordinating a $3M development project in partnership with three flagship non-profits:
The Kennedy Heights Montessori Center, a highly regarded private Montessori school founded in 1965;
The Cincinnati Art Museum;
The Kennedy Heights Arts Center, a historic mansion and grounds celebrating its 7th year as a non-profit, community-based center featuring arts education, regional gallery space, artist gift shop, and event hosting.
Working with Cincinnati officials and our three partners, we are converting a 32,000 sq.ft. former big-box store in the heart of the District A arts corridor into a regional cultural center which will rejuvenate our business district while making art and arts-related education accessible to persons of all economic and cultural backgrounds throughout the Greater Cincinnati area.
The center will be the home for a variety of regional resources and community programs:
a state-of-the-art, expanded home for the Montessori Center;
the Cincinnati Art Museum’s first community outreach center, featuring educational space, a small gallery and a viewable collection of archives;
an expansion of the Arts Center including artists’ studios
The Cultural Center will become a physical anchor and focal point of “District A”- the arts corridor along Montgomery through Pleasant Ridge and Kennedy Heights, extending to Silverton. The Museum’s outreach facility is intended for use by school children throughout the region. The Montessori school will open out to the June Alexander Playfield complex.
Our Cultural Center is perfectly matched to recommendations adopted by the City of Cincinnati and our Community Council. A 2005 City-funded market study determined that the revitalization of the corridor should be built on the growing core of arts-based businesses and cultural institutions along Montgomery Road. The City adopted the market study as an urban design plan in 2007 and re-zoned the area accordingly in 2008
We have obtained commitments from our partners and received funding from the City of Cincinnati, Procter & Gamble, and the Emery, Jergens, and the Schmidlapp Foundations for nearly $2M of the projected $3M cost of the finished center.
On October 10, 2011 the purchase of the property was completed by the City of Cincinnati. The City took ownership of the 32,000 sq.ft. building and surrounding acreage, and the property was conveyed to the KHDC in April of 2012.
KHDC will maintain ownership of the property through the construction phase of the project and will oversee disbursement of the project funds. We have contracted Emersion Design of Cincinnati who has, in turn, met with our partners to develop a preliminary set of plans.
We are a small organization with a modest annual operating budget. Our expenses are minimal since we do not maintain any full-time staff. While KHDC is spearheading the fundraising effort for the Cultural Center, the ongoing operation of the Center will be handled by the Montessori Center, the Art Museum and the Arts Center.
The specific objectives of the Kennedy Heights Cultural Center are as follows:
Provide a regional cultural center where the Cincinnati Art Museum will establish its first ever community outreach location, making great art more accessible to low income and minority residents of Cincinnati.
For the first time, establish a connection between the Cincinnati Art Museum and a Montessori Center.
Provide an opportunity for the Kennedy Heights Art Center to expand its offerings to the community by providing much-needed artist studio space for rent.
Provide storage space for the Art Museum, which will free up space in the Museum's main building in Eden Park for other uses.
Provide a unique venue for the project partners as well as for Cincinnati residents to host a variety of cultural and arts-based events.
Eliminate blight in the Kennedy Heights neighborhood by re-purposing and renovating an empty big box store.
Providing an anchor for the 'District A' Arts Corridor along Montgomery Road from Pleasant Ridge through Kennedy Heights.
Greatly increase the cultural amenities available for all area residents.
Campus Development
On June 14, about 150 residents, City Council members, City staff, business partners, non-profit partners and news crews gathered at the site of a vacant store building on the corner of Kennedy and Montgomery Road to celebrate momentous news: the future development of the Kennedy Heights Cultural Center.
The site of this long-vacant, former Kroger store will soon be home to a new cultural center providing a wealth of arts, cultural and educational resources for area residents and the region.
The property is less than a block from the Kennedy Heights Arts Center. It includes 4.1 acres with a 32,000 square feet, one-story building. The building features flexible, high-bay commercial space and a loading dock. The Kennedy Heights Development Corporation purchased the building in April, 2012.
The Cultural Center will include three occupant organizations:
14,000sf for Cincinnati Art Museum's first off-campus Outreach Center to house archived collection of art which can be viewed by the public;
9,000sf for the Kennedy Heights Montessori Center to re-locate their award-winning preschool program; and
9,000sf for Kennedy Heights Arts Center for a satellite location for expanded services.
Kennedy Heights Arts Center will develop approximately 10 artist studios in the building. The studios will be rented to individual artists and a lobby gallery will provide space for the artists to display their work.
In addition, the facility will contain a multi-purpose event center. The 2,500 sq. ft. room will support expanded arts programming. Our current facility, while a beautiful place for displaying and making visual arts, lacks appropriate space for performing arts classes and activities, thus limiting the kinds of programs we have been able to offer. This new facility will enable KHAC to expand our arts education programs to include theatre, music and dance, as well as allowing us to host small concerts, performances and other types of events. The event center will also be a place that other arts organizations can use to present programming such as art shows, performances and workshops, as well as a place for community meeetings.
The Cultural Center will be a “social enterprise” for Kennedy Heights Arts Center; that is, it will create a stream of earned revenue to support our mission-focused activities. With professional assistance from business and marketing consultants, Kennedy Heights Arts Center has developed a business plan for this new venture. Financial projections from studio and event center rental indicate that the income will cover the operating costs of the facility, as well as contribute funds to support programming costs. Thus, after the initial capital investments, the project will be self-sustaining.
Overall, the Kennedy Heights Cultural Center is a $3 million project and approximately $1.8 million has been committed to date. The partners are in the final stages of approving a design and construction schedule for Phase I of the project which will include stabilization of the building (“white box”) and site improvements. We anticipate beginning construction in early Fall, 2012. Phase II, which will include each of the partner organizations’ build out of their interior spaces, is projected to begin in early 2013 as funds are available.
The Cultural Center will not only enable Kennedy Heights Arts Center to expand its programming, it will attract individual artists and arts organizations to locate, work and offer programming in Kennedy Heights. This artist community will provide increased access to arts and cultural resources for area residents, as well as attract visitors from outside the area - creating a more vibrant, thriving neighborhood.
The redevelopment of the corner of Montgomery and Kennedy Ave. has been a top priority of the Kennedy Heights Community Council for many years. The site is the cornerstone of the neighborhood business district and has been empty and neglected for many years. The Cultural Center project is critical to the neighborhood's success in repositioning the business district from one characterized by vacant properties and check cashing places into a thriving center of business, arts and cultural diversity.
A very special thanks to the project funders to date: the City of Cincinnati; P&G Fund; John A. Schroth Family Trust, PNC Bank, Trustee; Jergens Foundation; Greater Cincinnati Foundation; Thomas Emery Memorial; Schmidlapp Foundation; Ohio Arts Council; and Kennedy Heights Community Council.