An arts center for everyone

Steve Loftin’s three decades of guiding change, growth and community connection at the Aronoff Center

The Aronoff Center for the Arts turns 30 this season. In those three decades, the Aronoff has gone from a sometimes-controversial development that some believed was part of a plan to abandon Music Hall to what is arguably the hub of the city center’s arts and entertainment. Some say that the opening of the Aronoff Center saved downtown Cincinnati. That may be a bit of a stretch, but not by much.

It’s hard to remember what downtown Cincinnati looked and felt like in the early 1990s, especially Walnut Street between Sixth and Seventh streets. It was something of a wasteland. There were a couple of forgettable restaurants. And the Phoenix Bar. There was a popcorn store, too, and Batsakes Hats. But after dark, it felt like a no-man’s land.

All that changed when the Aronoff Center opened in October 1995. Suddenly, the dark and sometimes intimidating block was filled with activity, day and night. During its first year, the Aronoff attracted a staggering 514,000 people to various events there. And since its opening, the center has welcomed nearly 12.5 million people to more than 17,500 performances and events, becoming one of the region’s most visited arts venues.

Steve Loftin has been there for all of it. Today, he’s the president of the Cincinnati Arts Association, the nonprofit group that oversees programming and management at both the Aronoff Center and Music Hall. He arrived in 1993 – as executive vice president – just one week after the first concrete was poured for the construction of the Aronoff. 

He has seen downtown undergo a radical evolution in that time. Department stores, once regarded as the anchors of downtown, have disappeared. Stadiums have been razed and then rebuilt. But the amount of new development has been overwhelming. There are loads of new hotels and offices and a booming residential market. The Contemporary Arts Center opened its new home across the street from the Aronoff in 2003. And despite the occasional high-profile restaurant closing, downtown’s dining scene is flourishing.

Just as important to the health of the city’s central core has been the growth of a robust Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, with its theaters, bars and many, many restaurants. It’s just a few blocks north of the Aronoff and patrons regularly make their way from one area to the other.

Guiding the Aronoff over hurdles

During his 33 years at the Aronoff, the 68-year-old Loftin has shepherded the center through all manner of societal hurdles that he never could have foreseen. There was the unrest and subsequent entertainment boycott that followed the shooting of Timothy Thomas in OTR in 2001. Months later came the 9/11 attacks and the economic downturn that unfolded soon after. There was the Great Recession of 2007-09 and, just five years ago, the greatest challenge of all, the COVID pandemic.

“It has been quite a ride,” said the understated Loftin, his voice still carrying the gentle lilt of his Nashville upbringing. “Things happened that had never happened before. Broadway shows canceling? Major acts abandoning tours? Unheard of. But it was happening three or four times a week in 2020.”

Attendance plummeted. During the 2018-19 season – the last full season before the pandemic – the Aronoff hosted 448 events and had a total attendance of 391,549. During the 2020-21 season, the numbers were shocking: just 36 events attended by 4,495 people.

“It was catastrophic,” said Loftin. “Worst of all was the uncertainty. With a recession, you know you’ll come out of it in a couple of years. But with COVID, we had no idea how it would play out.”

At first, there was hope that things might return to normal in a couple of months. 

“So we would reschedule shows on our calendar,” said Genevieve Holt, vice president-Midwest of Broadway Across America, which presents the touring Broadway productions at the Aronoff. “But when the pandemic kept growing, we would shut down for a little longer. Everybody was always reaching out and trying to get new dates on the calendar.”

It sounds chaotic. But it was better than simply closing down and waiting for the pandemic to end. Running an institution like the Aronoff depends on a constant supply of shows in the pipeline. If you shutter that pipeline, getting it up and running again will take a lot of time.

“We didn’t ticket anything for 18 months,” said Loftin. “But in the background, we were in constant touch with tours and performing companies. We were lining up shows not knowing when they might actually be able to perform. … So when the state finally said OK, everything moved ahead at warp speed.”

On Aug. 28, 2021, the Aronoff’s Procter & Gamble Hall re-opened with Johnny Mathis’ “65 Years of Romance” tour.

There was still much uncertainty. Would audiences feel safe sharing a room with 2,700 strangers? The state was still requiring people to wear masks. How would audiences respond to that?

“There was so much that we couldn’t know,” said Loftin. 

He needn’t have worried. The Johnny Mathis show was “within inches” of being sold out. But a bigger test would come six weeks later when the first Broadway in Cincinnati presentation opened. It was “Pretty Woman” and was scheduled to run for two weeks.

“We stood out on the sidewalk listening to the audience for those first few shows,” said Loftin. “People were almost crying, they were so happy to be back. They had gotten a lot less afraid.”

Two weeks after “Pretty Woman” closed, “Wicked” opened a three-week engagement. 

“Once we started, we didn’t look back,” said Loftin. “People were ready. Fortunately, so were we.”

A remarkable comeback 

Today, Broadway in Cincinnati is enjoying its highest-ever subscriber base. And overall Aronoff attendance is likely to come very close to 400,000. It’s something that even the most optimistic observers could not have predicted back in the 1990s. 

The decades before the Aronoff’s opening were filled with wrecking balls tearing down one downtown theater after another. The best-known was the Albee. But there were many others within a few blocks of Fountain Square – the Grand, the Family, the Capitol, the Times and the Keith’s among them. The previous home of touring Broadway shows, the Shubert, was knocked down in January 1976. It sat kitty-corner from where the Aronoff is today, in the space now occupied by a CVS pharmacy.

Many things contributed to the Aronoff’s success: Good timing. Good location. Inviting architecture. An abundance of available “product.”

But Loftin and his staff have been particularly adept at knowing what audiences want and what they might be willing to take risks on. The Broadway shows are one thing. But the Aronoff is home to hundreds of other events and several other resident companies: Mutual Dance Theatre, Cincinnati Music Theatre, Revolution Dance Theatre, Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative and Exhale Dance Tribe.

There are the always fascinating exhibitions in the Weston Art Gallery and a remarkably active schedule of educational programming. The Cincinnati Arts Association presents many performances of its own. This season includes everything from a Simon & Garfunkel tribute show and “An Evening with David Sedaris” to a South African youth choir and “The Jokers of Magic.”

 If it sounds as if Loftin is trying to make the Aronoff into a place that offers all things to all people, you’d be right. And, for the most part, he has been enormously successful at it.

“Steve doesn’t just run a building,” said Holt. “He is just what he seems. He leads by compassion. He doesn’t make rash decisions. He is always considering what is best for the audiences and for the employees. He is a big reason that the Aronoff has been so successful for so long.”

Spend a little time with Loftin and you will quickly understand that he is more than a person who has great affection for the arts and entertainment. He considers himself a steward of everything that takes place at the Aronoff.

“We are an arts center of and for this community,” Loftin said. “And when I say ‘community,’ I mean the entire community. Everyone. We believe in building relationships – with as many people as we can. That’s why the Aronoff was built. And, as long as I am here, that is what we will do.”

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