Wave Pool, UC launch program to put artists to work in Cincinnati nonprofits

Cincinnati arts organization Wave Pool is launching a new program with the University of Cincinnati that will put artists to work inside local nonprofits on long-term community projects.

The three-year MATCH program will employ three artists for 30 months each. UC students will rotate through the projects as paid co-ops. Artists will work at three organizations:

• Findlay Market: An artist will join the Food Innovation Program, working with food entrepreneurs navigating the regulatory challenges of starting and running their businesses.
• Wave Pool: An artist will help establish a Cultural Land Trust to preserve affordable housing and workspace for artists in Camp Washington.
• Washington United Church of Christ: An artist will develop a multigenerational ceramics program tied to the Camp Washington church’s family programming.

The program is based on the idea that artists can bring a different approach to problems that aren’t traditionally considered arts issues.

“Artists reframe problems, ask questions nobody else asks, and turn abstract ideas into experience,” said Boris Oicherman, Wave Pool’s executive and artistic director.

How it’ll work

At Findlay Market, that could mean looking at the systems food entrepreneurs encounter from a different perspective.

“Bringing an artist into that environment gives us another way of seeing what entrepreneurs experience, and imagining how the systems that support them could work differently,” said Betty Poling, director of food innovation at the Corporation for Findlay Market, the nonprofit that operates the historic Over-the-Rhine market.

The program also gives artists longer-term paid work while giving UC students experience working with Cincinnati nonprofits. Students from the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAO) and College of Arts and Sciences will participate through UC’s co-op program.

At Washington United Church of Christ, Pastor Melissa Stephens said the ceramics program will build on the church’s role as a community gathering place.

“It will bring children, parents, and elders to the studio to create together,” Stephens said.

The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation and the Greater Cincinnati Foundation provided grants to make MATCH possible. The parties didn’t disclose financials.

An open call for artists will launch in October, with positions beginning in January 2027.