One of the fundamental aims of The Annex Updated is to project Cincinnati’s artistic scene toward new communities, extending its echo to other cities across the United States and Europe. That task—necessarily patient and persistent—allows local experiences to find resonance in places where the creative pulse of the Midwest has seldom been perceived. At that intersection between the intimate and the expansive, the 2025 edition of the annual exhibition The Golden Ticket, organized by the Clifton Cultural Arts Center (CCAC), stands as an exemplary opportunity: a meeting point between artists who live or work within a fifty-mile radius and an audience that, beyond geographical boundaries, seeks to understand the cultural vitality of this region.

Painting, photography, sculpture, textile art, and even film converge in this platform which, for more than a decade, has served as a catalyst for professional visibility, curatorial validation, and regional dialogue. Since its founding in 2012, The Golden Ticket has proven that local creation can not only sustain a meaningful conversation with its immediate surroundings but also radiate outward—toward distant artistic circuits—nourishing a network of cultural exchange that expands, renews, and redefines the perception of art made in Cincinnati.

The November 2025 edition, sponsored by Summerfair Cincinnati, brings together sixty-seven selected artists and will be on view from November 14 to December 12 at CCAC’s new home (3412 Clifton Avenue). The opening reception and awards ceremony will take place on Friday, November 14, from 6 to 8 p.m., with the participation of artists, jurors, and institutional representatives. The gallery will remain open to the public with extended hours—Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday until 8 p.m.; and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Awards will be granted for Best in Show, second and third place, and an honorable mention, with total prizes exceeding $1,500. The Best in Show 2025 winner will also receive a solo exhibition in 2026, reinforcing the spirit of continuity and professional growth that defines the event.

Among this year’s participants are distinguished names such as Nathan Currier-Groh, Best in Show 2024 winner; Erin Beutel, celebrated for her chromatic and gestural explorations; Mark Patterson, a sculptor devoted to reclaimed materials; Rachel Smith, whose textile works delve into the body and memory; and Steven Fritsch, a photographer chronicling urban life along the Ohio Valley. Together with dozens of emerging artists, their works compose a plural and invigorating panorama of the region’s contemporary art.

Further information and the complete list of artists can be found at cliftonculturalarts.org/golden-ticket

Summerfair Cincinnati stands among the oldest and most emblematic art fairs in the United States—an annual celebration of visual art, music, and community held on the Coney Island grounds along the Ohio River. Founded in the late 1960s by a collective of local artists, it evolved from a modest gathering in Eden Park into a national reference event that brings together hundreds of juried creators working in painting, sculpture, ceramics, glass, jewelry, photography, and textile art. Organized by the nonprofit of the same name, Summerfair allocates its proceeds to scholarships, awards, and educational programs that nurture emerging artists and strengthen the cultural institutions of Greater Cincinnati. Its purpose extends far beyond the fair itself: to act as a catalyst for the Midwest’s artistic ecosystem, fostering the circulation of talent and the collaboration among creative communities. Following its successful 58th edition, held from May 30 to June 1, 2025, the organization is already preparing for its next gathering—expected in late May or early June 2026—reaffirming a tradition of more than half a century in which art remains a space of encounter, identity, and collective renewal.

Both The Golden Ticket and Summerfair Cincinnati embody the same quiet insistence that art, when rooted in its community, can reach far beyond it. They prove that regional creativity is not a provincial act but an open current—one that gathers strength precisely in its dialogue with the local landscape, its people, and its histories. Cincinnati’s artists work within this current, shaping a language that is both intimate and expansive, lyrical and civic. In the convergence of these initiatives, the Midwest reveals itself not as a margin but as a living center of artistic renewal, where every gesture, however small, contributes to the larger narrative of what art still dares to imagine—an ongoing story that finds one of its clearest voices here, in Cincinnati.