International Guests Visit Springer
December 9, 2022
Springer Student Advocates at Statehouse
March 23, 2023
Cedric Michael Cox served as the thirtieth Artist in Residence for the Springer School and Center this February, teaching students about his style of painting and engaging them in their own artmaking.
Springer School and Center’s Maureen Wenker Artist in Residence program was founded in 1993 and has hosted a professional artist every year since. The 2023 residency was especially poignant given that Cedric Michael Cox studied under the program’s very first artist, Tarrence Corbin. Cox shares “It’s very inspiring to be able to use my influences, not only from art history, but actually reference artists who served in the program who were actually mentors to me.” Using Corbin’s painting from thirty years ago Cox demonstrated to students “how to make art personable and how to explore and express yourself.”
Cox worked with all students in grades one through eight, tailoring his message and lessons to the age of the students, each coming away with an artwork to represent their time spent together. A group of fifteen eighth graders worked closely with the artist on a large collaborative painting. Cox explains that their painting is “based around the idea of what happens here at Springer—about how multiple grades work together to uplift each child in a way that makes learning collaborative.”
Cox is well-known for his often-vibrant paintings with elements of cubism and representational abstraction. He work has been the focus of numerous solo exhibitions and is housed in private collections including the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Cincinnati City Hall Mayor’s Office. Largescale murals include Avondale Pride completed in 2019, and Welcome Home series in 2022, also in the Avondale neighborhood. Most recently he designed “From Enslavement to Emancipation: Sky’s the Limit” at 1001 Lincoln Avenue.
The name of Springer’s piece is “Together We Grow”. In addition to learning technical lessons from Mr. Cox, students who participated in the residency came to understand ways that art can be meaningful. “I appreciate that Mr. Cox creates art as a way to help people,” Levi, an eighth grader explains. “Together we Grow” hangs at the school’s main stairwell—a joyful reminder of the lessons he brought. Read more and see photos from Cedric Michael Cox’s Springer School and Center residency at the artist’s website, https://cedricmichaelcox.com/2023/02/21/2023-springer-school-and-center-artist-in-residence/.
