Oct 20 Tuesday
Take part in a self-guided geocache-style passport adventure to explore 12 meaningful locations across Kettering, each connected to an America 250 Ohio monthly theme. Pick-up a passport at select locations to get started!
More information and passport locations are at http://www.ketteringoh.org/america-250-kettering-passport
Rosewood Arts Center’s Community Gallery will feature three Rosewood faculty artist’s work this fall in a group exhibit: INSPIRE. The exhibition highlights the work of Heather Ballard, Eli Flannagan and Nicole Reading who teach photography, screen-printing and watercolor respectively.
Heather Ballard will be exhibiting her photographic work which utilizes the cyanotype process. Her work is a fleeting portrait of our natural surroundings and touches on elements of chance and control. Eli Flannagan’s meticulous pen and ink drawings are inspired by surrealism. Inward looking and metaphoric, Flannagan’s drawings illustrate societal pressures and expectations. Nicole Reading’s work represents the natural world through abstraction, distortion, and accuracy. She explores the relationship between collecting and categorizing objects with their display for scientific purposes.
The Contemporary Dayton is proud to present Stacy Kranitz: Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down, the culmination of a landmark multi-year project that challenges long-held stereotypes of Appalachia by Pulitzer Prize–winning photographer Stacy Kranitz.
Featuring more than 40 photographs drawn from historical archives, Kranitz’s own images, historical texts, installations, and an accompanying film, the exhibition examines how Appalachia has been represented—and misrepresented—across generations. Together, these works reveal a region shaped by myth, exploitation, resilience, and the uneasy tension between representation and reality.
The exhibition’s title references the gospel song “Ain’t No Grave,” made famous by Johnny Cash, evoking the resilience and resistance that run throughout the project. Recipient of the prestigious Images Vevey Book Award, Kranitz has published a companion monograph, available for purchase in The Contemporary Dayton’s CoSHOP.
Born in Kentucky and based in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Tennessee, Kranitz is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among many other awards. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is held in numerous public collections.
Stacy Kranitz: Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down is part of the 2026 FotoFocus Biennial: The Long View. Now in its eighth iteration, the Biennial activates over 70 exhibitions at museums, galleries, universities, and public spaces throughout Greater Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and Northern Kentucky.
The Contemporary Dayton is proud to present Ella Kraimer: Appearances, a world-premiere exhibition of large-scale photographs. Kraimer transforms herself into a cast of fictional personas through striking self-portraits, using secondhand garments gathered from thrift stores across the country. Layered with irony, humor, and cultural critique, she explores the blurred boundaries between authenticity and performance, memory and invention, self and society.
Previously viewed only as a digital project, Appearances reflects on life in an age of social media, image culture, and spectacle. Inspired by childhood memories of paper dolls, Kraimer fragments and reconstructs her own likeness through costume, collage, and assemblage. At once playful and provocative, Appearances invites viewers to reconsider not only the images we create, but the stories they tell about who we are.
Kraimer spent her formative years in Berlin, Germany and is now based in New Bremen, Ohio. She earned a BA in Design and Visual Communication from the University of Europe for Applied Sciences, Berlin, and an MA in Visual and Media Anthropology from HMKW University of Applied Sciences for Media, Communication, and Management, Berlin.
Ella Kraimer: Appearances is part of the 2026 FotoFocus Biennial: The Long View. Now in its eighth iteration, the Biennial activates over 70 exhibitions at museums, galleries, universities, and public spaces throughout Greater Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and Northern Kentucky.
Oct 21 Wednesday
Please consider coming out to FBC Fairborn's Youth wing for a blood drive. Presenting donors receive $10 online gift card via email and Red Cross rewards points. Search "FBCF" on redcrossblood.org/give
Bike Dayton, a Chapter of Bike Miami Valley, will hold two "Lights on Bikes" events this fall as the days get shorter and the sun sets earlier. This will be the second of the two events, on Wednesday, October 21, 2026. Join them at either Wright Stop Plaza or RiverScape MetroPark to receive a free bike light from a volunteer. Adults must show up with a bike to attach the light to. Hours are from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
When riding at night, bikes are required to have a white light in front and a red light in back. These sets will make adult bikes legal for night riding.