Community Calendar

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 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.

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.

October 7-31, 2026
Opening Reception: Wednesday, October 7, 2026, 6-8 pm

In Where Memory Blooms, Iranian-born, Columbus-based artist Elham Bayati explores the ways memory, cultural identity, and personal experience shape our inner landscapes. Working across painting, collage, printmaking, and drawing, Bayati creates layered, dreamlike compositions where the familiar and imagined, beauty and melancholy, and past and present coexist.

Flowers and textiles are central to Bayati’s visual language. Inspired by the patterns of her grandmother’s scarves and her mother’s dressmaking fabrics, these motifs connect her to memories of family, home, and her Iranian upbringing. In her paintings, flowers and patterns emerge, overlap, and disappear beneath layers of imagery, reflecting the shifting nature of memory: what remains vivid, what becomes fragmented, and what is transformed over time.

Synopsis

"Stomping Freedom" is a political thriller that recounts the tension between Shawnee villagers and American settlers during the American Revolution in 1778. The story begins at Caesar Creek, when an interpreter for the Shawnee tribe Caesar receives a letter with news he's charged with delivering to Shawnee war chief Weyapiersenwah, also known as Blue Jacket. - Following the film, there will be a panel discussion featuring citizens from the Shawnee Tribe and descendants of Tecumseh.

Genre

Political Thriller, History

Director

Kane Stratton

Starting and ending with Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poetry. An opportunity for sharing and dialogue of various poetry and its content.

Sanctuary Series presents Showtime Performing Arts members in a afternoon of music, vocals, and a little magic. Showtime board members, as well as some of the talented Showtime kids in an excerpt from the children's production of Dear Edwina Jr., will provide an afternoon of guaranteed entertainment. All performances are followed by a meet-the-artist reception. Admission free, with a free-will offering taken during intermission.

The Bach Society of Dayton invites audiences to experience the character of American music over the last 250 with America 250” at 4:00 pm with a Concert Preview at 3:00 PM by composer Steven Winteregg and poet, Sierra Leone.  Come enjoy a wide array of American choral and orchestra music, from pieces as old as America itself to one newly commissioned composition by local composer Steven Winteregg. This concert celebrates our great nation’s character rather than just music that was created here.

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

Looking for a fun and unique autumn activity? Then come to our Pumpkin Blow! With help from our professional glassblowers, you can blow your own pumpkin from hot molten glass. Everyone 5 years and older can participate, making this a perfect activity you can enjoy with your family. Don't miss your chance to experience the wonder that is glass art this holiday season with your loved ones!