Arts & Crafts at the Mercantile

In the nineteenth century, when the city and its citizens still had confidence in themselves and their capabilities, enough Cincinnatians took up artistic activities that it possible to speak of a Cincinnati art movement. Or craft. We don’t know where the dividing line falls. Both art and craft are on display in the reading room where the Niehoff Center for Elizabeth Nourse has installed an exhibit about Miss Nourse’s connections in the local ceramic and woodcarving scenes. Curator Sandra Geiser has wheedled a number of interesting objets out of a number of public and private collections to put on display in the reading room. The woodcarving steals the show in our admittedly art-impaired view. This most interesting assembly can be viewed in cool comfort thanks to the splendidly efficient new air conditioning units that were part of the recent makeover. We have discovered, by the way, that the ice cream stand on Fountain Square sells a passable lemonade which may be brought into the Library but not set on the artcarved table.

-Nemo Wolfe