If you had five ways to improve Cincinnati culture, entertainment and lifestyle, what would you do? Cincinnati.Com is going to ask the area's creative souls - the musicians, artists, actors, writers, the movers and shakers - what five things they would implement to make Cincinnati a more fun, diverse and eclectic environment. Could be a store. Could be a concept. Could be anything.

Author's Note: The underground arts community in Cincinnati is dynamic, diverse, and interesting. It provides eclectic and intelligent entertainment to the city. We are also overlooked. If Cincinnati wants to be on par with big cities like Chicago, LA, or New York, we need to open our eyes to the possibilities that the smallest arts organizations offer.

Audiences
Everyone I know in Cincinnati clamors about how there is nothing to do here, how dull the city is. And they're wrong. There's actually a lot more to do here than you'd think. It just needs an audience to help it grow.

Which came first: the audience or the really cool stuff to do? In this case, Cincinnati is lucky. There is dynamic improv comedy, sketch comedy and experimental interactive theatre already available. Improv comedy shows, for instance, are inexpensive--often less than $10 a ticket. Audiences need to realize we're out here. Without the support, this amazing art form will die.

Bars
Lots of experimental theater (specifically improv and sketch) needn't take place in a theater. You can enjoy it in a bar quite nicely. But we, Cincinnati's improv/sketch groups, are turned away from many bars and coffee houses because we aren't the typical music, DJ, or karaoke machine.

Bar owners (and comedy club owners) need to open their minds to different forms of entertainment. If a bar had one night a week, even an "off" night, with comedy, improv, comedians or magicians, it would make them different than every other bar in the neighborhood. Perhaps a new club that caters to sketch, comedy, magic and improv needs to be opened. Hey, if you can find the funds, I can find dozens of people to run such a club!

Schools
Local schools need to become more involved with the small arts community. There are several programs sprouting up in Cincinnati (kudos to these programs!) that provide avenues of education for young adults interested in the arts. Wonderful. However, the arts are still looked at as frivolous, not a way to make a living, and not worth the time or energy afforded other disciplines. This simply perpetuates a stagnant attitude towards theater and the arts in this city and keeps this city boring.

The arts community can thrive on the aid of children, and the children can thrive on the aid of the arts community. Children who get involved in the arts at a young age will likely grow up to patronize the arts. This is always a good thing.

Help from larger arts communities
There are a handful of large arts companies in Cincinnati with higher ticket prices, large audiences, and spectacular facilities. These companies have the abilities and facilities many small arts companies dream of. It almost seems natural to put the two together.

There must be times when large theaters are simply lying fallow, waiting for productions to start. These are the times when small arts companies could be useful. A festival of the small arts could be put on in large theaters (such as the Aronoff, Playhouse in the Park, or Music Hall) during these "down times." Small arts companies could even perform prior to larger shows as a bonus "opening act."

This sort of festival would alert the public to the existence of the small arts community, which sometimes seems little more than rumor. It would be the shot in the arm that the entire Greater Cincinnati arts community has needed for quite some time.

Media
The media MUST get involved in the arts community in Cincinnati. All too often I turn on the news and hear nothing but the weather, traffic, and sports. Is this all that goes on in Cincinnati?

The TV news needs to dedicate an section of their broadcast every day to local arts, in some shape or form. Music, comedy, theatre, improv, drama, theatre in schools, art shows--everything. There is no excuse. The arts are at least as important in this town as the damned traffic.

We, the small arts community, must approach every single news station in town and bombard them with requests to be on the air to promote ourselves. TV stations compete with one another to provide the best local news coverage. Art is news. If one station will not cover it, another will.

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