Culture Works is pleased to announce the Co-Chairs of the 2024 Campaign for the Arts: Bing Davis as the Artistic Chair, and Rodney Veal as the Community Chair.
Willis “Bing” Davis is an internationally renowned artist with art in public and private collections around the world. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Ohio Governor’s Irma Lazarus Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009, the highest art award given in the state of Ohio. In addition to his artistic work, Bing Davis is known for his creative and innovative approach to teaching, learning, and human development through the arts resulted in his receiving state, national and international acclaim.
Bing grew up in Dayton, Ohio. He left when he attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, graduating in 1959. He also attended the school of the Dayton Art Institute and received his Master of Education degree in 1967 from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He has traveled all over the world, but continues to call Dayton home and demonstrates his commitment by residing and working in the community. When he retired from teaching in 1998, he opened the Davis Art Studio and EbonNia Gallery in the historic Wright-Dunbar Business District. He has continued offering youth and community art and cultural activities through SHANGO: Center for the Study of African American Art and Culture. Bing is a leading advocate for diversity in both the arts and in our community, and Culture Works is thrilled to have him advocate for the arts and Culture Works as Artistic Chair of the campaign.
“One of the reasons it is important for people to support the arts in Dayton is that the arts add such a quality to life that cannot be added any other way. Art is one of the best ways to…touch all people in all neighborhoods,” said Bing. He added, “Contributing to the arts is one of the best ways to touch all people and to add a richness to living. It gives us all a good feeling to contribute to something so worthwhile – art, music, dance, drama, and creative words.”
Rodney Veal is the host of the Art Show on Think TV, and the podcast “Inspired By.” He has a long association with the arts in Dayton and with Culture Works, where he worked (in 1999) as special assistant to then President John Clark. Rodney has also received MCACD grants and fellowships through Culture Works. He is known for his work as an independent choreographer and interdisciplinary artist, and his works have been performed as part of the Ohio Dance Festival and other regional dance festivals. More recently, Rodney has worked as an adjunct faculty member for Sinclair Community College. He is also a visual artist, and just mounted a show at Indie West. A native Daytonian, Rodney is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University with a B.S in Political Science and Visual Arts and he has an MFA in Choreography from The Ohio State University. Rodney is President of the Board of Trustees of Ohio Dance and serves on the boards of Friends of Levitt Pavilions Dayton, Dayton Live, Dayton Performing Arts Alliance, WYSO and Homefull.
Rodney commented, “Culture Works serves as a protector of the arts ecosystem in the region, to make sure that this platform is there for people and organizations who create art, and to elevate the creativity that occurs there. They play a necessary role in ensuring that there is a fair and equitable distribution of funding and services to artists of all kinds. We need voices at the table from artists who are creating and sharing their stories from many different and wonderful backgrounds, and they need to be supported. Culture Works provides the opportunity for all those different voices to be heard and their creativity to be experienced, which makes our community that much richer and more special.”
2024 marks the 50th year of Culture Works sustaining, promoting, and advocating for the arts community in the Dayton Region. Formed in 1974 as the Dayton Arts Fund, the organization was charged with raising funds for arts groups in critical need. Individuals and businesses were asked for contributions by volunteers whose goal was to increase the number of donors to the arts. Robert A. Kerr, one of the organizers of the Arts Fund, identified the orchestra, ballet, and opera as the areas of “most critical current need,” and noted “the Dayton Arts Fund later might be expanded to include groups other than the three now covered.” (Journal Herald of October 18, 1974) Additional recipients of Campaign for the Arts funding were added including the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Muse Machine, The Human Race Theatre Company, the Springfield Symphony, and more.
During its 50 years, Culture Works has adapted to meet the changing needs of the arts community. Bing Davis, Artistic Chair of the 2024 Campaign for the Arts, was part of the 1992 community initiative that led to the merger of the arts fund with the Miami Valley Arts Council, to become the Miami Valley Arts Alliance. The organization became both a united arts fund and a local arts agency, adding to the region we serve and to our mission. In 1994, the Arts Alliance was rebranded as Culture Works.
As a United Arts Fund, Culture Works still raises funds for arts organization’s most critical needs, but also introduced a grants panel review system that invites community voices into decisions regarding dispersal of community supported grant funding. As a Local Arts Agency, Culture Works advocates for the inclusion of art and artists in development projects, pursues local, state, and national funding, provides support and services for arts organizations, runs artist support programs–including professional development for individual artists–develops outreach to build connections between the creative and business sectors, and initiatives that improve our community and our schools.
The annual Campaign for the Arts, which is Culture Works’ principal grants program, unites gifts from individual donors, corporate supporters, and workplace giving campaigns into funding for Community Arts Grants. Community volunteers award general operating support to local arts organizations through an open panel application review process.
Each year Victoria Theatre Association partners with Shango: Center for the Study of African American Art and Culture and Willis Bing Davis exhibit curator and director of EbonNia Gallery to display an exhibit of art by local African-American artists inside the Schuster Center. This year as the city of Dayton joins the nation in commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the KING/DUNBAR PROJECT was designed to celebrate the life and work of Dr. King through the literary voice of Dayton poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.
