2025 In Review | Art

• By YS News Staff
• Published: February 12, 2026

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FILM

• The Yellow Springs Film Festival held its second annual Mini-Fest in April, expanding the event to two days with screenings in Dayton and Yellow Springs, including a 25th-anniversary showing of “Cecil B. Demented,” with filmmaker John Waters.

• A new documentary, “Last Warmth,” premiered May 7 at Little Art Theatre; the film offers a behind-the-scenes look at Yellow Springs’ three-quarter-century-long School Forest tradition. Directed by Yellow Springs High School senior Kian Barker, the film traces a full year of School Forest Club work.

• A documentary chronicling the four-year, community-driven effort to create the village’s Wheeling Gaunt sculpture premiered June 21 at Little Art Theatre; the film was created by filmmaker Khalil Nasar in collaboration with the YS Arts Council.

• In July, Little Art Theatre hosted the premiere of “A Light Amidst Ashes,” an independent feature written and directed by 20-year-old Dayton filmmaker Rose Combs. Produced on a small budget by Alpha-Marshall Productions, the post-apocalyptic drama marks Combs’ first feature-length film.

• The YS Film Festival returned in October for its third year with an expanded four-day lineup of screenings and performances. The festival opened with a tribute to Rod Serling, honoring the Antioch alumnus and former faculty member with programming tied to his legendary “Twilight Zone” career and the dedication of a new Ohio Historical Marker on campus.

The new Ohio historical marker on Antioch College’s campus. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)

LITERATURE

• In March, author Jo Ann Kiser released “Sunday People,” returning readers familiar with her first two books to Eastern Kentucky through a linked-story novel centered on a family wedding. The book weaves together narratives that examine faith, legacy and belonging.

• Local author Philip King published his debut novel in March, blending fiction, memoir and baseball history. “The Curious Case of the Cleveland Indians” follows a time-traveling protagonist intent on altering the team’s 1950 World Series fate while reflecting on a childhood in midcentury Yellow Springs. In a July interview with the News, King said the book merges personal memory, dreams and sports lore to explore how people construct meaning from the past.

• In October, former Yellow Springs resident Hyacinth Wallace and current villager Roi Qualls released their co-authored, debut science fiction novel, “Points of Failure Vol. 1: Interwoven.” The novel examines the moral limits of humanity by centering on a conflicted scientist tasked with enabling humanity’s escape from a dying planet. What happens, the novel asks, when an enlightened extraterrestrial force halts that escape, and can ethical growth keep pace with technological power?

• In November, the News caught up with local author Scott Geisel, whose latest novel, “Orcas’ Call,” headed far beyond the confines of Yellow Springs: the northwest. Inspired by a trip with his wife, the adventure novel follows wilderness guide Nils Garner and the enigmatic Bly Milkov through a fast-paced mystery unfolding across Orcas Island, the Olympic Peninsula and Northern California redwoods.

• December heralded the arrival of the 14th annual Winter Solstice Poetry Reading, held at Glen Helen’s Vernet Ecological Center and benefiting Tecumseh Land Trust and Glen Helen. Featuring a dozen local poets, the evening paired original work with an open mic and reception to raise funds for conservation while celebrating community and land stewardship, as well as the written word.

Virginelle Jerome — one of the voices featured in WYSO’s “Haitians in the Heartland” series — is shown here as a child in Haiti. (Photo: WYSO/Virginelle Jerome)

MULTIDISCIPLINARY

• In February, WYSO launched “Haitians in the Heartland,” a collaborative project between its Eichelberger Center for Community Voices and the Springfield Haitian Community Alliance. The series centered the voices of five Springfield residents from Haiti, offering first-person narratives that empowered community members to tell their own stories through audio journalism, poetry and personal reflection.

• The annual Valerie A. Blackwell-Truitt Community Dance and Performance Arts Concert and Art Exhibition returned to the Foundry in late March, featuring a variety of dancing styles — including modern, belly and aerial dance — as well as musicians, singers, spoken word artists and the work of visual and fiber artists.

• In April, the Foundry Theater hosted the “Olde Wrestling Extravaganza,” bringing a 1920s-themed blend of professional wrestling, comedy and performance art to Yellow Springs. Founded by local resident Justin Nottke, the all-ages show featured period-inspired characters, live ragtime music and audience participation.

• In April, the Coretta Scott King Center presented “Loving is the Key,” a multidisciplinary performance at the Foundry Theater honoring Coretta Scott King’s birthday and the 60th anniversary of Bayard Rustin’s 1965 Antioch speech. The performance work, created by Queen Meccasia Zabriskie and Forest Bright, combined music, dance, theater and community reflection on love as a practice for social change.

• Amid a wave of state and federal actions targeting transgender people, Yellow Springs artist and writer Iden Crockett launched two projects aimed at visibility and preservation. In June, Crockett debuted “Gender X,” a Pride Month art exhibition featuring gender-nonconforming artists in a high-traffic, nontraditional venue — Bentino’s Pizza. Alongside the exhibition, Crockett began the Permanent Ink Project, an ongoing archive collecting personal narratives from gender-nonconforming people as a safeguard against cultural and historical erasure.

Local resident and longtime art curator Ena Nearon launched her new podcast, “Curious About Art?” on Thursday, June 5, on WCSU-FM Jazzy 88.9; the program will air weekly on Thursdays at 6 p.m. Above, Nearon records an episode of the program in the WCSU studios on the campus of Central State University. (Photo by Lauren “Chuck” Shows)

• Local resident Ena Nearon launched the podcast “Curious About Art?” in mid-June on WCSU-FM Jazzy 88.9 and online. Airing Thursdays at 6 p.m., the program features thematic conversations with artists, activists and scholars exploring how visual art shapes everyday life. Nearon told the News the show aims to make art accessible, community-focused and engaging for listeners who may not be connected to traditional art circles.

• Dayton-based poet and musician David Matthews returned to Antioch College in September for his first campus performance since 1974, launching his “The Poets” college tour through the Coretta Scott King Center’s Freedom Forums series. Well known around Dayton, Matthews — who stylizes his name as “david matthews” to emphasize message over self — headlined a Foundry Theater event featuring student poets and workshops for local high school students, centering poetry as a tool for social justice dialogue.

• Trad Romp Wknd brought three days of traditional music, dance and participatory arts to the Foundry in late October. Co-presented by Mad River Theater Works and The Big Family Business, the event featured concerts, workshops and community jams highlighting traditions.

• Village residents gathered in October to re-create Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” as a living tableau on Corry Street, led by organizer Valerie Kosheleff. The participatory art event invited villagers to pay homage to the famed painting and to Helen Birch Bartlett, who once owned the work.

• Denied U.S. visas in summer 2025, System Ali artists Neta Weiner and Samira Saraya transformed a canceled Ohio tour into a remote collaboration this fall. Working across time zones with Ohio hip-hop artists, they created “NO VISAS,” a hybrid performance blending film, narration and live sets, which was presented at the Foundry in November.

DOCTOR MEAT from the 2025 YS Porchfest. (Photo by Reily Dixon)

MUSIC

• 2025 marked the 60th anniversary of “A Love Supreme,” saxophonist and composer John Coltrane’s seminal 1965 album. In mid-January, the Mark Lomax Quartet — Dr. Mark Lomax II on drums, Edwin Bayard on tenor and soprano sax, Dr. William Menefield on piano and Dean Hulett on bass — performed a series of works in celebration of the genesis of “A Love Supreme,” including the suite itself.

• In February, the Emporium hosted a one-night collaborative performance by Neutrals and local guest musicians, presenting “In C,” by Terry Riley. The open-instrumentation performance brought together a rotating ensemble of village and regional players, highlighting the piece’s improvisatory, ever-changing nature.

Violin virtuoso and entrepreneur Miha Pogačnik performed Thursday, May 1, at 6:30 p.m. in Herndon Gallery, in a benefit concert for local nonprofit Chamber Music in Yellow Springs. (Submitted photo)

• Chamber Music in Yellow Springs rounded out its 2024–25 season with performances from the Aizuri Quartet in late February, the Akropolis Reed Quintet in late March and, in late April, the 40th annual 40th annual Competition for Emerging Professional Ensembles, featuring the Cerus Quartet and Trio Eris. In September, CMYS opened its 2025–26 season with Seraph Brass at First Presbyterian Church.

• In March, the internationally acclaimed Irish quintet Lúnasa performed at the Foundry Theater, bringing its instrumental take on traditional Irish music to a village audience as part of a month-long U.S. tour.

• The Emporium hosted its first 2 of Clubs House Party, a genre-blending music night curated by Michael Breslin, of hip hop duo 2 of Clubs, in March. The event brought regional rap, R&B and house-adjacent artists into an intimate, social setting modeled after Breslin’s long-running Miami Valley house shows.

• In March, Little Art Theatre hosted an intergenerational songwriters’ round featuring local musicians Sharon Lane, Kyleen Downes, Dawn Cooksey and Rhue Buddendeck. Held during Women’s History Month, the performance created space for four generations of women to share original songs and personal stories, highlighting mentorship, artistic continuity and the power of women-centered collaboration in Yellow Springs’ music scene.

• Slovenian violinist Miha Pogačnik performed in May at Herndon Gallery in a benefit for Chamber Music in Yellow Springs. Blending classical performance with audience interaction, Pogačnik aimed to present his program, he told the News, as a catalyst for creativity, dialogue and social connection beyond traditional concert boundaries.

Mongolian folk-fusion trio Tuvergen Band performed at the Foundry Theater Friday, May, 9, 7–9 p.m. The group is composed of, from left Brent Roman (percussion, didgeridoo), Tamir Hargana (lead vocals, folk lutes, morin khuur) and Naizal Hargana (morin khuur, vocals). (Submitted photo)

• The Chicago-based trio Tuvergen Band brought its “modern nomadic music” to Yellow Springs in May, performing at the Foundry Theater. Their performance fused Mongolian throat singing, horse-head fiddle, global percussion and didgeridoo, and the band shared insights into Mongolian culture and tradition.

• The experimental music series “The Outside Presents” returned in late August for its third season at Antioch College’s Foundry Theater, opening with a free program titled “Midwestern Ambience.” Curated by WYSO host Evan Miller, the season opener featured regional artists Landon Caldwell and Nick Keeling.

• Live music returned to Little Art Theatre in September with the second installment of its Songwriters Round series, “Dayton Deconstructed.” The event featured TINO, Paige Beller, James Lampe and theater manager Caleab Wyant sharing stripped-down songs and stories in a listening-room format. Curated by Kyleen Downes, the night highlighted longtime Dayton-area collaborators.

• Grammy-nominated singer and composer Moira Smiley opened the Foundry Theater’s 2025–2026 season in September, performing with The Rhizome Quartet alongside the local World House Choir. Smiley’s residency included rehearsals with the choir, and she told the News her music aims to highlight, among other themes, human connection and belonging as sources of resilience in challenging times.

• A Freedom First jazz concert at Antioch College in October featured poet and death row inmate Keith LaMar performing live by phone from solitary confinement, alongside pianist Albert Marquès and an ensemble of musicians. Held at the Herndon Gallery, the event aimed to raise awareness of LaMar’s case and Ohio death penalty legislation.

• In November, the World House Choir presented a concert series and symposium centered on the life and legacy of Pauli Murray, whose work bridged racial and gender justice. Performances at Antioch College and elsewhere featured the cantata “Sincerely Yours, Pauli Murray,” using Murray’s own words to trace a largely overlooked role in civil rights history.

• A reimagined take on Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s Nutcracker Suite came to the Foundry Theater in December, performed by genre-blending string band Mr Sun. Drawing on Ellington’s jazz reinterpretation of Tchaikovsky, the concert translated big-band swing into acoustic Americana, offering a playful holiday performance.

Local resident and thespian-about-town Lorrie Sparrow-Knapp — along with a mix of Springfield and Yellow Springs actors and musicians — will bring the musical “The Rocky Horror Show” to the John Legend Theater stage as part of the Springfield Civic Theatre’s current season of shows. Pictured doing the “Time Warp,” left to right, are cast members Amy Korpieski, Katie Thorpe, Meghan Tubbs, Ian Williams, Emily Parsons and Taylor Nelson, who also serves as the show’s choreographer. (Photo by Lauren “Chuck” Shows)

THEATER

• In February, local resident Lorri Sparr-Knapp directed “The Rocky Horror Show” at the Springfield Civic Theatre. Featuring Springfield and Yellow Springs performers, the production brought Richard O’Brien’s cult-classic musical — a playful homage to 1950s and 1960s B-movie science fiction — to Valentine’s Day weekend audiences.

• YS Schools presented the district’s first all-school musical since 2019 in April, staging “The Music Man,” with students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Performed at the Foundry Theater, the production brought together a large cast, live musicians and an extensive volunteer team to mount the classic musical comedy.

• Local playwright Robb Willoughby staged his ensemble comedy “The Works” in late April and early May at First Presbyterian Church. The full-length play, which featured a cast of local actors, comprised eight interconnected vignettes built around a central — and mysterious — comedic conceit. The play’s events unfold over a single workday, following a community of coworkers after one decision triggers cascading, often absurd consequences.

• YS Theater Company presented its annual 10-Minute Play Festival in June, featuring eight short works by local, regional and national playwrights. The outdoor performances were staged at a new Dayton Street location, with food trucks and a portable stage funded by a grant from the YS Community Foundation.

• Mad River Theater Works continued its youth summer residency in June, guiding young actors ages 8 to 17 through a devised-theater process. Participants created an original show, “Everybody Wants to Change the World,” blending student-written scenes with familiar musical numbers.

Artist Myong Hee Kim, shown above, is in Yellow Springs with the Peace Mask Project — an effort to make masks of 50 villagers. The project comes to town on the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and it aims to emphasize the human costs of violence and war. Above: Villager Chloe Manor gets a plaster cast made of her face as her daughter, Ida, watches. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)

• GravityWorks Circus presented its second ensemble show, “Feel It All,” in late June at the Foundry Theater. The performance used aerial theatrical pieces to explore a wide range of human emotions, with performers in each of the show’s vignettes embodying a different feeling. Circus directors Maya Trujillo and Kayla Graham said the show aimed to emphasize shared vulnerability and artistic growth through movement and collaboration.

• Yellow Springs-based performers Adam Zaremsky, Charlie Cromer and Elliot Cromer returned to the Foundry Theater in mid-August with “Smaller and Worse: A Nonsense Show,” a sketch comedy performance built around absurd vignettes and self-aware humor. The fourth such Cromer-Zaremsky effort, the show featured live music from The Boogie Bros and a celebration of human silliness.

• In October, a reader’s theater production titled “We Were There” brought the voices of women Vietnam veterans to the Foundry Theater. The production was adapted by Jane Blakelock, Amy Bennett and Louise Smith, with support from Mad River Theater Works. Drawing from interviews and poetry by women who served as nurses, intelligence officers and aid workers, the staged readings centered on firsthand accounts often missing from Vietnam War narratives.

• For the Halloween season, YS Middle and High School students staged “Shuddersome: Tales of Poe,” a one-hour adaptation of works by Edgar Allan Poe, at First Presbyterian Church. Directed by performing arts teacher Lorrie Sparrow-Knapp, the production emphasized Poe’s language, close audience interaction and an original live score by student composer Ryan Thomas.

New resident and artist Joshua Whitaker will debut his art show, “Peace, Love and Perfection,” at Crome Architecture on July 3. (Photo by Jessica Thomas)

VISUAL ART

• In February, local artists Rachel Meyer and Shauna Schramke collaborated on “Holding Space,” a joint installation displayed at The Winds Cafe. The exhibition featured about 100 curated works exploring themes of home, space and nostalgia, marking Meyer’s first two-artist show and building on Schramke’s earlier solo debut at the YS Arts Council.

• Artist and musician Joshua Whitaker debuted a new mixed-media installation July 3 at Crome Architecture, marking his return to Ohio after moving from California. Titled “Peace, Love and Perfection,” the show, which remains on view at year’s end, blends reclaimed materials, music history and Black cultural memory, drawing inspiration from artists such as John Coltrane and Nina Simone. Whitaker said the work reflects ancestral guidance and healing, as well as a desire to spark community dialogue.

• Village Artisans presented the 41st annual Art on the Lawn on Saturday, Aug. 9, at Livermore and East North College streets. The free, rain-or-shine event featured more than 75 artists, along with food vendors and live music. Urbana-based cyanotype artist Suzi Hyden, the 2024 Best of Show winner, was named this year’s featured artist.

• Marking the 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Peace Mask Project, led by artist Myong Hee Kim, held a brief residency in Yellow Springs in August. Villagers were invited to create papier-mâché masks of their own faces, and the project culminated in a public exhibition at Antioch College’s Herndon Gallery. The 50 local faces on display were meant to serve as a meditation on peace and a reminder of the lives of those affected by war.

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