Join us for the community opening reception of Terence Hammonds: Soul is a Ham Hock in Your Cornflakes.

With a title plucked from Funkadelic’s 1970 song “What is Soul?” this exhibition—featuring the work of Cincinnati-based artist Terence Hammonds—throws a proverbial ham hock into the museum’s bowl of cornflakes. As the song’s vivid lyrics suggest, power and meaning often emerge from unlikely combinations, and “nothing is quite good until you play with it.” Pairing historical objects from the museum’s collections with his newly created printed ceramics, wallpaper, and textiles, Hammonds constructs unexpected vignettes that speak to Black history, resilience, and cultural imagination. “By juxtaposing these objects, I aim to create a form of historical fiction—a speculative ‘what if’,” Hammonds explains. “Through pattern, narrative, and material culture, [the exhibition] imagines how the visual language of domestic heirlooms might look if shaped by the histories, stories, and aspirations of Cincinnati’s Black middle class.”   

Beginning at 5 p.m., enjoy cookies, a DJ, and a cash bar in the Great Hall. We recommend parking in our main lot and entering through the main entrance.  

The reception will be followed by CAM Presents – Looking Twice: Visual Representation and Black Cincinnati in the Fath Auditorium at 6 p.m.

image credit: Child's Set: Plate, Bowl and Cup, 1929, Gorham Manufacturing Company (American, est. 1831), sterling silver, Gift of Andrew MacAoidh Jergens, 2018.2a–c,  photography by Rob Deslongchamps

If you need accessibility accommodations, please contact us in advance at [email protected].