Spring Starr Pillow: Singer, Actress, Mover/Choreographer, Cabaret Artist, Poet, Songwriter, Director, Teacher-Instructor. Spring graduated from Northern Kentucky University with a degree in Musical Theatre Performance and holds Masters Credits from The University of  Cincinnati in Education and Counseling. She is currently employed as the Lead Teaching Artist for Wordplay Cincy. Spring is a very active part of the initiative to combine theatre and education.  She has developed several after school and in school workshops combining curriculum and drama in the Tri-state schools.  Along with being a performer, Spring was a resident choreographer for Mercy High School for 12 years and currently teaches private voice. Spring has also had the privilege of singing and writing with David Kisor, a prolific children’s song writer, on several national c.d.’s and play projects through Growing Sound. In her spare time, Spring enjoys writing poetry, short stories, plays and music, rehabbing old homes, singing with her band No Guarantees whenever possible, and spending time with her boys, Nick, Eli, and Max and her dogs, Sophie and Herman.

Label text, Cincinnati Art Museum

Thoughts from the Community Committee:

I see a sign of commitment, working hard to win the tip for the team. It reminds me of what it takes to make it as an athlete, particularly for young African American men who see sports and entertainment as the only ways out of poverty.

I notice the energy, from the fingertips. When I teach musical theater dance, I tell students: "don't just put out your arm—reach for something."

To me it feels like a missed promise, a failed promise. You can feel that the ball will drop.

I work for CPS (Cincinnati Public Schools). I'm thinking about kids' dreams... "I'm gonna be a football player, a basketball player." On one hand, those futures feel like a right: "it's been promised to me that I can achieve my dream." On the other hand, it seems like this is the dream we allow them to have. We tell kids the world will be a certain way, but the values we describe to them aren't always the reality they're going to find.

Promise can also mean aptitude, potential. It's an amount of responsibility we place on a young person. Who carries the blame if they fail? What happens after?

Aren't we taught that we're supposed to keep our promises? It's a heavy word. The materials used to make this sculpture look heavy.

What are you reaching for? What "promise" is on your heart?

Note: Label texts originated at the Portland Art Museum and were modified by venue project teams at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Cincinnati Art Museum.