CINCINNATI — From a young age, Kentucky native Michael Thompson knew he was born to create. He said the big question was how he’d get there.

“I didn’t see the arts as a viable pathway to a successful career,” Thompson said. 

Yet, with a pop of color and passion to impact lives, that answer became quite clear. 

“I believe art is a preservation of the human spirit, and that is like the core tenet of the way that I think about art and the way that I work,” Thompson said.  

He’s the founder of Michael Thompson Studios in Cincinnati. Storytelling plays a big role in his artistic expression, and he uses bold installations and oil paint as his medium to bring it to life.

Thompson’s one of thousands of creatives helping transform the area into an artistic hub. For the fourth year in a row, the Cincinnati region was named one of the top 20 most arts-vibrant large communities in the U.S. by SMU DataArts. Data analysis of arts supply, demand, and government support determined the ranking. 

“Think about something like Blink, where it brought 2 million people to downtown Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport. Three cities, two states, all about the arts. That was the largest ever event in this region’s history,” ArtsWave Senior Director of Marketing & Communications Ryan Strand said. 

Strand said art is no longer just a creative outlet or a form of entertainment, but an economic force to be reckoned with. 

“We partnered with the Cincinnati Regional USA chamber to do an economic impact study of the arts and found that over the period between 2019 and 2023, the arts had a $1.6 billion impact on this community,” he said.  

ArtsWave also does its part to keep things vibrant and offers more than $10 million in grant funding yearly. 

“We launched a new grant program in the last couple of years called the Black and Brown Artists program. That’s accompanied by a showcase and business training to try to build up the next generation of artists right here in Cincinnati,” Strand said. 

Thompson is a proud recipient of the ArtsWave Black and Brown Artist Grant. It’s only a fraction of the funding he’s received, which is now well in the six figures. He said he doesn’t do it for the accolades, but for his desire to create. It’s a desire he hopes will continue keeping Cincinnati vibrant. 

“I believe that the more that we celebrate the talent that exists here, the more we are going to attract amazing artists to the city. The more that happens, the more the creative ecosystem is truly going to blossom,” Thompson said.  

Among his many accolades, Thompson was one of inaugural fellows for the Carl B. Westmoreland Memorial Fellowship. He was recently recognized in Forbes’ 30 under 30 Local Cincinnati Class of 2024. Thompson also won a design contest for a special bottle of Bourbon for New Riff Brewery. 

ArtsWave’s 2024 Campaign was the largest in the organization’s history, raising $12.5 million.