Photograph courtesy Leslie Mooney
Cincinnati’s expansive art and light festival BLINK returns for four days of projection mapping, murals, and installations, covering Covington, Cincinnati’s riverfront, the Central Business District, Over-the-Rhine, Findlay Market, and Fountain Square in glowing hues. In 2024, the festival drew in more than 2 million attendees from 216 unique ZIP codes, with 15 countries represented. Cincinnati Magazine caught up with Executive Director Leslie Mooney to chat all things BLINK, including what’s new and returning.
What’s new or different for BLINK this year?
This year on the kickoff night, October 8, we will have a block party–style opening event that will start at 4 p.m. on Central Parkway. We’ll shut down five blocks of Central Parkway in front of TQL Stadium. We’re calling it Ready. Set. Blink! The [block party will] culminate in the first opportunity for us to collectively turn the lights on together. … That is the biggest program difference.
The other big one would be the expansion of the mural program to include Covington. We’ve had well more than 70 murals over the course of the first four BLINKs that have been produced, mostly in the Findlay Market area to create what we’ve called the Market Walls District, which we will continue to add to in 2026, but we’re also going to add another 10 or so new murals that will leave behind artwork in Covington. We’re calling that section the Madison Walls District.
What does it mean to not only have BLINK in Cincinnati, but to literally go across the bridge to Northern Kentucky as part of BLINK?
A key part of Greater Cincinnati is Northern Kentucky. That’s our region. When I’m outside of Cincinnati and I’m talking about the Cincinnati region—the fact that our airport is on [the Kentucky] side of the river—when we talk about bringing people to this region, the conversation has to be about both sides of the river.
BLINK engages local artists and organizations while also drawing in international artists. What is the value of bringing international artists while still heavily engaging our community?
What we’ve done well, and continue to work on, is actually work with not just local artists—some of whom have premiere spots like Music Hall or Mother of God Church, but also provide opportunities to work alongside projection mapping artists or muralists who have been doing this for 20 to 30 years. It might still be, in some ways, not just in Cincinnati but in the United States, more recent media for artists. This isn’t new to BLINK, but we’re continuing to expand it, and that’s working with every major university or college and now expanding it down to SCPA with high school students.… Art and culture is such a huge part of why living in Cincinnati is so great. That’s really what BLINK is here to do: to bolster that ecosystem of working artists and inspire them.
[Bringing in] artists from either outside of Cincinnati or of the United States, helps elevate not only the profile of BLINK, and certainly the profile of Cincinnati as an arts region, but it also exposes local artists and regular people to new ideas.
BLINK has become a touchstone of Cincinnati. How do you keep the energy up for BLINK each year it happens?
Oh my gosh! What was so exciting was about a year ago when I started this position—because this is my first BLINK on the production side—we had just released a call to artists. It’s truly a two-year cycle. It takes a lot of time. We have a curatorial advisory committee that looks through about 800 different submissions. You can’t get more excited than when the ideas and the art proposals start to roll in.
The fact that VisitCincy and meetNKY have also really leaned into BLINK telling the story of We are innovative. We can bridge art and technology and do these massive large-scale festivals. I think people outside of Cincinnati really scratched their heads at how we are able to accomplish this huge thing. That’s energizing throughout the off cycles, too. We’re spending the two years leading up to the next BLINK talking about how we’re going to go out and tell this story to other parts of the world.
BLINK is free! What does it mean to give folks of all ages access to experience a night of art and culture at no cost?
It’s magical. I’ve been to all four previous BLINKs. This is my first on the production side, but I’ve been bringing my kids since they were teeny tiny babies. When people hear about BLINK, and try to understand or think about ways to potentially replicate it, it would not be possible without the full buy-in from the city, the county, the city of Covington, and both cities’ Department of Transportation.
It is a huge lift, but the result is four days. The 2 million-plus people who come down to this footprint for those four days is unlike anything else that happens in this area.
