CINCINNATI — The country’s largest immersive art event is about to kick off in northern Kentucky and Cincinnati. Blink 2024 will bring in visitors from around the country, including world renowned artists who’ve been hard at work bringing their creations to life.

What You Need To Know

  • Large installations are nothing new for Paul Magnuson, whose background is in designing stages for live entertainment

  • But he’s confident the one he just finished working on, which is really four installations in one, will be a completely new experience for everyone who comes by during BLINK

  • The project is Open on Fountain Square, a collaboration with Fifth Third Bank

  • Making the project happen took hundreds of hours of hours of design, fabrication and mock ups and construction

Large installations are nothing new for Paul Magnuson, whose background is in designing stages for live entertainment. But he’s confident the one he just finished working on, which is four installations in one, will be a completely new experience for everyone who comes by during BLINK.

“The value of scale sometimes is awe. It’s that awe moment of how grand it is,” Magnuson said.

Magnuson is the “Chief Imagineer” and “Director of MacGyvering” for BIG ART, based in Calgary in Alberta, Canada. The project is Open on Fountain Square, a collaboration with Fifth Third Bank. It’s Magnuson’s second time putting a project together for BLINK.

BLINK is four days of free public art spanning 30 city blocks from Cincinnati into northern Kentucky, featuring more than 80 light, projection and mural projects.

“What we’re able to do with our experiences, take these ideas from paper, build them, put them in spaces, and make them safe for public use,” Magnuson said. “We have seen a lot of festivals in a lot of cities. I would say BLINK is very rare, very special.”

Making the project happen took hundreds of hours of hours of design, fabrication and mock ups and construction. A crew of about 12 people then had just a few days to put everything together once they got to Cincinnati.

The four components comprise the doors, the gates, the arch and the dream.

Fifteen doors with cycling animations depicting different life experiences. Each of the gates represents different milestones in life. The 25 x 27 foot video arch represents grand opportunity. And “the dream” on stage features five screens, and ties everything together into a final vision.

“The idea here is to celebrate opportunity and change makers,” Magnuson said. “And the sheer creativity going into your life experiences as you share and love and travel.”

BLINK isn’t a competition, but Magnuson is hopeful what he and his team have put together will make an impact, just as he expects to see with other installations.

“The idea is to go and see how much love has been put into all these other installations and that alone inspires, hopefully generates more ideas and conversations,” he said. “All we’re trying to do is make sure that you walk away with a feeling after you’ve visited this place. What we strive for is inspiration.”

There’s potential for that inspiration to reach a lot of people. The BLINK team is anticipating more than two million attendees, creating a $126 million economic impact for the region.

BLINK recommends attendees plan out their routes throughout the six unique zones in the blink footprint. To do so, head over to the event’s website.

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