CINCINNATI, Ohio — Over the weekend, a new installation lined the path to the Cincinnati Art Museum — dozens of small signs with little Cincinnati-themed adages about the importance of hygiene and social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.


What You Need To Know

  • "Signs of Respect" is a project meant to spread messages of positivity, personal responsibility and respect throughout Cincinnati

  • ART HAGS, an all-female artist collective, is behind the project

  • The signs primarily focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, but the artists have also added a few prominent signs addressing racial disparities

They're called "Signs of Respect" — the latest project from a group of all-women artists known as ART HAGS. Liz Miller is one of the artists.

“What we really pride ourselves on is our ability to really respond quickly to opportunities and come together as a group to create art whenever we have something to say," she said.

With the messages spelled out in black and white, these signs don't leave much up for interpretation.

“We wanted to create signs for the community to encourage them in a tough time, talk about best practices for COVID, things like that, and from there, it really kind of grew,” Miller said.

According to fellow-artist Kate Tepe, that focus on support and acceptance is central to the ART HAGS' dynamic and work.

“We decided to take a term that is usually used as a way to kind of isolate a woman or put a woman down for doing her thing and being eccentric in her old age, and just appropriating that and making it a stamp of approval or stamp of pride,” she said.

The group has been making these signs since April, and are encouraging people to make their own signs, as they see them grow beyond their displays.

Artist Amy Scarpello said they want this project to encourage participation. They want artists to add to these signs or make some of their own to display in their own neighborhoods, spreading the message even further.

“We really wanted to give back to the community in that way," she said. "Not just a positive message, but a way and sort of a structure to engage.”

The hashtag #signsofrespect on Instagram shows just how many signs are out there in the city.

The project didn't stop with its COVID messages, however.

“On the weekend, we had planned to display some of our Cincinnati-themed COVID response signs at the Art Climb. It was the same weekend that Cincinnati really jumped on board with protests,” Miller said. “We did not feel it was appropriate for us to show up with our kind of humorous lighthearted signs at the Art Climb, so we kind of shifted gears.”

At first that took the form of a public statement on their social media accounts.

“We couldn’t divorce ourselves from the fact that our city, our community, had gone through this enormous change, literally overnight,” Tepe said.

Then the Campsite Sculpture Garden asked the group to display their sign at the gate — allowing everyone to see where the artists and the neighborhood stood.

“People can see this and feel connected to it. They know they’re not alone and that community is the most powerful thing we have, and the arts help amplify that,” Tepe said.

Now, even as the artists continue to add more signs to their project, they hope this largest one speaks the loudest.

“I think that the more that we can use our voices to support each other, the more we normalize these calls for dignity and respect," she said.