“Self-taught” artists once were called “outsiders” in the art world, reflecting the romantic but not-always-true image of them as touched or even disturbed people who used art to build a special world for themselves. The variety of work in the Cincinnati Art Museum’s show, Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection, showed there’s far more to self-taught artists than just that, but it also showed how shiveringly strange some of those “outsiders” could be. Like for instance, the late Henry Darger, a Chicago hospital custodian who privately worked at home of illustrations for his fantasy manuscript The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. If you missed Darger and the others, never fear — Richard Rosenthal may donate a portion of the collection to the museum. cincinnatiartmuseum.org.

1. 21c Museum Hotel
2. Pendleton Art Center
3. Visionaries + Voices

1. Cincinnati Art Museum
2. Contemporary Arts Center
3. American Sign Museum

1. “Cincinnati Toy Heritage”
2. “Fiona and Bibi at the Cincinnati Zoo”
3. “Charley Harper's Beguiled by the Wild”

1. Panegyri
2. Immaculate Heart of Mary Church Festival
3. St. Cecilia Family Festival

1. Ice Rink on Fountain Square
2. Salsa on the Square
3. Reds Opening Day Rally on the Square

1. BLINK
2. Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library
3. Findlay Market
4. Cincinnati Art Museum
5. Smale Riverfront Park
6. Jungle Jim's International Market
7. Tunes & Blooms at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
8. Wednesdays in the Woods at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center
9. TIE: Washington Park AND Contemporary Arts Center
10. FotoFocus

1. Art and Social Justice: An Interactive Experience, 21C Museum Hotel Gallery
2. Yes, But Is It Art?, Studio Kroner
3. Wish You Were Here, Kennedy Heights Arts Center

1. Dent Schoolhouse
2. Kings Island Halloween Haunt
3. USS Nightmare

1. Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo
2. WinterFest at Kings Island
3. Journey BOREALIS at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park

1. Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden (@cincinnatizoo)
2. Longbottom Bird Ranch (@longbottombirdranch)
3. Friends of the Public Library (@cincylibraryfriends)

1. Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
2. Children's Museum at the Cincinnati Museum Center
3. Longbottom Bird Ranch

1. Bob Herzog
2. Darnell Pierre Benjamin
3. Mark Borison

1. Kiwi the Duck
2. L. D. Nehls
3. Michael Coppage

1. Dann Woellert
2. Curtis Sittenfeld
3. Leah Stewart

1. Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
2. Cincinnati Pops
3. MUSE Cincinnati's Women’s Choir

1. Mark Borison
2. Kelly Collette
3. Sweett Biscut

1. Cincinnati Ballet
2. Dance Flash Fusion
3. Cin City Burlesque

1. Mark Borison
2. Cincy Stories
3. Allyson West