About
The Urban Arts Space Music Collective is a biweekly collaborative Spotify playlist of either specific themes or genres of music, music history, record labels, new album releases, local Columbus artists, themes that relate to the exhibitions being shown at either Urban Arts Space or Hopkins Hall Gallery, or just a general weekly playlist where interns or staff members can add music to a shared playlist. Our biweekly playlist is shared with our Urban Arts Space Staff where they can explore the theme and then add songs to the collaborative playlist, so you can hear our staff picks. Alongside the playlist is a thorough description of the theme of that week, with links to articles, documentaries, videos, websites, etc. so staff members can do a deep dive. This allows Urban Arts Space to expand its knowledge in music as well as connect music to other forms of artistry such as movies, fashion, poetry, photography, etc. By having this be a shared playlist, the conversation can now be open to diverse ways of thinking about the themes of the week and new interpretations can be formed.
Some exciting things that we look forward with sharing to the UAS Music Collective Platform are mini desk series, live performances, an Artist-in-Residence collaboration, movie showings, live vinyl spinnings, deep dives into Columbus artists and venues along with partnering with local Columbus record stores, and playlists that coordinate with events happening around Columbus, staff picks, Artist Commune playlists, and hopefully so much more!
Curated by our UAS Intern, Katelyn Hussing, she hopes that the Music Collective will allow Urban Arts Space to expand into new forms of engagement as well as include music into the gallery setting as a form of art. Having music alongside the art that is being shown in our galleries will allow guests to have an immersive experience both visually and sonically. Overall, the Music Collective is about bringing people and the local Columbus music scene together and having fun sharing music we love!
Playlists
Zines Out Loud
Artist Commune: Zines Out Loud brought together folks of all identites to celebrate queer joy. While learning about and making zines, participants listened to this playlist of gay pop songs! Featuring artists ranging from Janet Jackson to Renee Rapp to Hozier—this playlist will be sure to keep the energy high while finishing (or starting!) your zine.
Listen to Zines Out Loud on Spotify!
Issue One Launch Party
In May, we launched issue one of our Artist Commune Journal: Care | Culture | Justice. The issue features works from artists within the Columbus community, including visual art, personal essays, poetry, arts research, artist interviews, video/film, and community project spotlights. We curated a playlist that reflects the multimedia nature of the journal.
Listen to Issue One Launch Party on Spotify!
Ekphrasis
The playlist from April’s Artist Commune: Ekphrasis spotlights the blues, from Albert King to Muddy Waters. This event brought together the lyrical voices of poets Ajanaé Dawkins and Tyiesha Radford Shorts with the visual imagination of artist Arris’ Cohen for an evening of boundary-dissolving creation with ALL THREE of our amazing Community Artists-in-Residence.
Listen to Ekphrasis on Spotify
Sketches In Black
Our playlist from February's live figure drawing event, Artist Commune: Sketches in Black, features neo-soul jams by India Arie, Erykah Badu, and Sade. Have a listen here while you sketch some portraits of your own!
Amelia Boles, one of Urban Arts Space's community engagement interns, helped curate this playlist and shared what one of the songs means to her:
"'Breath' by DOE is on the playlist because it helps me pause, live in the moment, and stop worrying about the future. In the Bible, it says, 'therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.' Matthew 6:24"
Listen to Sketches in Black on Spotify
Intersections: A Pop-Up Exhibition
Our March Artist Commune pop-up exhibition playlist features song picks from across genres inspired by the theme of Intersections. From Janet Jackson to Paris Paloma, there's something for every listener. Let this musical mashup guide you to your next boundary-breaking piece!
Listen to Intersections on Spotify
Knit Circle
Still working on those fiber projects from January's Artist Commune: Knit Circle? Check out the playlist of soft indie tunes to keep your creativity flowing as you knit, crochet, or embroider!
Listen to Knit Circle on Spotify
Sustainable Sounds
We're still thinking about Ohio EPA's National Recycling Day Art Show featuring artwork made from recycled materials. The exhibit is no longer on view, but we are still bumping this playlist curated by UAS accessibility intern Yaqi Schumacher! Sustainable Sounds features a nature theme, with folk, indie, soft rock, and ethereal genres that have an activist leaning.
Listen to Sustainable Sounds on Spotify
Swap Social
Just like swapping art supplies gives life to old materials, cover songs let artists reimagine familiar tunes with their own creative twist. For our Artist Commune: Swap social, we've curated a playlist full of these reimagined tracks, celebrating the beauty of transformation and reinterpretation -- just like the art we've swapped!
Listen to Swap Social on Spotify
Totes on Town
In this playlist, Stephanie Berrie and Alex McCla chose to highlight the voices of influential female musicians from across the decades. From the pop songs of Billie Eilish to the soulful verbratto or Aretha Franklin, this playlist honors the women of the past while looking towards the way they’re redefining genres into the future.
Listen to Totes on Town on Spotify!
Portable Paradise
We can't get enough of this playlist from March’s Artist Commune: Portable Paradise. We invited artists to radically explore the idea of paradise in a pop-up exhibition. Questions that shape this theme: Who are the architects of Paradise? Who is on the margins in dominant ideas of Paradise? Who is invited? Who gets the authority to name what Paradise is like? How do you get there?
This exhibition and playlist showcase a diverse range of interpretations of Paradise through various artistic mediums.
Listen to Portable Paradise on Spotify!
FREEQUENCY
The Irrepressible ReDo was a night immersed in Afrofuturism, blending sounds and fashion amidst the FREEQUENCY exhibition. The night was reminiscent of a vibrant club-like atmosphere as guests danced to the live music of five different DJ’s spinning vinyl.
The FREEQUENCY playlist, curated by Chris Hearn, an MC and 1/4 of the @irrepressible.soul collective accompanies the exhibition's themes.
Listen to FREEQUENCY on Spotify!
Souls From The Well: A Celebration of Black and Palestinian Life and Liberation
“Souls From The Well” wove together the rich history of Black and Brown art expression. This exhibition gathered artworks under the themes of Ancestral Roots, Black and Brown Solidarity, Racial Expression, Internationalism, Alchemy, and Spirituality. Together, these artworks created a profound and interconnected dialogue that spoke to the heart of shared cultural heritage and collective empowerment.
Immerse yourself in the lyricism and sounds of Palestinian and Black artists with this specially curated playlist. Featuring a diverse array of artists, this playlist highlights the powerful and evocative sounds that express the resilience, hope, and enduring spirit of both Black and Palestinian people. From traditional melodies to contemporary beats, these songs capture the essence of a culture that stands steadfast in the face of adversity. Join us on a musical journey that celebrates solidarity, resistance, and the unyielding quest for peace and justice.
Featured in this playlist, to name a few, you can find Palestine’s first rock band (Al-Bara’em), Palestinian DJ and Producer (Sama’ Abdulhadi), gospel singer (Pastor T.L. Barrett), queer composer and performance artist (Julius Eastman), producer, singer-songwriter (Blood Orange), Detroit DJ and producer (Carl Craig), the Belleville Three (Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May), and Parliament’s Afrofuturistic visuals and sounds. This playlist offers a look into both Black and Palestinian voices that have transformed the way we interpret and connect through music.
Listen to Souls From The Well on Spotify!
Fashion Show and Runway
For our April Artist Commune, visitors were invited to participate in a clothing swap and then alter these clothes within an hour, using materials provided by Urban Arts Space. We've made a perfect playlist to encourage expression through style!
After an hour, we asked everyone for a song they would like to play as they walked the runway. We quickly crafted a playlist full of iconic songs, and the artists walked down the runway to show us their finished garments!
Listen to Artist Commune: Fashion Show on Spotify!
How to Cook a Loved One
How to Cook a Loved One transforms memory into matter, turning grief into something that can be held, smelled, imagined, and tasted. It asks what happens when mourning is physical—when loss is folded into daily life. Objects hover between the familiar and the unsettling. A “body” made from a family recipe of dried beef soup blurs nourishment with preservation, evoking home while carrying the weight of mortality. The work treats mourning as an evolving ritual—absurd, tender, and strangely beautiful.
Qianqian Liu’s original playlist, created for the Hopkins Hall Gallery Exhibition, combining her passion for sound and visual art, offers a glimpse into her creative world. “Mostly I make music as a way to calm myself; it’s something I do alongside my art practice when I need to process or slow down.”
—Qianqian Liu
Listen to If I Were a Star I'd Have Six Points all Wearing G-strings on SoundCloud!
If You Say So
If You Say So multidisciplinary show features art, literature, and dance about heightened experience: love and loss, grief and fear, and “everyday” struggles and challenges and the way we seek solutions for them. It is anchored by an exhibition of recent work by the painter Glen Holland as well as novelist and essayist Michelle Herman’s latest book, If You Say So, in which a series of Holland’s paintings are reproduced.
This playlist represents ALL of this. It’s a Russian nesting doll/octopus/polyglot of a playlist. It starts with the two pieces of music that Herman and Rowell set the If U Say So dance to: a variation from Ludwig Minkus’s 1877 ballet “La Bayadère” paired with Saweetie and Doja Cat’s “Best Friend”—a juxtaposition that also characterizes the vibe of the entire show, the vibe of Herman’s book, and (although it’s possible he’d deny it) the vibe of Holland’s recent work. Not to mention Herman and Holland’s life together (est. 1991). As do the thirty songs that follow these!
Listen to If You Say So on Spotify!
Vessels in Red
Vessels in Red was a multisensory exhibition exploring the human body as a portal for emotional transformation, processing, and universal truth. Through monochromatic works in shades of red, artists investigated how our bodies process, hold, and transmute human emotions—particularly love, shame, guilt, anger, and grief. Red served as both medium and metaphor, unifying varied narratives while drawing forth deep cultural and personal resonances.
The exhibition activated multiple senses: sight through artwork and intentional lighting; touch through varied fabrics; sound through spoken word, music, and installations; and smell through rich, primal scents.
Curators Christina Navarro, Miriam King, and Ashley Martin crafted this playlist to evoke the same sensations as walking through the exhibition.
Listen to Vessels in Red on Spotify!
Good Dress with Brittany Rogers
Couldn't get enough of Brittany Rodgers' Good Dress? Enjoy this playlist curated by the poet herself. Just like her poetry collection, the playlist starts strong with Cardi B's "Money" and only gets better. If Megan Thee Stallion, SZA, and Kash Doll are your vibe, this one's for you!
Listen to Good Dress with Brittany Rodgers on Spotify
Sonic Temple '24
Our staff picks for the Sonic Temple 2024 lineup, an annual metal festival in Columbus, as well as other hard rock and metal music!
Listen to Sonic Temple '24 on Spotify!
Contrary Motion
The UAS Music Collective is excited to announce a collaboration with Contrary Motion! Contrary Motion is an evening of chamber music rooted in queer histories and imagining queer futures, as voiced through the music of experimental composers of the past and present.
What does queer music sound like? Are there sonic events that identify the art itself as queer? This playlist traces the musical inspirations behind Contrary Motion, highlighting composers whose gender or sexual otherness deeply influences the nature of their music. Styles range across minimalism, avant garde, experimental, downtown, punk, and alternative rock. Broadly speaking, you are listening to music that transgresses traditional stylistic boundaries and make reference to civil rights, liberation movements, war, religion, politics, race, class, sex, and gender.
At the core are original works by Julius Eastman and Pauline Oliveros. The music branches out to explore Eastman and Oliveros’ contemporaries, including works by new music and experimental composers with whom they coexisted and collaborated, such as John Cage, Meredith Monk, and Arthur Russell. Beyond that are the countless artists whose work has been impacted by queer liberation movements including Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Rufus Wainwright, and Team Dresch.
Presented in celebration of Pride Month, Contrary Motion features works by experimental music ancestors Pauline Oliveros and Julius Eastman in conversation with new works by local composers Noah Demland and Sam Johnson.
Listen to Contrary Motion on Spotify!
Numero Group
Numero Group is an archival record label based in Chicago, Illinois, that was founded in 2003. They create compilations of previously released songs, reissues of original albums, and curated playlists that relate to specific themes, in addition to reviving artists and songs that have often been forgotten.
Numero Group has special roots in Columbus, Ohio, with its first release being a reissue of rare soul and R&B music that was originally released by Capsoul Label, which was founded in Columbus, Ohio by Bill Moss. Numero Group has the origin stories for any music genre you like!
Listen to Numero Group on Spotify!
Cozy Cottage Core Fall
Begin to bundle up and embrace the fall season with our Cozy Cottage Core Fall staff playlist! This mix features various of our staff and interns’ favorite artists and songs. Featuring artists such as Clairo, Solange, Erykah Badu, and more, this mix will have you feeling not so “Badu” about the cold weather.
Listen to the Cozy Cottage Core Fall playlist on Spotify
Holiday
We're still getting mileage out of the UAS Holiday Party playlists! Check out the playlists for our music picks to amp up the good cheer this year.
Listen to the Holiday playlist on Spotify
Summer Essentials
Feel the pulse of summer with UAS staff picks of our 2024 Summer Essentials. Whether you’re getting ready for your brat summer night out or embracing the warmth of sunshine and lush nature, let our handpicked songs accompany you through Columbus’ long, hot summer.
Listen to Summer Essentials on Spotify!
Staff Picks 04/2024
Need some new music? Here's a genre-bending mashup of our staff's favorite recommendations from April 2024! From De La Soul to Deftones, this playlist is sure to have something for everyone!
Listen to Staff Picks 04/2024 on Spotify!