Duncanson Artist-in-Residence Announcement

2025 Duncanson Artist-in-Residence

Continuing the Legacy of Artist Robert S. Duncanson

The Duncanson Artist-in-Residence program was established in 1986 to honor the achievements of contemporary Black American artists working in a breadth of artistic disciplines. The program honors the relationship between painter Robert S. Duncanson and Cincinnati art patron, Nicholas Longworth, who commissioned Duncanson to paint landscape murals in the foyer of his home, now the Taft Museum of Art. The Taft Museum of Art’s Robert S. Duncanson Society annually recognizes the achievements of a contemporary Black American artist through the Duncanson Artist-in-Residence program.

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2025 Duncanson Artist-in-Residence

Rich Robbins | April 10–26, 2025

Rich Robbins is a Chicago-based rapper, songwriter, producer, educator, and television host known for critiquing societal issues while envisioning new possibilities. Robbins will join the museum as the 39th artist-in-residence as part of the award-winning Duncanson Program focused on elevating the profile of Black and Brown contemporary artists. Robbins will lead public programs, teach workshops, and visit schools across Greater Cincinnati from April 10–26, 2025.

Robbins is a First Wave Hip Hop & Urban Arts Scholarship Program recipient from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Through this program, he developed his craft as part of a high-level artistic community alongside faculty, staff, and nationally renowned spoken word and hip-hop artists and engaged the community in service-learning projects that combined multicultural arts and activism. Robbins has since been recognized as the “Best Individual Hip-Hop Artist” by Chicago Reader, an alternative newsweekly highlighting the city’s arts and culture scene. His music has also garnered one million streams and counting across major streaming platforms, with collaborators including artists such as Mick Jenkins, Saba, Mother Nature. Robbins’s latest EP, Soft & Tender, opens the conversation toward the intersectionality of fatherhood and Blackness with an adapted interview series available on YouTube. Outside of the studio, Robbins has also headlined major festivals such as the Taste of Chicago and Metro and performed at nationally iconic venues like the Apollo Theater in New York.

Robbins’s passion for music extends into youth education and outreach, including teaching high school students how to write poetry and music. As a youth educator, Robbins has founded several spaces for artists to advance their skills in a safe, welcoming environment including—Respect the Mic—a monthly open mic series rated as “Chicago’s Best.”

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