Artists, musicians, artisans, chefs, writers, cultural institutions, etc. producing new, non-derivative cultural products that address current issues, articulate forward-thinking ideas, or otherwise awaken, expand, deepen, and question our understanding of and relationship with the world and all its myriad facets.
This is the problem. GP mentioned London: I live in London. I see a lot of art in London. (I lived in Hackney Wick for a while, which at the time was basically a pile of art studios plonked into rotting industrial estates. There were some, er, very interesting people around.) None of it is particularly path-breaking.
But that's not an issue. Because any fule kno that all cultural production is highly derivative, and innovative only at the margins. GP gripes elsewhere about people ignoring the last 100 years of western art music, but seems to miss the fact that there is no Schoenberg without Brahms, Wagner and Mahler, no Reich without the Early Music revival; and, equally, the fact that not all productions of a given opera are alike. Innovation is possible, and happens, within the standard repertoire; that's one of the happy side effects of playing the same things over and over again.
I have no idea how forward-thinking the opera house(s) of Ohio are, admittedly.
I should have said "perspectives." The production of ideas operates differently post-internet and isn't so geographically specific. If you want to talk about trends in art, music, fashion, etc., then I could list quite a few.
