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JOIN OTHER ARTISTS AND PATRONS OF THE ARTS TODAY! Click here to download a pdf of the membership form. Click here to download a word document of the membership form. Birmingham Arts Journal About Us Who We Are | About the Birmingham Art Association | History WHO WE ARE Birmingham Art Association is the oldest arts organization in the region. BAA has been an independent association of visual and performing artists, arts enthusiasts, writers, and musicians for most of the last century. We particularly support the efforts of emerging artists to have their talent exposed to the world, and we provide a Gallery for this purpose. ABOUT THE BAA BAA is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization, operating on a non-discriminatory basis. Anyone may join at any time. All membership dues and contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. History A Brief History of Birmingham Art Association Basic research, Rebecca Bidwell Editor, Jim Reed The Birmingham Art Association (BAA), founded in 1908 as the Birmingham Art Club, was one of the city's earliest organizations led by both artists and art patrons. Birmingham artists Della Dryer, Willie McLaughlin, Alice Rumph and Mamie Holfield, formed the group primarily to promote the arts of the city. They drew together 57 charter members and soon were entertaining such celebrities as G. E. Moretti, sculptor of the world's largest cast-iron statue, "Vulcan," a Birmingham landmark for 100 years. Famed landscape and portrait painter Nicholas R. Brewer lectured to the members in the 1920's. The famed Frank Flemming fountain in Birmingham's Southside was purchased by the Birmingham Art Association. During the early days, BAA artists' work was displayed at different galleries in the city, or in member homes. At times, members would form a caravan and visit art museums of larger cities. This desire to learn about art in other cities led to the foundation of the Birmingham Museum of Art. Frequently, BAA members worked with the community to beautify parks and public buildings. Sometimes, schools were adopted by BAA for art education projects. Service projects were an important aspect of the Birmingham Art Club. Many of the programs begun by the club are now independent of BAA. In the early days of the club, members did things such as lettering for the Department of Defense, creating scrapbooks for servicemen in the war, decorating the Tutwiler Hotel for a touring French Orchestra, and decorating a float for the American Red Cross. Many notable figures from Birmingham's past were members of the Birmingham Art Club: Mrs. Bibb Graves, Belle Comer, Carrie Hill, Hugh Daniel, Cooper Green, and Mervyn Sterne. The club's first Sidewalk Art Show was held in Woodrow Wilson Park (now Linn Park) in 1938. The show continues to this day, under the auspices of Operation New Birmingham. In 1940, the club created a committee to pursue funds for the creation of a museum for Birmingham, and with a trust left to the club by Mamie Fogarty. With later support by the Junior League and the City Commission, the museum finally came into being in 1951, and a new building was erected with funding from Helen Jacob Wells, in 1959. Later, BAA started the Festival of Arts and established annual juried and non-juried membership shows that continue to this day. In more recent times, the BAA became an organization independent of the Museum and many of the other art venues it helped to pioneer in Birmingham. Today, the association concentrates on assisting emerging artists in finding their own voice in a highly competitive and diverse regional art world. The Birmingham Art Association is active throughout the city and now maintains a gallery at Regions Harbert Plaza's Promenade in Downtown Birmingham at the intersection of 6th Avenue North and 20th Street. JOIN US TODAY! Click here to download a pdf of the membership form. Click here to download a word document of the membership form. Birmingham Arts Journal Back to Top |
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For additional information, call (205)324-9127 or email BAA at Mail@BirminghamArtAssociation.org. |