A time to celebrate the arts: Birmingham Museum of Art kicks off busy spring, summer seasons
The Birmingham Museum of Art, which celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2021, possesses one of the finest collections in the Southeast.
There are more than 27,000 objects at the BMA from almost every historical period and a wide variety of cultures, including Asian, European, American, African, Pre-Columbian and Native American.
Best of all, the BMA — unlike many large museums — does not charge admission, though donations are requested.
And the month of March is a perfect time to visit.
The museum is kicking off the spring in a big way with a numerous exhibitions and special events.
It promises to be a special season.
Adjusting to the COVID-19 pandemic, the BMA slowly reincorporated in-person events during the fall of 2021.
But beginning in the spring, the museum will present a full slate of programming and exhibitions.
“For the first time since the pandemic began, we are thrilled to present a full slate of in-person programs and exhibitions for the spring and summer season, offering our visitors a deeper level of engagement and connection through art and culture,” said Graham C. Boettcher, the director of the BMA, in a news release.
“The arts are thriving in Birmingham, and we are ready to celebrate,” Boettcher said.
The following is a complete rundown of the many exhibitions, performance and other special events the BMA has planned for Magic City art lovers.
The (Spring) Reframe
Described by the BMA as a community celebration, The (Spring) Reframe event kicks off the spring season on Friday, March 18, from 5-9 p.m.
The event is designed to highlight recently opened exhibitions as well as the museum’s permanent collections.
“The Reframe is a new concept that is essentially a big open house and a chance to invite the community in to see everything that’s new and fresh at the BMA,” Cate Boehm, the museum’s director of marketing and communications, told Iron City Ink.
Attendees will be the first to see “Expanding Darshan: Manjari Sharma, To See and Be Seen,” an exhibition that opens Saturday, March 19.
The show explores nine Hindu deities by blending vibrant, colorful contemporary pieces by Manjari Shama — a photographer and rising global art star from India — with ancient Indic art from the museum’s permanent collection.
“We will also be celebrating fresh installations in many of our other galleries,” Boehm said.
The (Spring) Reframe will feature a lecture by Sharma, as well as pop-up performances, live music and other activities in galleries throughout the facility.
Registration is required for attendees.
To see and be seen
“Expanding Darshan: Manjari Sharma, To See and Be Seen” will be on view in the Pizitz Galleries from March 19 through Jan. 15, 2023.
“Visitors are going to love ‘Expanding Darshan’ because of the bold imagery, vibrant colors and the fascinating details within the portraits,” Boehm said.” The contemporary photography of Hindu deities is juxtaposed with ancient sculpture of the same subject matter from our collection.”
Works of art from India, Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand are used to explore the little-known temporal and regional expansiveness of the Indic world.
“It’s interesting to see how artists’ expression of these deities has changed over hundreds of years — or just how much has stayed the same,” Boehm said.
The exhibition uses Sharma’s photo-based works to explore the most significant deities in the Hindu pantheon and their contemporary relevance in art and faith.
But it also provides viewers a gateway to the concept of darshan: to see and be seen by the divine.
Throwing colors
The focus on India continues March 19, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.. with the 11th annual Holi Festival, the Indian celebration of color.
A part of the BMA’s quarterly Heritage Festivals series, the Holi Festival — presented with the Indian Cultural Society — will include Indian dance, live music, food, henna, art-making activities and gallery exploration.
At the end of the event, guests gather outside in the museum’s parking lot for the day’s highlight, the throwing of powdered colors to welcome the spring.
The next event in the series — the African Heritage Festival — will be in July (date TBA). Inspired by the museum's collection of African art, the festival will offer food, live music and other performances rooted in the cultures of the African diaspora.
The athlete’s image
The BMA will present an intriguing exhibition that shows the influence of games and athletic competition on ancient and contemporary art.
“Ways of Seeing: Sports and Games” opens in the Bohorfoush Gallery on Tuesday, May 10, and remains on display through May 2023.
Drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, “Ways of Seeing” shows that while images of athletes and games have influenced artistic practices around the world, art has also shaped the popular image of the athlete.
Making it work
The BMA will serve as co-host of Magic City Fashion Week from Friday through Sunday, June 10-12.
Fashion Week seeks to cultivate, connect and showcase the artistic community in the Magic City.
The event also seeks to help develop emerging designers while fostering engagement with community partners to use fashion as a vehicle for change.
Art and pop collide
The BMA’s bimonthly Art After 5 series features casual evenings of art, drinks, music and maker activities, and is described as a place where art and pop culture collide.
On Friday, April 1, from 5-9 p.m., Art After 5 will return with a throwback theme inspired by the classic 1980’s TV sitcom, “A Different World.”
On Friday, June 3, from 5-9 p.m., the series will celebrate Gay Pride Month with a colorful evening of Pride-themed performances and making.
Art on the walls
“Wall to Wall: Rico Gaston” will be installed in the museum’s lobby beginning Friday, July 15, and will remain on display through July 2023.
The second artist in the “Wall to Wall” series, the Brooklyn, New York-based Gaston does painting, video, sculpture and installations.
Gaston will transform the lobby walls with a colorful, life-size image of an iconic Birmingham figure and an abstract composition.
He’ll also be on hand to take part in the opening of the exhibition.
Born in Augusta, Georgia, Gaston grew up in southern California and received his MFA from Yale School of Art in 1991.
His work combines abstract patterns with vibrant colors and comments on key moments in Black culture and history.
In 2019, for example, he unveiled a series of portraits of eight key figures in the history of the New York City borough of the Bronx in a subway station.
The glass mosaic murals, titled “Beacons,” depict such figures as novelist James Baldwin, poet Maya Angelou and baseball great Reggie Jackson.
Culturetype.com called the portraits “powerful” and “radiating.”
Art on the Rocks
Not only will the BMA unveil “Wall to Wall: Rico Gaston” on March 15, but that Friday night will also see the return of one of Birmingham’s most popular summer events.
For the first time since 2019 — before the pandemic — the BMA will present Art on the Rocks.
Art on the Rocks will feature DJs, live music and signature cocktails.
Attendees will also be invited to paint alongside Gaston in the museum lobby to help complete his “Wall to Wall” installation.
“One of the things that has kept Art on the Rocks events so exciting in recent years has been the interactive community mural element of the event,” Boehm said. “The energy between the artist and participants working together to make a large-scale mural come to be in just a couple of hours is really thrilling.”
This will be a fitting activity for Gaston, who seeks to use community engagement to bring the energy from the civil rights movement into the present.
“To have an artist like Rico Gaston elevates that experience even more because his work is so powerful and will speak specifically to Birmingham’s history,” Boehm said.
Art on the Rocks has been part of the museum’s summer schedule for more than 15 years, she said.
The event “continues to inspire and entertain new audiences while bringing back visitors who were around for the very first events,” Boehm said.
“The formula is simple,” she said. “We bring the best of Birmingham’s creative community together to celebrate art and culture in the Magic City.”
The start time of the event is still to be determined, but it will likely take place from 7-11 p.m.
There will be an admission charge for Art on the Rocks.
Other activities
The BMA will continue to offer its long-popular ArtBreak series on Wednesdays at noon — part of its “Wednesdays at the BMA” programming.
ArtBreak consists of 30-minute tours, lectures and gallery talks featuring BMA educators and art experts. The events give art lovers the change to delve more deeply into the museum’s collections.
On March 16, ArtBreak will feature Meghan McCollum of Blank Space, a women-led public art organization in Birmingham. She’ll talk to Hallie Ringle, the museum’s contemporary art curator, about the “Wall to Wall” mural series.
On March 30, ArtBreak will feature a tour of “Expanding Darshan” led by Katherine Anne Paul, the museum’s Asian art curator.
The Art in Conversation series provides a casual setting for speakers. On Wednesday, March 2, from 11 a.m. to noon, James Williams — director of design and technology at the BMA — will discuss how we communicate within the museum beyond the art in our galleries. He’ll examine the function of design, how inherent biases influence the process of design and what that means for museums.
The Highlights Tours are provided by BMA staff and feature new perspectives on the collections. On Sunday, March 27, at 2 p.m., Angela May — the museum’s assistant director of learning and engagement — will lead a tour called “Goddesses around the Globe.”
Coping with COVID
Due to the pandemic, the BMA requires all visitors wear masks indoors.
The museum is also maintaining 75% capacity. Fortunately, distancing is relatively easy because the BMA measures about 150,000 square feet, Boehm said.
“We have plenty of space,” she said.
For more information about exhibitions and programming, call 205-254-2565 or go to artsbma.org.
Dates and details of programs are subject to change due to the pandemic.