Art on the Rocks kicks off 2018 series with soul band, LED show
Birmingham Museum of Art’s annual summer series Art on the Rocks returns this summer for three months of live music, artist collaborations, food and drinks.
The series kicks off June 8, 7-11 p.m., with live music by The Suffers, an eight-member soul band originating from the Gulf Coast. Also featured are local acts The Audiovore, which will provide a DJ set, and Luminarts Entertainment.
Luminarts Entertainment was founded by Chelsea resident Robbie Lewis and Paige Marmolejo, who graduated from the University of Alabama with a bachelor’s of arts in dance. She said she reached out to Lewis when she moved to the Birmingham area in 2015.
“I was a performer in a fire/LED/circus performance troupe in El Paso, Texas, for a few years and was really missing being involved with it and performing after moving to Birmingham,” Marmolejo said.
She and Lewis were interested in “bringing hooping and flow arts to the community,” and Lewis already had experience starting a company: Hoop for Fitness flow arts.
“This area did not have anything like Luminarts already — the closest similar groups were in Atlanta and Nashville — so I decided to start my own group,” Marmolejo said. “I felt like Birmingham was a big enough city with enough going on that it could use a performance group like Luminarts. Since starting the group I have had several people mention that they had no idea there was something like this in Birmingham and that before they had to bring in out of state performers for this sort of entertainment. We are continuing to grow and are working on adding stilt walkers to our offerings later this year.”
At Art on the Rocks, Marmolejo, Molly McQuitty and Carly Bell will present a blacklight show with blacklight hula hoops and costuming. They will also perform an LED show using hula hoops, poi and Isis (veil) wings that include LED lights.
Returning to Art on the Rocks is solo DJ and Birmingham resident Lee Shook, who performs as The Audiovore. He was last seen at AOTR in 2016. He’ll be performing one nightlong set with no breaks, he said. “[I] always want the music to ebb and flow with the night and audience as needed.”
He described his work as “an eclectic mix of rare groove, world music, old school funk, indie dance music, hip hop and whatever else I can mix in.”
The July 27 event’s music will be provided by Shreveport, Louisiana’s Seratones, and Aug. 17’s event features Tank and the Bangas, a New Orleans band with roots in soul and R&B that won the 2017 NPR Tiny Desk Concert competition.
Tickets are $15 for museum members or $25 for nonmembers.