Storefronts to get festive for Deck the Ham

It may not get cold enough in Birmingham for snow this Christmas, but Deck the Ham will cover the windows of several downtown businesses in artistic winter scenes and holiday cheer.

Deck the Ham — a project of the Birmingham Art Crawl — is entering its third year. Miranda McPherson, who works with the Art Crawl, said the event got started as a way to bring more window artwork to the city. About 10 artists participate each year.

“It’s a really fun, unique opportunity for artists to get creative with a large, unconventional canvas — windows,” McPherson said.

The event is free for artists to participate, and they also get the chance to take part in the December Art Crawl and a credit to offset the cost to join the January and February crawls. McPherson said Deck the Ham does not set a theme for the artists, except that they try to focus on more than just one holiday.

“It’s more about the spirit of the winter season. However, some of the businesses will request certain imagery, like, Levy’s enjoys having both a Hanukkah scene and a Christmas scene, [and] Storkland likes winter snow scenes,” McPherson said.

Painting is from Nov. 27 to Nov. 30, and McPherson said the artwork will stay up through December. Voting for the best window display will be from Dec. 1 to Dec. 19, with the winner of the $500 prize announced Dec. 19. McPherson said there will be a panel of judges this year, but art fans can vote on Instagram by taking a picture of their favorite window and using the hashtag #DeckTheHam.

The businesses participating in this year’s Deck the Ham had not been chosen as of Iron City Ink’s press date, but McPherson said a full list of locations will be available at decktheham.com soon.