The Loft Show celebrates 1 year of bringing artists together

On the last Friday of each month, a crowd of artists and locals gather for what in the last year has transformed into an increasingly popular night of mingling for the creative community.

The Loft Show will celebrate its one-year anniversary show March 30, from 7-9 p.m. at the Woodlawn Cycle Cafe.

The Loft Show co-creators, Cat Hyman and Josh Cox, originally became friends when they moved to Birmingham last year and started working together as writing partners in comedy. 

“Normal open mics can be a bit intimidating, we were looking to do stand-up in a more open environment,” Hyman said, so they started brainstorming. 

Since both Hyman and Cox were new to the Birmingham area, they were also looking to find a community of artists. Eventually, a friend offered his apartment as a hosting spot, and Hyman and Cox began to flesh out the idea of booking artists in various genres to present their work once a month. 

“We knew so many artists separately, and we were looking for a way to develop the community and bring all these people we knew together,” Cox said. 

Neither Hyman nor Cox expected their idea to be so popular. “We said, ‘Let’s just try this out,’ and then there was a huge wave of support,” Hyman said. “People are able to create and give back to the community through this, and [they] loved that.”

They said they have artists emailing them from out-of-state and all across Birmingham, as well as locals thanking them and checking up on when the next show will be.

In the last year, they’ve hosted months with comedians, bands, solo singers, visual artists, bakers and even a few local pop-up shops. Consistently at each show, Cox said they’ve had anywhere from 75 to 125 people show up, which is about at capacity.

“Word of mouth has been our primary method of letting people know,” Hyman said, as well as their Facebook page @TheLoftShow.

It was also important for Hyman and Cox to give artists in Birmingham an opportunity to be in an art show without paying money. Cox said they got a lot of feedback from artists saying that people wanted an outlet, but couldn’t always pay to be in an art show. 

“[Being an artist] is a hard field to get your feet in,” Hyman said. “We’ve had people get emotional because they were looking for something like this. We haven’t had a month where we’ve second-guessed it.”

In the March show, the artists featured will be Cole Bryant and Sarah Peyton Green, and the music featured includes Jake Carnley, Riley Moore and the band Beagles.

Each show also features a custom-made poster by a local designer. Hyman said the posters are $3 and can be bought at the door. The shows are also BYOB.

Eventually, Cox said, they would love to get their own venue, but for now he encourages anyone in the Birmingham community to come out and get to know some artists.

“This is for anybody who wants to express themselves creatively who might not have an outlet,” Cox said. 

The Loft Show is $7 at the door and is at 1710 Second Ave. N., Suite 101. Proceeds go to the artists. Email them at bhamloftshow@gmail.com for more information.

The event location has been changed from the Phoenix Lofts to the Woodlawn Cycle Cafe due to a recent venue change.