Ground Floor Contemporary creates space for artists

Longtime multimedia artist Sara Garden Armstrong said the energy in art studios is contagious. 

“I’ve always felt that if you know people working, it helps give you the energy to work,” Armstrong, who is the Ground Floor Contemporary director, said. “… It gives you extra energy, and there’s also the fact that you can go and talk with someone and say, ‘What do you think of this?’”

The creative space helps to enlarge an artist’s ability, and “it helps them to grow,” she said.

Ground Floor Contemporary, a three-year-old studio and experimental art gallery, is located at 111 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. S., right below the well-known and frequented 21st Street Studio. As Ground Floor expands its reach into the Birmingham community, Armstrong said it hopes to get more locals and art lovers to gather in the space. 

“I think there’s a lot of enthusiasm for a space like this,” local artist and gallery manager Daisie Hoitsma said.

Each month, three Ground Floor members are selected to display their work in the first-floor gallery, where an opening night is held. Prior to that, the committee of members plans the entire year and decides the work that will be grouped together each month, usually uniting various mediums through a similar theme.

“We are trying to spread things out where it’s Birmingham artists, and it’s also international artists,” Hoitsma said. 

In addition to the monthly member exhibitions, they feature artwork from all over the world for specially-curated events several times a year. Armstrong said they’ve found that traveling artists “really enjoy coming and showing art [in Birmingham].”

“We are all trying to work on letting people know there is [an art scene] here,” Armstrong said. “The whole thing is about trying to be very supportive and help other artists, because artists help artists, and it’s really important.”

On three Sundays out of every month, Ground Floor also invites the public to come into the gallery for various showcases, artist talk-backs, workshops and art nights. These nights are typically a smaller and more intimate experience, Armstrong said, and a great way for newcomers to get to know the artists and Ground Floor members. 

Once they come to the events or openings, people are always interested in when the next show is going to be, Hoitsma said. 

On Nov. 16, the artists of Ground Floor are teaming up with their neighbors to throw their first-ever Block 120 Creative Arts District party from 5 to 9 p.m., where locals are invited for a “behind the scenes look” of certain artists, their studio spaces and upcoming projects, Armstrong said. It will feature the Birmingham chapter of the American Institute of Architecture, 21st Street Studios, Brad Morton Sculpture Garden, Liesa Cole Photography, Studio Goodlight, FreeSpace Photography, Giani Martin and Rome Denson and some additional nearby tenants. 

“The art scene is bigger than you think in Birmingham, and I think it’s really important for us to sort of pull together and know everybody,” Armstrong said. 

For more information, go to groundfloorcontemporary.com.