Alyx Chandler
Renee Kemp-Rotan, the director of the mayor’s initiative SPARK@Sloss Master Plan in Birmingham, recently spoke about the initiatives.
In the next few years, the space at Sloss Furnace is going to have a whole new look — and spark — to it.
The city of Birmingham, the Alabama School of Fine Arts and Sloss Furnaces are partnering together to develop a master plan for arts and culture at the historic Sloss Furnaces National Landmark site.
The initiative, called SPARK@Sloss, aims to transform the Sloss Furnaces site by building new facilities and renovating existing facilities to turn the site into an arts and technology hub.
Recently the initiative was awarded a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.
Renee Kemp-Rotan, the director of the mayor’s initiative SPARK@Sloss Master Plan in Birmingham, said that over the course of the next year, they will be offering workshops and inviting community members to take part of the process and submit ideas for the plan.
On Sept. 18, architects, urban planners, students and Birmingham community members were invited to take part of the opening lecture, “Imagine the Possibilities” at the Birmingham Art Museum.
The hope is to have more innovative studios and art residences built in the 30 acres by Sloss that the city of Birmingham already owns. Since Sloss is a Historic National Landmark, Kemp-Rotan said planning will not interfere with any historic elements.
“The idea is at end of lecture six, what will happen is all of the students that participated will give their design programs, and then try to put together an international design competition,” Kemp-Rotan said.
Eventually, the grant money will be used to renovate Sloss Furnaces through winning designs.
“It is an exploration; we are not set on any one idea,” Kemp-Rotan said. “Really, what we are trying to do with this is see how many creative minds we can bring on,”
SPARK@Sloss is focusing on four quadrants, which include fine arts, particularly a focus on expanding the current metal arts program and adding glass blowing and ceramics; new media and robotics; industrial design and visual arts; and experimental performance arts.
The SPARK@Sloss website is currently under construction. Stay tuned for it to launch in upcoming months.
