COMMUNITY ARTS
Create Birmingham envisions a region where art plays a key role in creating a more inclusive and vibrant community. We believe that community arts projects should center artistic impact and experience while also advancing equity.
Each community arts project is an opportunity to bring local artists and community members together to create context and connection in the present while celebrating our rich history and shaping our shared future.
Create Birmingham also offers free professional development for local artists and nonprofits and serves as a key creative partner for local organizations, businesses, and municipalities. In addition, we provide resources and information on local, regional, and national opportunities for Birmingham area artists.
CURRENT PROGRAMMING
MAGIC CITY POETRY FESTIVAL
Magic City Poetry Festival is a celebration of the magic of poetry and community in Birmingham, Alabama through honoring our local poets, history, nonprofits, craftspersons, and culture workers. Poetry is for everyone. CLICK TO LEARN MORE
ARPA RECOVERY Grant Program - BESSEMER
The ARPA Recovery Grant Program is made possible by the City of Bessemer's American Rescue Plan Act allocation. Grants will provide financial assistance to creative ventures that were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thirty two grants of $5,000 each will be awarded to City of Bessemer-based small businesses and nonprofits. To be eligible, applicants must have annual revenue of under $1 million, have been operating prior to March 2020, and provide documentation of financial hardship due to the pandemic.
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CITY OF BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY ARTS GRANT PROGRAM
This grant program will support four community arts collaborations that benefit the City of Birmingham with grants of $10,000 each. Each collaboration supported will be a partnership between an artist or arts organization and a community organization. Funded projects will use the arts to address an issue impacting the City of Birmingham and must be accessible to the general public. Collaborations eligible for funding include workshops, performances, concerts, festivals, demonstrations, screenings, and readings. Projects may be first-time collaborations or continuations of existing work. Applications were reviewed by a community panel consisting of one representative from each of the City of Birmingham’s nine districts, selected by their respective Birmingham City Council members.
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CITY OF BIRMINGHAM POET LAUREATE INITIATIVE
Create Birmingham, in partnership with the City of Birmingham and funded by the Alabama State Council on the Arts and The Parks, Recreation, and the Birmingham City Council's Cultural Arts Committee, invited Birmingham-based poets to apply to be Birmingham’s inaugural 2024-2025 Poet Laureate. The City of Birmingham Poet Laureate will serve as an ambassador for poetry in Birmingham. This is an honorary position and roles and responsibilities include making local appearances, facilitating public and educational programs, and building advocacy and community through poetry. The poet laureate will receive an honorarium of $5,000 over the course of their term. Additional funds will be available for materials and other approved costs associated with community engagement programs that the poet laureate facilitates.
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MAGIC CITY ART CONNECTION CULTURAL PARTNER
Create Birmingham is excited to join the 42nd Magic City Art Connection as a premier Cultural Partner on April 25 - 27, 2025. This partnership helps to provide a professional platform for the region's artists, leadership appointments for young adults, volunteer and exhibition training for high school and university students, and a place for our best nonprofit cultural organizations to meet an enthusiastic audience.
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PAST PROJECTS
Joe Minter is here
Create Birmingham, in partnership with narrative studio 1504, Navigate Affordable Housing Partners, and sculptor Joe Minter, will produce Joe Minter is Here. In October, this celebration of Joe Minter will feature 20 to 30 of his pieces in a groundbreaking exhibition inside of The Marc Steel Building, a historic warehouse in Birmingham’s Titusville community. This site is significant to Mr. Minter’s family history and Birmingham’s industrial history, as well as the lives of other prominent artists in Mr. Minter’s peer group, including artist and musician Lonnie Holley and artist Thornton Dial. The exhibit will be developed collaboratively by 1504 and Mr. Minter, with creative support from curator Matt Arnett and Mr. Holley. The sculptures will be shown alongside new audio and film components created by 1504 that will contextualize the importance of Mr. Minter’s work. Free public programs will take place throughout the October exhibit.
Jefferson county Memorial Quilt
Create Birmingham, in partnership with Jefferson County Memorial Project, Bib & Tucker Sew-Op, The Black Cherry Tree Project, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute will manage The Jefferson County Memorial Quilt Project. A community-based initiative, this project seeks to reckon with central Alabama’s haunting history of racial violence and propel racial reconciliation through the co-construction of a Jefferson County Memorial Quilt, which will be created in honor of the 34 African-Americans who were lynched in Jefferson County from the mid-19th through the mid-20th century.
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Amal Walks Across America
Little Amal - whose name means "hope" in Arabic - is a 12-foot puppet of a refugee Syrian child who has traveled to 13 countries. She began her journey from the Syrian border and carries a message of hope for displaced people everywhere, especially children who have been separated from their families. Her urgent message is simple – "don't forget us." Amal will journey 6,000 miles this fall from Boston to San Diego. She will be welcomed by 1,000+ artists at 100+ events in 35 towns and cities.
We were proud to welcome Amal to Birmingham in October!
Stories from the Life of Lonnie Holley, a Film by George King
In 2022, in partnership with the Birmingham Museum of Art, Create Birmingham presented the Alabama premiere of this documentary, which traces the dramatic life of American artist Lonnie Holley from his impoverished beginnings and educational opportunities to becoming a revered visual artist and musician. The film also reveals Holley’s creative process—his insights into conservation, ecology, and the environment, and his sources of deep inspiration rooted in the spirit, southern life, and African American history and culture.
ASPHALT ART INITIATIVE IN SMITHFIELD
Create Birmingham served as the arts partner for the City of Birmingham on a public art project in the Smithfield neighborhood to enhance the intersection of 8th Avenue West and Center Street, working in collaboration with Smithfield stakeholders, the Smithfield Public Library, and local visual artist Lydia Walker. Made possible by a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies' Asphalt Art Initiative, the collaborative installation of a new intersection mural took place on Saturday, October 15th, with a new sidewalk mural and improved lighting added to the Library Plaza in 2023.