Performing and visual arts institutions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are gearing up for a new season, one marked by jazz greats Wynton and Delfeayo Marsalis, as well as a nationally acclaimed art exhibit that takes a critical look at mass incarceration and social justice.
After more than a year of virtual programming, the visual and performing arts venues at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are slowly welcoming the public back to their venues for in-person events. UAB arts, which encompasses the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts (AEIVA), the Alys Stephens Center, ArtPlay and UAB Institute for Arts in Medicine, recently offered a preview of its 2021-2022 season during a Zoom webinar.
A running theme of the preview remarks was resiliency as UAB arts program and venue directors thanked patrons and members for bearing with them during a tumultuous time marked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, as UAB arts prepare to embark on a new season of in-person performances, lectures, and art exhibits, the organization has guidelines for guests who plan to attend events on the university campus. The university requires people to wear face masks indoors on campus, regardless of vaccine status-- meaning all attendees at UAB arts events must wear a mask or face covering when attending in person events.
Tickets or reservations will also be required for in-person events hosted by AEIVA, the Alys Stephens Center, ArtPlay, and UAB Institute for Arts in Medicine.
Here’s what to expect from the upcoming UAB arts season.
The Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts (AEIVA)
AEIVA will mark the opening of its fall season with “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” a major exhibition exploring the works of artists within prisons in the United States. Organized by award-winning author, professor, and cultural critic Dr. Nicole Fleetwood, “Marking Time” draws on Dr. Fleetwood’s years of research to present a visual exploration of the impact of mass incarceration in American life.
“It’s a way of refuting what I call the criminal index: mugshots, prison ID cards, all the ways photographic images of imprisoned people are used to render them bad criminals. It claims a much more complex humanity,” Fleetwood told Artnet in 2020.
The exhibit includes work by more than 30 incarcerated and non incarcerated artists-- all curated for a project that addresses the themes of state repression, erasure and imprisonment. Among those artists is Birmingham-based Tameca Cole, who is serving life on parole after nearly 26 years in the Alabama Department of Corrections. The opening of “Marking Time” at AEIVA will be Cole’s first exhibit at a museum in her hometown of Birmingham.
AEIVA is one of a handful of institutions to host “Marking Time,” including The Museum of Modern Art. This iteration of the exhibit will also feature “a tremendous number of community partners” AEIVA senior director John Fields said during the preview, including the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, The Jefferson County Memorial Project, and the Alabama Prison Arts & Education Project.
On Friday, Sept. 17, AEIVA will host an opening night panel discussion for “Marking Time” with Fleetwood and artists Tameca Cole, George Anthony Morton, Maria Gaspar and Dean Gillispie from 6 to 8 p.m. Registration is required in order to attend the event virtually.
AEIVA will officially reopen to the public on Sept. 21 with timed tickets for patrons to see all exhibitions. AEIVA will require one ticket per visitor, and patrons can register for tickets online.
AEIVA staff is in the process of designing a number of hybrid and virtual events for the upcoming season. The creation of events “is fluid” said Fields, and in-person events and lectures will be announced on a “case by case basis.”
“Marking Time,” will open to the public on Sept. 21. So far, AEIVA will host a number of programs including a conversation on the state of Alabama prisons and an evening of spoken word.
“Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” will be on view from Sept. 17-Dec. 11.
During the preview, Fields briefly gave details for next year’s exhibitions, including the Alabama Triennial at AEIVA, which will feature work from Alabama contemporary artist Erin Leann Mitchell, chef and painter Roscoe Hall, and filmmaker Lily Ahree Siegel.
In fall 2022, AEIVA will host a retrospective showcasing the work of Thornton Dial, the late Alabama artist renowned for his sculpture, painting, and metal work.
The Alys Stephens Center for Performing Arts
UAB’s Alys Stephens Center for Performing Arts will celebrate its 25th anniversary this fall. “This last year we learned how resilient we can be, how much we need each other, and how vital the arts are to our daily lives,” UAB Visual and Performing Art executive director Lili D. Anderson said in a news release. “This informed our intentional planning for the coming year, hosting a balance of both paid and free events to welcome the entire community back to the Alys Stephens Center.”
On the Alys Stephens roster this year: performances from brothers and jazz masters Delfeayo and Wynton Marsalis.
Delfeayo Marsalis and Uptown Jazz Orchestra will take the Alys Stephens stage on Oct. 14. Two months later, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will grace the center, led by Wynton Marsalis.
“To celebrate some of the biggest moments on our stages over the past 25 years, we have invited several artists who have been to the center before,” Alys Stephens Director of Programming Eric Essix said in the same statement.
Those acts include aerial performers Bandaloop, illusionist Kevin Spencer, and Cuban jazz duo Alfredo Rodriguez and Pedrito Martinez.
ArtPlay
ArtPlay, UAB’s public arts education program, will resume in-person classes in the fall and registration is now open for classes in sculpture, quilting, and theater.
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