Much of the creative life of downtown Mobile depends on work most people never see. Behind gallery openings, school art lessons, painted utility boxes and a monthly art walk that fills Dauphin Street with thousands of people, a small, energetic team at the Mobile Arts Council spends its days connecting artists with audiences and making the case that the arts belong to everyone.
A November 2023 visit with the Council’s staff at its Gallery @ Room 1927, next to the historic Saenger Theatre, offered a closer look at how the nonprofit operates. Its definition of “the arts” is intentionally all-encompassing, covering visual art, performance, music, poetry, public art and more, and its programs reach from Mobile County classrooms to Mardi Gras parade routes.
The Team Behind the Mobile Arts Council
At the time, the Council’s staff included Executive Director Lucy Gafford, Education and Outreach Coordinator Kathleen Kirk Stoves, who goes by Kat, Development Director Angela Montgomery and Program and Advocacy Manager Sydney Cramer.
“We are here to build awareness of all the creative arts and promote what the arts community is doing,” Gafford said. “None of us would be here if we weren’t passionate about art.”
A native Mobilian and self-described workaholic, Gafford first volunteered with the Council as an art student at the University of South Alabama. After graduating, she became its Education Coordinator, working closely with the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Alabama and the Strickland Youth Center to build art awareness among children. She is an interdisciplinary artist who works in woodwork, sculpture, ceramics and costuming, and she paints in oils and acrylics. She was named executive director in 2019.
Montgomery, the Council’s chief fundraiser, is from Jackson, Mississippi, and majored in biology and environmental studies at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. She raises money through private donations, grants and events. The Council had recently received a $15,000 matching grant from the Daniel Foundation in Birmingham and raised another $15,000 in private funds within three weeks to secure the match. She also coordinates smaller campaigns and writes grants throughout the year.
Cramer earned a BFA in performance from the University of South Alabama in 2021 and returned as an alumni director for the university’s inaugural Spooky Shakespeare Spectacular, her directorial debut. At the Council she manages much of the gallery programming as well as the vendor area and performance zone for LODA ArtWalk.
A Book Party That Showed How the Council Works
One recent event illustrated the Council’s role well: the release party for A Luthier’s Life, the book about Fairhope guitar maker Roger Fritz, held at the Gallery @ Room 1927. Montgomery knew Fritz, his wife, Christy, and their friend JD Dyess, so it made sense for the Council to take the lead in promoting their project. Gafford and Montgomery worked the event themselves, selling books and serving food and drink to a well-attended crowd.
That kind of hands-on promotion is central to the Council’s mission. Rather than acting only as a grant-maker or a gallery, it serves as a connector, lending space, staff and publicity to artists and arts groups across the region.
The Throwdown: Live Art and a Big Fundraiser
For years, the Council’s signature fundraiser was The Throwdown, a themed party built as a creative experience for artists and guests alike, with a silent auction, a live auction and a live art competition. The 2023 edition had a Barbie theme and even worked in elements of Diamond Championship Wrestling. About 200 ticket holders gathered at the Temple Downtown. Past Throwdowns had been held aboard the USS Alabama, at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center and at Central Presbyterian Church.
In a format reminiscent of televised cooking competitions, each artist received a mystery box of items, such as pink feathers and dolls, that had to be incorporated into a finished piece within 90 minutes. The work that drew the highest bid won. Artist Brian Tan took the 2023 title with a $1,000 winning bid, and the event raised more than $25,000.
The Council has since announced a new direction for its annual public art programming: the MobTown Mural Festival, a free downtown event with artists painting large-scale murals and sculptural cubes in public view, which retired The Throwdown after 13 years.
Amp Up Arts and Arts Education in Schools
The Mobile Arts Council is an advocacy organization rather than a school, so it does not offer in-house art classes like those at the Mobile Museum of Art or the Eastern Shore Art Center. Instead, it works closely with those institutions to promote their programs and focuses its own energy on outreach.
Stoves leads that work. Originally from New Jersey, she earned a studio art degree at Spring Hill College and began working with the Council after graduating in 2011. One of its primary programs is Amp Up Arts.
“Our goal is to input arts education in Mobile County Public Schools, the largest system in the state,” she said. “We believe arts education is essential to the development of every student, and that every child deserves the skill and outlet that the arts provide.”
The Council hires teaching artists and arts organizations to work in schools where students have limited access to the arts, and it also teaches at Boys & Girls Clubs across the area. That work earned it a Champion of Youth Award. At the time of the 2023 visit, plans were underway to begin a Collaborative Art Site at Chastang-Fournier School.
“We have a heart for this work and believe in the benefits it provides our community,” Stoves said. “I started many years ago as a teaching artist for the Mobile Arts Council and now I’m hiring the teaching artists.”
The Council also runs a biennial art competition among area colleges, including Bishop State Community College, Coastal Alabama Community College, the University of Mobile, the University of South Alabama and Spring Hill College. Any student may enter, regardless of major; the competition was scheduled to return in April 2024. The Council also helps represent Mobile, Baldwin County and beyond in Visual Arts Achievement, a statewide youth art competition held each February.
LODA ArtWalk and the Revival of Downtown
The Council has participated in LODA ArtWalk since it began in 2005. LODA stands for Lower Dauphin, the historic heart of downtown Mobile’s entertainment district. “We were lucky if 100 people showed up,” Gafford recalled. “Now it’s difficult to find parking within a couple blocks of Dauphin Street.”
The monthly event became part of a larger effort to revitalize downtown. ArtWalk takes place on the second Friday of each month from 6 to 9 p.m., drawing between 10,000 and 20,000 people along Dauphin Street for art, music and more than 40 regular outdoor arts and crafts vendors. Each ArtWalk has a theme chosen by the City of Mobile.
The Council’s own gallery was once located on Dauphin Street overlooking Cathedral Square before moving to the Gallery @ Room 1927 on Joachim Street, a space whose name nods to the year the neighboring Saenger Theatre opened. “It’s taken a while for people to find us,” Gafford said. As of the 2023 visit, the gallery was staffed and open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., featuring an Artist of the Month and an Organization of the Month. The Council’s website also includes an online Arts Directory and is updated frequently.
Murals, Artys and Mystic Squirrels
“We promote whatever the arts community is doing,” Gafford said. “Whether it’s tickets to the Symphony, art classes, art for sale, a unique experience, anything arts-related, we promote it.”
Some of that work is visible on downtown street corners. The murals painted on utility boxes around downtown are public artwork commissioned by the Council. Other programs include:
- The Artys Awards, an annual celebration of artists, businesses and individuals who have made an impact on the creative community. The most recent ceremony before the 2023 visit was held at Soul Kitchen, with awards created by glassblowers Muffinjaw Designs.
- Professional development workshops, held quarterly at the Gallery @ Room 1927 for local artists.
- Poetry Out Loud, the national poetry recitation program for high school students, including a free Find Your Voice workshop for emerging poets.
- The Mystic SOBs, the Council’s own Mardi Gras foot-marching group, short for the Mystic Squirrels of Bienville (Square).
The squirrels also host a Squirrel Soiree on Joe Cain Day during the People’s Parade; the 2024 party was set for Feb. 11, 2024. Joe Cain Day, held the Sunday before Fat Tuesday, honors Joseph Cain, the Mobilian credited with reviving the city’s Carnival celebrations after the Civil War, and it is one of the most beloved days of a Mardi Gras season that Mobile proudly calls the oldest in the United States.
How to Get Involved
The Council offers several membership levels, including student, artist, patron and organization memberships, and had nearly 400 supporting members at the time of the 2023 visit. It makes a point of spotlighting members, especially when they have an upcoming show. Readers who want to support the local arts can:
- Visit the Gallery @ Room 1927 on Joachim Street, next to the Saenger Theatre.
- Explore LODA ArtWalk on the second Friday of the month in downtown Mobile.
- Become a member or make a donation to support arts education and public art.
- Check the Council’s website for current exhibitions, workshops and event schedules, which change frequently.
In a region where arts funding is often hard-won, the Mobile Arts Council has built its reputation on energy, creativity and a willingness to champion every kind of artist. Its message, echoed across its programs, is that a thriving arts scene makes a city more livable for everyone.