The Mobile Arts Council has announced the recipients of its 11th annual Greater Mobile Arts Awards, recognizing the individuals, groups and businesses that have helped shape the cultural life of the region. The council unveiled the honorees on a Tuesday, setting the stage for a late-summer celebration of the area’s artistic community.
The awards will be presented at a ceremony on Thursday, Aug. 28, at 7 p.m. in the 1927 Room at the Saenger Theatre, with a reception honoring the recipients to follow immediately afterward. The event is free and open to the public.
Celebrating cultural contributions
The Greater Mobile Arts Awards exist to acknowledge the important contributions that artists, organizations and supporters make to the community’s cultural fabric. Each year the honors spotlight a cross-section of the local arts scene, from working artists to the businesses and institutions that sustain creative work in the Mobile area.
Among the honorees is Jason Guynes, who chairs the visual arts department at the University of South Alabama. Guynes painted the mural on the inside of the Moulton Bell Tower, a visible example of the kind of public artwork the awards seek to celebrate. His recognition reflects both his own artistic work and his role in shaping the next generation of artists through his teaching.
An award made by an artist
In keeping with a longstanding tradition, the awards themselves are works of art. Each year the council commissions a different local artist to create the pieces given to recipients, turning the honors into original objects rather than standard trophies. This year’s awards were created by painter and printmaker Lucy Gafford, herself a previous recipient of a Greater Mobile Arts Award.
That practice, having past honorees craft the awards for future ones, ties each year’s ceremony to those that came before and keeps the recognition rooted in the local creative community it celebrates.
A hub for the arts
The Mobile Arts Council is a private nonprofit organization that serves as an umbrella for arts and cultural groups across the Greater Mobile area. It draws financial support from a range of public and private sources, including the city of Mobile, the Mobile County Commission, the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and local corporations, businesses and individuals.
That mix of backing reflects the council’s role as a connector within the region’s cultural life, channeling support to organizations and artists and helping coordinate the broader arts community. The annual awards are among its most visible efforts, offering public recognition to those whose work might otherwise go uncelebrated.
For the honorees, the August ceremony at the Saenger Theatre promised a moment in the spotlight in one of downtown Mobile’s most storied venues. For the public, the free event offered a chance to learn about the people and organizations enriching the area’s cultural scene, and to take part in a celebration of the arts that has become an annual tradition.
With the recipients now announced, attention turned to the ceremony itself, where the council would formally present its handcrafted awards and honor another slate of contributors to the Greater Mobile area’s artistic life.