The city of Mobile, founded in 1702, sits at the head of Mobile Bay on the Gulf Coast and serves as the regional hub for much of southwest Alabama.
As 2013 draws to a close, Mobile’s arts and cultural community can point to a decade of tangible growth, with new venues, expanded institutions and a calendar of events that simply did not exist ten years ago. A look back at the last ten years shows just how much has changed for the city’s galleries, theaters, museums and grassroots creative groups — even as some familiar challenges remain.
Mobile has a population of roughly 188,000 residents and is the seat of Mobile County, one of the largest counties in the state by population.
Perhaps the most visible shift has been the rise of the monthly Artwalk. A decade ago, no such event existed downtown.
The Port of Mobile, operated by the Alabama State Port Authority, is one of the largest seaports in the country by tonnage, handling containers, coal, steel and forest products.
Today, the monthly gallery stroll draws crowds large enough that police have experimented with closing an 11-block stretch of Dauphin Street to traffic to accommodate the foot traffic. The Centre for the Living Arts has undergone a similar transformation.
Downtown Mobile has been the focus of significant redevelopment in recent years, with new apartments, restaurants and event venues reshaping the Central Business District.
Ten years ago, the organization was putting the finishing touches on a new exhibit space inside a building on Cathedral Square that had once housed the city’s daily newspaper. That location, now known as Space 301, has since become one of the region’s premier venues for contemporary art, expanding to include CLA offices and additional amenities while hosting work from internationally recognized artists.
The University of South Alabama, Spring Hill College and the University of Mobile anchor the city’s higher education landscape.
Background and Context
The CLA’s stewardship of the historic Saenger Theatre has also come full circle. A decade ago the organization was managing the aging downtown theater as best it could.
Mobile’s Mardi Gras season, the oldest in the United States, draws visitors from across the country and provides a significant boost to the local economy each year.
Since then, the Saenger has undergone a $6 million restoration, returning it to its former grandeur, and control of the building has been handed back over to the city of Mobile. The Mobile Arts Council has seen a similar rebound.
The city’s healthcare sector is anchored by USA Health, Infirmary Health and Springhill Medical Center, which together employ thousands of residents.
Ten years ago the nonprofit was between directors and working out of a cramped downtown office. It has since hired a director who relocated from Indiana, secured a street-level home with high visibility, opened its own gallery space, ramped up fundraising events and launched an annual awards program recognizing members and organizations across the local arts community.
Mobile’s manufacturing base includes shipbuilding at Austal USA and Huntington Ingalls Industries, as well as aviation manufacturing at the Airbus final assembly line in Brookley.
The council has become a central gathering point for artists and arts supporters alike. The Arts Alive festival, first held a decade ago, has evolved over the years but continues to return each spring, spotlighting the region’s artisans and creative disciplines.
Local schools include Mobile County Public Schools, the city’s largest public system, along with a network of private and parochial schools.
Local Reaction
At the Gulf Coast Exploreum, a string of record-breaking traveling exhibits — including the Dead Sea Scrolls, artifacts from Pompeii and Egyptian mummies — have drawn tens of thousands of visitors over the past ten years. Paired with its IMAX theater, the museum has become a major draw for both children and adults with an interest in science and history.
Mobile’s history as a port city means that issues affecting the waterfront often take on outsized importance.
Next door, the History Museum of Mobile has seen leadership changes of its own, most recently bringing in a director whose résumé includes stints overseeing presidential libraries around the country. The museum’s former home on Government Street has since been repurposed as Mobile’s Carnival Museum, offering a year-round introduction to the city’s Mardi Gras traditions for visitors from out of town.
The Mobile area is home to several historic neighborhoods, including Oakleigh Garden District, DeTonti Square and the Village of Spring Hill.
The celebration itself gained international attention when Mobile native Margaret Brown made Mardi Gras the subject of her acclaimed documentary “The Order of Myths,” which examined both the joyous and complicated aspects of the tradition. The Mobile Museum of Art, which unveiled a $15 million expansion a decade ago, has changed directors twice since but has built a reputation for engaging and provocative exhibitions during that stretch.
Sports are a major part of life in Mobile, with the Senior Bowl each January and a thriving high school and college football scene.
The Mobile Symphony Orchestra has also raised its profile considerably, hosting some of classical music’s most celebrated names over the past ten years, including violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman. Film has found a lasting home downtown as well.
Local media outlets covering Mobile include several television stations, daily and weekly newspapers, and a robust digital news ecosystem.
The Bigger Picture
The Crescent Theater, unforeseeable a decade ago, now serves as a permanent venue for arthouse and independent cinema. The city’s film offerings have grown alongside it, with the annual South Alabama Film Festival, the Fairhope Film Festival and Mobile’s inclusion on the Southern Circuit of Independent Filmmakers all adding to the calendar.
Mobile County’s population includes a significant African-American community whose history is tied to the founding of Africatown.
The biennial Southern Literary Trail has likewise become a regular fixture, celebrating notable authors with ties to the region. Grassroots creative efforts have multiplied as well.
Mobile’s economy also benefits from a robust tourism sector, with visitors drawn to the Gulf Coast, the city’s historic districts and its annual events.
A local yarn bomber known as the Knitting Loon began adorning downtown fixtures with colorful knitwork, while a graffiti artist working under the name Priest drew attention for Banksy-influenced pieces around the city before relocating to New Orleans. The Rumor Union, an artists’ collective focused on community engagement, established headquarters downtown and launched the annual Temporal City Festival, which repurposes the city’s vacant buildings for contemporary art installations.
The Mobile Bay region supports significant commercial and recreational fishing, with seafood harvested from local waters serving restaurants and markets across the South.
The group also helped organize a three-day festival honoring avant-garde composer John Cage earlier this year. Theater has seen new life as well.
Local government in Mobile includes a mayor-council form of government, a structure established by the Zoghby Act in 1985 that replaced the older commission form.
What Comes Next
While community theater groups in Midtown, Fairhope and Chickasaw remain the backbone of local dramatic arts, a satirical theater company called South of the Salt Line re-emerged in 2013, poking fun at the region’s local quirks and eccentricities, with plans for future productions. Not every development over the past decade has been positive.
Local officials have stressed the importance of community engagement as the situation continues to develop.
WHIL-FM, long a fixture for fine arts programming, remains on the air but is no longer produced locally. GULF ArtSpace, a contemporary arts venue that made a splash in Fairhope, closed after a handful of years, and several downtown Mobile galleries that struggled to generate sales have shuttered or relocated during the same period.
Residents with questions or concerns have been encouraged to reach out to their elected representatives.
The decade also brought the loss of several people who shaped the region’s cultural life, including patrons Palmer Bedsole, Ann Delchamps and Sam Eichold; former arts editor Gordon Tatum; entrepreneurs Leila Holloway and William Chesser; and artists Ira Swingle, Lil Greenwood and David McCann. Their absence remains felt across the community they helped build.
The story is one of several similar situations playing out across the region in recent months.
Even so, the growth across Mobile’s museums, theaters, festivals and grassroots arts organizations over the past ten years points to a cultural scene that has expanded well beyond where it stood in 2003 — and one that residents and observers expect will continue to build in the years ahead.
Anyone following local news will recognize many of the names and places involved.
Local civic organizations have begun organizing meetings to discuss the implications.
Business owners and residents alike say they will be watching closely.
The situation underscores how decisions made at the local level can have far-reaching consequences.
Community leaders have called for patience and for a commitment to working through the issues in a transparent manner.
Several local churches and faith groups have offered to host discussions about the topic in the coming weeks.
Public comments at recent meetings have reflected a wide range of opinions.
Local reporters will continue to follow the story and to update readers.
Anyone interested in learning more is encouraged to attend upcoming public meetings.
The outcome of the situation could shape similar discussions in other communities for years to come.
Local historians note that similar issues have surfaced in the past.
Area nonprofits and volunteer groups have stepped up to help residents navigate the changes.
Local businesses have begun adjusting their operations in anticipation of what may come next.
Looking Ahead
The story continues to develop, and residents across the region will be watching for additional updates in the coming weeks. Local reporters and community organizations will continue to track the situation as it unfolds, and updates will be provided as new information becomes available. Anyone with a direct stake in the outcome is encouraged to stay engaged with the public conversation through meetings, news coverage and direct outreach to local officials.