Creativity to shine in Bluff Park Art Show’s 56th year

Alene Gamel grew up in an artistic family in Los Angeles, always hanging out in art museums.

After moving to Hoover in 1979, she looked for something that would connect her to the art world here. She eventually found what she wanted in the Bluff Park Art Show, and now it’s a regular part of her plans for the first Saturday in October every year.

The Trace Crossings resident and retired wedding planner is looking forward to the 56th annual show in the park next to the Bluff Park Community Center on Oct. 5.

This year’s show will feature 156 artists from 11 states, using all kinds of mediums, including painting, glass, clay, digital imaging, jewelry, metalwork, photography, woodworking, fiber, sculptures, printmaking and mixed media, said Greg Waters, president of the Bluff Park Art Association.

More than 90 of this year’s artists are from the Birmingham metro area, including about 20 from Hoover. But others come from across Alabama, as well as Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Washington, Waters said.

Most are returning artists, but for 53 of them, it’s their first time in the show, he said.

It’s a juried show and one of the longest-running art shows in Alabama, Waters added.

The Bluff Park Art Association usually gives out about a dozen awards, ranging in price from $300 for the popular vote award to $3,500 for the association’s Permanent Collection Purchase Award — the top prize. In all, at least $12,000 will go to award winners and perhaps more, Waters said.

The judge this year is Angie Dodson, director of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.

Attendees can listen to live music and eat from food trucks. Kids have opportunities for face painting and hands-on art.

For Gamel, the show helped her see a side of Birmingham she didn’t know existed — that there are artistic and creative people living here, too, she said.

When she first started going to the show, she bought pottery. The pottery is still special to her, but her tastes have changed over the years, and she now tends to buy drawings and paintings, usually of landscapes and natural environments, she said.

“But I really do still like all of it,” Gamel said. “I make it a point when I’m there to not miss one single booth.”

When her three children were young, the whole family went to the show. Now, they’re older and two live out of state. She sometimes goes with her daughter and sometimes with her husband.

“It’s one of the treasures of Hoover,” Gamel said. “It’s the one thing in Hoover I will not miss.”

Suzanne Scivley, another show regular, comes with a little different background. She grew up in Bluff Park and went to the show as a child because her mother’s best friend, Sarah McCleskey, was a water colorist in the show many times. Her parents helped McCleskey set up her booth, and her family would stay all day.

At first, Scivley wandered around, looking at all the art, but as she got older, she also would work the booth for McCleskey while they strolled around to see what else was there.

“What I love about it is there’s such a wide variety of stuff, and it’s such a neighborhood thing,” Scivley said.

There usually are an estimated 10,000 or more people who come to the show, but there are still neighborhood people selling cookies and cakes every year, she said.

“It’s a hometown phenomenon, and it’s a tradition. I get to see people there that I don’t see anywhere else,” said Scivley, a retired teacher from Hoover High School.

She moved to Fayetteville near Lay Lake about 20 months ago, but “I’m still going to come back to the art show every year,” she said. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”