New Hoover Arts Council looking for input from artists, public

The Hoover City Council has created a Hoover Arts Council that is hoping to gain input from the arts community about ways to further the arts in Hoover.

The council is holding its second meeting this Wednesday, Aug. 8, at the Hoover Municipal Center.

The meeting is open to the public, and the council would love to hear ideas, particularly from artists, about what the group can do to help, Chairwoman Paulette Pearson said.

One of the big needs in the short term is to find a good place for artists who were forced to leave the former Artists on the Bluff facility in Bluff Park, Pearson said. They need a place to display their work and hold classes for people, she said.

Councilman Curt Posey, a member of the Arts Council, noted at the council’s first meeting on July 26 that some of the artists have started renting space at Shades Mountain Plaza. Board members discussed the possibility of doing more to help develop that as an arts hub.

Pearson said she fears that if something isn’t done soon, the artists are going to leave Hoover and go to other nearby cities. “We don’t want that to happen,” she said.

For the long term, the Arts Council is interested in creating a performing arts center that could work for both visual and performing arts, Pearson said.

Arts Council member Linda Chastain said the music, art and drama teachers in the Hoover school system are doing a terrific job, and it’s a shame they don’t have a place to perform outside of the schools.

Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato told the Arts Council in July that he believes there is a need for a performing arts center in Hoover.

In June, as part of a tax increase proposal, he proposed that the city build a $22 million performing arts center and put $1 million toward operations of such a center, but the mayor failed to gain enough support from the Hoover City Council to push that forward.

Brocato told the Arts Council he still sees that as a need, but his opinion is not enough.

Pearson said she realizes there is no money currently available to build a performing arts center, but perhaps the city can work cooperatively with the school system to build such a facility. She would like to explore that possibility, she said.

“They need it as much as we need it,” she said. “With their needs and our needs, perhaps we can have an agreement and a partnership, and share money to make it work.”

Other members of the Hoover Arts Council are Linda Chastain, Sandra Fuller, Julie Preskitt, Pamela Sayle and Tricia Simpson.

The Hoover Arts Council’s next meeting is at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the William J. Billingsley Council Chambers. The council plans to continue meeting the second Wednesday of each month at that location.

This article was updated at 10:01 a.m. on Aug. 7 to correct a statement by Arts Council member Linda Chastain, who said it's a shame school arts programs don't have a place to perform outside of the schools.