Staff photo.
An art show attendee looks at pieces available for purchase during the 54th annual Bluff Park Art Show on Oct. 7, 2017, at the Bluff Park Community Center.
Artist Joy Barnes has her primary home in Allentown, Pennsylvania, but for the past five or six years, on the first Saturday in October she has filled up her Astro van with paintings and headed to Hoover for the Bluff Park Art Show.
That’s a trek of more than 900 miles. It’s a lot of work to pack everything into her van, but Barnes said she enjoys participating in the show.
Of course, the fact that her son, daughter-in-law and three of her grandchildren live in Mountain Brook makes her a frequent visitor to the Birmingham area anyway. She and her husband bought a second home in Irondale and come visit every six weeks or so.
Barnes said her son, Homewood High School Principal Zack Barnes, brought her to the Bluff Park Art Show one year and she loved it.
“It’s a wonderful show,” she said. “We’re so greatly taken care of at that show. They feed us. They treat us really, really special.”
Barnes, a retired art teacher who has been painting since she was 10, will be one of 145 artists participating in the 55th annual Bluff Park Art Show on Oct. 6 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Close to 200 artists applied, but the Bluff Park Art Association limits the number accepted.
Barnes isn’t the only one traveling a great distance. Ronald Johnson, an artist who creates mineral jewelry, lives in the Florida Keys and also must travel more than 900 miles.
But he, too, has family in the Birmingham area and frequently comes to stay two to three months in Birmingham in the fall, using the city as a base while he attends art shows around the Southeast. This will be his second year at the Bluff Park Art Show.
Johnson said it’s considered one of the premier shows in the country.
“I know lots of artists who talk about that show, and they have very good things to say,” he said. “It’s a good environment to be in as an artist.”
The people were warm and accepting, and the support staff were fabulous, Johnson said. “You couldn’t ask for anything better.” He had a great time and had great sales, he said.
Of the 145 artists coming this year, 13 are from Hoover and 112 are from Alabama. The rest come from 10 other states: Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia. The one from Nevada lives in Las Vegas — 1,800 miles away.
They specialize in a wide variety of mediums, including clay, digital imaging, fiber, glass, jewelry, metalwork, mixed media, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and woodwork.
Thirty-eight of the artists will be first-time exhibitors at Bluff Park, said Trish Hoover, vice president of the Bluff Park Art Association and a show organizer.
There are some changes to the layout this year, with an area carved out in the middle of the park next to the Bluff Park Community Center for music, children’s activities and art, face painting and balloon twisters. Festival organizers also will be using a couple hundred hay bales to create what they hope will be a cozy seating area for those enjoying the food trucks and entertainment.
“It will be a festival atmosphere more so than in the past,” Hoover said.
Also this year, part of Savoy Street will be blocked off as “Savory Savoy” for the food trucks, which will include Pazzo Pizza, Rooski’s, Swamp Monster BBQ, City Bowls and Master Tacos. Other vendors will include Urban Pops, Bruster’s Ice Cream, Piper & Leaf Artisan Tea Co. and the Bluff Park United Methodist Women Bake Sale.
Graham Boettcher, the new director at the Birmingham Museum of Art, is serving as the show judge. The art association is giving out 12 awards, ranging from $150 to $3,500 and totaling $12,000, Hoover said.
Because parking is limited, visitors must park at Shades Mountain Independent Church, Bluff Park Village, Bluff Park United Methodist Church or Shades Crest Baptist Church and take free bus rides to the show. Admission is free.
For more information, go to bluffparkartassociation.org.
This article was updated at 12:49 p.m. on Sept. 27 to correct some of the food vendors coming to the event. Alabama Peanut will not be able to come, but Piper & Leaf Artisan Tea Co. has been added. Also, the women's group putting on the bake sale is from Bluff Park United Methodist Church. Organizers initially indicated the women's group was from a different church.
