Students in University of Alabama at Birmingham Professor of Painting Gary Chapman's intermediate painting class will participate with 80 other artists in Salvador's Deli, an event at the Birmingham Museum of Art on March 2. The event will feature live music, local brews and food, and will showcase artwork made from food items created by local artists and art students.
Salvador's Deli is a fundraiser with a $10 entrance fee for guests at the door. All proceeds will put art supply kits directly in the hands of visual arts teachers and students in the Greater Birmingham area. Each kit includes all of the materials necessary for an art project of the teacher's choice, for up to 29 students. Forstall Art Center is working with teachers to help provide them with the supplies they need.
Chapman is on the event's advisory board and made the event an assignment for his UAB Department of Art and Art History class. Each student will enter a piece of original artwork into competition for the event. Awards will be given for first, second and third place, as well as a people's choice award.
| Gary Chapman is on the event's advisory board and made the event an assignment for his UAB Department of Art and Art History class. Each student will enter a piece of original artwork into competition for the event. Awards will be given for first, second and third place, as well as a people's choice award. |
“This event is a really nice pairing of institutions of education,” Chapman said. “The committee is made up of faculty from UAB and Samford University, as well as the education curator at the BMA. This whole thing is about education and to benefit art programs that are severely underfunded. The whole premise is to support art education.”
Art students in Birmingham City and Jefferson County schools receive less than an average of $6 to $8 worth of art supplies each year, says Mary Ann Culotta, Ph.D., a UAB graduate, former director of Jefferson County's arts education, and professor of arts and arts education at Samford.
The artwork has to be made primarily of food, Chapman says. Most of his students are doing two-dimensional work, and a few are doing three-dimensional, or sculptural, work. Students from UAB, Samford and Jefferson State Community College Culinary Institute will participate.
This is the first Salvador's Deli event presented at the BMA. It will take place from 5-7 p.m. on the second floor of the museum, located at 2000 Rev. Abraham Woods Jr. Blvd. Winners will be announced at 6:15 p.m. For more details, call Forstall Art at 205-870-0480.