On Friday, May 7, 2021, the Coleman Center for the Arts hosted our first in-person event in 15 months – a free outdoor screening of Gadsden-based filmmaker Bo McGuire’s Socks on Fire. The documentary/narrative film puts McGuire in between a rich cast of characters as they wage war over their mother’s estate in Hokes Bluff, […]
Last fall, Tuscaloosa-based artist Jamey Grimes installed their work Strata VII & VIII, (2015) in our “Pop Start A,” storefront space. The objects and environments that Grimes creates are fueled by encounters with real and imagined natural forces. The artist generates unique forms through the manipulation of synthetic materials, in this case, common corrugated plastic. […]
The Coleman Center for the Arts closed its first season of experimental films for the Black Belt in the Black Belt at Larkin’s Restaurant & Deli. Lunchtime patrons watched In Search of the Truth (The Truth Booth) alongside their meal. Participants from Sumter County, Selma, Uniontown, and McComb (MS) were featured in the work. […]
Panola community members are working to preserve their history of the North Sumter School. The North Sumter School was established in 1933 and was built primarily for the education of African-American children in the then legally segregated Alabama Black Belt. Coleman Center staff, Julia Brock, PhD, and the Alabama Humanities Foundation are supporting local efforts […]
In June 2019 Alabama-born, Minneapolis-based artist Tia-Simone Gardner began researching four homes in Alabama and Mississippi (Meridian/Philadelphia) that were inhabited by her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Gardner made a public presentation and trips to Birmingham and East Mississippi. Gardner’s work will culminate as an artist book of essays and images. This is part of […]
Coleman Center staff and Panola community members are developing placemaking and memory-keeping projects that center the North Sumter School in the Panola Community of Sumter County. The North Sumter School was established in 1933 and was built primarily for the education of African-American children in the then legally segregated Alabama Black Belt. In January […]
To prepare for Ashé! The Power of the Voice, visiting artist Zarouhie Abdalian and creative collaborator Joseph Rosenzweig hosted studio recording sessions free to Sumter County residents. Abdalian and Rosenzweig provided a series of prompts to encourage responses related to the purpose and theme of the event. Five artists generously shared songs, rhymes, and poetry. Participants […]
The Coleman Center for the Arts was proud to offer Camp SHIFT, an annual arts summer camp for local youth ages 8-18. Movement, action, change, collaboration and creativity were the inspiration for this summer’s theme. From May 30 to June 3, students joined instructors from across the state and the country for lessons in visual […]
The Coleman Center for the Arts (CCA) is pleased to present “Perfectly Imperfect, Love.” These collaborative murals were made by a group of 5th through 8th grade students from Livingston Jr. High School (LJHS) and North Sumter Junior High School (NSJH) who spent the semester working on conceptualizing, articulating and creating “color and language” with […]
October 6, 2015 Artist Tameka Norris offered a screening of her film, “Meka Jean: How She Got Good,” at the Coleman Center for the Arts’ downtown Pop Start space. The film originally premiered in 2014 at Prospect 3, the international art biennial in New Orleans. It chronicles Norris’ eponymous character, Meka Jean, as she navigates […]