Anne Arrasmith

Anne Arrasmith is an American artist and curator who lives and works in Birmingham, Alabama. She co-founded and operates along with Peter Prinz the not-for-profit Space One Eleven. Arrasmith was a student of Edith Frohock while at University of Alabama at Birmingham. She and Peter Prinz founded Space One Eleven with a mission to present significant, provocative exhibitions that confront ideas in a southern context or framework. Arrasmith is the director for this facility. Arrasmith received support from the Birmingham Museum of Art before it began receiving grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Under the leadership of Arrasmith and Peter Prinz, Space One Eleven has made it possible for the children who live in Metropolitan Gardens to participate in art.

Space One Eleven

Perhaps the most dramatic projects for Space One Eleven is the freestanding mosaic panels immediately east of the Birmingham Museum of Art made from thousands of clay tiles fired by the children.- Michael N. Calvert^[1]

Along with Peter Prinz, "Open StudioThe Arts Online, Mentor"^[2] is an effort focused on community-building by providing free access to computers, the Internet and training to youth, artists, and community representatives. It is co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Benton Foundation, on behalf of Birmingham's youth has received national recognition in the President's Council on the Arts and Humanities Report, "Coming Up Taller: Arts and Humanities Programs for Youth-at-Risk."

Arrasmith is on the steering committee of Birmingham Art and Music Alliance. Arrasmith is a participating member of The NEA Tapes^[3] through the Eidia House in New York, NY along with other notables Edward Albee, Jane Alexander, Ed Asner, Ron Athey, Chuck Close, Karen Finley, Agnes Gund, Alex Katz. David Moos, Tim Robbins, Andres Serrano, Kiki Smith and Lawrence Weiner among many others. Arrasmith works with Creative Capital as a recommender helping to determine grant nominees.

Curatorial work

Jon Coffelt was the inaugural artist at Space One Eleven when it was founded by Arrasmith and Peter Prinz, opening in 1989 in Birmingham, AL.^[4]

"UpSouth" partially funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts was curated and organized by Arrasmith and traveled to several venues across Birmingham, AL in one day, including Space One Eleven, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Visual Arts Gallery of University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Agnes. It showed the work of artists Emma Amos and Willie Birch and writer bell hooks, as well as Ann Benton, Priscilla Hancock Cooper, Karen Graffeo, Janice Kluge Lee Isaacs, Mary Ann Sampson, Jess Marie Walker and Marie Weaver.^[5]

In 2000, Arrasmith curated "House and Garden: Twists on Domesticity," at Space One Eleven, Birmingham, AL through a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts. The exhibition included the work of Karen Rich Beall and Jon Coffelt. This exhibition also included a catalog with a foreword by David Moos. In this exhibition, Beall exhibited realistic tableau life-size sculpture while Coffelt hand-sewed more than 250 miniature garments that were exhibited as memory sculptures.^[6]

“Art on the Inside” a self-portrait exhibition of prisoners who are part of the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Program incorporating drawings, paintings, poems and stories. This arrangement to exhibit this work is as much educational as it is artistic, but don’t think this is simply an exercise in kindness.^[7]
- “Every human being can express something – even in the most depressing and oppressive of environments,” says Anne Arrasmith, co-owner of Space One Eleven. She has just seen the works for the first time this week, as well. -Anne Arrasmith

"BAMA" curated by Arrasmith in 2004, included the works of Amy Pleasant, Annie Kammerer Butrus and Jane Timberlake. The exhibition showcases three of Birmingham's most promising artists.^[8]

"Suspended in Conflict" in 2005 was the work of three established artists that was created based on introspection and the intense questions raised by a rapidly changing Southern culture. This exhibit curated by Arrasmith, provided Darius Hill, Larry Jens Anderson, and James Emmette Neel with the opportunity to experiment and to present new works that challenge myth and reality. This exhibition was funded by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

"Politics, Politics: Nice Artists Explore the Political Landscape" curated by Arrasmith and Peter Prinz of Space One Eleven was funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and included Pinky Bass, Clayton Colvin, Peggy Dobbins, Randy Gachet, Binx Newton, Arthur Price, John Trobaugh, Paul Ware, and Stan Woodard. This exhibition featured the introspective works of nine artists, both established and emerging, as they explored the personal and social impact of political events and trends. Those explorations, in turn, become universal statements on the impact politics has had on environment, sports, religion, race, and government in the South.

Since 1987, Anne Arrasmith has included numerous artists' books into her exhibitions including the works of Sara Garden Armstrong, Larry Gens Anderson, Pinky Bass, Jon Coffelt, Edith Frohock, Anne Howard, Lee Isaacs, Joni Mabe, Mary Ann Sampson, David Sandlin, Joel Seah and Marie Weaver along with many others who have worked in field of book arts.

Books and Catalogs

House and Garden: Twists on Domesticity, foreword by David Moos
UpSouth by bell hooks, Emma Amos and Antoinette Spanos Nordan, University Press, University of Alabama, Birmingham, 1999, pp 70–73
White Graphics: The Power of White in Graphic Design (Paperback), 2001 by Gail Deiber Finke, Rockport Graphic Arts 103 pgs. included many examples of Marie Weavers work for UpSouth.
BAMA 2004, catalog, Space One Eleven, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development 2006 Interview on page 261 by Arlene Goldbard, Lulu Press Morrisville, North Carolina ISBN 0-9766054-5-7
The Last Folk Hero: A True Story of Race And Art, Power And Profit2006 By Andrew Dietz, 377 pgs. Arrasmith is mentioned several times., Ellis Lane Press, Atlanta, Georgia ISBN 0-9771968-0-1

Notes

↑ Key work at Space One Eleven by Michael N. Calvert, Birmingham Business Journal, Friday September 1, 2000
↑ "Open StudioThe Arts Online, Mentor" co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Benton Foundation
↑ The NEA Tapes through the EIDIA House in New York, NY, 2007
↑ James R. Nelson, "Space One Eleven is Important Addition to Arts Scene," Birmingham News, Birmingham, AL, November 29, 1987: pg. 6F
↑ UpSouth at Space One Eleven.
↑ Nancy Raabe, Tiny Treasures, "Birmingham News", Birmingham, AL, September 10, 2000: pg. 1F & 8F
↑ Cover Story Art on the inside: Life in Alabama’s prisons gets examined from the inside-out by Phillip Jordan, Birmingham Weekly
↑ "BAMA" The SOE "Storefront Windows," Birmingham, AL, 2004

References

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