Education is fundamental to the mission of the Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA). We seek to provide quality art learning opportunities throughout the greater Birmingham area, improving the cultural and social wellbeing of our community. The BMA is excited to bring back our enriching summer art camp series this year to continue to nurture the youth in our area and encourage creativity, exploration, innovation, and imagination. For more information about Summer Camp visit artsbma.org

Education is fundamental to the mission of the Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA). We seek to provide quality art learning opportunities throughout the greater Birmingham area, improving the cultural and social wellbeing of our community. The BMA is excited to bring back our enriching summer art camp series this year to continue to nurture the youth in our area and encourage creativity, exploration, innovation, and imagination. For more information about Summer Camp visit artsbma.org

These camps give young artists ample time to dive into their projects, make friends, and create finished pieces of work for the end-of-summer student and teaching artist exhibition. All camps are taught by practicing artists in Space One Eleven’s professional art studios.

Using techniques such as collage, embroidery, and image transfer, artist Miriam Calleja works with acrylic paint, ink, watercolor, pencil, and found materials to incorporate her original verse into handmade books, assemblages, and mixed-media pieces. Each of Calleja’s pieces contains a line or an entire poem from her repertoire, including some new unpublished work. The exhibition name is inspired by her poem “A choreography of almost." Poems featured in stuck; lingering are on display alongside Calleja’s artwork so that viewers can explore the correspondence between it and her poetry.

Calleja is an internationally published poet, artist, translator, and writer. A native of Malta, she has lived in Birmingham for the past three years. Her poetry collections include Pomegranate Heart (EDE Books, 2015) and Inside (EDE Books, 2016). Among her poetry chapbooks are Remember (Stamparija Reljic, 2020), Stranger Intimacy (Stamparija Reljic, 2020), and Come Closer, I Don’t Mind the Silence (BottleCap Press, 2023). Calleja’s upcoming book Variations on Silence (PoetryWala, 2025) is translated from Maltese. Learn more about Calleja at miriamcalleja.com.

This exhibition is made possible by a grant awarded to the Friends Foundation of BPL by the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

Let’s discover the designer in you! Sew Cool Fashion Camp is the coolest way to spend hot summer days! During this 2-week camp students will learn: intro to sewing, safety practices, sewing machine basics, how to read a basic pattern and construction of a wearable project. Using our new skills, we will transition to fashion design. During fashion week we will learn basic principles of fashion illustration, vocabulary, proportion, clothing, coloring, and more fun stuff that real designers do! The campers will create their own clothing line and create one complete look from their sketches. Project Runway with an SOE twist!

This camp is taught by local designer Kenya Buchanan. Kenya B. is a graduate of the University of Alabama where she received a BS in Apparel Design. Further, she has shown during NY fashion week and has gained local recognition, winning several awards for her luxury gowns and ready-to-wear.

In this camp, young artists will create sculptures using everyday objects, experimenting with techniques such as cutting, assembling, casting, and modifying found objects into dynamic works of art.

This camp is taught by Lauren Frances Evans. Evans is Associate Professor of Art at Samford University where she leads the sculpture concentration and is Gallery Director. She earned her MFA from the University of Maryland.

Are you a serious high school art student who plans to major in art or design in college? Are you a younger student who would like to apply to an art-focused high school such as ASFA? If so, this intensive, one-week course will help you build or enhance your portfolio. Students will strengthen foundation skills by rendering works from still life and will have the experience of peer critiques in progress.

This camp is taught by Daisie Hoitsma Young. Young teaches painting and drawing at the University of Alabama. She holds an MFA in painting and drawing from Ohio University and a BFA from the University of Texas at Tyler.

Portfolio reviews will be conducted by Darius Hill, Chair of the Visual Arts Department at the Alabama School of Fine Arts.

NPR says, "Brilliantly original, messy and weird straight through"--sounds like the perfect book club pick! First in The Locked Tomb Trilogy, GIDEON THE NINTH explores a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Join us to discuss this epic work of science fantasy! As always, free and open to everyone.