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The Birmingham Art Alliance is not only creating a new place for its members to gather and exhibit, it also is revitalizing a corner of downtown Birmingham.
The alliance, formed in September 2025, recently took over the space next to Forstall Art Center, at the corner of 20th Street and Third Avenue, as a customizable gallery for its members.
“It’s a space where we can show 2-D work; we can show paintings, we can show drawings, etc,” said Madison Faile, BAA president. “We can show sculpture on pedestals, but it also has the possibility of doing performance installation down the line.”
BAA started as a way to bring an art guild back to the city, something that was missing in the absence of the Birmingham Art Association, which had been the oldest in the region before it closed. Faile, who moved to Birmingham from Montgomery, said he was shocked that there was no guild or umbrella arts organization in the city. He sought to fill that need.
“The idea had been brewing for a minute about if it would be possible to do something where we could build an art organization that actually looked like the city of Birmingham,” Faile said. “That’s my goal. We wanted to build something that was all-inclusive of all mediums, where any artist of any making can have a place.”
The organization started with about 20 members, but it now has more than 60 members with a growing mailing list of 300 people.
“Sometimes, you just kind of have to kick the door open and figure it out afterwards,” Faile said. “The response has been overwhelmingly positive. It really seems like we’re filling a need, and people of all ages are very excited. We’ve got young people who are very excited about being involved in something, and you’ve got older people who are excited to be involved in something young people are involved in and feel welcomed. That’s the goal.”
Members are invited to display their works in the first-available shows, such as those happening in the new gallery.
The gallery previously housed Auburn University’s Urban Studio and sat vacant for two years before the alliance took over the space, according to Andy Forstall, BAA vice president. It’s in a location previously occupied by CVS.
The space hosts themed art shows that span mediums. Large windows provide plenty of natural light, and the gallery has movable walls to accommodate different layouts. There are plans for additional walls and partitions to meet artists’ display needs.
August’s show theme is “Large Works.” The themes are purposely kept vague to allow for artists’ interpretation. Prices for pieces can range from $12 to $1,200, making art accessible to all, according to Forstall.
“It’s also a depiction of Birmingham. We have affordable artists and artists who are pricing for collectors, and we’re representing that,” Forstall said.
The artists shown are a mix of veterans and first-timers.
“When you come to an opening, and you see two artists talking to each other, one’s young and one’s older, one’s a first-timer and the other is a seasoned professional who has been doing this for 30 years, they’re having a good, creative conversation and they’re learning from each other,” Faile said. “Honestly, they wouldn’t have met each other if it weren’t for the organization. That’s what we’re doing.”
Restoring a Significant Corner
The gallery also hosts classes for BAA members and the public.
“We are not just an amenity for artists of Birmingham, we are an amenity for downtown,” Forstall said.
Rebecca Dobrinsky, BAA secretary, calls the corner where the gallery sits a gateway corner for downtown Birmingham.
“Now, we have reactivated that corner,” she said. “We’ve done it in a way that is open to the public. You couldn’t just walk into Urban Studio, nor should you have been able to walk into Urban Studio. Now, we are opening up a space that’s been vacant, and we are bringing life to that corner as people drive by. That’s something that’s really been missing.”
Faile agrees, saying that the new gallery is remedying the area’s absence of art.
“What I’m telling people about the space is that we’re on a corner, but we’re the center,” he said. “Downtown Birmingham needs less abandoned buildings and more art spaces.”
BAA’s next show opens Friday, Aug. 7.
