Anne Harper Arrasmith (February 20, 1946 – February 1, 2017) was an American artist and curator who lived and worked in Birmingham, Alabama.
Education
Arrasmith attended Shades Valley High School. She then attended the University of Alabama, and graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Projects
Space One Eleven
In 1986, she and Peter Prinz founded
Space One Eleven with a mission to present exhibitions that confront ideas in a southern context or framework. Arrasmith was the director for this facility. The project 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.
Space One Eleven made it possible for the children who live in Metropolitan Gardens to participate in art.
Other roles
Arrasmith was on the steering committee of
Birmingham Art and Music Alliance as well as a participating member of
The NEA Tapes[ The NEA Tapes through the EIDIA House in New York, NY , 2007] 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. Arrasmith worked with
Creative Capital as a consultant helping to determine grant nominees.
She also was a board member of the Alabama School of Fine Art, a member of ArtTable, an organization representing women in the fine arts sector.
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.
[James R. Nelson, "Space One Eleven is Important Addition to Arts Scene," Birmingham News, Birmingham, AL, November 29, 1987: pg. 6F]
In 2000, Arrasmith curated
House and Garden: Twists on Domesticity, at Space One Eleven 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.
[Nancy Raabe, Tiny Treasures, "Birmingham News", Birmingham, AL, September 10, 2000: pg. 1F & 8F]
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.[ Cover Story Art on the inside: Life in Alabama's prisons gets examined from the inside-out by Phillip Jordan, Birmingham Weekly] BAMA, curated in 2004, included the works of Amy Pleasant, Annie Kammerer Butrus and Jane Timberlake, three of Birmingham's most promising artists.[ BAMA, The SOE Storefront Windows, Birmingham, AL, 2004] 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. It featured Darius Hill, Larry Jens Anderson, and James Emmette Neel and was funded by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
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.[ UpSouth at Space One Eleven .]
Politics, Politics: Nice Artists Explore the Political Landscape was curated by Arrasmith and Peter Prinz was funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation and included Pinky Bass, Clayton Colvin, Peggy Dobbins, Randy Gachet, Binx Newton, Arthur Price, Jules Trobaugh, Paul Ware, and Stan Woodard.
Arrasmith included numerous artists' books into her exhibitions, including the works of artists including Sara Garden Armstrong, Pinky Bass, Jon Coffelt, Edith Frohock, Lee Isaacs, Mary Ann Sampson, and Marie Weaver.
Personal life
Arrasmith was married to Dr Warren W. Arrasmith, with whom she had a daughter, Tyndall.
Books and catalogs
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House and Garden: Twists on Domesticity, foreword by David Moos
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UpSouth by bell hooks, Emma Amos and Antoinette Spanos Nordan, University Press, University of Alabama, Birmingham, 1999, pp 70–73
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White Graphics: The Power of White in Graphic Design (Paperback), 2001 by Gail Deiber Finke, Rockport Graphic Arts 103 pgs. included many examples of work for UpSouth.
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BAMA 2004, catalog, Space One Eleven, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
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, 2006, interview on page 261 by Arlene Goldbard, Lulu Press Morrisville, North Carolina
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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
See also
External links
