Contributed Report

The Coleman Center for Arts and Culture is pleased to announce their Twentieth Anniversary Celebration, taking place on November 5th, from 6-9pm at the Coleman Center. This event is free and open to the public, and festivities will include a Chili Supper, organized by Jean Harwell, Poetry readings by Mary Zeno and others, and musical performance by the Flavor Band, featuring Patricia Allen, sponsored by the Trackside Blues Caf/.

The Coleman Center, which was born twenty years ago from the grass roots efforts of local citizens, has grown into a community art organization that is receiving national attention for it’s endeavors in public and community art. Their mission statement says that they exist, “to use creativity and inspiration derived from the arts to improve the quality of life in the Black Belt Region in the Deep South.” Shana Berger, the Director of the Center says, “The 20th Anniversary Party is a chance to celebrate these contributions to the community, and look ahead to what we can accomplish in the next twenty years.”

The Coleman Center continues to hold exhibitions, host artists who make public and community art projects in York, offer workshops, and work with schools and other local institutions to help offer art education for youth and adults. The upcoming party takes place on the Center’s monthly First Saturday event that was created to draw people into the lively arts community that has developed in York. The celebration will also include the opening of the Community Memory Map, in the Coleman Center’s Altman-Riddick Museum Gallery. The Community Memory Map displays visual and written memories from community members against a large abstracted map of the City of York.

Nathan Purath, the Artistic Director of the Center says, “The party should be a great time, and an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of the Center, and of the arts community here. From the several months that I have been in York, I can see that the Coleman Center is a very special example of how creativity and the arts can make people’s lives better. I am so honored to get to celebrate this milestone with the community who has upheld the Coleman Center over the last twenty years. It is a wonderful gift for our community.”

For more information please contact the Coleman Center for Arts and Culture, 630 Avenue A, York, AL 36925, (205) 392-2005, info@colemanarts.org.