There is an invisible but strong bond between the River Region’s vibrant arts scene and its business sector. The Montgomery Area Business Committee for the Arts (MABCA) awards, to be held Thursday in downtown Montgomery, celebrate that bond, awarding the most supportive businesses not with plaques or trophies, but with pieces created by a local artist.This year, that artist is Montgomery painter Barbara Binford Davis, who chose to depict colorful, lively scenes of Montgomery arts in action. Davis, perhaps more than other area artists, is aware of the crucial bond between business and the arts. After earning a bachelor’s degree in fine art at Auburn Montgomery, shewas able to achieve her goal of making a living as a full-time artist only after working at a Montgomery bank for a number of years.
“I really do think I have a unique perspective,” Davis said. “For years, as an employee of Sterling Bank, I volunteered to help with the MABCA luncheon. It has always been one of the things I look forward to most in the year. My worlds collide at this event. I always had people I knew from my banking life who said, ‘I didn’t know you were an artist!’ and friends from my art life who said, ‘I didn’t know you worked for a bank!’ I felt like a double agent!”
She said she is fortunate to have experienced both sides.
“I have seen the dedication of businesses to support the arts and the help they have provided to arts organizations with funding, volunteer hours and venues. As a board member of the Montgomery Art Guild, I have seen how very much we rely on that help and how valuable it is. We need each other!”
A MABCA art committee of board members, gallery owners and artists selects the awards’ artists about three years before each event, said Ashley DuBose Ledbetter, MABCA executive director, allowing the chosen artist time not only to execute the works to be presented, but also to consider a theme, which usually incorporates the River Region.
Ledbetter praised Davis’ use of color and her loose painterly style, which has evolved as Davis continues to work in plein-air, in which she takes her easel, canvas and paints outdoors and recreates the scene before her. And in terms of arts in this region, Ledbetter said, there is plenty to experience.
“I think that for a city of our size, we have a fantastic offering of arts organizations,” she said. “That can be attributed to the founders of the Montgomery Area Business Committee for the Arts. “They were mentors to the people who are now CEOs of banks and businesses in town, who have continued that commitment to the arts.”
Talking with the artist: Barbara Binford Davis
Davis shared her thoughts on the arts awards recently.
Q: What was your reaction to being chosen as the featured artist for this year?
A: I was totally thrilled, and I really have been thinking for years about what to paint for the awards!
Q: How did you decide that you would create paintings of area arts organizations?
A: Since this event honors businesses that support the arts, I wanted to support the arts, too, and honor different organizations in town. We have such a great arts community here in the Montgomery area ... and so many events are free and open to the public! I wanted to focus on how they give us such treasures to enjoy. I thought about not only the paid professionals who devote their lives to their art, but also the countless volunteers who tirelessly serve these organizations and give the citizens of the River Region a huge gift. Five award paintings were needed this year, so I chose to do something that reflected the visual arts, dramatic arts, dance and music (symphonic and choral).
In choosing what to paint, I thought about my own experiences attending so many of these events such as the symphony’s Jubilee Pops concert, concerts by the Montgomery Chorale, and Stars on the Riverfront performed by the Alabama Dance Theatre. The painting of the Capri Theatre and its longtime presence in our city I hope reflects the continuity, tradition and history of the arts in Montgomery. Our wonderful Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, which houses this great painting by one of my favorite artists, Mary Cassatt, was exactly what I wanted for the visual arts painting. I knew I wanted to show children in one of these paintings and was able to photograph these adorable kids this summer while they were on a tour.
My overall goal was to show how these organizations engage with the community by enriching our lives, entertaining us, and educating us and the fact that they do it through the efforts of so many — artists, performers, business leaders, volunteers.
