MAC delays October Arts Throwdown

The Mobile Arts Council (MAC) has postponed the Oct. 15 Arts Throwdown until 2022. The combination auction and creative competition has become their biggest annual fundraiser since its start in 2012.

MAC leadership explained their hesitance considering the recent surge of COVID-19’s Delta variant. Though the number of new cases has gradually subsided from its August high, the event’s particulars bring a large crowd into an enclosed space.

“We were going to have it at Battleship Park’s aircraft pavilion, but it still wouldn’t have been big enough to space out that many people,” MAC Executive Director Lucy Gafford said. “So much of that space is already taken up by the planes.”

MAC used the pavilion for the 2019 Arts Throwdown. Last year’s event was converted to a virtual version out of pandemic precaution. The virtual option was too labor-intensive to repeat on short notice this time.

MAC’s annual Arty Awards was previously rescheduled from late August to Jan. 27 due to the Delta variant surge.

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The Mobile Art Association’s (MAA) Annual Fall Open Juried Show will hold its opening reception on Sept. 23, 6-7 p.m. at Innova Arts (1803 Old Shell Road). Artist Pat Regan of Pensacola served as show judge.

MAA is one of the oldest arts organizations in the Azalea City, having started in February 1943. Their mid-1950s efforts, along with the Allied Arts Council and Arts Patrons League, led to the founding of the Mobile Museum of Art.

This show will hang until Oct. 16.

For more information on Innova’s hours and operation, call 251-510-0649.

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The South Alabama Land Trust, formerly the Weeks Bay Foundation, announced the start of their annual photo contest. Professional and amateurs alike are invited to enter their shots in one of four categories: flora, fauna, habitats and people in nature.

All photos must be taken in South Alabama. Limit three entries per person.

Photo contest entries are submitted in either the adult or junior division, and a panel of judges selects first-, second- and third-place winners in each category and division, with one Best in Show awarded. A cell phone category was added this year.

Deadline for entry is Nov. 1, 5 p.m. Details can be found at southalabamalandtrust.org.

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The Mystic Order of the Jazz Obsessed (MOJO) will celebrate a laudable benchmark and take care of some overdue accolades when they get together on Sept. 27, 6:30 p.m. at Central Arts Sanctuary (1260 Dauphin St.). Every aspect of the night has been a long time in the making.

The first piece is MOJO’s 20th anniversary. The jazz society first convened and staged an outing to support live jazz during the week around the 9/11 tragedy. Since then, they filled two decades with monthly shows, educational efforts, film screenings and even excursions to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. They also renewed attention for some of the Azalea City’s mostly overlooked musical artists like vocalist Lil Greenwood.

Operating chiefly on their own funding, MOJO has proven a model of resilience for nonprofits as the economy wildly shifted during their existence. The last year and a half has been particularly hard on performing arts groups, but the grassroots jazz outfit kept efforts alive with periodic online presentations and recently renewed live performances. As it currently stands, they are ready to resume their regular activities as the pandemic allows.

MOJO will also use the anniversary to finally present Gulf Coast Ethnic and Heritage Jazz Festival (GCEHJF) founder Creola Ruffin with the group’s Jazzalea Award, an honor originally slated for April 2020. Ruffin began the annual festival in 1999.

Naturally, there has been substantial overlap between the courses of GCEHJF and MOJO. The initial collection of names for MOJO’s membership began at a GCEHJF event in the historic Elks Lodge at State and Warren downtown.

Speaking of the Lodge — now Club 601 — serving as the traditional home to the groups, MOJO’s plans to return there for September were altered owing to Ruffin’s preferred musical guests, the E.B. Coleman Orchestra. The big band-style ensemble features mostly wind instruments. Considering local COVID rates — just over our western county line is a state where 1-in-320 residents have died from the disease — it was decided the spacious accommodations of Central Arts Sanctuary would provide safety for musicians and audience members this time. Bring your own lawn chairs.

The program will feature speakers and an award presentation. Refreshments will be available, and a food truck will be on premises.

Entrance is $15, $10 for MOJO members.

For more information, go to mojojazz.org.