By Kevin Lee Associate Editor

As years go, 2006 wasn’t the most momentous or monumental. There was the usual ebb and flow of the artistic world, the entrances and exits of various cultural seasons. No hurricanes interrupted matters, no disaster displaced Gulf Coast residents. Fortunate indeed, as Katrina’s imprint still lingers and will likely for years to come.

Last August’s benchmark storm gave national trends a bit more impact in this region. Arts funding reached a plateau across the country over the last five years after healthy growth in the previous six. The Katrina recovery certainly threw a sizable monkey wrench into those matters.

But above all else, certain stories seemed the defining hallmarks for 2006.

The death of philanthropist Palmer Bedsole on June 24 at his rural farm was a chief event. The 77-year-old Palmer and his wife, politico Ann Bedsole put considerable presence into the founding of the Center for the Living Arts and, subsequently, Space 301. Palmer received a posthumous award for “Patron of the Year” from the Mobile Arts Council in September.

William Chesser made himself a fixture downtown and then left the scene abruptly when he passed away on April 23. The 38-year-old hairdresser started a grassroots gallery on Dauphin Street that quickly established itself as a central facility to the burgeoning arts district. His partner Vikki Turner Finch has managed to keep William’s dream alive and Chesser Gallery is chugging along as strongly as ever.

Other notables arts inhabitants “shuffled off this mortal coil” in 2006 with musician and teacher Ira Swingle, patron Dr. Sam Eichold and former Press-Register arts editor Gordon Tatum among them.

Other changes of less tragic varieties occurred to boot. Mobile Opera got a new executive director in Earl Jackson as did the Mobile Symphony in Stephen Hedrick.

The Joe Jefferson Players welcomed new managing director Ivan Davidson to their ranks.

George Ewert, Executive Director of the Museum of Mobile since 1997, suddenly announced his departure in late June and beat a hasty retreat from downtown but not before he suggested assistant director Sheila Flanagan as his successor. Ewert overlooked some of the most momentous of times for the museum, overseeing its move from an outdated facility on Government Street to its modern new quarters. His tenure was also marked by controversy, unsurprisingly orbiting portrayals of slavery and the Confederacy.

The mummy exhibition at the Exploreum didn’t quite meet the attendance marks left by last year’s Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit, however it still brought an impressive array of artifacts to the Azalea City from Britain along with a stellar learning experience for attendees.

“Creative Imaginings: The Howard A. and Judith Tullman Collection” is enjoying the last days of its stay at the Mobile Museum of Art in Langan Park. The remarkable contemporary exhibit has met with raves and covered immense ground in raising Mobile’s bar for exemplary shows.

Downtown’s contemporary art nucleus, Space 301, found a full-time curator in ‘06 and then lost her shortly afterward. Barclay McConnell, a Mobile native whose intercontinental journeys found her teaching at a prestigious school in the Crescent City, returned to the Azalea City after Katarina’s wrathful visit. McConnell evidently clashed strongly enough with Centre for the Living Arts CEO Carlos Parkman that the rift resulted in McConnell’s termination just eight months after being hired. David McCann has filled the slot for the interim.

Another contemporary arts haven, Fairhope’s Gulf Art Space, lost one of its principal forces when director Simeon Coxe resigned his position in order to stretch his artistic muscle in other directions. Coxe told Artifice his change entails journeying to Asia to work on his adventurous musical projects with a protégé, Adam Daedalus. Ameri`ca Jones Gallaspy has stepped in as the new executive director and Ashley Dykes is Gulf’s new gallery manager. Gulf has also undergone some structural changes with the addition of a new business board to the administrative slate.

Longtime arts hub and public radio station WHIL-FM moved from interim general manager and longtime radio fixture Catt Sirten when Mario Mazza was hired to permanently fill the spot. Mazza, a veteran of commercial classical music radio stations in the Northeast, took the reins in October and seems to have wasted no time making an impact. Word on the street has it WHIL is ready to greatly expand its classical formatting and reduce other genres currently represented in the programming.

Another year’s worth of cultural tides for the Port City, ebbing and flowing, bringing and taking, but through it all the essentiality of expression prevails. The arts endure and through them, our humanity.

Kevin Lee is Lagniappe associate editor. Contact him at klee@lagniappemobile.com.

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