June 29, 2010
Brett Levine. Download image.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Visual Arts Gallery Director Brett Levine is a 2010 Literature Fellowship Grant recipient from the Alabama State Council on the Arts (ASCA).
Fellowship grants are awarded to individual artists and one arts administrator and are based on merit of work, career achievement, career potential and service to the state. Fellowships are the most prestigious of grants awarded to individuals by ASCA; 10 Fellowship Grants were awarded in 2010.
The Literature Fellowship is in recognition of Levine's ongoing contribution to critical writing on the arts and visual culture. It is one of two literature fellowships awarded statewide and recognizes creative achievement at the highest levels in the state.
"I regard this Literature Fellowship as a remarkable honor," Levine said. "It is phenomenal to learn that the Alabama State Council on the Arts recognizes the role contemporary non-fiction writing has to our understandings of the visual arts. The arts are unique because they generate the capacity to write across a range of media for incredibly diverse audiences."
Levine, a professional arts writer and curator for 15 years, has been published widely both in the United States and overseas. Initially writing for national and international arts publications including Art Papers, Art New Zealand, Urbis and Object, he has more recently started contributing regularly to general publications designed for non-arts audiences. His motivation is to bring complex work and ideas to audiences that may be unfamiliar with any of the issues of contemporary art. Levine has written for a newspaper in Kentucky and Birmingham Home and Garden and now is a regular contributing writer to B-Metro magazine.
"It is imperative that art have a voice," Levine said. "But the key is ensuring that the voice has the right tone."
Levine's next major project will be his most challenging: He has been given the honor to work with the James "Spider" Martin estate on a biography of one of Alabama's foremost photographers. "He was a remarkable photojournalist and artist and a larger than life character," Levine said. For now, the process of working through the archive that is Martin's life will be tempered by Levine's monthly magazine column.
"It's really incredible," Levine said, "that every month I get the privilege of writing about incredible artists, and every month readers are interested in what I have to say."
About the UAB Visual Arts Gallery
The UAB Visual Arts Gallery showcases both historical and contemporary artworks by local, regional, national and international artists. Its exhibitions highlight works by faculty and students, as well as emerging and established artists, in up to a dozen regularly changing shows which are always free and open to the public.