By Javacia Harris Bowser | For The Birmingham Times
The Birmingham Museum of Art is set to host an art-centered holiday shopping experience on Sunday, December 1, featuring local artist Yogi Dada and others. The event, which begins at noon, is part of Museum Store Sunday, an occasion when museums across the country offer special discounts and perks on items in their stores.
“Museum Store Sunday is the perfect opportunity to support local artists and organizations while finding meaningful gifts for the holiday season,” said Sophie Cosper, Museum Shop Manager at the Birmingham Museum of Art. “We’re especially excited to have Yogi Dada joining us to share her artistic vision with the Birmingham community.”
Yogi Dada is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans a wide range of fields including painting, poetry, spoken word, and film. She is perhaps best known for her “wearable artwork” – a collection of earrings which she calls “Dadas.”
At this year’s Museum Store Sunday, Yogi Dada will be selling her signature earrings, art prints, and the culturally inclusive greeting cards she created for Mawu Greetings.
“I will be stationed at my table — a bright orange table — with a big smile and great energy selling artwork and answering questions,” she said. “I always have some music, and I might even have some candy!”
For Yogi Dada, however, being part of Museum Store Sunday is about more showcasing her work.
“I am very cognizant of visual representation in varied spaces,” she said. “As a Black woman artist, my face and presence add a different value to a climate that is usually visually dominated by white culture. People that look like me need to see me doing what I do.”
Representation is also a core mission of Mawu Greetings, the Fort Lauderdale-based stationery company that partnered with Yogi Dada for one of its latest lines of greeting cards – which will be available at the BMA Museum Shop.
“Mawu Greetings features designs by Black, Brown, and other minoritized artists,” explained Tresa Chambers, founder of Mawu Greetings. “I see Mawu Greetings as a channel to expose businesses and brands to more of these Black and Brown artists. We want to help businesses and brands connect authentically to their increasingly diverse customers and constituents. Our designs center the perspective of the artists, which produces unique images that are miniature pieces of art that are collectible, and they give the sender a chance to make a clear statement that they value diversity.”
Chambers met Yogi Dada through Bettina Byrd-Giles, a Birmingham-based interculturalist who was also a college classmate of Chambers at the University of Virginia. The connection led to Yogi Dada creating several designs for Mawu Greetings’ winter holiday collection. Yogi Dada also introduced Chambers to Jahman Hill of The Flourish Alabama, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “planting the seeds to help young artists bloom.”
“I pitched Jahman on collaborating to create the 2025 calendar that we now have available as a part of our winter holiday collection,” Chambers said. “The calendar features designs created by the next generation of artists from Birmingham. There’s such a wealth of talent in this community. I’m proud to have the chance to bring it to the world.”
The calendar featuring art by Flourish Alabama will also be available at Museum Store Sunday.
“Birmingham is a city brimming with creative people and ideas,” Cosper said. “The BMA is proud to partner with local artists and artisans to highlight some of the amazing talent our city has to offer, while giving our visitors the opportunity to shop for unique gifts this holiday season.”
The day will also include work by local artist Véro Vanblaere and Indian textiles from J. Catma.
Attendees at this year’s Museum Store Day at the BMA can expect a local artist and vendor market, art activities, light bites, giveaways, and discounts on Museum Shop merchandise.
Though Yogi Dada hopes you’ll cross some names off your list by supporting her, other local artists, and the BMA, she says she wants to do more than sell merchandise at the event.
“I really enjoy meeting different people,” she said. “As I’ve matured as an artist, I’ve learned to take my primary focus off of making sales — and we do want to make some — but rather focus on new experiences with new humans.
“I have met so many amazing humans of all races, belief systems, and economic statuses who valued our face-to-face engagement as we learn from each other’s humanity,” she said. “That’s what happens when I showcase live. I really am comfortable just being in the moment with other humans. They are the reward.”
Museum Store Day at the Birmingham Museum of Art, located at 2000 Rev. Abraham Woods, Jr. Blvd, is set for noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, December 1.
Updated at 2:30 p.m. on 11/29/2024.
