Birmingbelle of the Week: Shermika Dunner
Shermika Dunner loves art in all its many manifestations, be it music, film, fashion or food. She even considers traveling an art form.
“Art is more than a canvas; it is creating jewelry, writing a story, making a cute clutch, serving up the best peach pie, and traveling to exotic locales,” she said.
To help spread her love for art to other Birmingham residents, Shermika recently teamed up with her sister Tamika Dunner to create ArtBLT.com, a blog that presents “Art sandwiched with beauty, lifestyle, and tête à tête.”
Read on to learn more about Shermika and ArtBLT.com.
How exactly did ArtBLT.com come to be?
ArtBLT came together because I was pestering my sister/partner in crime, Tamika, about starting a site that focuses on the arts. Tamika got tired of me talking, bought a domain name, and essentially got ArtBLT up and running. Knowing I had a trusty partner, we got to writing and hashing out ideas. ArtBLT went live May 1 and has been kicking since.
What is your mission for this website?
By showing art in its various forms and sandwiching it against different types, we want to inspire people to have a greater appreciation for art. The first thing that is often cut in school systems are the art and music programs. We want to deepen the love for art among people in Birmingham and worldwide. We started ArtBLT simply because we love art in all forms.
ArtBLT places an emphasis on local events, but we also cover events worldwide. I hope that ArtBLT helps Birminghamians realize that art is bigger than what we think. Our goal is to inspire people to support art and artists. Buy a book or something handmade, watch an indie film, or go see a musician you’ve never heard of — that is what ArtBLT wants to do for Birmingham.
What keeps you in Birmingham? What do you love about this city?
Birmingham is home. I love the feel of the South, the friendliness of the people, and the small town charm of Birmingham. Birmingham has so many different cultures within the city and I love that.
What would you like to change about the city and what are you doing personally to make that change happen?
I think oftentimes people aren’t as active as they should be in social or political activities. I would love for Birmingham to have a thriving arts scene where something is happening every day that welcomes a broad range of people. I volunteer a lot to effect change in my community. I volunteer with various organizations, such as Hands on Birmingham and American Diabetes Association, to engage people in community service and help make Birmingham a better place for its people. I try to educate people on the arts via ArtBLT.com.
ArtBLT wants to help Birmingham by partnering with local arts organizations and venues to promote their events and get the word out. We would love to travel to different places and report back to our readers. We want to build relationships with people that can tip us off to art-related events via our email:artbelles@artblt.com. We rely on our Birmingham readers to be our eyes and ears to the arts scene, so we definitely want to build relationships with anyone in the art/travel community.
Lovely post! Birmingbell…HOW cute! :0)
I LOVE Shermika! I have gotten acquainted with her thru my working with DeepSouthMag and she is awesome! Her site is fantastic too! Love all these connections we are making! xoxo