Agnes (gallery)
Agnes was a Birmingham, Alabama photography gallery from 1993 to 2001. Shawn Boley, Jon Coffelt and Jan Hughes opened the gallery with the mission of attempting to raise awareness of social issues — such as cancer, AIDS, death and dying, the environment, homelessness, ethics, racism, classism, imprisonment — through photojournalism, film, video, poetry, and book arts. Controversial, Agnes was picketed on several occasions, one of which resulted in a USA Today article on December 5, 1994.
Agnes worked closely with Video Data Bank in Chicago Illinois for short film/vido screenings which included work by Sadie Benning, Jim Cohen, Ana Mendieta and Susan Share among many others.
Notable exhibits
Melissa Springer's "Julia Tutwiler Prison Series" was Agnes' first exhibit. After eight years and 77 exhibitions the gallery closed in 2001. Alexandre Glyadelov's "Homeless in Bosnia" with Médecins sans Frontières was the gallery's last exhibit.
Agnes worked with Visual AIDS striving to increase public awareness of AIDS through the visual arts. Agnes hosted its first "World AIDS Day" in 1992 with "Day Without Art" commemorated annually on the first day of December.