A/E: Five alarm communications coordinator | Community

Firehouse Art Center, 444 S. Flood Avenue is a Norman institution and pillar of our arts community. It’s a long-time place for instruction in how to paint, draw and make jewelry. Fine art exhibitions are mounted there and artists come to speak about what they do and how they do it. The Firehouse prides itself on providing programming for underserved folks including adults with disabilities, veterans and disadvantaged children in Title I schools. Located in the center of Norman the Firehouse serves budding artists from across Oklahoma who recognize the value of traveling here from their own communities because of the high level of arts education received. It has been called the Firehouse Art Center since 1970 because before that it was Norman’s Fire Station No. 2, first commissioned in 1946. Sammy Babb has been the Firehouse’s Communication Coordinator since early last year. She holds a BFA in Visual Communications from the University of Oklahoma, operates her own photography business (sammybabb.myportfolio.com) and is an experienced freelance graphic designer. Her interests are many in these areas and she brings a wealth of talent to her job and Norman’s arts community in general. At the Firehouse in particular she enjoys the smorgasbord of tasks that her job requires.

“I like that I get to do a little bit of everything right now,” Babb said. “I get to be the photographer, find out what’s working best for us on social media and get to make posters almost every other day. It’s jumping around to a bunch of different disciplines and working on a lot of different stuff.”

The Firehouse has presented a variety of programming this year centered around their interesting exhibitions including ones exploring Tiki culture, the pop fun of Cosplay and Mexican luchadores (wrestlers) in cinema.

“I do all our marketing in social media and all the graphic design in-house for the exhibitions, gallery opening events and the postcards and fliers for those,” Babb said. “I’ve started working on my network for public relations sent to traditional media and building within that community.”

The Firehouse has a new attractive mural on the south side of their building. Babb is working on more.

“For most of our shows we do window vinyl,” she said. “We’re discussing some vinyl that will be permanent for the windows facing Flood Avenue. We want to show off some of the things we do along with the murals on the other sides of the building. There will be graphic design with all that.”

Babb is a photographer with graphic design chops. Those dual skill sets provide her employer with added dimensions of creativity.

“Photography and design go hand in hand,” she said. “In school we’re taught they’re separate disciplines but when you can combine them it’s a really powerful tool. When you take a photo and you’re the graphic designer behind it you think of the spacing in a completely different way than if you were just the photographer. On a poster for instance, I’m thinking about where the words are going to go.”

Babb has been around creative people all her life.

“I grew up with a lot of crafters in my family,” she said. “My papa was a woodcutter, grandma was a painter. He’d make wood carvings and she’d paint them. My mom was a painter and one of my aunts in North Carolina was an art teacher. So ever since I was little I was around arts and crafts. The first time I picked up a camera I never put it down.”

Babb grew up here and graduated from Norman High School.

“I was 7 or 8 when I first started taking photos with a 35mm camera,” Babb said. “You had to take the film to Wal Mart for developing. I’d get in trouble for taking too many photos and never save any for my parents to take pictures.”

Babb’s photography portfolio includes family pictures, lots of animals, travel outside the USA, other-worldly close-ups of flowers, long exposures of fireworks and carnival lights and social justice protests. On commission she takes cheesecake photos for 100 bucks an hour. You get 30 pictures taken in the privacy of your own boudoir. She’s shot one wedding and you’d probably have to twist her arm to do another one. Babb has learned a lot about human nature from taking photos.

“People usually love it when a camera comes out or they hate it, there’s no in between,” she said. “A lot of my photo shoots are going to be out in public, on OU campus or somewhere. The second the camera comes out you’ll see people either running away from it or wondering what’s going on over there. I’ve also noticed that with people under the age of 14 you’ve got about 20 minutes before they’re done with photos. They just want to do their own thing instead of being in their family group photo.”

Babb is part of what’s a mostly new and young leadership team at the Firehouse Art Center. They have invigorated the 54 year old institution.

“We’re working to broaden our audience,” she said. “All Norman should know that the Firehouse is accessible to them. We work hard to incorporate all different kinds of people and cultures. We have a Latino committee and they just did a show. We’re trying to make sure that people know art is for you, it’s for all ages, all types whether you’re a beginner or you’ve been doing art for years. The Firehouse is a resource for anyone in the community.”

The Firehouse’s gift shop is open M-F 10-5, Sat. and Sun 11-4. It highlights work for sale by Oklahoma artists with a variety of ceramics, paintings, prints and jewelry. Gallery exhibitions rotate throughout the year.