At age 20, Willie Williams, Jr., already has an admirable resume as a visual artist. Williams, who graduated from ASFA’s Visual Arts department in 2014, has received recognition from the National YoungArts Foundation. In 2013, he was commissioned by the City of Birmingham to do a painting in commemoration of the four little girls killed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing of 1963, a painting that now resides in the Office of the Mayor. But Williams’ latest accomplishment wasn’t about helping his own resume, but about advancing the art careers of his peers.

In July 2016, Williams opened the doors to his very own art gallery, Studio 2500, located in the North Birmingham neighborhood. He says his hope is that his gallery will give artists “that are lesser known a chance to become known, to get exposure and to build connections with other artists.”

This summer’s grand opening exhibit included works by three recent ASFA graduates -- Morgan Capps, Ivey Davis, and Angelica Lyublinskaya.

“I wanted to give them a chance to go into college with some momentum,” Williams says.

The show also included the works of four students from Birmingham Southern College, where Williams is currently pursuing a degree in fine art.

“In a sense it was almost by accident,” Williams says, when asked how Studio 2500 came about. “My father and I have a metal workshop company and we were looking for space where we could expand the business. We found enough space in North Birmingham to do that and I figured out the space was so big that we could divide it with one part being my studio and the other part being where we would do our commercial work. Then the idea dawned on me that this space is big enough for me to have a studio and a gallery.”

And so Studio 2500, located at 2500 26th Avenue North, was born.

“My gallery will be able to promote artists post graduation and artists that may not necessarily have an immediate demand of their work to be shown or to be exhibited in spaces that are already currently here,” Williams says.

With all of his accomplishments, it’s hard to believe Williams’ art career is just getting started.

At Birmingham Southern College Williams is highly involved in campus life, serving as a resident assistant and as a member of the One Accord Gospel Choir, the Black Student Union, and Art Students League.

Many of Williams’ extracurricular activities center on cultural awareness, which is also often a theme of his artwork.

“My theme has been for the past year about promoting black beauty,” Williams says. “I’ve been looking at ancient African women’s hair styles and looking at how intricate and complex they were and what they meant to society.” And he’s been relating this to the current natural hair trend in the African American community, a trend that he believes is not a fad.

“I see it as a renaissance,” he says. “The renaissance of black beauty.”

As for his future plans, Williams hopes to continue the family business, Architectural Metalworks Incorporated.

“That tends to coincide with my art because I use a lot of metalworking in my sculptures,” he says.

Williams also hopes to pursue a master’s in fine art and perhaps even a doctorate in art history.

He says his time at ASFA helped to fuel his thirst for learning.

“ASFA cultivated the attitude and the spirit of being an artist,” he says. “And not just being an artist, but not being afraid to express myself and to evolve as a person and to continue learning things.”

Williams knows that education can also lead to more opportunities.

“Education expands your options of what you can do,” he says. “And education, I think, helps you to be able to give back because you give insight and knowledge to people that might not have the same access as you.”

Story by Javacia Harris Bowser