Mission

The mission of the Cultural Arts Council Douglasville & Douglas County is to nurture, guide and stimulate the enjoyment of and participation in the arts among Douglas County residents and visitors

by providing an atmosphere conducive to the arts, broadening the spectrum of quality exhibits and performances available to the community, and fostering individual interactions with the arts through a wide range of satellite groups.

 

 

 

 

 

Arts Education

Click here to check out our classes and workshops

CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR ARTS EDUCATION STRATEGIC PLAN

More than 13,000 children and young people enjoyed and learned from CAC programs last year. Workshops and classes are offered quarterly. Artists in the Schools, Arts in Parks programs and special children’s events reached: More than 13,000 children and young people enjoyed and learned from Cultural Arts Council-sponsored programs this year. 

• 2,400 9th & 10th grade students studied To Kill A Mockingbird with books and educational materials provided by the National Endowment for the Art’s “The Big Read;”

• 130 high schoolers enjoyed hands-on workshops led by local artists on themes from the novel last fall;

• 600 4th & 5th graders attended contemporary dance performances by the Berry College Dancers;

• 375 pre-K-3rd graders learned life lessons from “Aesop’s Fables,” performed by puppeteer Lee Bryan; • 600 10th & 11th graders applauded “Julius Caesar” performed by the Georgia Shakespeare Festival;

• 275 middle and high school students acted out during Laughing Matter’s comedy improvisations;

• 600 middle schoolers were enchanted by the Georgia Ballet’s history of dance performance;
• 520 disadvantaged students and their parents learned about and from the arts during Arts in After School;

• 40 elementary students participated in Spring Break Arts Camp at Deer Lick Park;

• 35 more worked with artists during Summer Arts Camp at Hunter Park;

• 40 children enjoyed arts enrichment programs at Jessie Davis Park last summer;

• 30 gifted young people participated in CAC’s Wynn Workshops day camps at the Cultural Arts Center;

• 55 children explored the arts and exhibitions in the Wonderful Wednesday Workshops; and

• 275 pre-schoolers at HeadStart and the Cultural Arts Center delighted in the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.

In partnership with the DCS Community in the Schools program, CAC’s 2009 Arts in After School initiative offered eight residencies in the five elementary schools and three high schools, reaching more than 500 disadvantaged students and their parents. Project funding was provided by the GreyStone Power Company Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Bright Wings Foundation, Wal-Mart, and Georgia Council for the Arts. In 2010, four artists in residencies are underway at elementary schools in Douglas County -- students are studying printmaking, creative writing, musical theater and African drumming after school this year.

Performing Arts

Free performances at receptions and other events are offered at the Cultural Arts Center throughout the year. Bluegrass musicians performed at the Ice Cream Social; avant-garde composer Klimchak played the marimba lumina and theremin in September and the Atlanta Chinese Dance Company performed in October, Nancy Whittenburger played carols for the Empty Bowls luncheons, and Grupo Danza Sta. Teresita danced during our third Dia de los Reyes festival. The 2009 Kinna Chamber Concerts celebrated the 300th anniversary of the piano with performances by Joe Chapman, Cassandria Hanna, George Mann and Stanton Lanier; the first chamber concert of 2010 celebrated Chopin and Schumann’s 200th birthdays.   In addition to performances by local musicians at openings and other events, CAC offers free outdoor concerts in May and September on O’Neal Plaza.

Free concerts filled downtown’s O’Neal Plaza with enthusiastic crowds whenever the weather permitted. The fall series was completely washed away but the spring series featured Little Phil, Zydeco T, and Delta Moon, the last concert which was also rained out is now rescheduled for May 2010. Daniel Padron Trio played for Taste of the Grape delighted jazz and wine connoisseurs at Taste for Douglasville Art’s first kick off party.

Literary Arts

The 13th Georgia Cowboy Poets Gathering, “Hitting the Trail,” was a wonderful evening with performances by local cowboy poets, western music and yodeling by the Polk County Pioneers, and a special exhibit of cowboy gear including a “cowboy teepee.” This March, the 14th Gathering’s “Our Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys,” featured more yodeling, western music and Georgia cowboy poets including Charlie Holloway, Joel Hayes, Bill Mattison, and David Fillingim.

Building on the popularity of the DC Connection’s “Afternoon with Authors” during Black History Month, the Arts Council added three more literary soirees last year with readings by essayist Marcita Scharnhorst, novelist Forrest L. Smith and poet Alice Shapiro. More than 75 people participated in this February’s “Afternoon with Authors” celebrating African American writers in Georgia; and local history writer Elaine Bailey and two poets Alice Lovelace and Alice Shapiro will be featured in March and April.

For the first time in 2009, our community participated in the NEA’s “The Big Read.” Partnering with Douglas County Libraries, CAC organized student, senior and community book groups, screenings, artist residencies, a lecture and teacher workshop, four displays of historical photographs and another of contemporary photographs by local photographers and a bird walk, focused on Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. More than 15,000 people participated. Another first for 2009 was CAC’s participation in the Southern Arts Federation’s Short Circuit Film Festival. The Cultural Arts Council presented eight works by southern independent filmmakers with screenings at O’Neal Plaza in historic Douglasville and at Tributary, one of the city’s newest residential developments. In 2010 we will also present free public screenings of Short Circuit downtown.

Visual Arts

Click here to see selections from our permanent collection

Gallery attendance continues to grow, receptions often draw 150 or more people, and gallery talks and tours also have larger and more diverse audiences. Highlights of last year’s exhibition schedule include: Harper Lee’s South, photographs by the Sweetwater Camera Club, and Depression Era Douglasville, historical photographs and artifacts selected by Douglasville’s Main Street Manager; Contemporary Prints from Africa: The Caversham Press, works by African artists from Fulton County’s permanent collection; Youth Art Month show presenting works by talented students in the Douglas County Schools; recent drawings and paintings by Valdosta-based Harry Ally and Maggie Evans from Savannah; the Georgia Artists with Disabilities Traveling Show, and Mixed Bag showcasing fine crafts by artisans living and working in West Georgia; Fantasy Art by Victoria Moore and B.J. Rather, Images from Shaanxi by Chinese photographer Huang Fu; the 23rd National Juried Show selected by Annette Cone-Skelton, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Georgia; and American Master Jacob Lawrence, works from the Hammonds House Collection and paintings by Douglas County-based Nigerian artist Buchi Upjohn Aghaji.

The ART ON LOAN program has featured works by Douglasville School of Art students, exhibits of photographs by Sweetwater Camera Club members, textiles created by the Cherokee Rose Quilters, a selection of large prints from the Atlanta Printmakers Studio and recent artworks by the Douglas County Arts Guild. Works from the permanent collection were also displayed at the American Red Cross, Douglas County Chamber of Commerce, Douglas County Courthouse, Atlanta Regional Commission Workforce offices, and WellStar-Douglas Hospital.

Permanent Collection

The permanent collection of the Cultural Arts Council of Douglasville and Douglas County is one of our community’s greatest cultural assets. Its care, maintenance and development have been among my greatest pleasures and responsibilities as the executive director. "The visual arts in general and the permanent collection in particular have been among the great strengths of the Cultural Arts Council and its programs since it was established in 1986"Such a collection with so many outstanding art works in so many different mediums is the result of many individuals’ dedication and vision for many years. This year the Cultural Arts Council celebrates its 22th anniversary, and it is especially appropriate that we honor the permanent collection and those who so generously have contributed to its development by publishing this catalogue. In this endeavor we are very grateful for expert assistance of Keith Rasmussen, a well-known Georgia printmaker and the former director of the Chattahoochee Valley Museum of Art, who has worked with us this year in a consultancy supported by the Georgia Council for the Arts. His insights and acumen will inform and support the future of the permanent collection.

The visual arts in general and the permanent collection in particular have been among the great strengths of the Cultural Arts Council and its programs since it was established in 1986. Its founders and early leadership were involved with and knowledgeable regarding the visual arts. Their interest and understanding of visual art established the high quality of the collection from its beginning, and their colleagues and connections helped to develop important gifts of art works for inclusion. Virginia Pope, the founding President of the Board of Directors, also served on the Board of the Georgia Museum of Art, which contributed the wonderful Lamar Dodd drawing, one of the highlights of the collection, from the artist’s estate to the Cultural Arts Council. Sara Cartwright donated the charming sketch by Joe Perrin, another of Georgia’s most important artists and art educators. Susanne Hudson, Dennis Connally, and many others have cultivated contributions for the permanent collection.

David Henry, an Atlanta artist and collector, has donated more than 40 art works including the large number of Hal Burriss paintings, several of his own artworks, and more recently the delightful oil paintings from the 1930s by European artists Otto Balle and Fritz Kraul. Other artists from Douglas County have also been generous – among them Betty Norton, Ann Cockerill, Jeanne Kinna, Jennifer Julian, Larry Grams, and Dave Kelly. Danny Alexander made a gift of a small painting in honor of Andy Warhol when he died in 1987. A number of works have been given in memory of important members of the local community – O.T. Bolding is memorialized with the untitled stainless sculpture by Joel Yawn on the front lawn of the Cultural Arts Center and Judge Noland is remembered with a work of stained glass by Mack Porter. Georgia Council for the Arts funding also made several purchases possible. State legislators Tom Kilgore and Charlie Watts were responsible for the acquisition of the lovely print by Jack Cheatham.

Much of the permanent collection originated as purchase prizes from the annual National Juried Art Show hosted by the Cultural Arts Center every November. These acquisitions were recommended by the exhibition judges, reviewed by the CAC Gallery, and approved by the Board of Directors before being accepted into the collection. While many people were involved in this ongoing development of the collection, these decisions were overseen for a decade by executive director Helen Meade. Her commitment to quality, diversity and the representation of artists in our community at the Cultural Arts Center helped to shape the collection as it exists today.

The creation of this catalogue is, like the development of the collection, a labor of love and appreciation for all of those, named and unnamed above, who have made the permanent collection available to residents of and visitors to Douglasville and Douglas County. The docents of the CAC Curators Club volunteer hundereds of hours every year so art center visitors can enjoy and learn from exhibits and the permanent collection. This project could never have been realized without the exemplary leadership of Debbie Merrifield, Chair of the Gallery Committee, and its active members, Allen Culpepper, Mariana Depetris, Jerry Leath, Lloyd Meadows, Zal Richards, Jim Schiwal, Hannelore Thompson and Charlene Willis. Jim Schiwal has been instrumental in assisting Keith Rasmussen during his consultancy and volunteered many hours this year to the development of the collection. We are also very grateful to him and to Jim Garner for their photographic documentation of the art works. Finally, I want to thank the staff of the Cultural Arts Council who were involved with the project – gallery assistant Kathryn Derryberry, student intern Rasheeda El-Amin, and office manager Dianne Cannon. It is a privilege to work with a collection and with people of this caliber, and it is an honor to present this catalogue representing so many gifted individuals and so many gifts. Thank you.

Laura C. Lieberman Executive Director

History of CAC

Since 1986, the Cultural Arts Council has offered cultural services in Douglasville and Douglas County. The Arts Council's first achievement was the purchase of the historic Roberts/Mozley house in the heart of Douglasville for use as a community arts center.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the graceful two-story neoclassical house, built by a State Senator in 1901, has been home to three Douglasville mayors. Its restoration initiated historic preservation activity locally. The historic house is free and open to the public, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., and Sundays from 1 until 5 p.m.

Monthly exhibits are presented at the arts center, which is also used for meetings, performance and special events. CAC's permanent collection of works by outstanding artists was developed through gifts and purchase prizes. The outdoor sculpture by Georgia artist Joel Yawn is on the Smithsonian Institute's national Save Outdoor Sculpture registry. Works by local artists are sold in our gift shop as well as through the gallery exhibits. Classes are offered at CAC and in the adjacent Wynn Building. As a GCA Grassroots Program agency, CAC administers a regranting program for Douglas and Paulding Counties. CAC also supports its satellite organizations and their programming.

After hours, special event rentals for weddings, receptions and reunions offer opportunities to showcase the historic facility to new visitors and old friends alike. CAC members receive invitations to gallery openings and special events, information available to the general public through excellent local press coverage, CAC's web site (www.artsdouglas.org), and the county web site and public access channel.

CAC enjoys solid community support. The Curators Club includes artists, teachers, housewives, retirees and others who act as receptionists, host special events and assist with every aspect of daily operations, offering thousands of hours of their time every year. Special event rentals for weddings, receptions and reunions offer opportunities to showcase the facility to new visitors and old friends alike. Members receive notices and invitations to gallery openings and special events, information that is available to the general public through excellent local media coverage.

History of Roberts-Mozley Home

On the National Register of Historic Places

The Roberts-Mozley House 108 years old in 2009!

In 1886,a century before the Douglasville/Douglas County Cultural Arts Council purchased this elegant, late Victorian period home, Judge and Colonel W.T. Roberts exchanged wedding vows with Emma Quillian, daughter of the Reverend J. C. B. Quillian. Reverend Quillian was one of the early settlers of Douglas County, and the property's original owner. After the death of Reverend Quillian, Colonel Roberts bought the land from his mother-in-law and work on the two-story Neoclassical home began March 21, 1901.

With its air of classical architecture, the low sweeping line of a grand front porch, and an entrance with stained glass doors, the house reflected the prominent social status of Mrs. Roberts and the Colonel. His political career included several terms as Mayor of Douglasville and Solicitor General of two county courts before his election to the Georgia State Senate in 1911. After his election, Colonel Roberts moved his family to Washington, D.C., where he served in the U.S. Department of Marketing during the Woodrow Wilson Administration. The house changed owners many times after the Roberts family moved, but its "political" future and social standing in the community continued.

In 1927, Mrs. T. N. Mozley bought the eleven-room estate, which remained in her family until 1971. T. N. Mozley was selected to serve as Mayor of Douglasville in 1936, a position filled by his son, Harold, ten years later. Harold was thought at the time to be the youngest mayor ever elected in the U.S. Walter Turner, who purchased the house in 1978 was responsible for beginning its restoration. He sold the property to the Cultural Arts Council on September 16, 1986.

The Roberts-Mozley house is one of the few early structures remaining in Douglasville which embody the characteristics of a period style. As a result and with its history of prominent residents, the building has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U. S. Department of the Interior.

More than one hundred years after the Colonel wed Emma Quillian, the past of this elegant home is vibrant and alive in the dark stained heart-of-pine that dominates the grand foyer, multi-landing staircase, and the forgotten tradition of a "courting bench." Fireplaces, warmed by the soft colors of antique tortoise shell tiles, welcome the community of Douglasville and Douglas County, where social events and service to their community became a way of life for W.T. Roberts and the T.N. Mozley family.

2009-2010 CAC Board of Directors

Staff

 

Laura Lieberman, Executive Director culturedirector@earthlink.net

Amy Davison, Program Assistant cultureadmin@earthlink.net