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 8,000 children and young people enjoyed and learned from CAC programs this year. Workshops and classes are offered quarterly.  Artists in the Schools, Arts in Parks programs and special children’s events reached: 650 4th & 5th graders attended contemporary dance performances by the Berry College Dancers; 345 pre-K - 3rd graders learned life lessons from “Aesop’s Fables” performed by puppeteer Lee Bryan; 615 10th & 11th graders applauded “Macbeth” performed by the Georgia Shakespeare Festival; 830 disadvantaged young people and their parents learned about and from the arts during the Arts in After School program this spring; 60 elementary students participated in Spring Break Arts Camp at Deer Lick Park; 33 more worked with artists during Summer Arts Camp at Hunter Park; 50 children enjoyed arts enrichment programs at Jessie Davis Park last summer, 2009; 25 gifted young people participated in the CAC’s Wynn Workshops; 45 children explored the arts and exhibitions in the Wonderful Wednesday Workshops; and 467 preschoolers at HeadStart, Sheltering Arms and the Cultural Arts Center delighted in the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.

In partnership with the Douglas County Schools Community in the Schools program, CAC’s 2010 Arts in After School initiative offered four residencies in the four elementary schools reaching at risk families and their families. Special project support was provided by the GreyStone Power Company Foundation.

During June, with the support of City of Douglasville and the Douglas County Schools, CAC launched a survey of arts education and arts instruction in our community at the first Arts Instruction Summit in Douglas County.  Survey results should yield a comprehensive picture of arts education and instructional resources available now, inform future development of such resources, and assist the Arts Council in its creation of new partnerships and local promotion for the field of arts education.

Performing Arts

Free performances at receptions and other events are offered at the Cultural Arts Center throughout the year.  In the past year our exhibit receptions included performances by avant-garde composer Klimchak playing the theremin and marimba lumina for the September show, as well as by the Atlanta Chinese Dance Company in conjunction with an exhibit of Chinese photographer Huang Fu.         

A country music band, Mixed Bag, performed at the Ice Cream Social last summer; Grupo de Danza de Santa Teresita demonstrated traditional Mexican and Aztec dancing at our third Dia de los Reyes family festival; and pianist Nancy Whittenburger played carols for the Empty Bowl luncheons.

The 2010 Kinna Classic Chamber Concert series showcased performances by Joe Chapman, the Poulenc String Quartet, and George Mann who also performed a classical recital at the Woodie Fite Senior Center last fall on the piano placed on loan at the county facility by the Cultural Arts Council.  

Free concerts filled downtown’s O’Neal Plaza with enthusiastic crowds enjoying great performances by Delta Moon, The Artie Ball Swing Band, and Divided by Six, while The Kenneth Faison Jazz Quartet delighted jazz and wine connoisseurs at Taste of the Grape, Taste of Douglasville’s kick off party at the Chamber of Commerce. 

For the second year CAC participated in the Southern Arts Federation’s Short Circuit Film Festival. The Cultural Arts Council presented more than a dozen works by southeastern independent filmmakers with screenings at O’Neal Plaza in historic downtown Douglasville.

Literary Arts

The 14th Georgia Cowboy Poets Gathering, “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys,” was a wonderful evening with performances by local cowboy poets, western music by Montana Smith and Matt Ward of Cowboy Future,  and western yodeling by David Fillingim.

 
Building on the popularity of the DC Connection’s “Afternoon with Authors” during Black History Month, the Arts Council added more literary soirees this year with readings by local historian Elaine Bailey and poets Alice Lovelace and Alice Shapiro.

 

Visual Arts

Click here to see selections from our permanent collection

Gallery attendance continues to grow, receptions regularly draw 150 or more people, and gallery talks and tours also have larger and more diverse audiences. During 2010 the exhibition schedule presented:  Mixed Bag showcasing fine crafts by artisans living and working in West Georgia; “Fantasy Art” by Victoria Moore and B.J. Rathur; Images from Shaanxi by Chinese photographer Huang Fu in conjunction with Atlanta Celebrates Photography; the 23rd National Juried show selected by artist and curator Annette Cone-Skelton, the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia; Douglas County student holiday card designs; American Master Jacob Lawrence, prints and posters on loan from the permanent collection of Hammonds House Museum and Galleries, in celebration of Black History Month; Youth Art Month show presenting works by talented students in the Douglas County Schools; “New Acquisitions & Cherished Favorites,” selections from the permanent collection; The Douglas County Arts Guild Biennale; and “The Flower Show,” an invitational of works in various media exploring floral motifs by West Georgia artists. 

The Art on Loan program this year featured exhibits of recent works by Robby Pope and his students at the Douglasville School of the Arts, members of the Douglas County Arts Guild, prints created by members of the Atlanta Printmakers Association, paintings by artist Hal Riley Burriss, and textiles created by the Cherokee Rose Quilters. Works from the permanent collection were also displayed at the American Red Cross, Douglas County Courthouse, and the Atlanta Regional Commission Work Force offices.

Highlights of the 2010-2011 gallery schedule include: Concurrent solo exhibitions by artists Robby Pope and Joy Peters; Recent works by Sweetwater Camera Club members in conjunction with Atlanta Celebrates Photography; The 24th National Juried Show selected by juror Kevin Grogan, the director of the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta; Retrospective exhibits featuring Kevin Cole and Paul Benjamin during January and February in celebration of Black History Month; Youth Art Month featuring local students’ talent; Elizabeth Chapman’s powerful abstract paintings; and a summer show considering local “living” history with interviews, photographs and art installations created by artist Lynn Linnemeier and her students at the Douglas County Boys and Girls Club.

 

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.

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 permanent collection continues to grow through gifts and purchases in 2010 with recent acquisitions such as: a pastoral landscape of Provence by Georgia artist Lynwood Hall presented in honor of Mary Elizabeth Bolding by her sister Dot Padgett; a lidded ceramic vessel, Koi Box, by Zachary Shay donated by the artist; and a large photocollage, Heroic Spirit of the Yellow River, by Chinese artist Huang Fu contributed by Ed and Sylvia Krebs as well as purchases of four pieces from the National Juried Art Exhibition including a wood-turned vase by Steve Pritchard, and digital photographic images by Frank Karycinski, Nicolette Dunn and Jessica Smith. 

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 hundreds 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.

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 109 years old in 2010!

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

Maggie Bowers, Manager cultureom@earthlink.net

Program Assistant cultureadmin@earthlink.net