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

CAC’s Artists in the Schools and Arts in Parks programs offered performances by the Berry College Dance Troupe for 4th and 5th graders in November; folksinger Elise Witt’s, “Trip Around the World” where pre-K through 3rd graders sang"More than 10,000 children and young people enjoyed and learned from Cultural Arts Council-sponsored programs last year" in five languages (including American Sign Language) in January; Georgia Shakespeare Festival’s “Romeo and Juliet” for 11th graders in February;  the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party (an annual spring children’s festival sponsored by the American Business Women’s Association) for preschoolers in March; in April there is the Spring Break Arts Camp for elementary school students atDouglas County’s Deer Lick Park while middle schoolers enjoyed Laughing Matters comedy improvisations and the Georgia Ballet’s history of dance performance; the new Wynn Workshops, intensive art day camps at CAC,  and arts enrichment afternoons at the City’s Jessie Davis Park in June and July; the annual Summer Arts Camp at Douglasville’s Hunter Park (which featured puppetry last year), and the Wonderful Wednesdays Workshops at the Cultural Arts Center.

More than 10,000 children and young people enjoyed and learned from Cultural Arts Council-sponsored programs last year. 

In partnership with the Douglas County Schools, the CAC offered long-term residencies and workshops in the four elementary schools and one middle school, reaching almost 400 disadvantaged students and their parents during the 2007 school year. Project funding for the Arts in Afterschool Program came from the General Assembly of the State of Georgia’s Community Development program last year, and this school year our model arts education initiative will be supported by the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and Georgia Council for the Arts in order to reach five elementary schools, four middle schools, and one high school. 

More than 150 Spanish language student got special tours of the Mexican artists show in January 2008, which opened with our first Dia de Los Reyes celebration on January 6th. Almost  500 people attended the fiesta, and we are already planning next year’s event with the Douglas County Chamber of Commerce’s Hispanic Business Council!

Performing Arts

Free performances at monthly exhibit receptions and other events including holiday luncheons, Kwanzaa, and Festival of Trees are offered at the Cultural Arts Center throughout the year. During last summer’s Ice Cream Social, theDuring the last year free outdoor concerts packed O’Neal Plaza on Saturdays in May and September with enthusiastic audiences for bluegrass, South American mountain music, blues from Chicago, New Orleans and Atlanta, a steel drum band’s Trinidadian rhythms, big band jazz classics, Eastern European klezmer, and Argentinian tangos, complete with dance lessons and demonstrations. Good Time Singers featuring local vocalist and former State representative Bob Snelling serenaded a full house, delighting the crowd almost as the cold refreshments.  During the last year free outdoor concerts packed O’Neal Plaza on Saturdays in May and September with enthusiastic audiences for bluegrass, South American mountain music, blues from Chicago, New Orleans and Atlanta, a steel drum band’s Trinidadian rhythms, big band jazz classics, Eastern European klezmer, and Argentinian tangos, complete with dance lessons and demonstrations.  It was all blues last fall, and we think it’s all Irish music this spring.
Ticketed center concerts were sold out last year for the CAC’s new chamber series, the Kinna Concerts coordinated by George Mann, a retired West Georgia music professor, offered on second Saturday evenings, January through April. This year the Kinna Concerts include the Atlanta Chamber Players showcasing sonatas for clarinet, cello and piano including Bach, Brahms and Bernstein, pianist George Mann performing romantic classics including Liszt, Chopin and Debussy, a classical guitar and flute duo from Emory University, and pianist Joe Chapman with Andy David on jazz trumpet performing American standards like “Stardust” and “Night and Day.”

Since 1996, Pioneer Days in south Douglas County has included performances and demonstrations by traditional musicians and craftspeople. Community and student groups like Inner Harbor’s African Drum Corps and the Douglasville School of Dance also perform. Highlights last year included Sacred Harp singing, and this October the Southeastern Bluegrass Music Association offered a Saturday afternoon concert showcasing Peachtree Station and other outstanding bluegrass musicians from Georgia.

 

Literary Arts

The 12th Georgia Cowboy Poets Gathering in March featured poets and performers who celebrate Western ballads and traditions, along with new musicians and cowboy poets from Georgia and the Southeast as well as a special one-day display of antique, show and working saddles.
For the past three years CAC has supported African American storytellers and musicians at local libraries during Black History Month reaching almost 1,000 children. The DC Connection’s “Afternoon with Authors,” also offered in February, is now an annual event featuring local writers for readings and book signings at the Arts Center.

Visual Arts

Click here to see selections from our permanent collection

CAC presents monthly exhibits of works by local, regional, national and international artists at the Arts Center. Gallery attendance has increased, reception now often draw 150 or more people, and today’s gallery talks and tours are increasingly popular. During 2007 CAC’s monthly exhibition schedule presented 19th century Japanese prints from the Georgia Museum of Art, African artists’ sculpture and mosaics celebrating Black History Month, works on and of paper by Georgia artists Pam Daresta and Mona Waterhouse, the 35th Atlanta Artists Center touring show, Luis Vallecillo’s digital photographs, Texas artist Deanna Wood’s multimedia installation, “The Tornado Show,” paintings by Douglas County artists Lloyd Meadows and Danny Alexander, the 21st Annual National Juried Show selected by Georgia Museum of Art’s Bill Eiland, travel photographs by Rob Lipson and the Sweetwater Camera Club, and Holiday Card Designs by more than 100 students in the Douglas County Schools.  Exhibits in 2008 will showcase contemporary Mexican and Mexican American who live in Georgia (our January show just closed), African American artists from Atlanta during Black History Month, Youth Art Month during March, drawings, paintings and photographs by Judy and Ken Callaway who teach art in the Douglas County Schools in April, recent artworks by members of the Douglas County Arts Guild during May, and a special summer display of toys from around the world in  “Global Play.”

Changing exhibits through CAC’s Art on Loan program featuring the Douglas County Arts Guild, Sweetwater Camera Club, and local artists like Danny Alexander, Rick McClung and Elizabeth Henry as well as artists new to our community. Works from the permanent collection are also scheduled at the new American Red Cross Blood Services facility, Chamber of Commerce, Douglas County Courthouse, Convention and Visitors Bureau, and WellStar-Douglas Hospital. The permanent collection continues to grow through gifts and purchased acquisitions. A selection of works from the permanent collection is always on display at the Cultural Arts Center where local sculptor Joel Yawn’s untitled steel flowers is permanently installed in front of the historic house.

Last May the Cultural Arts Council completed its first major public art work, a 57-foot-long mosaic mural created with tiles made by more than 150 Douglas County citizens and designed by ceramic artist Helen Helwig.  “Singing Waters” is now permanently installed in Douglas County’s new Boundary Waters Aquatic Center.

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 107 years old in 2008!

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.

2008 CAC Board of Directors

Staff

 

Laura Lieberman, Executive Director

Jamie Fritter, Program Coordinator