Volume 5 | Issue 2
Fall/Winter 2017
Publisher
Thomasville Center for the Arts
Editor
Michele Arwood
CREATIVE Director
Haile McCollum
Managing Editor
Margret Brinson
MARKETING Director
Jenny Dell
Account Executive
Anna Day
5
COPY EDITOR
Jennifer Westfield
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Lindsey Strippoli
Photographers
Abby Mims Faircloth
Minette Hand
Gabriel G. Hanway
Leslie McKellar
Cary Norton
Alicia Osborne
David Payr
AJ Reynolds
Michael SeRine
Daniel Shippey
Ronnie Stripling
Marné Vermaak
Alex Workman
23
Writers
Alison Abbey
June Bailey White
Ben Brown
Jennifer Buller
Stephanie Burt
Katie Mitchell
Rob Rushin
Jennifer Westfield
thomasvillearts.org
600 E. Washington St.,Thomasville, GA
229.226.0588
91
contents
Fall/Winter 2017
CREATOR
5 FINDING MOLLER
A.W. Moller
VISIONARY
11 Lowcountry LuxE
The Dewberry Hotel
17
TASTEMAKER
17 Cooking Up New Classics
Robby Melvin
ARTISTS
23 The Art of Place
Michelle Decker & Tom Hill
Featured Artists
2017 Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival
29 THOM GUIDE
EXPLORER
85 Experiment in Restoration
Birdsong Nature Center
CONNECTOR
91 Always Be Connecting
Domi Station
TRAILBLAZER
97 Magic Across the Curriculum
Sims Academy of Innovation and Technology
PLACEMAKER
103 Going Small to Live Large
Bruce Tolar
85
109 Featured Artists
Cover photo by Gabriel G. Hanway
Letter From
the Editor
built
It’s been just over a year since our family settled
into a new place to call home. Although we vowed to
never live in an old home again, this one was hard to
resist.
to last
The property was like many old homes in the
South when we found it. Aged and weathered, it
was struggling to survive the wear imparted by the
people who had lived there for more than 160 years.
It stood tall and proud, but tired, like it had been
trying to say something and no one was listening.
During the renovation, many asked why we bought
it. Admittedly, it was a touch crazy given the home’s
desperate condition, so, that was a fair question to
expect. We said many things, mainly that it needed
to be saved and that it just felt right.
Now, after a year of living within its walls, I have
come to understand that it was much more than
that. This home felt like an ideal place to build a life
upon because it had been built to last – much like
Thomasville.
their life’s work. Though many of them hail from
outside of Thomasville, they all contribute to our
sense of place, whether through the art they have
created here or the ideas they share with us for a
boutique hotel, an urban neighborhood, a creative
business incubator, an innovative learning center
for our youth, and a culinary arts program.
While our work at the Center for the Arts is artscentric,
we are driven by a desire to contribute
in meaningful ways to the place where we do
our work by creating experiences where lasting
connections and memories are made. If you haven’t
paid us a visit lately, you should. One step inside
our historic building and our new studios and you’ll
see we’ve been designing a new experience that’s
meant to last.
Our beautiful city of just under 20,000 has a deep
sense of place and has obviously been built to
endure. You see it on a slow drive past the old homes
on our oak lined streets and can feel it on a stroll
along the sidewalks edging our historic buildings.
Progress has been tempered by a nod to our history,
land and legends, so that what has emerged is a
place intended to last for many, many lifetimes. To
me, that’s what makes it feel right.
In this issue, you’ll meet artists from all walks who
have made their appreciation for place a part of
Michele Arwood
Executive Director
Thomasville Center for the Arts
3
No.
GUEST EDITOR
BRIAN PATRICK FLYNN
SAVING PLACE
Outside of today’s 140-character, Snapchat-filtered, digital universe
there is an alternate, more authentic movement afoot. It’s why the
South is hot, vinyl is reborn, historic buildings are restored and print is
not, in fact, dead.
Good
Grit
The Character Of The South
FORD FRY
LEGACY OF TRAVEL
GRITTY CITY GUIDE
EYE ON DESIGN
Good Grit
Display Until 10/31/2017
HARVEST
SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER
Founded 2015 | 6 issues/year
Founded by Laura Bento in Birmingham, Alabama, Good Grit is based
on a progressive platform that squarely addresses misconceptions
about the South. Its loud-and-clear voice for Southern culture, makers,
creators and pioneers makes this publication built to last.
OKRA
Founded 2017 | 6 issues/year
From the Mississippi Delta comes a look under the Southern surface.
The South’s “please and thank you” culture is illuminated in Okra by a
cast of people and places who are not perfect but full of life and, most
importantly, real.
Paprika Southern
Founded 2013, 2015 Print | Quarterly
This ethereal publication is part art, part place and part style. Models
that look like your neighbors adorn style spreads in settings both
aspirational and inspirational. Co-founder Siobhan Egan’s work has
appeared in THOM.
7
BATTLE OF THE BLING: LUXE NFL STADIUM MATCHUP
THE
Arts &
Culture
ISSUE
For Floridians. By Floridians.
FLAMINGO
Founded 2016 | Quarterly
Unifying Florida’s cultural and natural resources in one statewide
publication requires unlimited creativity. Stunning photography ties the
pages together and tells the story of place in a smart package that is
worth your time.
45
WAYS TO GET
CULTURED
MUSICIANS, MOVIES,
MUSEUMS & MORE
SONGSk
THE SEA:
THE MUSIC
INSPIRED BY
JIMMY
BUFFETT
D irector
BARRY
JENKINS
RETURNS HOME
UPLAND
SHOOT
DOWN IN
OKEECHOBEE
GREGG ALLMAN
His Life P Final Album
4
5
CREATOR
Finding
Moller
Written by
Jennifer Westfield
Photographed by
Gabriel G. Hanway
Within larger historical narratives, stories are rarely islands in the stream. The
more we dig, the more each becomes a hub of radial lines, connecting present
to past and facilitating journeys back in time – the ones that lead us to empty
houses, the names of strangers and single photographs attesting to the whole
of bygone eras.
This story began five years ago, when our creative director, Haile McCollum,
took her family to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. “We were
wandering in a photography exhibit,” Haile says. “We paused in front of two
small black and white photos. They were labeled as being from Thomasville.
Wait. What?”
The photographs, shot in the 1880s, led back to an address in downtown
Thomasville and a family plot at Laurel Hill Cemetery – marking the former
photography studio and final resting place of an English immigrant named
A.W. Moller. Despite the scattering of his photos in major museums from sea
to shining sea, the internet turns up next to nothing about Moller’s life – if
you’re looking.
Who was this guy?
By all available accounts, Algernon Walner “Algie” Moller was no deliberate
steward of American history. It’s hard to believe that anyone could have
6
CREATOR
“Although Thomasville had dozens of
photographers working contemporaneously with
the Mollers,” Ephraim says, “the Moller Studio in one
form or another was in continuous operation from
1886 to 1956. The time period [during which] A.W.
lived and worked in Thomasville really covers two,
and almost three economic periods.”
The Moller family relocated from England to
Thomasville in 1885, on the recommendation of a
cousin in New York. A.W. was one of six children
brought to America after his father’s ship brokering
business went bust, reportedly from “heavy losses
in Italy;” he was 18 when the family settled in
South Georgia, during the booming tourist economy
ushered in by Thomasville’s Resort Era.
“The Historical Society promotes [the] Resort
Era, from roughly 1875 to 1905, as the dominant
period in establishing Thomasville’s civic identity,”
Ephraim says. “From 1880 to 1890, Thomasville’s
population doubled.”
predicted that his images would come to serve
not only as lone visual samples of a booming,
post-emancipation Thomasville, but as Southern
contributions to the visual narrative of American
life at the turn of the 20th century.
According to Thomas County Historical Society
Curator of Collections Ephraim Rotter, A.W. was a
“middle-middle class” trained studio portraitist who
likely chose additional subjects – Resort Era hotels,
landmarks, African American life, plantations and
more – based on what would sell.
Ephraim works unceasingly to digitize the Historical
Society’s expanding lot of hundreds of thousands
of images, including 865 glass-plate negatives
and an estimated 1,000 prints and postcards from
Moller Studio alone. Former Thomasville Times-
Enterprise publisher Ed Kelly donated much of the
collection. Wendell Tidwell, whose family owned a
photography studio, donated two of A.W.’s cameras.
Other contributions, Ephraim says, come in from the
descendants of locals and tourists.
Before Henry Flagler expanded the American
railway down into Florida, the southernmost stop
was Thomasville. Midwesterners came to take in
the air and warmer, drier climate; they filled resort
hotels in the downtown area, bought plantations
and built homes – many of which are still standing
and on the historic register.
A.W. shot a vast range of subjects during that
time – the hotels and boarding houses, natural
and man-made landmarks, African American life,
Moller was one of
Thomasville’s first
storytellers, providing a
window into the earliest
chapters of our area’s
ongoing narrative.
7
CREATOR
Photo: A. W. Moller, Views of Thomasville and Vicinity, ca. 1880s
albumen print; 4 5/16 x 7 1/16 in. (10.95 x 17.94 cm)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase. Photograph: Don Ross
Photo: A. W. Moller, Views of Thomasville and Vicinity, ca. 1880s
albumen print; 4 1/16 x 6 7/8 in. (10.32 x 17.46 cm)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase. Photograph: Don Ross
8
CREATOR
“The time period [during which] A.W. lived and worked
in Thomasville really covers two, and almost three
economic periods.”
plantations, agriculture, recreation and street scenes
– in addition to the people who came to his Broad
Street portrait studio.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquired
the two Moller photographs in its permanent
collection in 2012, under the leadership of then-
Curator (now Curator Emerita) Sandra Phillips.
“Moller’s photographs were a natural addition to
our collection,” says SFMoMA Curatorial Assistant
Matthew Kluk, “displaying not only the built
environment of the South in the 1880s, but also how
slavery continued to affect the visual landscape
post-emancipation.”
The Smithsonian National Museum of African
American History and Culture has also added several
of Moller’s photos, depicting African American life in
the South, to its permanent collection.
“Even though we describe it as lasting until 1905,
the Resort Era started to take a downturn in 1895,”
9
CREATOR
it like this: When A.W.
moved to Thomasville
in 1885, there were no
cars, no electricity, no
plumbing, no airplanes or
radio stations, no public
schools or paved roads,
and personal cameras
didn’t meaningfully
exist. These became
commonplace by the time
he passed away.”
says Ephraim. “From 1890 to 1900, the population
decreased. It took from 1900 to 1930 for it to double
in size again. By the 1910s, however, there were
positive developments, including several factories,
mills and works popping up around town, including
many in the Sandy Bottom district.”
According to Ephraim, the change from a touristbased
economy to an industrial one was significant
for both Thomasville and A.W.’s business. “The two
most impactful developments for Thomasville in
the last 15 years of A.W.’s life,” he says, “were the
founding of the Flowers Baking Company in 1919
and the building of Archbold Memorial Hospital in
1925 – to this day, two of the largest employers in
town.
“As far as day-to-day life went, I’ll try to summarize
According to Historical
Society records, A.W.
lived a busy life. “He was
an active member of
Knights of Pythagoras,
Freemasons, Rotary Club
and longtime treasurer
at St. Thomas Episcopal
Church,” Ephraim says.
A.W. and his wife Annie
Woodward married
in 1891 and had five
children, three of whom
are buried at Laurel
Hill Cemetery; he would continue to shoot photos
alongside his son Charlie until becoming gravely ill
from kidney problems.
The photographic works of A.W. Moller, depicting
life in a multitude of subject areas, now invaluably
stand as lone visual samples of the area’s people,
places and things for the larger record. A.W. stands
as one of Thomasville’s first storytellers, providing
a window into the earliest chapters of our area’s
ongoing narrative – one that we, as Southerners and
creatives, now carry dutifully into the future.
A.W Moller
sfmoma.org/artist/A._W._Moller
thomascountyhistory.org
10
TRAILBLAZER
VISIONARY
LOWCOUNTRY
LUXE
Written by
Alison Abbey
Photographs Courtesy of
The Dewberry Hotel
11
12
VISIONARY
Stepping in to the rich, mid-century modern lobby of The Dewberry
hotel in Charleston is like walking into the home of your chicest and
most gracious friend. The staff is as warm and inviting as the space
(and the lowcountry air), greeting guests in the local drawl, helping
them settle in to their to-die-for rooms and, as any true Southerner
would do, punctuating their conversations with “yes sir” and “yes
ma’am.”
It’s a literal display of new-meets-old South that makes it easy to see
why the guests are all so charmed. And no one is more proud of that
mix than owner and transplanted Charlestonian John Dewberry.
“We are ambassadors to this city, one of the first places people see
as they drive into the heart of downtown, and we want to be an
inviting presence and reflect the best of Charleston,” he says. “We are
constantly looking for novel ways to enhance that sense of place as it
relates to the guest experience. From the beginning, we collaborated
with some of Charleston’s most exciting tastemakers and artists.”
Dewberry, a longtime developer and hospitality visionary, was able to
curate his perfect hotel from the ground up when he came across the
building that now houses the hotel in 2008.
“I purchased 334 Meeting Street, which was home to the thenabandoned
L. Mendel Rivers Federal Building,” he explains. “The
building itself dates back to 1964, and it had a good run up until
“What we’ve
created is truly a
place for everyone.”
13
VISIONARY
“The Dewberry, both inside and
out, is truly a manifestation of my
vision of ‘Southern Reimagined.’”
Hurricane Floyd came through in 1999. By the time
I bought the building from the government, it was
empty and a haunt for illicit activity. Almost no
Charlestonian wanted to save it, and few thought it
was a marquee destination.”
But, of course, today, it is.
Inspired by the structure, Dewberry knew from
the beginning that he wanted to offer an aesthetic
experience like none other in Charleston.
“I assembled a team of talented architects and
designers, and created a plan – working with the
Historic Charleston Foundation – to restore the
building to glory and transform it into a world-class
hotel that would be true to its history and midcentury
design roots but still capture Charleston’s
old-world charm,” he says. “We felt we had done
more than just build a five-star hotel – we had
also created a whole new school of thought about
design in the South and perhaps had rewritten the
playbook on preserving mid-century architecture.”
The timing couldn't have been more perfect.
Boutique hotels are currently projected to rake in
four times what their big-name chain competitors
are making, especially in small markets like
Charleston – or, perhaps someday soon, in
Thomasville. With conversations building around
the need for a hotel in the city, one can't help
but wonder how such a hotel project could serve
as a gateway to the culture and character of the
downtown.
Eight years after its purchase, the hotel opened with
155 rooms, a stellar, brasserie-style restaurant –
Henrietta’s – and a living room complete with a bar
and gathering space, just as you would expect in any
grand Southern manner.
Varnished wood consoles, gilded sconces and
chandeliers, and plush seating vignettes give the
common areas a distinctive mid-century chic vibe,
14
VISIONARY
while the hotel’s boutique,
The Field Shop (curated
by Garden & Gun), pays
homage to the area’s roots,
with a mix of items that
wink at the themes of
hunting and gathering.
“The Dewberry, both
inside and out, is truly a
manifestation of my vision of ‘Southern
Reimagined,’” says Dewberry.
And then there’s the spa. Dewberry
worked closely with beauty and
wellness guru Lydia Mondavi to create an oasis
that’s relaxing, chic and definitively Charleston,
implementing ingredients from the lowcountry into
the treatments. Among those ingredients are sea
salt (a nod to the nearby beaches) and the native
dewberry plant. Naturally.
Together, Dewberry and Mondavi created a
coastally inspired spa menu featuring treatments
like The Dewberry Carolina Cocoon, a Detoxifying
Seaweed Leaf Wrap and the Gentleman’s Atlantic
Ocean Facial. The spa’s décor draws influence from
another local haunt: Dewberry’s own carriage
house. With its cypress covered walls, warm hues
and plush lounges, it’s a soothing space in which to
lose yourself and release any lingering tensions.
The hotel’s location in the heart of Charleston
further solidifies its iconic status – across from
Marion Square and the farmers’ market, a block
removed from King Street shopping and in the
heart of Meeting Street’s Museum Mile, with stellar
views of the famed Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.
A native of Virginia, Dewberry first fell in love
with the city when he was a student at Georgia
Tech. Charleston made such an impression on the
businessman that he purchased some of his first
properties there in the late ‘80s, before eventually
buying a home for his family there in 2003. He now
splits his time between Charleston and Atlanta and
escapes to a third home in County Clare, Ireland,
during the hot Southern summer months.
But don’t call it a vacation. Dewberry’s travels -
which include quails hunts in Thomasville - have
informed his attitude on hospitality, especially via
his visits to five-star locations throughout Europe.
15
VISIONARY
It’s a literal display of new-meets-old South that makes
it easy to see why the guests are all so charmed.
“Research, I call it,” he chuckles.
That research has paid off, giving Dewberry what he
calls “a crystal clear idea” of how he wants guests to
feel at his hotel.
“The Dewberry style of service emphasizes sincerity
over obligation. We are devoted to attending to our
guest wants and needs,” he says. “From the design
of the chairs and procurement of vintage furniture
to lighting and artwork and wallpaper to our own
bespoke amenities and scent – I can comfortably
say that what you see and experience is a distinctly
high level of detail.”
Dewberry is working to expand that brand of luxury,
using the Charleston hotel as a flagship location
that will inspire future outposts, including a
planned hotel in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“Our aim is to be considered one of the best
hotel brands in the world, not just
Charleston. Each of
our hotels will aim to be a quintessential five-star
representation of the city in which it resides,” he
says. “I think that’s a huge part of what keeps new
guests coming and returning guests coming back.
Through The Dewberry, they see Charleston as it
was, as it is today and, perhaps, as it may evolve in
the future.”
When asked about his hotel’s philosophy, Dewberry
doesn’t hesitate.
“What we’ve created is truly a place for everyone.
What I mean by that is this: The Dewberry serves
as an awe-inspiring place of wonder to a curious
eight-year old, a taste of the good life for an
ambitious 30-year old and the well-earned privilege
of accomplishment for a 68-year old,” he says. “Fivestar
but down-to-earth. The Dewberry is luxury with
a soul.”
The Dewberry Hotel
thedewberrycharleston.com
16
17
TASTEMAKER
Written by
Stephanie Burt
Photographed by
Cary Norton
18
TASTEMAKER
While most of us only enjoy the traditional
Thanksgiving meal once a year, there is a man
whose work you know (but whose name you
probably don’t) who typically tastes more than
20 or 30 turkeys for each holiday table. That’s
a lot of turkey, even for a food lover like Robby
Melvin, Southern Living Test Kitchen Director and
Recipe Developer for Time Inc. Food Studios in
Birmingham, Alabama.
This chef is tasked with not only creating the
recipes that will tempt many to try something
new for the gathering, but assuring that all
those birds and their backup side dishes will
have the show-stopping good looks to make you
pause on the page.
“I couldn’t do what I do, what we do, without
a dedicated team of people,” he says. “We have
a system of checks and balances to avoid
poaching ourselves, and it keeps us on our toes
to be as creative and as innovative as we can.”
His recipe for success walks the thin line
of staying true to Southern classics while
creating variations that feel fresh. Frankly, it’s
a lot for a summer day: the scent of roasted
turkey juxtaposed with the Alabama heat and
humidity just outside the building. Staging
a Thanksgiving feast as the temperatures
rise is just part of the strange world of recipe
publishing.
Robby began his career with Chef Frank Stitt,
then worked his way up to chef de cuisine under
Chef Chris Hastings at Hot and Hot Fish Club while
becoming an instructor and private caterer, too. He
takes it all in stride, although he might need to blast
a little old school hip hop music to power through
a break in the kitchen, where he can walk over to
a fridge stocked with LaCroix sparkling water for a
refreshing palate cleanser.
A typical week for Robby means that he and his
team test approximately 200 recipes, and when prep
for the holiday editions comes due, that number can
even reach higher. That’s a lot of writing, tweaking,
testing and tasting for a man who has to constantly
consider the reader’s comfort level, while at the
same time, inspiring them to try something new.
“Our goal is to constantly inspire the home cook
with techniques – both old and new – and creative
use of ingredients,” he explains. “I feel we do this
month after month with all of our recipes. With
19
TASTEMAKER
“It’s the small discoveries for me that are exciting –
when I hit on something that seems like a simple
variation but it changes everything, and it’s delicious.”
each recipe we try to bring something new to the
table – something that interests us – and spin that
in a way that any home cook can utilize. Often, we
simply try to breathe new life into classic recipes.”
For instance, take the classic, fruity Southern
Hummingbird Cake, the most requested recipe in
the history of Southern Living. Obviously, the original
recipe is tried and true, but the Southern Living team
20
TASTEMAKER
capitalized on popular interest and
created an additional five variations
on the classic, including a multi-tiered
version that adds white chocolate.
Test that many recipes a week, and any
cook, despite the lovely setting of the
sparkling new Time Inc. Test Kitchen
and Food Studios, will need inspiration
to continue to stay fresh. For that,
Robby ventures out into his hometown
of Birmingham, a city blessed with a
food scene that continually piques his
interest, with classic eateries such as
Highlands to the blossoming tiendas
and taquerias of the Latino community.
Currently, Robby is especially enamored
with Mi Pueblo Supermarket, located
in a former K-Mart turned grocery
store with an “incredible restaurant in
the back,” he says. “I love to just turn
off and go in and enjoy browsing, and
then have some fresh, simple food at
the restaurant there. It packs so much
feeling into every bite, and for some
reason, I always come out refreshed,
ready to cook again.”
These days he oversees recipe
development for multiple Time Inc.
titles, including Coastal Living and
Country Living, but it is his work at
Southern Living with which he is still
primarily associated. “The Southern
Living reader is hands down the most
loyal out there. They are constantly
inspiring us,” he says. “What’s been
great is, as they've changed, we have
too, almost hand in hand,”
Robby notes the strong tradition of
tested and well-crafted recipes that the
magazine has built through its 50 plus
years. “We've found that the traditions
21
TASTEMAKER
passed on from grandmother to granddaughter and
then to great-granddaughter have kept us with one
foot firmly planted in the traditions of Southern
food ways, and the other continually stepping
forward into the future of Southern food with
younger generations.”
To that end, he really feels that beet salads with goat
cheese are tired and that “kale, though great, and
now always part of the table, has had its big day.” On
the other end of the spectrum, Robby predicts that
egg dishes of all types, as well as the creative use
of nuts, are about to be big. And he should know, as
he is in some ways fueling those trends through his
work. It’s a job and a responsibility that he doesn’t
take lightly.
“It’s the small discoveries for me that are exciting
– when I hit on something that seems like a
simple variation but it changes everything, and it’s
delicious,” he says. “I always want to give the home
cook a teachable point.”
It’s that constant balance between old and new
that makes Robby’s job so engaging, and in
reality, it reflects the South and its food culture
rather accurately. Many of us know how to make
kombucha or score a wonderful runny cheese from
France, but we also like a good bowl of red beans
and rice or roasted turkey with all the fixings – and
a hummingbird cake for dessert.
ROBBY MELVIN
SouthernLiving.com
22
Written by
Jennifer Buller
Photographed by
the Art
PLACE
Ronnie Stripling
OF
& Marné Vermaak
23
ARTISTS
“Think you’re escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.”
- James Joyce, Ulysses
Place has a profound effect on the stories we tell. The places we come from, the places
we’ve been, the places that we imagine hold some secret promise. But place, as beauty, is
very much in the eye of the beholder. How a place can strike us and shape us is rarely the
same for two people.
Thomasville, in my geographical Rorschach test, is a place where longleaf pines soar and
spring storms rumble. A place where bumpy brick roads and chance meetings mean you
24
ARTISTS
best not be in a hurry. I had my first kiss here. My
people are laid to rest on Laurel Hill. It’s the only
semblance of roots I have in this life lived on the
move. I’ve spent more years away from this place
than I have here and yet, without it, my story is
incomplete.
The stories told by the two featured artists at this
year’s Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival – sculptor
Tom Hill from Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, and
South African painter Michelle Decker – are also
deeply suggestive of the places they call home. At
the same time, they remind us how our own stories
are shaped – sometimes most profoundly – by our
experiences elsewhere.
Tom Hill never strays too far from what he calls
“the Shire.” And while that may evoke hobbit-holes
25
ARTISTS
At the same time,
they remind us how
our stories are shaped
– sometimes most
profoundly – by our
experiences elsewhere.
and Bagginses for some of us, Tom’s Shire is a
bucolic greenbelt north of London designed to
keep the urban sprawl in check. His childhood
was spent scaling the fences on the family
farm, riding the hunt in a beaters wagon and
tinkering with tractors and classic cars – in fact,
he made quite a name for himself restoring a
1930s Model A hotrod before landing a job in
the big city.
The way back home to Hertfordshire and
life as a visual artist took Tom the “longest
way round,” like Joyce suggested. A season
snowboarding with the Whistler brothers
confirmed what he already knew – there’s more
to life than the 9-to-5 grind – and the sheer
variety of sculpture he saw driving down the
California coast opened his eyes to the creative
possibilities.
“It just kind of got me hooked,” Tom
remembers, “and I thought I’d have a go when
I got back.” He began welding as sculpture and
developed a knack for finding personality in the
inanimate, creating, as he put it, “a sculpture
that has a life in it.”
Before we take too much credit for what he
calls “The American dream, but doing it in
England,” I should point out that Tom’s work
couldn’t be more English if it served you tea.
His sculptures, made by welding together
26
ARTISTS
cast-off horseshoes from the family farm, hit all the
home notes – a twelve-point stag, foxhounds on the
chase, his trademark horses. His commissions come
from patrons like Lord and Lady Salisbury and the
organizers of the 2012 London Olympics.
Place is just as fundamental to the work of Michelle
Decker. Her larger-than-life paintings of South
African wildlife are the culmination of endless
hours in the bush, where she has sharpened her eye
for the quirks that reveal an animal’s true self – the
flick of a tufted ear, the tilt of a striped head.
It’s all about “finding the common ground
between humans and animals,” Michelle says, and
acknowledging that we share emotions like pride,
fear and longing. With her stark white backdrops
and monochromatic palette, nothing comes between
you and the raw experience of the animal spirit.
During a six-week stint as Artist in Residence at
Studio 209, Michelle turned her artistic eye to the
fauna of Thomasville and environs. That meant
recognizing what is truly wild and even dangerous
in Africa is likely, in the Red Hills region, the product
of careful conservation efforts. Widening her gaze
to our more common critters and expanding her
definition of wildlife towards the domesticated
became its own vocabulary: the squirrel and the
birddog, the Tennessee Walker and the fox as
synonymous with this landscape as lions in the
African bush.
There was something liberating about following
her muse to these unexpected places during her
Studio 209 residency, Michelle says. The impact was
27
It’s all about “finding the common ground
between humans and animals,” Michelle says.
personal. She was embraced by a community and, to
her mind, “surrounded by people who are trying to
do good.”
Small, out-of-the-way Thomasville was a haven for
people who rally together to create positive change.
Its rich traditions and strong values took Michelle
back to her childhood and to some important life
lessons. “I feel like a better person when I’m there,”
she says. “I try to do better and be better.”
James Joyce said that Dublin, the place I call home
today, was written on his heart. He turned his back
on this “fair city” with half his life still before him,
yet hardly a line he penned could deny her. Places
give our stories their weight. Though we may leave
them, they anchor us still.
MICHELLE DECKER
Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival Featured Painter
michelledeckerart.com
Tom Hill
Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival Featured Sculptor
tomhillsculpture.co.uk
28
“Art is not what you see,
but what you make others see.”
-Edgar Degas
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just steps from trails, parks, and all downtown
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Join us. And live easy.
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victoriaparkthomasville.com
Christmas
My Way
DECEMBER 9 & 10, 15-17, 2017
Talking With
APRIL 20-22, 28 & 29, 2018
Thomasville's only storefront theater,
presenting live entertainment year-round
since 1979
117 S. Broad Street, Downtown
www.tosac.com • (229) 226-0863
EXPLORER
Experiment in
Restoration
Written by
June Bailey White
Photographed by
Alicia Osborne
Drive along any country road in South Georgia and look out the car window.
Cow pasture, title pawn, peach orchard. Exfoliated cotton field, skinny dog, gas
station. Flea market in an abandoned chicken house, boiled peanuts, planted
pine trees. Cornfield, dump. Quail plantation, smell of smoke, burning woods.
Tomato plants in black plastic rows. Blueberries, farm stand. Wow! -- Olive trees!
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86
Big lake, picnic pavilion, mowed grass in oak
tree shade.
It is so interesting to see all of this diversity
of land use in just a few country miles:
innovative agriculture, healthy recreation, the
latest advancements in silviculture. One thing
is the same about all of it, though: It is land
that has been put to use for the benefit of
human beings.
The Komareks
were innovative and
imaginative stewards.
What is rare to find in our people-centered
world is a piece of land that is managed not
for the good of its owners, but for the native
plants and animals that live there. One of
those unusual places is Birdsong Nature
Center: 565 acres in Grady County, Georgia,
managed for the benefit of woodpeckers,
purple martins, gopher tortoises, wild
petunias and all of the other plants and
animals that belong there.
This wasn't always so. For over a hundred
years, Birdsong was an intensively farmed
working plantation owned by generations of
the Dickey family. Starting in the 1840s, they
cleared the woods, terraced sloping land, and
built and expanded a log house. They grew
26 different crops, including cotton, peanuts,
tobacco and rice. At times, the land supported
as many as ten families.
In the 1930s, this tired old farm came into the
caring hands of Ed Komarek, his wife Betty,
and brother Roy. This was the beginning of
the fascinating, grand and slow experiment in
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88
EXPLORER
restoration that visitors to Birdsong Nature
Center see today.
The Komareks were innovative and
imaginative stewards. They built up the soil
by planting legumes and rotating crops, and
trying out new kinds of grasses as forage
for cattle. The creative and visionary Betty
Komarek turned the chicken yard into a
wildlife habitat, beautifully landscaped to
attract a great variety of birds, with high tree
cover, shallow water baths and plants that
provided natural food for seed eating and
nectar feeding birds.
Betty was a keen observer. After one
productive acorn year, she noticed hundreds
of live oak seedlings sprouting in a low
hammock, planted, she assumed, by blue
jays. Since the little trees seemed to thrive
in that place, she saw to it that they were
protected and encouraged to grow.
Noticing that successive broods of bluebirds
needed a constant supply of insects, she
instituted a mowing schedule in an old
field; alternating strips were cut at six-week
intervals along the tops of the terraces, so
newly emerging grasses provided cover and
food for hatching grasshoppers.
Betty turned the Komarek experiment into
the nonprofit Birdsong Nature Center in
1986. Betty’s land management legacy is
well maintained there. The old chicken
yard that she so beautifully landscaped for
birds is now one of the most spectacular
wildlife viewing areas in the country – the
Bird Window – used as a model by landscape
designers.
Those little trees planted by blue jays have
grown into a magnificent shady grove called
the Live Oak Hammock, and 43 adopted
boxes for cavity nesting birds are maintained
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EXPLORER
and monitored in the Gin House Field where
Betty began encouraging grasshoppers.
In 2016, what had previously been a farm
field was planted back to the longleaf pine
that grew there 300 years ago. With careful
burning and periodic mowing, native grasses
are returning so that gopher tortoises now
forage where Hereford cattle and open range
DeSoto crosses once grazed on bahaia grass
pastures.
Today, visitors to Birdsong Nature Center can
attend classes for all ages, which are meant
to instill an appreciation of the outdoors and
education about natural history. Attendees
can learn to identify frogs by their songs,
dabble in the water at the edge of the pond
to see what tiny creatures they can dig up,
or collect mushrooms.
Members of the Friends of Birdsong and
volunteers contribute their talents to
the cause and upkeep of the land and its
facilities. There are mowed trails for walking
and a screened pavilion called The Listening
Place at the edge of the swamp, where in
the spring, anhingas, great blue herons and
egrets build their nests.
The overall feeling at Birdsong is
unmistakable: Human beings are visitors, as
the land that once belonged entirely to the
plants and animals that lived there is slowly
and carefully being returned to them.
Birdsong Nature Center
birdsongnaturecenter.org
90
Always
Be
Connecting
“Domi gave me the confidence to try
things I didn’t know were possible,”
Sabrina says.
91
Written by
Rob Rushin
Photographed by
Alex Workman
For a glimpse into the shriveled heart and soul of predatory capitalism, take
a gander at Alec Baldwin’s iconic turn in the 1992 movie Glengarry Glen Ross.
Baldwin portrays Blake, a “motivational” boss from hell who threatens that you
will either succeed or perish. Literally. “Always be closing!” is the ABC here, and
when one mope tries to pour himself a cuppa, Blake barks, “Put that down!
Coffee is for closers.” It is one of American cinema’s most quoted scenes.
Quick cut to 2017 and a trackside brick building in Tallahassee where a new
breed of aspiring entrepreneurs is gearing up to take the world by storm.
Nobody works under duress. Nobody lives in terror of failing. In fact, failure is
embraced as an opportunity to learn, an essential part of the process.
Sure, an idea gone wrong brings disappointment, even despair. But that’s where
working in a cooperative and supportive community pays dividends: You’re in
a boat with a bunch of folks like yourself, people who are happy to help you get
up, dust off and forge ahead.
Welcome to Domi Station, a business incubator/accelerator and co-working
beehive that is the antithesis of the beat down culture of Glengarry. Domi’s
leadership – Executive Director Lucas Lindsey, Director of Community Sabrina
Torres and Director of Programs Dominick Ard’is – embodies a collective polar
opposite to Baldwin’s motivational monster. The coffee? It flows freely for the
92
CONNECTOR
93
CONNECTOR
Everyone wants to
succeed, but most of the
people you meet at Domi
are just as concerned with
giving back.
makers and dreamers and doers willing to invest
the long hours necessary to build something out of
nothing. Pour another cup. Then get back to work.
Still, this is a tough love operation. The Domi
triumvirate is not interested in excuses for missed
deadlines or promised milestones. But even as
they hold your feet to the fire, their commitments
and – well, let’s be sappy – love for their charges is
authentic. They will do everything they can to help
you succeed, but they won’t do the work for you.
It’s hard to argue with results. During their first
three years, Domi members generated $8 million in
revenue and $5 million in investment.
The ABC for Domi is “Always Be Connecting.” Domi’s
list of partners is impressive: Florida Agricultural
and Mechanical University, Florida State University,
Tallahassee Community College, Leon County,
Launch Florida, Florida League of Cities and the
Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
As soon as you think you have a handle, Lucas
and team add more nodes to their network, more
components to their education program, and
a geographic reach that extends well beyond
Tallahassee to places like Tampa, the Space Coast,
North Carolina’s Research Triangle, Atlanta, Orlando
and Miami, and to dozens of local and regional
public and private concerns.
A brand new joint venture between Domi, FAMU
and the Office of Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum
is the I/O Avenue Coding Academy. This 12-week
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CONNECTOR
intensive program aims to fill a skills gap that
leaves hundreds of well paying jobs in the
Tallahassee technology sector unfilled each
year. More than 200 people applied for 18 slots
in the inaugural session.
Director of Programs Dominick Ard’is may be
the toughest of the tough love dispensers, but
the love he brings to his work always shines
through. If you show up ready to give your all,
Dom will go to the barricades on your behalf.
Of the three dozen entrepreneurs who endured
Dominick’s mentorship and cajoling in his
Get Started program so far, at least ten have
launched new businesses – covering a range
of occupations from fitness trainers to custom
bedding specialists to gourmet pico de gallo
artisans. The program is demanding, but it gets
results.
Everyone wants to succeed, but most of the
people you meet at Domi are just as concerned
with giving back. Take a look at DivvyUp, a
custom sock company. As sophomores at FSU,
founders Mitch Nelson and Jason McIntosh
envisioned a for-profit business that donated
a new pair of socks to a homeless shelter for
every pair sold.
After three years of working fulltime for no
pay – while they completed their degrees
– and after working through a variety
of manufacturers, brand messages and
distribution schemes, DivvyUp now employs a
staff of several dozen. They have so far donated
more than 16,000 pairs of socks to people
who need them most. Not bad for a couple of
college kids who borrowed $400 to launch a
crazy dream.
Jason notes, “Domi Station was pivotal in
DivvyUp's growth, from co-working space to
critical mentorship. Tallahassee is a special city
with the right ingredients to launch an idea.”
95
CONNECTOR
“You realize that all you need is perseverance
and an idea you feel passionate about.”
Domi and its partners are pushing back against
the cliché that the Tallahassee economy is a
bland landscape of nothing but government and
higher education. The Domi idea envisions a third
component, something home grown and organic:
a network of economic drivers that takes root and
thrives in harmony with the needs and strengths of
the local culture.
Strengthening this entrepreneurial ecosystem – both
in Tallahassee and the Big Bend region writ large –
is key to attracting and retaining the young talent
that can create a stabilizing third leg of economic
support. The vision extends well beyond Tallahassee
proper, to at least as far north as Thomasville, where
Domi is launching a partnership with Thomasville
Center for the Arts to turn up the heat for aspiring
local entrepreneurs.
It comes down to hard work and determination,
the secret sauce that is never really a secret. Lucas
likens Domi to open source architecture for software
development, an established, freely available
framework that lets motivated actors build upon
a proven methodology. That’s why the Domi team
shares openly with anyone who wants to learn how
to re-create the “stream of opportunity” that Domi
nurtures.
But nobody is resting on past achievement. Lucas
remarks, “No matter how much we’ve done, we
should be more connected than we are.”
Always Be Connecting. It’s as easy as ABC.
DOMISTATION
domistation.com
96
TRAILBLAZER
The success of arts
integration spread excitement
and motivation in classrooms
across the county as students
were shaped to think more
creatively.
MAGIC
Written by
Katie Mitchell
Photographed by
AJ Reynolds
All it takes is one peek
ACROSS
into Sims Academy of
Innovation and Technology
to see that it’s not your
typical high school. An
ultramodern facility nestled among the rolling pastures of Barrow County,
Georgia, Sims provides an astonishing contrast to its rural surroundings. A
typical student here might be serving lunch in a starched white chef’s jacket,
producing a film, or performing automobile repairs. Innovation is everywhere.
Sims is a shining example of the magic that can happen when a school system
combines science and the arts across the curriculum – It’s an approach that
97
THE CURRICULUM
can ignite a fire within any student. Based on
the National Career Clusters Framework, the
curriculum is designed around 17 different paths,
from architecture and construction to tourism and
culinary arts.
No matter which pathway a student chooses, they
all offer project-based learning to sharpen critical
thinking skills for real life success. The results are
undeniably impressive. In culinary arts, you will
find students managing a restaurant kitchen and
operating a café on campus, serving locals the kind
of fare that most would expect from a five star
98
TRAILBLAZER
A curricular transformation has bolstered
a strong community where families are
grateful to live, work, play and learn.
restaurant. In the agricultural education pathway,
students manage a fully operational greenhouse that
sells flowers to the community.
The story is the same in each area of focus –
hospitality students manage a gift boutique and
coffee shop, information technology students create
apps and web pages, and the engineering students
build working robots.
Through the teaching of practical skills, Science,
Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education
99
TRAILBLAZER
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TRAILBLAZER
and artistic guidance, Sims provides students with
real world experience, following a mission to bring
up capable and confident future business leaders
who are prepared to excel in any path they choose
after high school – whether it’s college life or an
immediate transition to career. The experience is
extraordinary.
Though Barrow County was once one of the fastest
growing areas in the state, it was hit hard during the
Though it didn’t happen overnight, the outcome
has been transformative. “Sims' planning really
began before the recession, but it morphed over the
years,” Dr. McMichael says. “Now there are strong
ties between Sims, the University of Georgia and the
University of North Georgia, local business leaders
and the Georgia Board of Education.”
By way of focused planning and these dedicated
community partnerships, Barrow County schools
recession almost a decade ago. Dr. Chris McMichael,
Superintendent of Barrow County Schools, says
that he saw arts integration as an answer to the
challenges of stalled economic growth.
They wanted something more engaging, Dr.
McMichael says, to pique student interest in
learning. “I began as an art teacher, so I know what
it could do. We began slowly, and the curriculum
really caught fire in the middle schools with our
project based learning arts integration model.” The
success of arts integration spread excitement and
motivation in classrooms across the county as
students were shaped to think more creatively.
have begun to thrive and arts integration continues
to guide the county’s strategy for the coming years.
In a national climate that often values engineering
or mathematics above the arts, Dr. McMichael sees
them as equally necessary factors of a student’s
educational experience. He says the school plans to
soon move from a STEM certification to a Science,
Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM)
designation.
Sims has also sustained a countywide partnership
with ArtsNow to help achieve full arts integration
across the district. ArtsNow, an organization that
also partners with Thomasville Center for the Arts
101
TRAILBLAZER
to develop new education programs for area schools,
has begun a foundational training program in
Barrow County.
In a repurposed middle school building, under the
guidance of ArtsNow instructors, Barrow County
teachers learn innovative strategies to increase
creative thinking and academic growth across the
curriculum. The goal is to implement a countywide
arts integration model and eventually create a
and Barrow’s forthcoming 600-seat indoor theater
as “places for gathering together – real community
centers” born of “a partnership that is beneficial for
the whole community.”
The results of local support have not only been
transformative for Barrow County students and
parents but also for county residents at large as
the schools are quickly becoming the center of a
thriving community.
magnet arts school for grades four through eight.
In addition to Dr. McMichael’s leadership and
ArtsNow’s innovative guidance, Sims Academy relies
on partnerships with local businesses ranging from
Georgia BioEd Institute to Chateau Elan, Hitachi-
Zosen, Lanier Technical College and numerous local
contractor supply companies.
A curricular transformation has bolstered a strong
community where families are grateful to live,
work, play and learn. The results are invaluable to
the region as students are motivated by science,
technology and the arts across the curriculum to
reach higher, think creatively and be ready for any
challenge that comes their way.
As a result of a special purpose local-option sales
tax referendum, a 1,500 seat amphitheater opened
in the summer of 2017 on the Sims campus with a
community concert by country artist Montgomery
Gentry. Dr. McMichael sees the new amphitheater
Sims Academy of
Innovation and Technology
simsacademyit.org
102
PLACEMAKER
“We knew the pieces were there.
We just needed to think a little out
of the box to get where we
wanted to go.”
103
PLACEMAKER
Going Small
to Live
LARGE
Written by
Ben Brown
Photographed by
Ronnie Stripling
The last thing Ocean Springs, Mississippi, architect Bruce
Tolar imagined in 2005 was that he was about to help birth a
neighborhood design movement. Or that a milestone in the
movement’s coming of age was likely to occur 15 years later in a
historic downtown neighborhood in Thomasville, Georgia.
That fall, Bruce and his family were crowded inside a travel
trailer, similar to the FEMA trailers that would soon house many
others after Hurricane Katrina leveled much of the Mississippi
coastline.
“We were grateful for shelter,” says Bruce. “But we knew one
thing for sure, a trailer is not a place to call home.”
That thought dominated discussions during the October
2005 Mississippi Renewal Forum convened by then-Governor
Haley Barbour. Its goal: to inspire innovations, not only for
the immediate, post-Katrina recovery, but also for rebuilding
communities in ways that assured resident security and
prosperity for generations to come.
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PLACEMAKER
New housing types were high on the agenda, with
compactness and affordability as key criteria. Bruce and his
forum colleagues knew from their experience with private
clients, including those who could afford much bigger homes,
that there were ways to go small and still live large.
Before the storm, Bruce designed and built custom homes in
the exclusive communities of Rosemary Beach, WaterSound
and WaterColor on Florida’s northwest coast. Though large
compared to the Katrina Cottage designs that emerged
from the forum, many of those high-end beach houses
occupied smaller lots and contained less square footage than
suburban McMansions in the same premium price range.
Bruce was convinced that Katrina Cottage-type homes could
provide a model beyond the storm zone. So he acquired a
parcel with walkability to Ocean Springs’ downtown, and over
the next four years, populated it with 15 Katrina Cottages.
Next door, private developers copied the idea, building 29
rental units based on Tolar designs and others inspired by
the Katrina Cottage effort. And in Pass Christian to the west,
Bruce and the same developers built another cluster of intown
cottages.
Bruce and his forum colleagues knew from their
experience with private clients, including those who
could afford much bigger homes, there were ways to
go small and still live large.
105
PLACEMAKER
Those models made Bruce Tolar a go-to expert
on the design and construction of infill cottage
neighborhoods. Yet, despite their ambitions, many
communities struggled to piece together the
components required to overcome marketplace
and policy barriers. If the approaches Bruce and
his colleagues were exploring were to have the
impact they hoped, there had to be tweaks not just
in house design, but also in the ways housing and
neighborhoods are planned and financed.
A key reason that Bruce’s clients in those luxury
communities in Florida paid a premium for smaller
personal space was access to high value public
106
PLACEMAKER
amenities: the beach and
shopping and entertainment
within walking distance. Ocean
Springs, a historic waterfront
town with even more walkable
choices, offered the same
advantages.
Here’s the difference:
Affordability for the Florida
beachfront properties was
determined by the capacities
of high-wealth buyers to
cover the costs of location
desirability. In Ocean Springs,
where affordability at lower
income ranges was a priority,
the marketplace premium for
location would have contorted
private developers’ budgets
and forced price points beyond
affordability targets.
“What made the numbers
work for us was a publicprivate
partnership,” says
Bruce. “Developers bought the
land. Federal and state grants
helped pay costs for many of
the units. The town supported
our goals. And a nonprofit,
Mercy Housing and Human
Development, got grants to help
with landscaping and other
elements that lowered costs and
increased the appeal of the new
neighborhoods.”
The thriving South Georgia town
of Thomasville didn’t have an
obvious housing emergency. But
like many other communities in
America, it had gaps in quality
housing choices for a broader
range of incomes and lifestyles.
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PLACEMAKER
Thomasville didn’t have a hurricane. But, says Bruce,
“what they did have was a sense of urgency to make
something really good happen, plus the right people
and the right institutions to see it through.”
And, says Bruce, it had something else: “a sense of
urgency to make something really good happen,
plus the right people and the right institutions to
see it through.”
The City of Thomasville committed to revitalizing
a historic in-town neighborhood. It joined with
five nonprofits – the Thomas County Land Bank
Authority, the Landmarks historic preservation
group, Habitat for Humanity and the Williams
Family Foundation of Georgia – to piece together
properties to create a 10-acre subsection of the
existing neighborhood that was to become Victoria
Park. And they added supportive infrastructure,
including sewer and water connections.
That groundwork reduced costs for a newly formed
company of design and development professionals
that included Bruce, John Anderson of Portland,
Oregon, David Kim of New York, and Will Burgin of
Columbus, Georgia.
The timing couldn’t have been better. The
Thomasville plan coalesced as a growing number
of policymakers and real estate pros across the
country were becoming convinced that new
demographic and marketplace realities required
new approaches to housing.
representing those generations echoed precisely
those desires.
By this fall, the first two cottages of Victoria Park
will be out of the ground and offered for sale below
$200,000, the most in-demand price range for new
housing in America. Building on Katrina Cottage
lessons, the cottages will maximize space and
energy efficiency without sacrificing design quality.
Which means, among other details, nine-foot
ceilings, ample windows and premium construction
materials inside and out.
Anticipating demand for even more options, the
Bruce-Anderson-Kim-Burgin group began the
process of acquiring adjacent parcels on which
to add more cottage courts and small-scale
multifamily rentals. Over time, more than 130 new
units could fill Victoria Park, increasing the potential
impact of the Thomasville model nationwide.
“We’re getting a high quality, small-scale
development that strengthens a historic, close-in
neighborhood,” says Brian, “and we’re expanding
choices for lots of folks anxious to take advantage
of downtown life without having to get into a car for
every task.”
“We recognize what lots of other towns recognize
– a growing demand, especially from young
professionals and downsizing baby boomers, to
live where they can walk or bike to where they
work and play,” says Thomasville city planner
Brian Herrmann. Indeed, during informal focus
group discussions in Thomasville, participants
BRUCE TOLAR
victoriaparkthomasville.com
108
FEATURED Artists
June Bailey White has
lived all of her life in Thomasville,
Georgia. Now retired, she taught
first grade at Jerger School for
many years and also had a career
as a writer. Her latest book is
Nothing with Strings.
Jennifer Buller Currently
living in her 39th house, Jennifer
is a freelance writer and translator.
The erstwhile brat of an Army
colonel and a Thomasville High
School salutatorian, she is the
trailing spouse of her German
man of mystery. Her writing gigs have run the
international gamut: from PR for Italian travel
and programs for the Braunschweig Ballet to
an anthology recently launched at Dublin’s Red
Line Book Festival. She is a graduate of UVA and
Middlebury, a mother of two and a frequent,
grateful visitor to Thomasville, which she likes to
call her forever home.
STEPHANIE Burt grew up
in Charlotte, North Carolina,
on good Southern cooking and
lots of books. She received both
her BA and MA in English from
UNC Charlotte, where she taught
English and American Studies.
Her writing has taken her from the haunted halls
of old mountain mansions to the white beaches of
the west coast of Florida, but these days, all things
culinary fill her plate. She’s the creator and host of
The Southern Fork podcast and a freelance writer for
a variety of publications, from Bake From Scratch to
Zagat. thesouthernfork.com
KATIE MITCHELL is a freelance
writer and a composition instructor
at Brenau University, where she also
directs the Writing Center. A native
Georgian, she enjoys using writing
to explore the changing nature of
the South and Southern identity.
Her work has been featured on Sweatpants & Coffee,
Mamalode, Alternet and The Huffington Post, among
others. She is currently creating a series of online
writing courses for women. She resides in Cumming,
Georgia, with her two energetic kids and one lazy
brown Labrador.
AJ Reynolds is an Atlantabased
sports and documentary
photographer and the multimedia
editor at Brenau University. Having
previously worked at the Athens
Banner-Herald, he is no stranger
to spending Saturday afternoons
between the hedges and Friday nights at the 40 Watt.
In 2015, AJ received the Photographer of the Year
award from the Georgia Press Association. When
not behind the lens, AJ is probably watching soccer,
debating which coffee beans to buy or being accused
of talking too fast.
Rob Rushin is a writer and
musician based in Tallahassee,
Florida. An insatiable seeker of
stories, he used to believe a cup of
coffee and a good book made the
best of all parties until he thought
to add cheesecake to the menu. He
is a father of two, well and truly married and a lover
of dogs. He has written for the Tallahassee Democrat
and is a regular contributor to The Bitter Southerner. He
is currently at work on a collection of essays and two
novels. immunetoboredom.com
TO BECOME A FEATURED ARTIST
Illustrators, Photographers, Writers and Graphic Designers
Please contact: Thomasville Center for the Arts | (229) 226-0588 | thom@thomasvillearts.org
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