THOM 14 | Fall/Winter 2020

Volume 8 | issue 1
Fall/Winter 2020
A

Volume 8 | Issue 1
Fall/Winter 2020
Publisher
Thomasville Center for the Arts
Executive Editor
Michele Arwood
Creative Director
Haile McCollum
Publication Designer
Jennifer Ekrut
Partner Page Designer
Christie Clark
10
Partner Development
Joanne Thomas
Copy Editor
Emmy Táncsics
Photographers
Aaron Coury
Gabe Hanway
Molly Hayden
Gray Houser
Timothy Hursley
Jason Kantner
Tanya Lacourse
Stephanie Richardson
Daniel Shippey
Heather Troutman
Erin Wessling
Writers
Katie Chastain
Andrea Goto
Jessica Leigh Lebos
Audrey Post
Kenny Thompson
70
thomasvillearts.org
600 E. Washington St., Thomasville, GA
229.226.0588
76

contents
Fall/Winter 2020
64
ARTIST
4 The Encompassing
Wingspan of Tom Swanston
Connector
10 Antennae Up!
An Atlanta “creative” brings
idea people together to strengthen
and improve their community.
Creator
16 Graceful Pivots
Creating community on-stage and off-.
22 THOM’s Guide
Innovator
64 The Future of Food
Changing lives one crop at a time.
Catalyst
70 Architecture of Community
Auburn University’s Rural Studio teaches
people to build on their strengths.
16
Explorers
76 Thinking by Design
The art and science of creative learning.
Collaborators
82 More Than A Mural
Savannah pushes the notion of public art.
88 Featured Artists
Cover photo by Stephanie Richardson

Letter From
the Editor
Day by Day
If you stand in the right spot on our front
porch, in the distance you can see the one
remaining historic cottage on the block. Just
in front of it, through the limbs of an old oak,
rises the shell of a new hotel. It’s a striking
view that offers contrast between where we’ve
been, where we are today and what we hope
for tomorrow.
Not a day goes by without someone asking
how I feel about our new “neighbor” moving
in—that’s no exaggeration. Small towns are
charming that way; we care about how people
feel about things. We don’t know much about
each other yet, but I know I am grateful the
hotel is taking a chance on us, and I believe
that it will bring new vitality to our beloved
downtown. That’s not something a rural
city gets to experience very often. And I’m
thankful for what it continues to teach me
about our community. First and foremost,
that it has been built much like the hotel: one
day at a time.
Community building as a field of practice is
aimed at creating or enhancing a geographic
area. Say the word community to me and it
conjures up an image of people who care
about each other pulling together for a
common purpose. Add words like planning
and development to it, though, and I feel a lot
of brain work and heavy lifting coming, so I’d
better rest up for the long haul!
But creating community? That is something
much simpler that we can all do through
the seemingly insignificant choices we
make every day: popping in to meet a new
merchant, saying hello to someone we don’t
know, delivering food to someone who needs
nourishment. That’s the way we do it in
Thomasville. We create community by getting
to know one another and by investing our time
in the people where we live.
The life-changing events we have all
experienced this year have illuminated the
importance of the people we engage with
every day, and how lost we can feel when these
connections are broken. Zoom out for a wider
perspective and you realize it’s how we live
daily, within each of our communities, that
shapes our American way of life. Let us hope
that what we’ve learned this year will help us
create stronger relationships locally to help
our country thrive.

In this 14th issue of THOM, we feature
some of the South’s finest community
creators. They know that the well-being of
any city is dependent on the quality of the
relationships that make it up. If all goes as
planned, you’ll get to meet and learn from
them at our first THOM Live! conference,
in spring 2021. They and others like them
will inspire you with their stories and
share the tools they’ve used to make their
communities better places to live.
issue along with our exhibitions. Behind
these businesses are real people we’ve
met simply by being a part of the everyday
life of our city. Each of them embodies the
true spirit of partners— people working
together to advance a common goal.
We’re grateful for their investment and
encourage you to get to know them if you
don’t already. You’ll be glad you did.
Thirty-eight partners have made this
issue possible. That’s a lot of great people
pulling together for a purpose! Alongside
them are Synovus, presenter of the
Center’s 25th Wildlife Arts Festival; and
Ashley Homestore, which presents this
Michele Arwood
Executive Director,
Thomasville Center for the Arts
marwood@thomasvillearts.org

Written by
Jessica Leigh Lebos
Photographed by
Stephanie Richardson
The
Encompassing
Wingspan
of Tom Swanston
4

EVERY SPRING THE SKY ABOVE
Middle Georgia rings with
thousands of excited trills.
These clarion calls and the
accompanying beating of wings
signify that the North American
sandhill cranes are making their
annual pilgrimage to cooler
weather, alighting for a short
rest in the Piedmont’s marshes
and wetlands before heading
farther north.
5

artist
“There is also emotional migration. How do you
get someone to change their thinking from one
point of view to another?”
“I usually hear them before I see them,” says
artist Thomas Swanston, who has lived in the
path of these migratory flocks for more than four
decades. Face turned to the sky during these few
weeks of the sandhill cranes’ pit stop, Swanston
often observes their mesmerizing practice of
“kettling”—spiraling upward in tight circular
patterns as they crest among thermal updrafts.
“They come right up over the house, swirling
like a gyre. I’m just fascinated by their rhythm.”
For Swanston the cranes are more than
an ornithological marvel; they are muses.
Emulating the endless chromatic variations
of the sky, his massive paintings invariably
feature these birds in flight, traveling from one
end of the canvas to the other and beyond. It is
an inspiration rooted in nature’s ancient cycles:
Sandhill cranes have existed on the planet for
at least ten million years and have followed the
same migratory path for the past ten millennia.
(A small population does live year-round in the
Okefenokee Swamp.)
To take photographs of the birds that he later
projects onto canvas, Swanston travels to
Nebraska’s Central Platte River Valley, where
birders gather each spring to observe the
spectacle of 600,000 sandhill cranes converging
in the broad shallows. Covid-19 left 2020’s
homecoming unwitnessed (“There’s no way
to socially distance when you’re shoulder to
shoulder in a bird stand,” Swanston says, sighing),
though the cranes’ annual journey continues to
be meaningful to its now remote observers.
“We can use migration as a theoretical
framework in a multitude of ways,” Swanston
says. “There is the physical distance covered, the
pattern made over and over again. There is also
emotional migration: How do you get someone
to change their thinking from one point of view
to another?”
While the cranes pursue their circular course,
Swanston’s career path has been more linear:
Formally trained at New York City’s Studio
School, he received his M.F.A. from Parsons
School of Design, where he met his wife and
partner-in-art, Gail Foster. Together they
eschewed the experimental movements of their
peers and followed the tradition of the Hudson
River School, adopting a rigor and technique still
embedded in their work.
6

“I still think of myself as a landscape painter,”
Swanston says with a shrug.
An offer of an old farmhouse led the couple
from New York to rural Georgia, where both
enjoyed the greater Atlanta art community.
Swanston’s abstract designs found their way
into textiles, wallpaper and other high-end
decor, though he craved a unifying principle
that also expressed his concern for the ecologic
and economic state of the world around him.
“I came to a point where I wanted to integrate
everything I knew,” he recalls.
Around 2008 Swanston began photographing
the cranes and adding their winged profiles to
his work. He chose gilding as the medium with
which to showcase the birds’ seemingly magical
flight, elevating them from the animal world to
something more divine.
“By using a precious metal, the element of
preciousness is embodied in the subject matter
itself,” he says.
Each crane begins as a projection traced and
carefully outlined on canvas and then laid on with
gilder’s glue. To demonstrate the gilding process,
Swanston runs a fine brush called a tip through
his hair to generate a bit of static electricity, then
uses it to lift a tissue-thin sheet of palladium
onto the canvas. After pressing it with glassine (a
thin, dense, transparent paper), he sweeps away
7

“It’s a perfect opportunity to see how culture—
visual culture as well as agriculture—can be a
point of community and place-making.”
the excess metal to reveal a perfect shimmering
crane, neck and wings outstretched.
“Metal leaf enables more movement in light
than metallic paint,” he says, explaining his
preference for the painstaking process. “Sunlight,
ambient light, fluorescents: The painting changes
depending on what is shining on it.”
Swanston’s crane paintings quickly became
coveted installations and currently grace
galleries and commercial spaces all over the
world, from Paris’s EuroDisney to Shanghai’s
Fashion District to the mirrored Swanston Room
in Charleston’s sumptuous Dewberry Hotel.
His exhibition at Thomasville’s Wildlife Arts
Festival’s 25th anniversary centers on three
anchor pieces glowing with ochre-colored
sunset tones and the cranes’ swooping forms.
Swanston and his studio assistant, the artist
Ralph “rEN” Dillard, built the thick gilded
frames, embellishing them with a billowing
gold motif that conjures the influence of the
8

artist
past board member of the Alliance of Artists’
Communities, Swanston founded AIR Serenbe,
the artist-in-residence program in the nearby
community model of Serenbe, in 2007 and
envisions rural Rico, just 45 minutes from
downtown Atlanta, as a rich intersection of arts
and economics.
Japanese artist Hokusai and the “amber waves of
grain” of the cranes’ Nebraska summer home.
The scale of Swanston’s paintings means they
require space, and last year he and Foster
remodeled a stunning mid-century brick
Masonic lodge in the tiny agrarian community
of Rico in Chattahoochee Hill Country, west of
Atlanta. The high ceilings easily accommodate
Swanston’s 12-foot panels, and on the other side
of a partition, where a windowed garage door
allows a daylong bath of sunlight, Foster paints
her haunting, sparkling celestial abstractions.
Across the foyer, sculptor Rachel Garceau casts
delicate porcelain forms from molds.
That StudioSwan has become a creative nexus
is no accident. A former gallery owner and a
“It’s a perfect opportunity to see how culture—
visual culture as well as agriculture—can be a
point of community and place-making,” he says.
This impulse to expand what is possible can be
traced back to Swanston’s fascination with the
sandhill cranes. Even as the birds navigate the
disappearance of wetland habitats and other
threats, they manage to thrive independent
of human limitations, carving their migratory
circle, the obstacles of 2020 hardly a blip in their
ten-million-year evolutionary journey.
Says Swanston, eyes to the sky: “Life has been
interrupted, but the cranes continue their path.”
Tom Swanston
studioswan.com
9

Written by
Andrea Goto
Photographed by
Aaron Coury,
Gray Houser,
Tanya Lacourse,
Heather Troutman
Antennae
Up!
An Atlanta “creative”
brings idea people together
to strengthen and improve
their community.
10

TWO YEARS AGO BLAKE HOWARD
had already invested more than 16 years
in Matchstic, an expanding brand-identity
firm in Atlanta he’d founded at the age of
just 22. His roster of clients included large
organizations, such as Ameris, Chick-fil-A
and the Arthritis Foundation. At 27 he’d
been honored as one of the city’s “top 40
under 40,” the youngest ever to make the
list, and was already a family man, married
and settled in an Atlanta suburb with two
children and a third on the way.
Life was good—great, actually—by all
accounts; yet the slump that creative
people know all too well had started to rear
its ugly, motivation-killing head. “I wasn’t
feeling that inspired, and indifference was
creeping in,” Howard says.
Luckily, Howard knows a thing or two
about both inspiration and indifference—
where to find the former, and how to
dodge the latter. This is thanks in large
part to his experience as the founder of
the Atlanta chapter of CreativeMornings
and to the exposure that network has
provided a close community of artists who
face similar obstacles.
Driven to Create
Launched in New York City in 2008 by
Tina Roth Eisenberg, CreativeMornings
says its intention is to “bring together
people who are driven by passion and
purpose, confident that they will inspire
one another, and inspire change in
neighborhoods and cities around the
world.” It accomplishes this by offering
a free monthly meet-up centered on
an inspiring speaker who lectures on a
theme, such as “invention” or “wonder.”
(Think of it as a networking event minus
the awkward milling about and selfimportant
business-card exchanges.)
Howard serendipitously stumbled across
a CreativeMornings talk while making a
presentation at a conference in Chicago.
Roth Eisenberg also attended the event,
and Howard approached her about forming
11

an Atlanta chapter. “I just remember thinking,
‘Man, Atlanta really needs this,’” he recalls. “At
the time it was in Paris, San Francisco, New
York—big-time creative cities. I wanted Atlanta
to be on that map.”
Within months Howard had launched
CreativeMornings Atlanta (the tenth chapter at
the time), and the program has since expanded
to 214 cities in 65 countries.
What’s the Big Idea?
While CreativeMornings is a global network
of creatives, it’s the connections made at the
local level that may matter most. “Social media
platforms are great, but they’re never going to
replace the value of face-to-face interactions,”
Howard says. CreativeMornings provides an
approachable, accessible and inclusive format
“Social media platforms are great, but they’re never
going to replace the value of face-to-face interactions.”
12

Connector
important because you get to know people in a
deeper way.”
that builds relationships and spurs change
within neighborhoods and cities.
The selected speakers are not “professional
communicators” (á la Ted Talks); they’re
creative locals with varying backgrounds
who are providing innovative solutions to
their cities’ problems. And from this blooms
conversation, inspiration, collaboration and
community.
Nine years in, Howard credits the program’s
success not only to its format and the quality
of its speakers, but also to its consistency. “The
repetition of offering a talk every month is
Keeping to a tight 60-to-90-minute time limit,
CreativeMornings begins with attendees
participating in a low-risk activity, such as
a scavenger hunt or collective art piece.
Conversation comes naturally this way, Howard
says, unlike in most business networking. There
may be a brief performance, for example poetry
reading or dance, before the talk begins. “This sets
the tone and adds a layer of emotion,” he says.
Battle of the Block
His work at Matchstic and with
CreativeMornings got Howard thinking about
creative professionals and the special problems
they face. “I did some research a while back,
asking what the biggest barriers were in their
careers or what brings the most anxiety to the
profession,” Howard says. The top two answers
he got were, having trouble staying inspired and
dealing with difficult coworkers who “crush your
spirit,” making you afraid to get their input.
13

“Safety is important in creating amazing work,”
Howard says. What we produce feels personal,
he explains, and we tend to think that “I don’t
like that idea” is the same as “I don’t like you.”
“Most accountants I know don’t have a personal
attachment to their spreadsheets,” he says. “But
graphic designers, or writers, or photographers,
for instance, feel that their work represents who
they are and their value in the world.”
Being a creative is equal parts risk and reward.
We often have to draw on what Howard refers
to as “creative courage” when we put our heart
and soul into our work and hope people like it.
And when our innovative well starts to run dry,
we need to nourish it with inspiration.
Rise and Shine
To address his waning inspiration, Howard
took a month off and did exactly what the
CreativeMornings attendees do every month:
He looked for inspiration. “I spent two to three
hours each day reflecting, journaling, dreaming
and creating art just for fun,” Howard says.
Out of this came the idea to launch a podcast,
The Creative Rising, in which he speaks with
his peers about creativity, courage and careers.
Now in its third season, “the podcast has been
so fulfilling,” Howard says. “I’ve felt inspired
to learn—the production side, how to ask
questions—there’s a lot to it that I’ve been
energized by.”
“Keep your antennae up and try to catch whatever
inspiration is floating around in the ether.”
14

Connector
We asked creatives from across the
South to share where they find inspiration
when indifference creeps in:
Kelly Abbott
Creative director, SouthLife Supply Co
I find most of my inspiration in the average
day-to-day items around me. My latest design
inspiration came from our ceiling fan. I keep a
notebook filled with all of my ideas so I can refer
to it when I’m feeling a little creatively dry.
This also includes playing host to creative
professionals who share their stories—
about everything from overcoming the
fear of public speaking to learning how to
unplug from work.
An artist friend once told Howard to
“keep your antennae up and try to catch
whatever inspiration is floating around in
the ether.” He works to reject indifference
by finding inspiration no matter where he
is in life: through the conversations on the
podcast, the connections made through
CreativeMornings, the books he reads to
his children at night, the river in North
Georgia where he fly fishes…
Creative thinkers and doers are finally
being recognized as problem solvers
who add real value to their professions
and communities. Thanks to people like
Howard, we’re finding each other and
leaning on each other. We’re creating
opportunity. We’re living with our
antennae up to stay engaged in and
inspired by the world around us. For the
benefit of the world around us.
Blake Howard
matchstic.com
creativerising.com
creativemornings.com/cities/atl
Sanford Greene
Comic artist
I listen to NPR all day—sometimes to my
detriment! I also listen to Sirius XM “Rock the
Bells” and “Rap Is Outta Control,” and podcasts
like Drink’n’Draw, The Sidebar Podcast and
Off Panel.
Darlene Crosby Taylor
Public art director, Thomasville Center
for the Arts
The Cool Hunter website does it for me.
Everything they post fuels my creativity—
art, architecture, design and travel. Other than
that, when I’m really stuck, I go for a swim to
clear my head.
Rachel Fackender
Associate director, The Moore Agency
I believe genius happens in teams, not silos,
so oftentimes I turn to people—whether they
be friends or colleagues—to serve as that true
catalyst for creativity. One of the best things
about our local creative community is that we
collaborate, we encourage, and we remind each
other that we can indeed conquer the world.
Amy Condon
Writer, author, editor
I go to galleries, local bookstores and the beach.
I listen to Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda and
Revisionist History, and I blast David Bowie,
Prince, Dolly Parton or Sturgill Simpson (because
none of them colored in the lines).
Kristen Baird-Rabun
Jewelry designer
I get my best ideas when I get outside and go
for a run. It calms the chatter in my head so
I can go into “design mode.”
Michael Nolin
Film producer, writer, director
I binge-watch Turner Classic Movies or open up
“Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations.”
Jonathan Rabb
Author
I read the news, Joan Didion and Graham Greene.
I’m also inspired by history books.
15

graceful
Creating community onstage and off- for more than 20 years.
Written by
Jessica Leigh Lebos
Photographed by
Jason Kantner
16

“Most of
what they
were wearing
was held
together with
hot glue and
safety pins.”
17

CREATOR
“It really gave
closure. These are
girls who are used
to seeing each other
four days a week
for years; they’re
like sisters. They
needed this.”
LONG BEFORE THE AZALEAS BLOOM EVERY YEAR,
the dancers of South Georgia Ballet are buzzing
like bees.
Their spring show takes months to prepare, from
building sets to perfecting the angle of each
arabesque. Every dancer puts in hundreds of hours
tied up in the satin ribbons of their toe shoes for
the annual performance that is a hallmark of
the company, and of Thomasville. It’s especially
important to the company’s high school seniors,
according to its artistic and executive director,
Melissa June.
Back in the innocent days of February 2020, June
was pleased with how pre-production for The
Lion King was coming along. Then the Covid-19
pandemic hit, interrupting practice schedules,
classes and everything else.
“We thought it was going to be two weeks,” June
remembers with a laugh. “We filmed ourselves
doing the choreography and posted it on YouTube
for the dancers to learn, figuring we would come
back together and catch up.”
In ballet shoes since the age of three, June herself
grew up dancing in Daytona Beach and received
her degree in dance from Florida State. After a stint
in professional companies in the Carolinas, family
brought her back to Florida, where she served
as ballet mistress of Volusia County until South
Georgia Ballet founder Alison Bundrick lured her
north with a job offer in 2011.
“I absolutely fell in love with Thomasville,” June
says. “It’s so rich in art, and when I saw the Center
for the Arts and how much art surrounded it—
performance art, visual art, art students, the
building itself—I knew this was the opportunity
I was looking for.”
Now in her tenth season with SGB, June has
18

shepherded many toddlers in tutus to become fullfledged
ballerinas. Yet nothing had prepared her for
the professional challenges of spring 2020.
When statewide shelter-in-place orders made
theaters go dark and online learning became the
standard overnight, she realized that the detour
would become a full pivot. June and her staff
worked through the frustrations of teaching online
and blocking without a physical space.
As the weeks turned into months, however, there
was never a question but that the show must go on.
“One day it came to me that The Lion King is set
outside,” June says, “and I thought, ‘Why can’t we
do that?’”
19

CREATOR
This epiphany quickly morphed into a pragmatic
solution with some helpful coincidences June calls
“God winks.” Board member Ethan Lovett, who
co-owns the video production agency Summerhill
Creative, agreed to film and edit the show. Then
a parent offered their 30-acre farm for socially
distanced rehearsals. The farm so reminded June of
the show’s “Pride Lands” setting that she decided to
film it on the property.
The next step was to present the idea to the
dancers.
“That was tough, because the seniors wanted to
have that last graduation moment onstage for their
parents. But once we got everyone on board, it just
flowed. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked.”
The dancers met outdoors in small groups
for the month of June, rehearsing from 9 a.m. to
7 p.m. daily as Lovett filmed. Costumes proved a
challenge, since the vendors South Georgia relied
on closed during the pandemic.
“Most of what they were wearing was held together
with hot glue and safety pins,” June confesses,
laughing.
20

But the wardrobe and the weather held, and Lovett
was able to edit the final footage in less than two
weeks. Then came the final “God wink”—a chance
meeting with local pastor Dr. Walter Sims, who
volunteered to lend his sonorous baritone as
narrator, giving the production a unifying voice.
Though the future of stage productions this
season remains uncertain, June is already
brimming with ideas for a safely distanced
Nutcracker with a German-inspired Christmas
market and rotating sets.
By the end of July, June and her staff were able to
screen The Lion King safely for live audiences of
fewer than 50 people at the Center.
“It really gave closure,” June sums up. “These are girls
who are used to seeing each other four days a week
for years; they’re like sisters. They needed this.”
The adapted performance serves as an example of
how June influences her dancers in areas beyond
choreography. She has always affirmed that the
work ethic, time management and perseverance
required of ballet translate into success in life.
“I’ve learned so much about leadership and
perseverance from Ms. Melissa,” former company
dancer Maryam Sibley says of June. Sibley took her
first ballet class at South Georgia when she was
three and is now in her freshman year at Sewanee.
“Even in the quiet moments when we were
stretching at the barre, she always demonstrated
how important it is to keep going, to keep looking
for the light at the end of the tunnel, for ourselves
and for others.”
That sense of doing for others runs through the
company. The studio offers classical ballet training
for aspiring dancers as well as general instruction
to more than 150 children a year through its Step
Up partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs and
the Thomasville Community Resource Center. The
nonprofit also pioneered the Special Steps program,
which brings together staff and students with
special needs.
June credits the program’s success to the support
from the community, and to her board in that it
gave her the freedom to push creative boundaries,
and to explore and experiment.
But the greatest result of the pandemic pivot is that
she showed her dancers how to be flexible not only
in their bodies but in their circumstances.
“In the long run, we’re building resilient people
who will be creative in their approach to problem
solving. That’s what this company is really about.”
South Georgia Ballet
southgeorgiaballet.org
21

There is no power
for change
greater than a
community
discovering what
it cares about.
– Margaret J. Wheatley

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Written by
Audrey Post
Photographed by
Daniel Shippey
64

The Future
of Food
Changing
lives one crop
at a time.
FREDANDO JACKSON IS ON A MISSION—
a get-down-on-your-knees-and-dig-in-thedirt
kind of mission—to bring fresh food
to people without access to it. In turn he’s
bringing customers to small Southwest
Georgia farmers who have been shut out of
the commercial market.
In the process “Farmer Fredo” and his
partners are also teaching people to grow
their own food, cook it and obtain fresh
food to supplement their homegrown crops.
Through a network of gardens at churches,
community centers and schools as well as
cooking classes through the Cooperative
Extension Service and tasting sessions with
students and parents, Flint River Fresh—a
subsidiary of the state Department of
Agriculture’s “Georgia Grown” program—is
changing lives.
to garden. And you’d be amazed: Some of
these young people have never been taught
how to use a knife, because they’ve never
watched anyone cook.”
The project’s origins lay in a desire to lift
people on the south side of Albany, Georgia,
above poverty and eliminate food deserts in
that city, but its successes have been built on
strong leadership, community resilience and a
shared commitment to a better life for all.
“Back in the 1940s, before refrigerated tractortrailers
were running up and down the road,
everyone had a vegetable garden in the yard,”
Jackson says. “Now people have forgotten how
65

Innovator
It’s a Desert Out There
Thirty-two percent of Albany’s residents live
below the poverty line, the highest number of
any city in Georgia and almost three times the
national average of 13 percent, according to the
U.S. Census. When the south side’s only grocery
store closed several years ago, access to fresh
food was cut off for many people.
In 2016 the Flint River Soil and Water
Conservation District received a grant from the
National Association of Conservation Districts
for a pilot urban agricultural program in south
Albany. The next year, Jackson was hired as
coordinator. The project evolved into Flint River
Fresh, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, and Jackson became
executive director. It is becoming a model for
other communities not just in Georgia but
throughout the country.
Flint River Fresh still operates mostly in Albany,
which has set up teaching gardens at every
elementary school in Dougherty County, as well
as a pre-K and a couple of private schools. The
food is sold in pop-up markets, served in school
cafeterias and donated to area food banks.
The program also operates, on a smaller scale, in
all nine counties in the Flint River Basin: Baker,
Calhoun, Decatur, Dougherty, Early, Grady, Miller,
Mitchell and Seminole. In particular, Flint River
Fresh works with small farmers to get their crops
and products to market through the Farm-to-
Table box program; the Farm-to-Church, Farm-
66

“We want people to understand
that fresh produce comes from the dirt,
not from the store.”
67

Innovator
to-School and Farm-to Hospitals programs; and
mobile farmers markets.
“Our ultimate goal is to increase access
to nutritious, locally grown food, whether
it’s teaching people how to grow it in their
backyards or connecting them to local
farmers or growers of fresh produce in our
region,” Jackson says.
He hopes to expand throughout Southwest
Georgia, including Thomas County. A garden
has already been started in Colquitt County.
Deep Roots
Flint River Fresh’s website makes clear that
its mission is about more than making sure
people have access to good, locally grown
food at an affordable price and farmers
have outlets for their produce. It’s about
building communities of people from diverse
backgrounds who work together to develop
community food centers and safe spaces for
children and families.
While the young people are in school, parents
and retirees work the community gardens.
During summer Flint River Fresh conducts
camps where kids learn to grow food.
“It’s good to see kids eat a cherry tomato right
off the vine,” Jackson says. “You can tell they’ve
never tasted anything like it.”
Like those of Flint River Fresh, Jackson’s roots
are in agriculture. He grew up in Plains, Georgia,
and learned to cook at his grandmother’s knee.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology
at Southern Methodist University, he began
working in agricultural outreach and food
production for low-income communities,
including helping Gulf Coast communities
rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. He also spent
time at historic Koinonia Farm in Sumter
County, a spiritually based nonprofit community
that seeks to overcome racial divisions with
collaborative farming. There he learned the
latest in small-scale organic farming.
Casey Cox, the former executive director of Flint
River Soil and Water Conservation District who
hired Jackson, says Flint River Fresh has a unique
opportunity to help small local farmers and lowincome
residents.
“The focus is on education and food access,
68

Innovator
“It’s good to see kids eat a cherry tomato
right off the vine. You can tell they’ve
never tasted anything like it.”
but we really wanted smaller farmers
to get access to restaurants and small
markets,” says Cox, who serves on Flint
River Fresh’s board. “Those smaller farms
produce enough to market, but they’re
limited by the existing supply chain.”
Everyone Is Invited
The teaching gardens and the programs
within the schools have resulted in
students teaching their parents about
backyard gardening. The Dougherty
County school system has partnered with
Flint River Fresh to show the community
what can be done with the fresh produce.
“We want people to understand that fresh
produce comes from the dirt, not from the
store, so we invite the students, parents
and our community partners to share
the harvest through taste-test menus,”
says Blaine Allen, the school system’s
nutrition director. “Fredo talks about how
agriculture equates to eating healthy.”
The system recently demonstrated uses
for kale, including kale smoothies, kale
salad and kale chips. But the item the kids
liked best was sautéed kale—so much so
that it will be added to the lunch menu.
Communities working together to
empower young people to grow their
own food, teach their parents and make
healthy choices? Now, that’s a future we
can look forward to.
Flint River Fresh
flintriverfresh.org
@farmerfredo
69

The Architecture of
COMMUNITY
70

Auburn University's Rural
Studio teaches people to build
on their strengths.
RURAL STUDIO BEGAN IN NEWBERN,
Alabama, in 1993 with a simple
but radical philosophy: Everyone,
rich or poor, deserves the benefit of
good design. Part of the architecture
program at Alabama’s Auburn
University, the studio has grown
from one professor and six students
to an internationally renowned
program that has graduated more
than 1,000 citizen architects and
built more than 200 projects in
rural Alabama, including homes,
parks and civic buildings. I sat down
with Xavier Vendrell, chair of the
graduate program for Rural Studio,
to discuss the studio and what
it has learned about connecting
communities.
Written by Kenny Thompson
Photographed by Timothy Hursley
and Rural Studio
71

catalyst
What drew you to the studio?
The place had some magic
that attracted and inspired
me. I suppose it is a mix of
everything: The history of the
place, the heat, the light, the
storms, the weather; there is
something indescribably “real”
here. I come from urban places;
I was born in Barcelona and
then lived 20 years in Chicago.
It’s not that nothing is real in
Chicago and Barcelona, but
here is a place that inspires me.
This place gives me a creative
energy I didn’t have in Chicago.
The studio makes me better
as an educator, as an architect
and as a human being.
How has the setting of
Rural Studio affected your
design philosophy?
Essentially, my design
philosophy has not changed.
As an architect, you must
answer to this place, in this
moment of time. Place is
very local and includes the
landscape, the weather and
the culture. Good design is
like a dialogue with the place.
Little things, like the heat and
humidity of summer and long
distances between houses,
become important, and you
pay attention to these things.
They are not negative; you
learn to accept and live with
them as elements of the place.
What is the mission of the
studio, and how has that
changed since 1993?
The mission of the studio is
72

“The studio makes
me better as an
educator, as an
architect, and as
a human being.”
73

the same: to educate citizen
architects. The way we teach
students has evolved for a
changing world. Our past
experience has helped make
Rural Studio better, and
we have learned from our
mistakes. Every project has
been a learning experience
and has guided the studio’s
evolution. And it hasn’t
just been our work that has
evolved; in our everyday life
we have become residents
of this place, and we have
changed and adapted to where
we are here and now.
Do you have specific
examples of how you
have adapted?
Our focus for the past few
years has been to concentrate
most of our projects in
Newbern and Greensboro,
Alabama. This makes our
work more effective: If you
do only one thing in one
community, it doesn’t have
the same impact; you don’t
have the knowledge of the
place. Another example is that
we have increased the amount
of public projects we work on.
In a town the size of Newbern,
you have three public projects
for 200 people; wow, that’s
an impact! The community
buildings are important
because a house affects only
one family, but a community
project affects everyone.
What does it mean to be a
good neighbor?
When I was in Barcelona, I
remember going to live in my
grandmother’s apartment
after she died. At the local
grocery store I was known as
her grandson, and that meant
something. If I forgot my wallet
I wouldn’t have to pay; they
74

catalyst
“The way we
teach students
has evolved
for a changing
world.”
trusted I would come back and
pay tomorrow. I think that is a
level of trust and intimacy we
have lost today, and people in
small towns relate to this more
than people in bigger cities.
For example, Newbern has
a public library not because
“someone in government”
thought it would be a good
idea, but because a member
of the community thought it
was important and decided to
make it happen. There are a
lot of people in the community
who are active in the projects
we do but who are not part
of Rural Studio. They are the
reason the studio is still here
and why it is relevant.
What lessons have you
learned that you can share?
We’ve learned that we can
build beautiful buildings but
that without community
support, our work will never
be successful. We always try
to work with the community
organizations that will
manage our projects, and I
say “our” but these are never
really ours; these projects
belong to the community,
and it is the members of
the communities who will
guarantee their success.
Projects that benefit only
a part of the community
will not connect people in
a meaningful way, and the
most important lesson is that
successful projects involve
all the people from all the
different communities.
What are you most excited
about right now?
The most exciting project
is always the one that I’m
currently working on. Right
now we’re doing a research
project called the 20K Project
which is all about designing
houses that are affordable.
It’s exciting because we have
the potential to change the
lives of a lot of families in
the South. It is fascinating
that a little institution like
us gets to work with a lot of
great partners to try to help
with housing affordability
and the effect that it can
have for communities. These
little houses are beautiful and
energy efficient as well. It will
be fascinating to see where it
goes from here.
Rural Studio
ruralstudio.org
Rural Studio hits the road in Spring 2021 to join us for the THOM Live! conference. Vendrell
and his team will share more about their journey and how you too can be a good neighbor.
75

Written by
Katie Chastain
Photographed by
Gabe Hanway and
Daniel Shippey
Thinking
by Design
The art and science of creative learning.
76

“BURYING BEETLES,” TEACHER JENNY
Ladson calls out. Ryan and Shawn jump up,
exchange high-fives and fall into comfortable
banter about basketball and beetles. Ryan lives
little more than a mile from Shawn, but they rarely
see each other. Ryan attends Brookwood School,
and Shawn attends Harper Elementary School.
For eight months both were part of coLAB, a
collaboration of 64 Brookwood and Harper third
graders digging into the art and science of the
burying beetle. They learned to sew and pin
beetles, studied pollination and food webs with
entomologists, identified bug sounds and felt the
tingle of hissing cockroaches crawling up their
arms. And in the end produced an exhibition of
sketches, prints, murals, writing and 3-D art about
the importance of bugs in our ecosystem.
77

explorers
In many ways the two mirror their schools’
leadership, former Harper principal Melvin
Hugans and Brookwood headmaster Randy
Watts, whose commitment to cross-cultural
communication sparked the initiative. Hugans
and Watts, while being interviewed together,
also fall into easy conversation, not about bugs
and basketball but about their shared vision
for education.
“An education outside the four walls of the
school,” as Hugans says. “We are not doing our
jobs educationally if we’re not giving them
those collaborative, cross-cultural experiences.
When our third graders hit the job market,
they are going to be in a pluralistic society.”
A Place to Design
Both school leaders knew that this partnership
presented an opportunity for their students
to experience students from different
78

“The education is the focus, but magic
happens when it is experienced
in an inspiring space.”
backgrounds, cultures and life experiences.
And Thomasville Center for the Arts’ director,
Michele Arwood, knew that art centers can
provide an inspiring and neutral ground for
connection. The Center’s former downtown
location in the heart of the Creative District
made it an outstanding home for the coLAB; it
was also within walking distance of program
partners the Marguerite Neel Williams Boys &
Girls Club and You’re Maker art studio.
Leaders from all the organizations came
together to dream up what a collaboration
between them could look like. While all
agreed that equal partnership, cross-cultural
communication, leadership and community
involvement would be program goals, there
was no template for designing an equal
collaboration between an independent school
and a public school.
To construct one, the group took a page from
educators across the world who are retooling
their institutions to meet the needs of a 21stcentury
workforce and using creative education
as a way to close the skills gap.
One note that stands out: Place matters.
“When designing programs to ignite creativity,
we’ve learned an important lesson,” Arwood
explains. “The education is the focus, but
magic happens when it is experienced in an
inspiring space.”
She cites the book The Third Teacher, by
CannonDesign, VS Furniture and Bruce Mau
Design, which began a conversation among
the group about how design informs teaching
and learning. “United in the conviction that
environment is our children’s third teacher,”
79

the book begins, “we can begin anew a
vital mission: designing today’s schools for
tomorrow’s world.”
World-Changing Ideas
“We know kids need a safe space to express
themselves artistically and grow in that
expression,” Arwood says. “But they also need
to learn the process of creation—meaningful
creation that improves their own lives and those
of the people around them. In coLAB we are
working on the ‘purposeful creativity’ element.”
Arwood, Hugans and Watts delegated the
design of the coLAB program to those within
their organizations with solid experience in art
education, public art, project-based learning
and adaptive learning. “It took flight once it got
out of our hands,” Watts says.
Jenny Ladson, a Brookwood academic-support
teacher, worked with Center staff to line up
visiting scientists, organize service projects and
coordinate teachers’ schedules and extension
activities, such as journal exchanges between
the students.
“We put tremendous work and thought into
every part of the process. Because, really, this is
the most important work you can do,” Ladson
80

explorers
“We are connecting the disconnected,
and I have a passion that it be done
in the most meaningful way possible.”
says. "We connected the disconnected, and
we were committed to doing it in the most
meaningful way possible."
The bug focus originated from the Center for
the Arts’ bugOUT public-art event. Students
began with team building, a public-art walk and
a design challenge. They were asked to use art
to communicate the importance of their team’s
assigned bug. Using the resources within the
Creative District, teams explored the art and
science of their bugs.
“The partnership with the Center was an
essential ingredient. Using the arts to express
a societal concern, like the extinction of a
particular bug, was incredibly powerful,”
Watts says.
Hugans agrees, and adds, “The chance to have
a specialist, a master of their craft, share their
skill was an important influence. I think that
will stay with the kids for a long time.”
But all concur that it’s the connections that will
matter most in the long run.
Before the boys return to their respective schools,
they exchange a quick hug. "See ya, dude."
Both boys, along with their 62 classmates, now
understand what it means to cross borders.
coLAB
thomasvillearts.org/youth/art
81

Savannah pushes the
notion of public art.
WHEREVER YOU LOOK,
Savannah is awash in color.
From its famous azalea blooms
to the pastel facades of Victorian
manses to the azure locks of the
barista at the corner coffee shop,
Georgia’s first city boasts bright,
bold hues.
It wasn’t until fairly recently,
however, that Savannah’s chromatic
profile included public art. While
the Savannah College of Art &
Design has fostered an artistic
climate since the 1970s, attempts
to embellish public spaces were
quickly whitewashed over. The city
finally adopted a mural policy in
2012, when artists Matt Hebermehl
and James “Dr. Z” Zdaniewski
established an official channel for
sanctioned street art, an effort that
resulted in a sparkling seascape
on a vacant building dubbed the
Muralcle on 34th Street.
82

Written by
Jessica Leigh Lebos
Photographed by
Molly Hayden and
Erin Wessling
83

Collaborators
That celebratory piece was torn down to
make way for new construction in 2014, but
its groundbreaking legacy lives on. Savannah
now hosts a thriving milieu of murals and
projects boosted by city leadership and creative
entrepreneurs. Partnerships between the
artistic and business communities abound
as residents make space for multimedia
installations among antebellum architecture
and moss-draped oak trees.
Painter, sculptor and longtime community
linchpin Katherine Sandoz contributed
several layers of that first public mural and
has gone on to help define the many ways
“public art” can manifest in a historic city
like Savannah.
“It can be collaborative; it can be a
solo effort. It can be a mural; it can be
sculpture. It can be city-sponsored; it can
be a commercial enterprise. All of those are
important in a cityscape,” says Sandoz, who
has produced and advocated for dozens of
other projects as well as tended to her own.
“Most important, it needs to engage its
audience and be meaningful—as opposed to
just beautiful.”
The passion for public art here is fueled
by the desire to tell the tale of the city.
While Savannah’s three centuries of history
informs the bulk of its public story, art
advocates suggest that there’s plenty of
room for new conversations.
“When we started out, public art in
Savannah seemed to only mean statues of
men who did things. Those are monuments,
not public art,” explains W Projects’ Erin
Wessling, who has appeared regularly in
front of the Historic Site and Monument
Commission on behalf of privately funded
public art projects since the mural policy
was implemented. “I think that we’ve been
able to help expand that definition.”
84

“Most important, it needs to engage
its audience and be meaningful—
as opposed to just beautiful.”
85

Wessling has a keen talent
for pioneering platforms
and navigating the city’s
permitting process for others.
The exterior of her firm’s
downtown offices currently
exhibit giant rosettes by
muralist Vanessa Platacis,
and Wessling helped Lori
Judge of Judge Realty turn her
historic building’s facade into
a revolving public art display
that has presented Sandoz’s
upcycled flower garden
made from plastic bags,
Jamie Bourgeois’ living moss
installation and an animated
light show by Will Penny.
“We’ve done everything but
a mural,” says Judge, one of
Savannah’s most notable art
patrons and collectors. “That’s
for a reason. We want to show
what public art can be.”
W Projects has also overseen
large-scale events that have
employed thoughtful urban
design to invigorate parts of
the city. The firm was behind
the interactive Parks to
Pavement installation when
Savannah hosted last year’s
Center for New Urbanism
conference, and it staged 2017’s
A-Town Get Down Festival
on a forgotten stretch of land
under the Talmadge Bridge, an
area now teeming with new
development.
“We know from the research
that public art has an impact.
It helps people see a place
differently. It’s not just about
putting up a temporary mural;
it’s about revitalizing spaces
for public use,” Wessling says.
The “public” part is not
only about access but also
about resources. Privately
supported successes have
sparked interest—and actual
funding—from city leadership.
This year the City of Savannah
launched Arts on Waters, a
series of rotating installations
by local artists in a vacant
shopping plaza owned by the
city. Overseen by legendary
sculptor and international
public art icon Jerome
Meadows, the project is part of
a strategy to invigorate a longdilapidated
corridor.
“Across the country, cities
have seen that public art is an
economic driver,” says Manny
Dominguez, director of the
Office of Business Opportunity.
“The idea is that this type of
creative place-making will
inspire people to get out and
enjoy their neighborhood again.”
86

Collaborators
“Art makes cities better. Without it you
don’t have authenticity or engagement.”
One neighborhood benefiting
from public art is the
Starland District, south of
downtown on Bull Street,
where entrepreneur and
“artivist” Clinton Edminster
has been championing
the cause for years. Once
languishing, Starland is now
a full-fledged cultural center
thanks to its First Friday Art
March, a new concert venue
and a slew of locally owned
anchor businesses, including
Edminster’s own pink-andyellow
art-supply shop,
Starlandia.
“Art makes cities better.
Without it you don’t have
authenticity or engagement,”
Edminster says.
activism in others. Panhandle
Slim, the nom de guerre of
folk artist Scott Stanton, has
partnered with the grassroots
Walls of Hope project to place
vivid portraits and inspiring
messaging in neighborhoods
where terms like site activation
and tactical urbanism mean
little to residents facing blight
and gun violence.
“Walls of Hope has done what
a meeting or a speech cannot
do,” says the movement’s
co-founder Beverlee Trotter.
“When people see Scott’s
work they talk, they gather.
It has opened many to think
critically and for others to
believe that the impossible
is possible.”
If engagement and meaning
are the point of public art, then
Savannah has found many
grooves. And as Georgia’s first
city continues to create new
points of entry for this art,
there’s bound to be more color
and inspiration at every turn.
W Projects
wprojects.co
His most kaleidoscopic triumph
is the Starland Mural Project,
a collection of eight massive
works by various artists on the
corner of a landmark dairy. The
project was funded in part by a
Weave-A-Dream grant from the
city and received accolades for
its well-designed application.
While public art is bringing
economic vigor to some areas
of Savannah, it is a beacon for
Jessica Leigh Lebos, Erin Wessling, and Katherine Sandoz will take the stage at our first
THOM Live! conference in Spring 2021 to share what it takes to stage powerful public art.
87

FEATURED Artists
Katie Chastain is a serial entrepreneur and an educator with a knack for
finding creative opportunities. Whether it’s turning an underperforming business
around or finding purpose for an underperforming student, she enjoys solving
tough problems. She joined Thomasville Center for the Arts last year to design
experiences like coLAB to connect students through purposeful creativity.
medium.com/@katie_73589
Aaron Coury is a husband, a father and a photographer in Atlanta. He was
taught photography by his father, Nick, who has worked in the industry for more than
50 years. Aaron’s business revolves around portraits and real estate photography,
but he is versed in all aspects of the field and appreciates the new challenges
photography brings every day. aaroncoury.com
Molly Hayden has spent more than a decade traveling and documenting
creative endeavors all over the world. Through her work as a photojournalist, she
captures the stories of artists and communities, offering a glimpse into vibrant cities
and their colorful inhabitants. She lives in Savannah. @mollytookaphoto
Jason Kantner is an award-winning graphic designer and photographer who
has worked with some great people over the past 23+ years. His approach blends a
passion for big ideas with a desire for sensible solutions. But he’s most pleased to be
known as Angie’s husband and Alex and Sam’s dad. jasonkantner.com
Jessica Leigh Lebos has been writing about interesting people, vexing
problems and amazing places for 25 years. Originally from the West Coast, she is
the award-winning author of Savannah Sideways and introduces herself at cocktail
parties as “Southern by marriage.” jllnotjill.com
Kenny Thompson is passionate about promoting “People First” design to
bring about lasting change—by using design to make the world a better place. From
brainstorming design ideas with members of the public to writing zoning codes to
drafting streetscape details, Kenny is intimately involved in all aspects of designing
the places we live. When he isn’t out working in the community, you can find him
exploring nature with his wife and children.
TO BECOME A FEATURED ARTIST
Illustrators, Photographers, Writers and Graphic Designers
Please contact: Thomasville Center for the Arts | (229) 226-0588
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Image: Blue Garden Kneeling
by Megan Holmes
thomasvillearts.org
INTRODUCING A DAY OF CREATIVE EXPERIENCES
WORKSHOPS • OPEN GALLERIES • FAMILY ACTIVITIES • ARTIST LECTURES
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THOMASVILLE
TALLAHASSEE
ALBANY
Providing creative space for the teachers of Scholars Academy.
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