An interview with Stephanie Donaldson, executive director of The Art Center
In our first episode of THE CREEK, Rico Figliolini sits down with Stephanie Donaldson, executive director of The Art Center, to discuss how a grassroots nonprofit became one of North Fulton’s most enduring arts institutions. Stephanie shares The Art Center’s 30-year history, why a 2024 rebrand was necessary as the organization’s footprint expanded across the region and how the team kept art and community connection alive during COVID-19.
They also explore how The Art Center makes creativity more accessible through outreach programs, scholarships and partnerships with Title I schools and organizations like The Drake House.
From early childhood classes to adult studios, major exhibitions and large-scale camps, this conversation highlights the Art Center’s mission: create and connect for everyone.
Key Takeaways
- Funding is a mix of earned income (classes/camps), grants and donors/sponsors, with a strong volunteer backbone through The Art Center Guild.
- The Art Center began as a grassroots effort and has now served the region for 30 years.
- The 2024 rebrand reflects that the organization serves far beyond Johns Creek, welcoming participants from across metro Atlanta and beyond.
- During COVID-19, The Art Center returned with careful protocols, hosted 300+ kids in summer camps and launched creative programs like Family Fun Drive-Up Days.
- Outreach includes partnerships with Title I schools and The Drake House, bringing art experiences to students and families who may not otherwise have access.
- Programming spans ages 3 to seniors, with classes, workshops, exhibitions and community collaborations — including a unique Minecraft + symphony pilot (“Soundcraft”).
- Exhibitions and receptions are designed to be welcoming, community-driven and often include artist talks and events that make it a “date night” destination.
Timestamp:
00:00:00 – Welcome to The Creek and introduction of Stephanie Donaldson
00:00:42 – History of the Art Center and Stephanie’s path from volunteer to executive director
00:01:32 – Rebranding and expansion beyond Johns Creek
00:05:03 – Leading the Art Center through COVID-19
00:07:06 – Summer camps, drive-up art programs, and community impact
00:09:36 – Outreach programs and serving Title I schools and families
00:10:47 – Diversity, equity, and inclusion in practice
00:13:08 – Classes for children, teens, adults, and long-time artists
00:16:44 – Summer camps and creative programming
00:19:08 – Collaborations with schools, nonprofits, and cultural partners
00:23:03 – Space limitations and future program ideas
00:26:13 – Major exhibitions and Summer Serendipity
00:29:27 – The Art Center Guild and volunteer support
00:31:46 – Funding, grants, and nonprofit sustainability
00:32:00 – 30th anniversary celebrations and upcoming events
00:33:57 – How to stay connected and get involved
Transcript:
00:00:00 – Rico Figliolini
Hi, everyone. This is Rico Figliolini, host of The Creek here in Johns Creek. And I’m here with special guest Stephanie Donaldson here, the executive director of the Art Center. Hey, Stephanie.
00:00:11 – Stephanie Donaldson
Hey, good morning, Rico. We really are grateful to have the opportunity to share the story about the Art Center. And I am excited to get started.
00:00:19 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah, this is our very first podcast for The Creek. I’ve been doing this in Peachtree Corners and Norcross and other cities. So we’re glad to be able to launch here in Johns Creek, just north of where I live, 13 minutes up here. So let’s start off a little bit because for those that may not be familiar with you or the Art Center, tell us a little bit about what you do, a little bit about your background.
00:00:42 – Stephanie Donaldson
Okay, excellent. Thank you. So the Art Center here in Johns Creek has been in the community. This is our 30th year as a nonprofit art organization. So there’s a lot behind the 30 years that we’re going to talk about today. Now, I’ve been at the Art Center for 13 years, and I began as a volunteer back then and then shifted into being the registrar, doing the payroll, became the deputy director. And then right when COVID began, I took over as executive director. But we’ll touch base on that and how we got through that part of our history.
00:01:16 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah, I would think that would be, because you all, 30 years, three decades. I mean, ‘96 and then rebranding again in 2024 to be able to bring the center into a different light also. I guess after 30 years, you do want to do a rebrand, maybe.
00:01:32 – Stephanie Donaldson
Yeah, and I can kind of walk you through the history there. So 30 years ago, there was a grassroots effort to bring the arts here to North Fulton County, a few people that were artists or art enthusiasts. They began the art center, and it was called the O.C. Warsaw Art Center. And then that was in ‘96. In 2006 was the first rebrand, and the name was changed to Johns Creek Art Center. And it gave a destination to the name. In ‘24, we did another rebrand in 2024, and now we are called The Art Center. And then when we’re out in the community, it’s The Art Center at Johns Creek.
00:02:18 – Rico Figliolini
And why was that done?
00:02:19 – Stephanie Donaldson
So, good question. Our footprint has expanded dramatically. We are pulling people in to take classes, participate in our exhibitions from Cumming, from Decula, from Lawrenceville, Milton, Alpharetta, Peachtree Corners, Suwanee, Sandy Springs, and believe it or not, there is a lady that comes once a week for art class. She drives all the way up from Auburn. So the footprint expanded, and we wanted to be all-encompassing and not appear that we only service this part of the community here.
00:02:56 – Rico Figliolini
Excellent. That’s almost an economic impact to the community here.
00:03:01 – Stephanie Donaldson
That is a big deal for cities.
00:03:02 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah, I would think. Restaurants and all that stuff.
00:03:05 – Stephanie Donaldson
Restaurants, teachers. Yes, employment opportunities.
00:03:08 – Rico Figliolini
So it’s not just an art center. It’s more of an attraction, really, because it’s drawing people from so far away. What? How did you end up getting here 12 years ago?
00:03:20 – Stephanie Donaldson
Alright, so that is a fun story. I had moved from Southern California in 2011 because of a job transfer. And my good friend worked at the art center at the time. And so she asked if I would come and help launch a outreach program between high school students and the seniors living in the area. and merge them together to do art projects. And then it accumulated after nine months of getting together doing art classes at the senior homes to an exhibition here at the Art Center. It was called Student to Senior. So multiple high school children were involved along with several of our senior centers here. And that was how I came in and started my journey as a volunteer and fell in love with the movement with the arts, the healing of the arts, the community that’s built behind the arts, and I never left. And I live over an hour away.
00:04:22 – Rico Figliolini
Where do you live?
00:04:23 – Stephanie Donaldson
So I am way north between Dawsonville and Dahlonega. And so for me, the passion is here. It’s in my heart, the people I work with, the beautiful exhibitions, the happiness, the sense of community that we bring.
00:04:37 – Rico Figliolini
You were volunteering from way over there. This wasn’t a job at the time.
00:04:40 – Stephanie Donaldson
No, I didn’t have a job at the time here. It was a volunteer thing. Just getting settled. I had been doing real estate in California. Thought that was the path I was going to take when I landed here again in 2011. And never looked back.
00:04:56 – Rico Figliolini
So I guess, when was the moment that art changed your life?
00:05:03 – Stephanie Donaldson
So one of the biggest impacts. I can go back and, you know, art all through school is one, besides PE, my favorite classes all through school, okay? But one of the biggest things that really struck my heart with art, when I took over as director on February 27, 2020, we heard about this little illness that was on the other side of the world. Yes. And all of a sudden, in a week, it was here. And we were deemed a non-essential business. And we had to close. Broke my heart. Had to lock the door, walk out. I could hear the birds singing, which you never do because of the traffic out here on Abbott’s Bridge. And walked away. And I wasn’t sure if we’d ever be back. I didn’t know what we were facing. Then in March, Governor Kemp had made an announcement saying that we could all do summer camps. No overnight camps. But day camps would be allowed that summer of 2020. I had enough staff that said, we’ll wear our masks. We had enough teachers that said, we’ll come back. It was being a nonprofit. We had to get back to work. So that summer of 2020, we had just over 300 children through our summer art camps. We followed CDC guidelines. We were masking, sitting six feet apart, and we never had an issue.
00:06:28 – Rico Figliolini
Were you guys here?
00:06:29 – Stephanie Donaldson
We were in this building. Yes, we did it here.
00:06:33 – Rico Figliolini
Did you expand to the other building later?
00:06:36 – Stephanie Donaldson
No. The space we’re in today is an ancillary 1,500 square feet that I rent. Our home facility right next door, we own that building. That is ours.
00:06:46 – Rico Figliolini
And how many square feet is that?
00:06:47 – Stephanie Donaldson
5,900.
00:06:49 – Rico Figliolini
Okay. So that’s the footprint that you had when you did that?
00:06:51 – Stephanie Donaldson
Yes. Correct.
00:06:53 – Rico Figliolini
And you had it six feet apart?
00:06:55 – Stephanie Donaldson
Yes.
00:06:56 – Rico Figliolini
And you still had 300?
00:07:06 – Stephanie Donaldson
Correct. Yes, we did. And we rented a couple of spaces here in this building 600. The other thing that we did during COVID was a program that we launched called Family Fun Drive-Up Days. So we identified different celebrations in our community, the Chinese Lunar New Year events, the Diwali, Eid, Earth Day. Oh gosh, there were so many. And what we did on those Saturdays, we would have parents sign up. They would drive up to the parking lot, wouldn’t have to get out of the car, and we had these bags filled with art activities based on those particular celebrations within their communities.
00:07:35 – Rico Figliolini
That is cool.
00:07:36 – Stephanie Donaldson
To keep art out for everybody. And the adults in the summer of 2020 came back for their classes, and what struck me, going back to the original question about the passion for the arts, parents said that this was the one thing that their children looked forward to, is coming to do their art class. They were all at home, online doing classes.
00:07:57 – Rico Figliolini
That might have broken your heart a little bit.
00:07:58 – Stephanie Donaldson
It did. It did. They missed their friends. They missed that camaraderie in a classroom. It gave them that opportunity to feel kind of normal again. Our adults came back with their classes and the story behind the adults coming back during COVID, resounding message was, this is the only happy thing I have in my life right now is my art class. Yeah.
00:08:20 – Rico Figliolini
You know, I don’t think people, I think now that we’re so far, not far, but fairly, fairly far away from it. I think we forget how that was. When you said that you could hear the birds outside, I remember the silence. There was no traffic. It felt like it was The Walking Dead almost going down into Atlanta. I mean, it’s just like.
00:08:42 – Stephanie Donaldson
And it cut my commute like in half if nobody was on 400.
00:08:45 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah. Yeah. Because everyone else was not. Yeah. We’re doing that remote work. So I can see also parents wanting their kids, it could be stifling having them in the house, like not being able to do anything.
00:08:59 – Stephanie Donaldson
Well, parents are trying to work from home. The kids are trying to take classes from home. So it gave everybody that moment of, let me drop you off at an art class. Let me drop you off at a camp where the adult said, sign me up. I’m ready. And we masked. We were careful. We never had to close.
00:09:14 – Rico Figliolini
You didn’t have any problems?
00:09:15 – Stephanie Donaldson
No problems.
00:09:16 – Rico Figliolini
Isn’t that amazing?
00:09:17 – Stephanie Donaldson
Yeah, we went through a lot of disinfectant.
00:09:19 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah. Clorox wipes and stuff.
00:09:21 – Stephanie Donaldson
We did.
00:09:33 – Rico Figliolini
So we talked about the rebranding in 2024. You want to explain a little bit more about that? I mean, this was to be able to make sure that, because you were drawing from all over. But not just here.
00:09:36 – Stephanie Donaldson
Drawing from all over. Yeah.
00:09:36 – Rico Figliolini
But you had programs going out.
00:09:39 – Stephanie Donaldson
Correct. Yeah. So, you know, being a nonprofit, we know it’s incredibly important to give back to the community. And so we work with three of the Title I schools in Roswell, Vickery Mill, Mimosa Elementary, and Esther Jackson schools. And the other program we’ve worked with on outreach is the Drake House in Roswell. And those that are not familiar, the Drake House helps mothers and children that are experiencing homelessness. They’re a place to live. They help the mothers get work and they make sure kids are going to school. Well, we will go to them and provide art classes and art experiences. We pay for the teacher, we pay for all the supplies, and sometimes we have enough that we can buy extra supplies that they can share at home with their families. Yeah, so we made sure that we did not forget those children. We would load everything up and take that over to make sure those families also had those opportunities to experience art.
00:10:37 – Rico Figliolini
Wow. Yeah. You know, you were talking a little bit before about diversity, equity, inclusion, and stuff. What does that look like in practice?
00:10:47 – Stephanie Donaldson
So here at the Art Center, if you walk into a classroom from children to the adults, you will absolutely see the diversity of not just Johns Creek, but our whole surrounding community. We are also seeing that within our pool of instructors, whether they’re from Asia, whether they’re from a Latin country. We are very intent on making sure everybody feels included. And what I find is interesting is all these different nationalities are coming through the door. I have learned something from everybody. I love their food. I love their styles, their clothing. Even their art is different.
00:11:32 – Rico Figliolini
I would imagine it comes from a different perspective.
00:11:34 – Stephanie Donaldson
Completely.
00:11:35 – Rico Figliolini
And enriches what you see and what you do, I guess.
00:11:39 – Stephanie Donaldson
And, you know, we’ve had opportunities, you know, to have specific exhibitions to focus on these different ethnicities in our community. You know, we’ve had Latin artist exhibitions. We’ve had Korean exhibitions. We offer solo shows for individuals that want to come in and showcase what they do in their art.
00:12:01 – Rico Figliolini
We just recently had, who’s the artist?
00:12:03 – Stephanie Donaldson
Rick Skees had a solo exhibition. He is a retired architect. He lives here in the community. Now, he has a very large body of work. He does watercolor works and then porcelain and ceramic work. He retired and has been taking classes in our clay studio for many years. And he’s also a photographer. So his work is spectacular. The next show that we’re hanging right now that we’ll have done by the end of the day today celebrates Black History Month. And we do that every month. We tied that in with a fun workshop a couple weeks ago on MLK Day. We had that for free for children to come in, and they had their parents with them, and we always want to celebrate, you know, every month of the year when that comes around. The next show that we have after that is our big student member exhibition, and we would love for everybody to come see it. These are adult students that are taking classes here. And I want to talk about classes, too, so people understand everything that we offer.
00:13:08 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah, and I want to be able to discuss, while you’re doing that, I guess, the ability and the background of people, right? Because you have kids, you have amateurs, but you also have somewhat professional people that are working through here. So tell us a little bit about the classes. Because when I went on the website, I was just amazed about the type of classes. It wasn’t just watercolor or painting. It was anime art. It was a bunch of different pottery. I mean, I took a little tour back then a couple of weeks ago. But do you have four or five furnaces, kilns?
00:13:40 – Stephanie Donaldson
Five back there, yes. And I’m just amazed the amount of work that you can actually put out through here.
00:13:45 – Stephanie Donaldson
Yeah, it is incredible. When I started 13 years ago, we have 50 students in the clay studio. We’ve more than tripled that without adding space. We’ve gotten very creative. So what you had mentioned before, you know, we have children and we start with a free program. That begins with age three, with a caregiver, three to five. So that’s the youngest. And that is a free program the first Tuesdays of the month. It’s called Small, Small World. And after that, they can come and join a class called Mini Masters. And that’s K-2. And then we have, yeah, it’s very cute. That teacher focuses on a master artist each week. So it’s an educational component to their little art class. Then they can go to Amazing Art, which is a third to fifth grade program. And then in that second to sixth grade age group, we have clay classes for the kids, and it’s hand building. We have programs for teens. We have dynamic drawing for the teens, and then clay classes as well. And then for the adults, there’s oil and acrylic painting, basic drawing, colored pencil, silk painting, abstract, yes, the silk is beautiful abstract painting, basics, learning one, two, three color theory and lines, and just for beginners, intermediates, and those that have been coming. Some people have been coming here for over 20 years. And then we have our clay studio, which you mentioned, which we have the wheel side, and then the hand building side. So we’re open from nine in the morning to like 10 o’clock at night, almost every day of the week.
00:15:26 – Rico Figliolini
Seven days a week?.
00:15:27 – Stephanie Donaldson
Almost. Yeah. Sometimes we have Sunday events. We do workshops. One of the movements we have found is the Bob Ross movement. We all love Bob Ross. So we have a certified teacher that does the Bob Ross workshops, and people are loving that. We will have upcycle exhibitions this spring, too. So, you know, we’re considerate of our environment. Everybody’s, you know, the earth is wonderful and important. So there are so many things that we can take out of the garbage and create art. It’s called UpCycle.
00:16:00 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah, okay. I’ve seen that. I’ve seen work like that.
00:16:03 – Stephanie Donaldson
Correct. Yeah. So we have an UpCycle exhibition coming up, and that’ll be tied in with a fun workshop with Scraplanta. And they, yeah, so.
00:16:14 – Rico Figliolini
So you do work with other organizations?
00:16:17 – Stephanie Donaldson
There are so many, absolutely. And I’m going to go to the collaboratives here in a moment. We have, besides our classes all year long, Rico, we have camps. We have a spring break camp coming up in April for a week. Then we go into our summer camp mode, and that starts the last Tuesday of May. We have nine weeks of summer art camps, and we have about 70 different camps to choose from. That is very important.
00:16:44 – Rico Figliolini
Seventy different camps.
00:16:46 – Stephanie Donaldson
Yes. All different types of camps.
00:16:48 – Rico Figliolini
Different hours?
00:16:50 – Stephanie Donaldson
They’re all 9 to 3, and your child will come Monday through Friday. And on Friday, they go home with a plethora of beautiful things that they’ve created from rising kindergarten to high school students. So there’s, we have one of the most favorite, it’s called Sparkle Camp. It’s everything Sparkle. We’ll have Passionista Camp, Anime Manga Camp, steampunk, robotic camp, where they’re doing and creating with art, you know, little robots, not operational, but art wrapped around that. Of course, our clay camps, journaling, writing.
00:17:27 – Rico Figliolini
So I mean, just the supply aspect of having all the supplies to do this has got to be one of your biggest budgets.
00:17:36 – Stephanie Donaldson
That’s a good point. It is. So adults bring their own supplies. And then we provide that for all of the youth camps and classes and all the supplies for the workshops. So we’re grateful. We’ll get donations. We’ve had donations of money that we’ll just turn right around and use that to buy the supplies for the outreach programs. We’ll have, you know, maybe something that’ll be given to us from maybe like Blick Art. We’re always looking to be very savvy being a nonprofit, but high quality product that would work to use. Yeah, it’s important.
00:18:11 – Rico Figliolini
Do people that want to donate, can they even suggest or say, I’m going to give you this money. Can you use it for this type of programming?
00:18:19 – Stephanie Donaldson
Absolutely. We do have donors that say, you know, here’s a donation. I want to use it toward the programs at the Drake House. Or I want to earmark this for your programs at the Title I schools. Or we want to put this in the scholarship fund because we do have a scholarship for families that want to take a class, take a camp, and financially just can’t reach that. And so we always make sure it’s always accessible. The whole important thing is art accessible to everybody, no matter what level that you’re coming to us at.
00:18:54 – Rico Figliolini
Okay. Do you want to talk about also, let’s go back to a little bit, take a step back to the organizations that you work with. How does that come about? How do you choose them? Do they come to you sometimes? I mean, how does that work?
00:19:08 – Stephanie Donaldson
It is a two-way street. So I had mentioned the Drake House. We’ve been partners with that nonprofit for many, many years, taking the art classes to those children. And then at Christmastime, we always put together a little gift packet for the moms. And that’s been wonderful. During COVID, we did a fundraiser for them and had gathered about $1,200 for the Drake House. And they used that money to buy Kroger shopping carts so the moms could buy food and cleaning things. And so we’re always trying to help other ones. The other one I had mentioned before, there are three Title I schools that we work with. We also collaborate, we have a fun thing coming up with the Johns Creek Symphony. And in conjunction with Fulton County Futures Lab, it is called Soundcraft. And it’s another way to look at Minecraft. Alright. So we have, this is a pilot program in the whole of the United States, and we’re a part of this with them for this collaborative. So we’ll have Northview High School students that will create on their computer Minecraft and Minecraft sounds. Alright. Okay. And that’ll come out on speakers and four or five musicians from the Johns Creek Symphony will be playing music with them. Yes. So this was a program that kicked off in Korea with the new maestro that we have here now in Johns Creek, Mr. Henry. Yeah, John, yes. And so he did it with a YouTuber named Jazzy Jazz, and that YouTuber has like a million followers. So we’re piloting that here. So it’s combining three different collaboratives of all of us. So that little pilot concert is going to happen in July here at the Art Center. We’re going to actually do it in this space here. And get that launched. We are also, talking about collaborators, we provide the after-school art enrichment classes at eight of the elementary schools here in North Fulton. So we book the classrooms. Our teachers go once a week and do the after-school art enrichment at these elementary schools. So parents, if you’re listening, check our website. See if we’re at your school. The child just stays. Yeah, the class usually starts at 2:30 and then pickup time is about 4 o’clock. So that’s been very popular. It helps parents give them that extra time after work or if the student needs to be escorted to YMCA, we provide that as well. We have a new program too now. It’s become an initiative across the whole of the United States with an art class the second Monday of the month. For those who are experiencing breast cancer, survivor breast cancers, going through the treatments, and they come and get together and paint. And it’s a beautiful program, and that’s a new program that we’ve kicked off at the end of last year, and now it’s become an initiative across the country. So we’re happy to kick that one off, too.
00:22:20 – Rico Figliolini
A lot of stuff going on.
00:22:21 – Stephanie Donaldson
Yes, yes, it is. There’s a lot. And then we have an active senior painting class every other monday at Newtown park in John’s Creek and it’s indoors at the little brick building over at Newtown park we’ve in December they actually brought the art their art here we had a little exhibition for them and they had their families and friends come see the artwork that they they created and it’s growing or may have to add a few more days over there for that outreach program.
00:22:51 – Rico Figliolini
Anything else?
00:22:53 – Stephanie Donaldson
I’ll let you go ahead.
00:22:55 – Rico Figliolini
A lot. No, no, no. Those are good. Is there anything that you want to see happening here that’s not yet that you guys would like to see?
00:23:03 – Stephanie Donaldson
You know, it’s interesting. We’ll ask people, what would you like us to be able to offer?
00:23:08 Rico Figliolini
Yeah.
00:23:08 – Stephanie Donaldson
You know, we hear, you know, people would love to see, you know, woodworking or glassblowing or metalworking. And we would too. However, you know, we have a space constraint, maybe eventually. You know, we’re at that point where, you know, we need to expand a little bit more. So I’m on board. I love all of those different mediums there.
00:23:29 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah, I would think. I mean, as you were talking about it, you know, I was thinking photography too. I mean, it’s all artwork.
00:23:36 – Stephanie Donaldson
Oh, absolutely. Correct.
00:23:37 – Rico Figliolini
But there’s only so much you can do, right?
00:23:39 – Stephanie Donaldson
Yeah, right.
00:23:41 – Rico Figliolini
The idea of doing the Minecraft thing with the orchestra, I thought that was great because part of what I see going on in the future too is sometimes the artisan work that’s traditional artisan work like you would imagine a renaissance studio being doing which is a lot of what you talk about it hasn’t changed a lot. I mean yes some of the you know paints have changed a bit and stuff, but then looking at the digital environment and bringing that into it as well you know. I mean do you look at that? I mean besides that one event that you’re going to be doing, does that ever come into play as well?
00:24:17 – Stephanie Donaldson
You know we have talked about figuring out a way to bring digital art back here to the art center and having maybe the students bring their own devices. I think it would be easier for them to be able to travel with that, go home and work on that. Now, when we do our high honors, high school and middle school art competition every summer, we do get a lot of digital art from the teens because they’re doing it at their school. They have that equipment.
00:24:43 – Rico Figliolini
I mean, even on an iPad, I mean, there’s so much software out there that you can create a beautiful waterbrush-looking piece of art, right?
00:24:50 – Stephanie Donaldson
Yes. These teens are incredibly talented. And then I’m just going to expand just a little bit more on our exhibitions as we keep going since I brought that one up. So here at our home base in our main building, we’ll do seven different exhibitions a year. And that is a hefty schedule when you’re thinking we’re up with one show, down with that, up with the next. We use this space for our solo shows.
00:25:15 – Rico Figliolini
How long does it take to put up a show?
00:25:16 – Stephanie Donaldson
We give ourselves about five days. Sometimes the work trickles in. We’re waiting for artists to drop things.
00:25:23 – Rico Figliolini
And you do events also within that exhibition.
00:25:27 – Stephanie Donaldson
So within that exhibition, we’ll have, there could be an artist talk scheduled. It could be a workshop scheduled, bringing in an educational component to these events. And then a closing reception. We had that for Rick Skies. It’s a beautiful evening, and a lot of times we’ll get a local high school student to come and provide the music. We have wonderful foods and desserts available. It’s a great date night. That’s what I tell people. Come and do our receptions, have some hors d’oeuvres, get a local glass of wine, buy some art. Then you can go to dinner here in Johns Creek someplace.
00:26:00 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah, I mean, there were businesses out there like that. I think there was one in the Forum that did artwork, and you’d take a sip.
00:26:07 – Stephanie Donaldson
The sip and create things. Yeah, it’s beautiful.
00:26:11 – Rico Figliolini
So what other programs are we talking about?
00:26:13 – Stephanie Donaldson
Let’s see. So what else I wanted to talk about when we were, you know, touching base about our exhibitions, one of our biggest, and we’re celebrating the 12th anniversary, is our Summer Serendipity Exhibition. It happens every summer. This is our 12th one coming up. It is a regional competition. Last year we had just over, I think, about 85 artists submit up to three works apiece. And then we had, no, we always bring in a different, somebody who’s not going to recognize names, somebody who’s got a background. The gentleman last year, Mr. Anam, was our judge. He has worked all over the world. He is phenomenal. His story is incredible. He had polio as a child when he was five. And so he walked with a limp. He got picked on at school. His story was sad. His art teacher kind of took him under her wing. And now he just sells things all over the world. He has works in big corporate buildings in New York City. He was the judge last year.
00:27:15 – Rico Figliolini
And he’s providing his time to do that.
00:27:16 – Stephanie Donaldson
Yes, he did. Yes. So he had to sort through almost 300 pieces of art to pull together the exhibition. And we had 65 pieces in that show when he was done finally pulling it all together.
00:27:29 – Rico Figliolini
And does any of that reside online that people can see too?
00:27:36 – Stephanie Donaldson
Well, you know with our exhibitions, we did have on the old website the ability to load that there. We are looking at wanting to bring that back, but the platform we have right now doesn’t give us that bandwidth, you know, because it’s nice for families that have people out of the country and say, here, take a look.
00:27:53 – Rico Figliolini
I mean, it would be awesome to be able to do, and I’ve seen this, especially during COVID, actually, at the time, museums like the Louvre and stuff would have the virtual walkthroughs. We could literally, like you see on a real estate listing, we could walk through a house and it was the same thing. And they click on a piece of art and give you a description. So if you can’t make it somewhere.
00:28:14 – Stephanie Donaldson
Then you can, yeah.
00:28:15 – Rico Figliolini
Yeah, it just gives a wider, broader audience.
00:28:19 – Stephanie Donaldson
It does. And, you know, if you go to our Facebook page or our Instagram, you’ll see the walkthrough of Rick Ski’s show. Yes, with some beautiful music tied into it. Yeah, so we try to capture it that way. So we can get that out on our social media platforms. The other places that people can go to see exhibition work that we’re involved with here in the city, we have work on display at Johns Creek City Hall. Now we have a wall with adult work. And right now it’s in one of our shows that we have over there is our instructor showcase. And that’s up over at City Hall in Johns Creek for two more weeks. And you can walk in and see that work. And then we always hang children’s artwork inside the city council chambers. And we change this out like every quarter. So we’ll have our local schools make some beautiful artwork. We also have artwork on display at Emory Johns Creek Hospital on the meeting floor and then up in the Breast Center as well. And that has all helped and organized and coordinated with a group called the Art Center Guild. It’s a group of 24 volunteers. So if I’m getting ahead, let me know.
00:29:24 – Rico Figliolini
You’re right on target.
00:29:27 – Stephanie Donaldson
Okay.
00:29:27 – Rico Figliolini
Tell me about it.
00:29:28 – Stephanie Donaldson
So for as long as I’ve been here and before me, there’s always been a fantastic group of volunteers called the Guild. And the Guild helps with our receptions. If you come to our reception, they bring beautiful, delicious, homemade desserts. Alright. And we’re so grateful for that. And then they will help us hang shows at City Hall, at every hospital. And then they’re very helpful during our Summer Serendipity Big Exhibition to find sponsors to help fund it because we give away prize money. We have ribbons. There’s a lot of cost behind these events that we do. So the Guild always steps up to help support the Summer Serendipity.
00:30:15 – Rico Figliolini
So who’s your biggest sponsors right now?
00:30:20 – Stephanie Donaldson
So right now, like during Serendipity, one of our biggest sponsors is, oh my goodness, the construction company. I’m sorry, I’ll come back to the name. It just escaped me. But we’ll get even $250 sponsors, $1,000 sponsors.
00:30:37 – Rico Figliolini
So not just corporate, not just high-level corporate?
00:30:39 – Stephanie Donaldson
No, most of, we get more from, you know, 70% of our revenue is from our earned income. Followed by the grants we write. Earned income or fee.
00:30:49 – Rico Figliolini
Earned income or fee?
00:30:50 – Stephanie Donaldson
Classes, camp, workshop. Correct.
00:30:53 – Rico Figliolini
And then the next set?
00:30:54 – Stephanie Donaldson
Next segment is our grants. So this is grant writing season right now. Georgia Council for the Arts. Fulton County commissioners are fantastic. We do write a grant. We are one of their legacy partners here in the state of Georgia. And so their funding is incredibly important for the Arts Center. And that actually has helped us be able to rent additional space here helps with some of the organizational costs. So grateful to the Fulton County commissioners and then, of course, the Fulton County Arts and Culture who support us as well. It’s very important. And then we find our sponsors and donors. We have monthly donors that, you know, earmark their money for outreach programs. It’s fantastic. And our sponsors change every year according to what we may have happening in events that they choose.
00:31:46 – Rico Figliolini
For sure. And you may have special sponsors for special events because they’re drawn to it. So funding for the center is, like you said, grants, revenue, and all that stuff. It’s got to be difficult, right? Nonprofit work is not easy.
00:32:00 – Stephanie Donaldson
It is not easy. However, I can’t think of a more beautiful nonprofit to be involved with and to work for here at the Art Center. You know, we have so many wonderful stories that have come out of here. You know, we talked about COVID a little bit and the importance of the arts and the healing there. But nonprofit work is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s a hustle. And no, it is not. And we have, you know, some fundraising events coming up this year because we’re celebrating 30 years. It’s a big birthday party here. It is a long time as a nonprofit and to be continue to grow. So our first fundraiser event, if I can segue into that, is February 21. You’re not going to want to miss this one. It is our big bowls and chili cook-off event. So our clay studio has created over 200 beautiful pieces of ceramics, from bowls to cups to even dishes for your dog or your favorite cat, vases. So pricing starts at $30. We’ll have some silent auction items. We have some sets of dishes that are all created here at the Art Center. And then we’ll have a chili cook-off. So you get to come that day, buy some ceramics, support the clay studio, and have some fantastic chili. That’s happening here at the Center on Avis Bridge Road. Then, gosh, that’s February 21 from 4:00-7:00. It’s coming up.
00:33:25 – Rico Figliolini
It’s coming up. By the time this podcast comes out, it’ll be early next week. So it’s still about a week or two.
00:33:30 – Stephanie Donaldson
Yeah. And then we want to invite everybody to our birthday bash, which is March 21st. We’ve got those plans are cooking. And that’s like an open house event that day. We have a lot of our instructors here that are going to be doing demos. We’ll have fun things for the kids and make and take activities and birthday cake. And that’ll be a fun event that day.
00:33:53 – Rico Figliolini
So where can listeners go? What’s your website?
00:33:57 – Stephanie Donaldson
Okay, our website is its, I-T-S, theartcenter.org.
00:34:05 – Rico Figliolini
So if they want to join your newsletter?
00:34:07 – Stephanie Donaldson
Go to our website. Go down to the bottom of the homepage, hit subscribe, and we send out a weekly blast with everything that’s coming up, whether it’s sign up for classes, sign up for camp, free events, workshops, exhibitions. It’s the best place to get the information and not miss out. Come and hang out with us cool kids over here at the Art Center.
00:34:29 – Rico Figliolini
And you should follow on Instagram as well.
00:34:32 – Stephanie Donaldson
Instagram, Facebook.
00:34:33 – Rico Figliolini
Facebook, all that. So head over to the site. All those links are on there. It’s been a learning experience, you know, to learn more about what the center does. I mean, I didn’t realize, well, I went to the website and there’s a lot on that website. So, but to hear it and to hear it.
00:34:51 – Stephanie Donaldson
Yeah. And just in, you know, before we sign off here, I just wanted, you know, to share with you too, and everybody that’s listening, the art center has, we received the Governor’s Award in recognition for all the work we do in the arts and humanities. In 2024, we were awarded that at the Capitol. We have been recognized by the Georgia Senate, the Georgia House of Representatives, Fulton County Commissioners, and the city of Johns Creek for all the work that we do in arts and humanities.
00:35:21 – Rico Figliolini
I mean, there’s a big impact that you guys all do in this city. And surrounding areas for sure. People come from where as far as Athens?
00:35:29 – Stephanie Donaldson
Oh, yeah. She’s down in Auburn. Oh, yeah. But, you know, when you have community and you have the arts, it’s, you know, people feel connected. And that’s what we do here. It’s create and connect.
00:35:43 – Rico Figliolini
Not just personally, but visually.
00:35:45 – Stephanie Donaldson
Completely. Yes, both ways.
00:35:47 – Rico Figliolini
I appreciate you, Stephanie.
00:35:48 – Stephanie Donaldson
I appreciate this, Rico. This was really fun. I could talk for another hour.
00:35:52 – Rico Figliolini
I think we could keep going too, yes. So if you want to learn more, though, reach out to Stephanie Donaldson here at the Art Center. Leave comments below. If you’re watching this on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter, certainly leave your comments. This is probably going to be simultaneously live streamed on those. If you have any questions for me, tell me. Visit our website, thejohnscreekmagazine.com. And you’ll see show notes and links and other information from this. So thank you all. Appreciate you being with us.
00:36:25 – Stephanie Donaldson
Oh, thank you. And thank you very much for your call. You’re grateful. Have a beautiful day.
00:36:29 – Rico Figliolini
You too. You all be safe.
