SACC Achieves 1000 Follower Milestone on Instagram

We have been growing our Instagram following quickly over the past few months. We use our Instagram social media channel to share photos of the artistic, musical and cultural events in the Smyrna area.

We now have nearly 1000 Instagram followers!

Check it out when you get a chance. You’ll be impressed with all of the great stuff going just a few minutes from your front door!

Follow us at https://www.instagram.com/smyrnaacc/

SACC Receives Gift From Charyn Darby Foundation

SACC received a generous gift from the Charyn Darby Foundation to help us accomplish our mission.

This is a photo of Charyn Darby with her beloved companion, Sammy.  Charyn – owner of North Georgia Trophy - was an enthusiastic and dedicated citizen of the City of Smyrna.  Her volunteer involvements were numerous – Charyn served as Board Chair of Vision Rehabilitation Services (formerly Blind & Low Vision Services of North Georgia), Keep Smyrna Beautiful, Friends of Smyrna Library, Smyrna Business Association and Smyrna’s Adventist Hospital Foundation, as well as an active supporter of Junior Achievement. Charyn loved the City of Smyrna and supported local schools and organizations, much of her support behind the scenes and anonymously. One of her great passions was collecting Coca Cola memorabilia.

Upon her death in 2009, using the proceeds from her estate, a small private foundation was established in her name. The informal foundation continues Charyn’s legacy by supporting organizations and causes dear to Charyn’s heart. One of the first gifts given by the Charyn Darby Foundation was the establishment of the Charyn Darby Healing Garden at Taylor-Brawner Park.

October 2015 SACC Monthly Board of Directors Meeting Notes Published

The October 20 Monthly Board of Directors Meeting Notes have been approved and are now available online.  You can view them by clicking on the link below.

Read Meeting Notes (opens file from Google Drive)

SACC Bylaws Updated

The Smyrna Arts & Cultural Council bylaws were updated on November 17, 2015 to add additional content to support our 501(c)(3) application.  Bylaws define rules of expected behavior for Officers, Directors and Volunteers and how the council is managed.

Click this link to review our bylaws.

SACC To Collaborate With Georgia Symphony Orchestra

We are excited to announce our new collaboration with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra. Founded in 1950, they are celebrating their 65th anniversary this year. Their home venue is the nearby Marietta Performing Arts Center.

With an estimated 15,000 patrons annually and over 800 people who participate in their programs, the Georgia Symphony Orchestra offers musical opportunities to the greater North Georgia and Metro-Atlanta region. As a standing regional semi-professional symphony orchestra, GSO encompasses a full symphony Chorus, a Chamber Chorus, a professional jazz ensemble and the largest youth orchestra in the Southeast.
Look for more information on our collaboration soon!

About the Georgia Symphony Orchestra:

For over six decades, the Georgia Symphony Orchestra has engaged audiences through imaginative programming, visionary leadership and critically acclaimed performances.
The Georgia Symphony Orchestra began in the music room of the home of Arthur F. Moor at 383 Church Street in Marietta as the Marietta Music Club. His daughter and a member of the Marietta Music Club, Elizabeth Moor Tomlinson, so loved the orchestra that upon her death she bequeathed $50,000 to it and her brother, Ralph C. Moor, continued to support the GSO in his sister’s name until recently passing at 102 years old.

Since its founding in 1951, the quality of the orchestra’s performances steadily increased over the years due to the dedication and talent of its musicians and of Betty Shipman Bennett, the GSO’s conductor from 1955 until her retirement in 1989. Her successor Steven Byess continued attracting other local talented musicians to the GSO and, while he served as Music Director, he expanded the number of professional musicians and continued raising the artistic standards of the orchestra.

In July 2004, Michael Alexander’s tenure as Musical Director began with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra while the orchestra continued to grow. In 2007, the Georgia Symphony Chorus was formed under the direction of Bryan Black and continues to draw accomplished vocalists from the greater metro area to perform choral/orchestral works with the GSO and to produce independent choral concerts as well.

Alexander’s final concert with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra was performed in May 2015, leaving the Georgia Symphony Orchestra poised to select a new Music Director. After reviewing over 130 candidates from across the world as part of a 2-year process, the GSO search committee has identified three finalists for the Music Director position. These accomplished musicians will conduct the three Master Works Concerts of the 2015-16 season.

Orchestral and choral highlights of previous seasons include Mahler’s Second Symphony, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Over the past 65 years, the orchestra has changed its name from the Marietta Music Club to the Marietta Community Symphony, the Cobb Symphony Orchestra, and finally to the Georgia Symphony Orchestra as the organization’s mission and role in the community has expanded. Today audiences across the region are engaged and enriched by the musical gifts of the Georgia Symphony Orchestra.

Karen Snider Painting Exhibit Opens at Smyrna Public Library Art Gallery

The November and December art gallery exhibit for 2015 opened today - Oils and Acrylics by Karen Snider. Ms. Snider's paintings are on display until January 3. The art gallery is located on the 2nd floor of the Smyrna Library. The art gallery exhibits are sponsored by the Friends of Smyrna Library. 

Artist Statement: 

"My main interest in creating several of my paintings is to portray a slice of daily life. I attempt to showcase some of America's unique individuals going about their daily activities.

I'm also fascinated with studying and painting nature's amazing detail, form and color."
All my life I've been interested in expressing myself through art. I minored in art when I attended the University of New Mexico. Through the years, I drew using graphite and ink, and painted with pastels.

When I lived in California and Oregon throughout the 1990's, I showed and sold my work in several galleries and exhibits. After I moved east, I began painting in oils. In the past 7 years, my work has been accepted in many juried shows in both South Carolina and Georgia. Several of my pieces have received awards at the National Juried Shows.

Lori Schinelli Glass Exhibit Opens at Smyrna Public Library Display Gallery

The November and December display gallery exhibit for 2015 opened today - Glass Inspirations by Lori Schinelli. Ms. Schinelli's glass art is on display until January 3. The display gallery is located on the 2nd floor of the Smyrna Library. The display gallery exhibits are sponsored by the Friends of Smyrna Library. 

Artist Statement:

A native of Brooklyn, Lori received her Bachelors degree in Nursing from the State University of New York. She dabbled in glass in the 1970s but left it to work as a nurse and raise her family.

Moving to Georgia in the 1990s, she resumed her artwork, studying painting, ceramics and sculpture at several southeast art centers before rediscovering glass in 2002.

She has since studied with prominent masters in the glass world at The Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington; The Corning Glass Museum Studio in Corning, New York; The Pittsburg Glass Center, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; and The Oatka Glass School, in Batavia New York. She has also received mentorship at the private studios of some of the masters,while maintaining a teaching studio in Dunwoody, Georgia.

Her work can be found in private collections across the US as well as in Brazil. She is currently represented at the Corning Museum of Glass Glass Market and Gallery in Corning New York, and The Gingerbread Square Gallery in Key West, Florida