Dear Editor:

We read with interest the open letter from the Metro Atlanta arts community.  Though we are sometimes considered a part of the larger Metro Atlanta area, as your local nonprofit arts providers, we were not asked to sign this letter and therefore, wanted to provide a local nonprofit arts perspective:

We are your LOCAL nonprofit arts providers. We all enjoy being close to Atlanta and its offerings, but we offer arts programming, classes, a gallery, and performances right here in your backyard. Take advantage of not having to commute to enjoy the arts.

We depend on our local individual and corporate donors and sponsorships. Often, we are not eligible for donations out of the Metro Atlanta area. If you want to make a gift to keep the arts alive, please consider doing so to your local arts nonprofits. We continue to be so grateful for the generous individuals, corporations and foundations who see our impact on our community and continue to support us!

We do make a difference in the economic development as well as community development of our county and our cities in our county. We pay artists, we provide income to artists and arts providers and support staff to live, work and play here. We are a part of the local economic engine of our community through jobs, taxes and tourism revenue.

We change lives. The students who take our classes and participate in our art shows and performances learn about channeling their gifts for the good, employing their creativity, brains, hard work and discipline to be student artists. We provide a means for children to express themselves in creative, healthy, and safe ways that can positively affect mental health and teach critical thinking skills and positive self-expression.

We never turn away children and students from our programs. Our generous sponsors and donors help us provide financial assistance to any child wishing to participate. 

We depend on you — your participation, your frequenting and purchasing from our gallery, your buying tickets to our shows, your attending free community concerts, your making donations to keep us going.

We have been greatly affected by COVID and the economy and continue to hang on “by our fingernails” so that we can still be of service to this community. Join us in this important life-changing work. Get your children and families involved in the arts.  Participate, visit and support!

We promise, like our sister and brother organizations in metro Atlanta, to continue bringing our community together!  Join us in being a part of the good in our community!

While our organizations are two separate nonprofit entities, each with a slightly different focus, we have partnered and supported one another in our individual missions since the mid 1980s, both with the goal of improving the cultural life of our fellow Newtonians.

If you are not already a supporter of the arts, sponsorships and donations may be made to:

• Arts Association in Newton County

Dr. William L. Dobbs Center

1169 Washington Street

Covington GA 30014

www.newtoncountyarts.org

• Southern Heartland Arts, Inc.

Southern Heartland Gallery & Visual Arts Center

1132 Monticello Street

Covington GA 30014

www.southernheartlandart.com

Sincerely,

The Arts Association in Newton County

Southern Heartland Arts, Inc.