Gilmer Arts plans to reopen both its downtown Ellijay playhouse and art gallery next week. Both facilities, which have been closed to the public since March, are scheduled to reopen Monday, June 1.
“Things are constantly changing. We may add or take away events as we get new guidelines and we gauge our patrons interest in indoor events, so the need to check our Facebook page and/or website frequently is a must,” noted Elizabeth Vititoe, Gilmer Arts board president.
A number of spring and summer events have either been canceled or will be rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vititoe confirmed.
“We’re going to have to look at how we will revamp things for the future because of social distancing. I don’t think that’s going to go away for a while,” she added. “We’re working at it and we hope to still bring a lot of ideas that we had out there, maybe just in a different way.”
One of the biggest events to be rescheduled is Plein Air: Art in the Mountains, originally scheduled to take place the first weekend of June. The three-day annual painting showcase, which welcomes an array of area and regional artists to create paintings outdoors at numerous scenic locations around the county, has been pushed back to Sept. 18-20.
A May 16 playhouse concert by local singer/songwriter and Knucklesville bandleader Marlin Brackett was canceled and has yet to be rescheduled, while a concert by Neil Diamond tribute artist Connor Lorrie originally set for April 25 will be rescheduled for sometime next year.
Exit Laughing, a community theater production that had already begun rehearsals by mid-March, is also among the playhouse events that will be rescheduled for to-be-determined 2021 dates. Another theater production, Arsenic and Old Lace, would have opened June 26, but has also been canceled.
The same goes for a children’s theater camp that would’ve started June 8, Vititoe said.
“We are canceling theater camp for this year, which is disappointing. We had such a great (camp) last year and a lot was put into it. We were looking forward to doing two weeks and were looking at probably 200 children this year, but we didn’t feel it was in the best interest of the kids and volunteers to get them all together,” she added.
A live Acoustic Blends open mic event scheduled to be held outdoors at Harrison Park June 26 would be the first concert presented by Gilmer Arts since March. However, at a meeting of the Ellijay City Council held earlier this month, it was decided that organizers would be asked if the concert can be moved to a later date.
“We are looking to see if we can do concerts at other locations to allow for more distancing,” noted Debbi Friend, manager at the Gilmer Arts Gallery.
The organization’s summer music and art camps for kids will proceed in July, Friend confirmed.
“Nothing is scheduled in June at the playhouse right now. The music camp is the first thing. So far, music camps (will be) the weeks of the 13th and 20th. Art camps are each Monday July 6-27,” she added.
Going good at the beginning
Vititoe, who began her first term as Gilmer Arts president in January, said she got involved with the local arts program provider by participating in its community theater program after moving to Gilmer County four years ago.
The year started off strong with several new board members in tow and a shared goal of providing new programming and initiatives.
“At the beginning of the year, it was going great. We had all these plans to do more community outreach and work more with veterans, minorities, children and those at risk,” Vititoe said.
Barely three months later, the virus pandemic brought those plans to a standstill.
“We were working on a project with Isaiah House to do a painting class with them, but that has been postponed. We had also reached out to Young Harris (College) and Reinhardt (University) and were going to offer a first art show for some of their graduating students. We also wanted to work more with the Friends of Harrison Park and the chamber,” Vititoe explained.
“We have a lot of ideas to get more involved with the community and those ideas are still out there, but we’re having to postpone them or figure out how to do some of it online, which is always challenging.”
Among those online offerings is a “virtual” version of Acoustic Blends that’s updated each Friday at GilmerArts.com. “We’re also trying to get an online storytelling class going,” Vititoe said.
In-person classes at the art gallery have also been sidelined, but will eventually pick back up at to-be-determined dates.
“We are slowly going to add back in classes, but probably with fewer people in them. Once we can get back into the classrooms, we will get the classes back up and running. Some of our individual artists are out there doing their own things online for the time being,” Vititoe said.
As the two Dalton Street facilities begin reopening their doors to the public, Gilmer Arts will offer discounts on certain membership options.
“We’ve been running multiyear membership discounts for individual, family and business memberships of 20 percent off for two years and 30 percent off for three years. This will continue through June, at least, and can be purchased even if your existing membership hasn’t expired yet. Also, in June, we will be running 20 percent off various art pieces. Not on everything, but for those artists who want to participate,” Vititoe said.