Doubleheader events planned Memorial Day weekend

The City of Suwanee will host back-to-back events Memorial Day weekend.

First up on Friday, May 24, is the University of West Georgia Concert Band, which will perform a free concert as part of the City's annual Memorial Weekend celebration. The band, comprised of the most advanced woodwind, brass, and percussion players at West Georgia, will take the stage at 7 p.m. at Town Center Park.

The following evening – Saturday, May 25 – come back to Town Center to cheer on the Upton brothers and other Atlanta Braves as they travel to New York to take on the Mets. The Braves are bringing the big screen as well as inflatables, activities, and Homer to Suwanee for Game on the Green. Activities begin about 6 p.m. with a performance by the Full Circle band; first pitch is at 7:15.

Also, on May 25, the Berlin Wall section currently on temporary display in front of City Hall will be auctioned at 4:30 p.m. by the Auction Management Corporation. Bids may be submitted onsite or online via live webcast at www.auctionEbid.com.

Take two: Video competition redux

Make Suwanee the star of your original 1-3 minute video and you could be the winner of up to $1,000. The deadline for submissions to the City of Suwanee's 2013 video competition is May 24.

"Videos, especially ones that are funny, unique, or little bit off somehow, have become part of our social media-fueled culture," says Public Information Officer Lynne Bohlman DeWilde. "We'd love for a Suwanee video to be an intentional part of that conversation. We'd love to have folks around the country buzzing, asking: 'Did you see that funny video about living in Suwanee?'"

Videos must be submitted in WMV or MOV format on a DVD along with an application. Submitted videos may be posted to the City's YouTube channel and Facebook page.

The City hosted its first video competition last year and received seven entries. See Suwanee residents Paul Johnson's and Dave Hansen's winning videos by clicking on their name.

History meets art

It's a piece of concrete. It's a piece of art. It's a piece of history. It's a section of the Berlin Wall, and it currently is standing in front of Suwanee's City Hall at 330 Town Center Avenue.

This iconic symbol of the Cold War era stands approximately 13 feet tall and weighs 8,000 pounds. The once-western-facing side of the concrete section features graffiti artwork that depicts a building, people, and the American flag. The wall section is anticipated to be on display in Suwanee over the next couple of months while Auction Management Corporation prepares to auction off the four-ton historic/artistic marker.

"We're thrilled to be able to exhibit this section of the Berlin Wall," says Suwanee's Economic and Community Development Director Denise Brinson. "It's a cool way to bring an important piece of art and history to area residents. This display fits in well with Suwanee's goal of making art accessible."

The historic wall section will be auctioned to the highest bidder regardless of price at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, May 25. Bids may be submitted onsite or online via live webcast at www.auctionEbid.com.

Food trucks, 'Spider-Man' coming
first weekend in June

The first Friday of June will bring food trucks back to Town Center Park, and the following night Movies Under the Stars will present The Amazing Spider-Man.

Suwanee's first Food Truck Friday in May drew a large crowd, despite the cool, overcast, rain-threatening weather conditions. The City is inviting additional trucks for the June event; eight trucks are scheduled. The food trucks expected to serve up Friday night dinner June 7 are Bubble Tea, Champion Cheesesteak, Freckled and Blue, Hail Caesar, King of Pops, Mac the Cheese, Nana G's Waffles and Chicken, Tex Tacos, and Yumbii. The event begins at 7 p.m., but some trucks may be set up a little earlier.

Also being served up that evening is a free performance by Funk Sandwich and Nathan Angelo, a band based at Gwinnett Church. The performance will begin at 7 p.m.

Food Truck Fridays will take a break in July and return in August and September.

On June 8, Movies Under the Stars will screen The Amazing Spider-Man. Released in 2012 and rated PG-13, The Amazing Spider-Man stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. Movies Under the Stars is free and open to the public. The screening will begin at Town Center Park shortly after dusk. Bring snacks, blankets, and lawn chairs, but no alcohol may be brought into the park.

New SculpTour unveiled

Scheduled to be officially unveiled at the May 18 Arts in the Park festival, the 2013 SculpTour pieces offer artistic interpretations and reflections on a broad range of topics, from nature to the human body, from love of family to an appreciation for well-worn tools.

This recently installed SculpTour features sculptures arranged in a walking tour in and around Town Center Park. The exhibit will remain on display through March 2015. A walkable art encounter, Suwanee SculpTour is part of the City's public arts initiative. The program is coordinated by the Public Arts Commission and is funded through private donations.

The artists in the exhibit hail from seven different states. Several are from Georgia with the remainder coming from Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

"Whether people see one or two pieces at a time as they visit Town Center or see all 15 at once as they take the approximately one-mile walking tour," says Economic and Community Development Director Denise Brinson, "we hope that the accessibility of public art in Suwanee will make them pause, reflect, connect, and maybe smile."

Find more information about the sculptures and artists participating in the 2013-15 SculpTour and vote for your favorite by clicking here.

3-D sidewalk art being created
at Town Center Park

As part of Arts in the Park, artist Truman Adams of Sarasota, Florida, created a 57-foot-long, 3-D sidewalk painting in Suwanee's Town Center Park.

The interactive painting of a mountain stream includes a beaver, duck, and butterflies as well as stepping stones and is designed to appear 3-D when looked at through a camera lens. The artist explains that in order for the painting to appear 3-D in photographs, it cannot look multidimensional to the naked eye.

"It's all about perspective," says Truman. "The 3-D illusion is based on angles. I'm putting a vertical picture on a horizontal surface, and then the painting will be viewed from a vertical perspective."

The interactive aspect of the painting relates to the stepping stones. When someone steps on the painted stones and someone else takes their photograph from the designated spot, it will appear as if the first person is actually crossing a gurgling mountain stream.

Adams has created street art over the past four years and loves the scale of it. "I fell in love with doing larger work," he says. "It's very Zen to work outside and do this. I feel like a Zen master making a garden on the street."

Be part of Suwanee Day
30th celebration!

This year's September 21 Suwanee Day festival marks the 30th celebration of community in Suwanee. You can be an important part of the celebration!

Exhibitor/vendor and entertainment applications for this year's festival are now being accepted through June 1. Applications are available at www.suwaneeday.com.

Each year, nearly 200 vendors display and sell handmade arts and crafts items or offer palate-pleasing foods at Suwanee's "celebration of community" while up-and-coming performers along with established favorites provide a variety of free performances.

The theme for this year's Suwanee Day parade is: 30 Years of Celebrating Suwanee – Remembering the Past, Celebrating the Present, Looking to the Future. Parade participants are encouraged to decorate floats and design performances that fit in with the theme. Parade entrants are eligible for cash prizes in a variety of categories, including best reflection of theme and most creative.

Suwanee goes out on a limb
with annual art program

Suwanee's annual finders-keepers, month-long Art on a Limb program will bloom along the Suwanee Creek Greenway as well as Sims Lake and White Street parks throughout the month of May. Through this perennial program, which is designed to bring attention to Suwanee's arts efforts as well as its parks, two pieces of original artwork are hidden each day; those who find a piece of art along one of Suwanee's trails get to keep it.

This year's Art on a Limb pieces are clay birds and tiles created by Suwanee artist Judy Isaak. On the tiles are representations of nature and Suwanee landmarks. The pieces are created from red clay, which Isaak chose to represent the ubiquitous red Georgia soil.

"Suwanee's doing a great job of promoting the arts," says Isaak. "I'm very honored to be part of the Art on a Limb program." Visit Isaak's website.

Wind Sculpture Weathervane by Al Garnto

Suwanee keeps two 2012 SculpTour pieces

Suwanee's Public Arts Commission (PAC) has purchased two pieces from the 2012 Suwanee SculpTour exhibit, which closed in March.  The sculptures, purchased with private donations made to the public arts program, are now part of Suwanee's permanent collection and will be exhibited at Sims Lake Park.

Audubon Watcher by Jim Collins

The PAC purchased Audubon by Tennessee artist Jim Collins and Wind Sculpture Weathervane, which was the People's Choice winner, by Blairsville artist Al Garnto.

Public art pieces like those exhibited and acquired through Suwanee SculpTour, says Economic and Community Development Director Denise Brinson, "makes our community more interesting."

"SculpTour has given us a jumpstart on our public art collection," she adds. "It gives us a way to test out pieces before we buy them, to figure out how well they hold up and what it takes to maintain them."

Art on a Limb blooms in May

Suwanee's annual finders-keepers, month-long Art on a Limb program will bloom along the Suwanee Creek Greenway as well as Sims Lake and White Street parks throughout the month of May. Through this perennial program, which is designed to bring attention to Suwanee's arts efforts as well as its parks, two pieces of original artwork are hidden each day; those who find a piece of art along one of Suwanee's trails get to keep it.

This year's Art on a Limb pieces are clay birds and tiles created by Suwanee artist Judy Isaak. On the tiles are representations of nature and Suwanee landmarks. The pieces are created from red clay, which Isaak chose to represent the ubiquitous red Georgia soil.

On her website, Isaak says: "I'm making and selling pottery from my studio and enjoying the creativity that some jobs don't allow! I have the association of many other types of artists, and learning from them and becoming inspired by them makes this a very rewarding artistic endeavor."

"Through Art on a Limb, 62 pieces of art will be claimed by area residents," says Suwanee Events Manager Amy Doherty. "Being out enjoying the Greenway or one of Suwanee's parks in May has its own benefits, but this program takes park perks to a whole new level."

Photo by Dick Goodman

Resident ratings put Suwanee at the top

For the third time, Suwanee residents have been asked to rate community characteristics and government services through the National Citizens Survey. For the third time, residents have rated Suwanee highly, generally above and often much above ratings received from residents in some 500 other jurisdictions across the country.

In the 2012 National Citizens Survey, conducted in November, residents' ratings placed Suwanee among the top 10 performing communities in 32 of 117 questions addressed – that's 27 percent. Residents' responses made Suwanee #1 in four areas: land use, planning and zoning; preservation of natural areas; city parks; and availability of affordable quality child care.

Suwanee conducts the National Citizens Survey every two years. The survey allows the approximately 500 participating communities across the country to benchmark themselves against one another and to identify local challenges, evaluate improvements, and monitor services and amenities. The statistically valid and scientifically administered survey is managed by the National Research Center (NRC) and International City/County Management Association (ICMA).

Suwanee residents continue to be pleased with overall community quality. Ninety-nine percent of survey-takers rated Suwanee as an excellent or good place to live and would recommend living in Suwanee. Ninety-seven percent rated the overall quality of life as excellent or good. "What we're really pleased with," says Mayor Jimmy Burnette, "is how we've stayed strong. Our numbers have stayed consistently high across the board and across time." See more highlights. See the full reports from NRC/ICMA.

Drew Johnson, left, and Ben Brink were among the 60 Level Creek Elementary students who participated in "Giving Myself Away" projects.

Giving myself away…making a difference

Sixty fifth-grade students in the FOCUS program at Level Creek Elementary have learned a powerful lesson that has little to do with solving algebraic equations or summarizing a story but everything to do with making a positive difference in the lives of others.

Through their individual, and occasionally dual, efforts, each of Nancy Haman's 60 FOCUS students undertook a semester-long "Giving Myself Away" project that culminated in early December. The projects were designed to inspire students to have a positive impact at home or school or in the community or the world.

Through these students' efforts, a kindergarten brother learned to play the piano, soldiers in Afghanistan received care packages, a flower garden was planted at a local Montessori school, orphans in Haiti got toys for Christmas while those in Cozumel received socks, and more than $2,500 was raised for the International Myeloma Foundation in memory of one student's grandmother.

"It really gets to me," says Haman. "They come up with such wonderful ideas of what they want to do."

Drew Johnson, who, along with classmate Ben Brink, collected jerseys, cleats, gloves, shin guards, and soccer balls for children in Kenya, says that he learned "not everything is about you, and we should help people without being asked."