Friends’ Mission

Friends is a community-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting appreciation, preservation, and cultural revitalization of historic downtown Louisville.  We are also committed to sharing Friends’ know-how with other rural communities in Jefferson County and the CSRA and with businesses and organizations working in those communities. 

Friends believes the most effective way to accomplish our mission is forming effective partnerships.  To date, our partners include the Jefferson County Schools, Chamber of Commerce, Arts Guild, Senior Citizens Center, and Historical Society, as well as the Lions Club of Louisville, the fire departments of Jefferson County, The News and Farmer and the art department of Augusta State University.  We will work aggressively to build more productive partnerships in the coming years.

Friends’ Programs

In addition to The Fire House Gallery, described more fully below, which is the cornerstone of Friends’ mission, Friends’ other important programs include –

Friends’ Publications.  Friends created and maintains this monthly e-newsletter,  the historic downtown Louisville website (www.ourlouisville.com), and The Fire House Gallery site (www.galleryafire.com). 

These publications reach an ever wider audience and are becoming highly effective promotional tools for Louisville. 

Downtown Events Planning and Execution.  Friends supports seasonal and other enjoyable downtown events.  This Memorial Day we are taking the lead in planning a courthouse celebration to honor American servicemen, which will feature an address by former Supreme Allied Commander (Europe), Gen. John R. Galvin (Ret.) of Atlanta, a display of flags purchased in memory of our fallen servicemen, a US Army band from Fort Gordon, and the JROTC color guard from Jefferson County High School.  In addition, Friends created and co-sponsors the annual Columbus Day Firefighter Cook-Off and Safety Fair downtown featuring a community barbecue and a rousing muster competition among Jefferson County fire departments. 

Friends’ Historic Plaque Program.  This program assists local merchants and other building owners in obtaining handsome custom brass plaques designed by Friends especially to honor the remarkable historic buildings within the Louisville Commercial Historic District.  Currently ten plaques have been installed or ordered.  Our goal is to add another four buildings to the program in 2006.  In this program, we have partnered with the Chamber of Commerce, which has provided funding support, and with the Historical Society, which contributes research concerning candidate buildings.

The Rural Works Program.  Knowledge sharing is a vital part of Friends’ mission.  This year we are embarking on an effort called “Rural Works” to offer Friends’ know-how to other organizations and businesses in Jefferson County and the CSRA.  Currently Rural Works is supporting development of an artist trail through Jefferson County and neighboring counties and providing business planning advice to investors who are restoring the old FNB building on Broad Street. 

The Fire House Gallery

The Gallery is the cornerstone of Friends’ work and it was an important Friends success in 2005.  Friends is committed to building on that foundation, with special emphasis on enhancing the Gallery’s exhibitions and community outreach programs.

The Gallery Mission.  The Gallery’s mission is to provide a unique venue for important Southern and rural artists that will serve as a community center for Louisvillians and attract appreciative visitors to downtown from around Jefferson County, the CSRA, the state, and the South.

Gallery Exhibitions.  The Gallery hosts monthly exhibitions of the work of important Southern and rural artists.  Friends will host eleven such exhibits in 2006, as well as two week-long exhibitions of local artists’ work.  Of the monthly exhibits, all but one will feature notable professional artists working in the South and rural America.  The eleventh, to be held during the first two weeks in April, will be an exhibit of the work of talented student printmakers at Augusta State University.  The Gallery’s 2006 professional exhibitors include –

• Michael Crouse, lithographer from the University of Alabama;

• Melissa Harshman, printmaker from the University of Georgia;

• Diane Tesler, noted oil painter of Kewanna, Indiana;

• David Wharton, photographer and professor at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi;

• Stillmoreroots, a cutting-edge artist cooperative located in Swainsboro;

• Tina Simonton, painter and member of the Georgia Institute of Technology architecture faculty;

• Jack Kotz, author of the celebrated photography book Ms. Booth’s Garden featuring radiant photographs of Mr. Kotz’s grandmother over many years in her deeply rural Mississippi home town. 

Gallery Community Outreach Activities.  Community outreach is at the very heart of the Gallery’s mission and operations.  Outreach initiatives are described below.

General Community Outreach.  Each of the Gallery’s monthly exhibitions opens with a lively public reception that is free of charge.  The Gallery alerts Louisville and Jefferson County to the exhibitions and opening receptions by updating the Gallery’s website, sending professionally-designed postcards to the Gallery’s extensive and well-maintained mailing list, widely posting exhibition posters, and securing generous coverage by The News and Farmer.  The receptions in particular are designed to be lively and fun to lure city and county residents regularly into downtown for an enjoyable evening they otherwise would likely spend elsewhere.

Youth Outreach.  The Gallery is determined to promote youth interest in the arts at all educational levels.  During its inaugural year, the Gallery hosted “Willie Tarver Day,” when nearly 300 Louisville elementary school students visited the Gallery to view the work of Georgia folk art phenomenon Willie Tarver and to hear him discuss his life as an artist.  Youth outreach initiatives for 2006 include –

• A lithography workshop for Jefferson County High School students conducted by exhibiting master lithographer and University of Alabama art professor Michael Crouse;

• A lithography demonstration by Friends’ intern Jon Westdahl for Louisville fifth graders;

• An exhibition of the work of advanced printmaking students from Augusta State University;

• A discussion forum at which Jefferson County High School art students will have the opportunity to ask Augusta State University art students about studying art at the college level;

• Weekly Sunday afternoon Scrabble tournaments in the Gallery;

• A combined photography and oral history project focusing on students’ impressions of life in Louisville and Jefferson County.

Senior Citizen Outreach.  The Gallery is establishing a program with the Senior Citizens Center to bring seniors into the Gallery for a morning of activities once during each Gallery exhibit.  The first seniors visit will occur in March.  Friends is actively seeking to partner with other senior citizen groups in Jefferson County to share the Gallery experience.

Minority Outreach.  The Gallery is meeting this challenge primarily through its student and senior citizen outreach initiatives.  In addition, the Gallery distributes its exhibition and other publicity materials to all Louisville churches.

Artist Outreach.  Friends is especially dedicated to increasing recognition for our local artists.  Twice annually Friends hosts exhibitions by Arts Guild members and periodically Friends offers exhibitions by other local groups such as the Stillmoreroots artist cooperative in Swainsboro and student printmakers at Augusta State University. The Gallery also includes a special page devoted to the work of local artists on its website (www.galleryafire.com).

Gallery Attendance.  Annualized Gallery for 2005 exceeded 3000, surpassing the total population of Louisville by more than 10 percent – a record any visual arts venue would be proud to report. The Gallery expects to grow its annual attendance in 2006 by 50 percent to 4500, through focused publicity and enhanced community outreach programs.

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