Callanwolde Fine Arts Center is a phoenix flown from the ashes if there ever was one.
Gleaming woodwork, soaring ceilings, immaculate grounds and a custom pipe organ twined through the bones of the main house made the estate one of Atlanta’s finest before it fell into ruin and faced possible demolition in the early 1970s. Because of a community and a family that stood by it, however, Callanwolde found a second life as a fine arts center. Now, a planned expansion is set to position it as a go-to arts resource for area populations who might not otherwise be served. A ceremony Tuesday, April 16, at the center’s historic mansion marks the public launch of “Build. Inspire. Grow.,” an $8.5 million fundraising campaign for facility expansion.
“It will be transformational for the neighborhood, for greater DeKalb County,” Callanwolde Foundation Board President Glenn Warren Jr. told the AJC. “It will allow Callanwolde to do so many more things with the underserved … I’m really excited to get shovels in the ground.”
Credit: handput
Credit: handput
Expanded facilities for expanded programs
Warren is a member of Atlanta’s fabled Candler family, which contributed to the city’s notoriety through founding of the Coca-Cola Company and ties to Emory University. His great-great-grandfather, Charles Howard Candler, had the home built in 1917. The center will still promote enjoyment of the arts through the traditional programming that it has historically provided to the community, but it expanded its mission a couple of years ago, Warren explained, to put more of a focus on the area’s underserved populations. Those include veterans experiencing PTSD, low-income seniors and public school students who benefit from learning support.
The expansion of programming included students from DeKalb’s Cedar Grove Elementary School who qualify for Title 1 supplemental learning services. They made portraits, took in jazz music and celebrated other art forms for a week last summer as part of the center’s Art Scholars program. Afterward, the Callanwolde Foundation, which oversees programming, took note of their “amazing” artwork and asked how to ramp up these efforts, said Callanwolde Fine Arts Center executive director Andrew Keenan.
A plan for two new buildings was the answer.
Credit: handput
Credit: handput
The plans
Callanwolde’s 27,000-square-foot Gothic Tudor mansion looms over the 12-acre grounds in a network of arches, bays and half-timber work. Right now, Keenan said, it can house about 50 program participants at a time. A pottery building, carriage house and conservatory are “bursting at the seams” right now, he said. The new structures will allow Callanwolde to serve double the number of participants who currently come for art, dance, pottery instruction and more.
The planned Mr. and Mrs. William C. Warren III Flex Arts Building, at nearly 10,300 square feet, will house studios for dance, painting and drawing overlooking a swath of Atlanta’s signature forest. The second building — possibly to be named after a future donor, Keenan said — will be mainly for pottery and should alleviate a long waitlist. At just under 2,300 square feet, it will house two new studios upstairs. There will be an expansion of the existing outdoor kiln yard, and the bottom floor will accommodate workspaces for four new pottery program assistants.
The mansion will be home to yoga, gallery space and poetry and creative writing instruction. Additional parking likely won’t be a consideration, Keenan said, because the populations served — schoolchildren and adults who travel by bus — won’t need it.
The new pottery building will sit immediately beside the mansion, and the Flex Arts building will be situated across the facility’s largest parking lot from the existing jewelry studio. Plans are designed to minimize tree and root displacement and with replacement of any trees removed.
The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners recently pledged full support for the project, which will happen under the oversight of the county’s Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Affairs, according to that department’s director, Chuck Ellis.
“As property owner, all improvements and changes are approved by the county,” Ellis said. “We work closely with Callanwolde Fine Arts Center’s director and staff, and they have shared their master plan with the department.”
It’s important, Callanwolde leader Keenan said, to leave room for fluidity.
“We have a pretty good handle on exactly what we want to do in the very short term,” he said. “I just know that over time, things change … I like options and to be more flexible with the demands of the public.”
Credit: spe
Credit: spe
A groundbreaking
The facility could host a groundbreaking as soon as the end of the year, Keenan said, if fundraising comes together and the “herding cats” process of construction stays on track.
The Callanwolde Foundation is in charge of plans for expansion and the resulting programs. DeKalb County, which has owned and maintained the buildings and grounds since 1972, will handle improvements to the facility.
He said there’s “a plus and minus” to having the county handle the phased construction, which could take up to five years.
“The plus is it’s much more cost-effective because they have a lot more clout so they can lower square foot cost,” he said. “But the process takes a little longer because they have other projects.”
Fundraising is already well underway. As of early April, the campaign, which has been in a quiet private phase, was more than 80% funded with $1.54 million needed to meet the overall goal. Individuals and area foundations have helped with donations. The community has a history of supporting Callanwolde, dating to the time when citizens raised money to save it, but an expanded mission has meant a change in needs.
“Callanwolde was saved by individuals in the community, and it’s a really good formula,” Keenan said. “We relied on earned revenue for a long time. … Now, with all the work we’re doing with underserved communities, we’re having to rely on contributions.”
Warren, 38, is a native Atlantan. He grew up around relatives who inhabited Callanwolde when it was a residence. The family has long made a point, he said, to have at least one of its members on the board.
“I hope that our relatives are looking down smiling at us as we try to continue that family legacy in giving back to the community through Callanwolde,” he said. “I’m never going to be an artist, I’m not a dancer, I’m not a musician, but I do care deeply about two things: the underserved and that part of our mission, but also, just carrying on the family legacy of what came before me.”
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