Local News Art House Hosts Holiday Exhibits
The submission deadline for the Acworth Arts Alliance’s It’s a New Year exhibit is midnight Dec. 15. Submissions are open to artists who can hand deliver their works. The exhibit will run Jan. 8-Feb. 26. The artist receptions will be 4-7 p.m. Jan. 8 and Feb. 5. Visit the website (acworthartsalliance. org/guidelines) for the submission form. Email images of submissions to acworthartsalliance@gmail.com. The Small Works exhibit will run through Dec. 23. This exhibit features items that are perfectly sized for small holiday gifts. Art House events are free and open to the public. The Acworth Arts Alliance offers classes and workshops, so consider giving the gift of art this holiday season, with gift certificates, classes and memberships available for purchase, as well as small art and gift items. The Art House is open noon-6 p.m., TuesdaysSaturdays, and is closed Sundays, Mondays and holidays.
Acworth Community Honors the Johnsons Save Acworth History Foundation presented the Nancy Smith Maxwell Award to Claude and Willie Mae Johnson for preservation of heritage and history in Acworth, in a ceremony Nov. 4 at the Acworth Depot Park History Center. The Johnsons affectionately are known as the mayor and first lady of Logan Farm Willie Mae and Claude Johnson. Photo by Yvonne Leander. Park. As park visitors walk down Taylor Street, the Johnsons offer a friendly wave. Willie Mae has lived in Acworth for the past 75 years, and Claude for the past 85 years. The couple got married Aug. 2, 1954, and have one son, Claude Johnson Jr. Through the years, the Johsons have served actively at Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church. Willie Mae also has held various roles throughout the community, including vice president of the PTA at Roberts Elementary School, event coordinator for the Carrie Dyer Woman’s Club and hostess at the Governor’s Mansion during Gov. Sonny Perdue’s administration. Claude organized and coached the city’s first African-American youth baseball team in the early 1960s. Together, the Johnsons transported team players to and from Acworth’s Coats and Clark Field to Marietta, Canton and other surrounding cities for games and practice, as well as supplied uniforms and covered all team expenses. Additionally, Mayor Tommy Allegood and the board of aldermen issued a proclamation designating Nov. 4 as Claude and Willie Mae Johnson Appreciation Day in Acworth “for their contributions to the entire community.” The Nancy Maxwell Award was created by the Save Acworth History Foundation to honor people who have made a significant contribution to preserving the proud heritage and rich history of the Acworth community. The first recipient of the award, in 2020, was Nancy Smith Maxwell.
GTS Students Win Welding Competition
Instructor Stephen Leone poses with the winning team and other competition attendees. 8
AROUND ACWORTH | December 2021
Georgia Trade School (GTS) students Jordan Adcox, Cade Cordle, Kelly Myers and Skylar Voeltner won first place at the Xcel North Georgia Welding Competition in Dallas Nov. 6. The students custom fabricated a smoker/ cowboy cooker to resemble the classic Lincoln Electric tombstone welder. Tasked with submitting the most artistic take on a cowboy cooker, they used recycled materials from paper mills, railroad spikes and other miscellaneous metal. Cordle also placed first in two individual welding competitions. Certified welding inspectors Stephen Leone and Kyle Lockwood prepared and coached the team. Xcel North Georgia Welding Competition is an annual event that features celebrity judges, including Bob Moffat from Weld.com and Jason Becker with the Arc Junkies podcast. The competition is sponsored by Savannah-based Xcel Strategies, a mentoring network founded in 2012 to fuel young people with purpose and passion to reach the fullness of their potential through a network of mentors.
