DALTON, Ga. — The new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted nearly every element of American life, from businesses to schools, and cultural institutions like the Creative Arts Guild have also been affected.

The Guild closed on March 15, then reopened on June 1, with that two-and-a-half month shutdown costing the Guild 20% of its annual revenue, Amanda Brown, who has been the Guild’s executive director since November 2014, detailed Friday as she delivered her annual report to the Guild’s board. A pair of major fundraisers, Spring for the Arts, scheduled for March, and the Low Country Boil, slated for June, were both canceled due to the pandemic, although the latter was rescheduled in a modified format this month.

Last Friday, this Friday, and on July 31, the Low Country Boil is being retooled with the assistance of Sumpthin Southern and Dalton Brewing Co., as individuals can purchase $20 tickets in advance through creativeartsguild.org, then pick up plates of low country boil from the downtown restaurant on Fridays from 5-7 p.m. Additionally, Dalton Brewing Co. will donate $1 per drink sold to the Guild if customers mention the Low Country Boil fundraiser. Tickets need to be purchased by the Wednesday before the Friday you plan to get your boil.

“We had to get creative,” Brown said. Funds from the Low Country Boil will go directly to support general operating needs of the Guild.

Though Spring for the Arts was postponed only days before the luncheon was scheduled to happen, all event sponsors and ticket holders upheld their sponsorships and offered ticket purchases as donations, which allowed the event’s net income for the Guild to be roughly $6,000, Brown said. “We couldn’t be more appreciative of that.”

The Off the Rails summer music series downtown, of which the Guild is a partner, was also canceled due to the pandemic, she said. “We’re already planning for next year and will make it the best ever.”

During the unexpected closure of Guild facilities this spring, the Guild developed a Noon Arts Facebook live series where Guild staff members went online at noon each weekday to offer free arts engagement activities, from Mindfulness Mondays, Music Play Tuesdays and Walk With Me Wednesdays to Tendu Thursdays and Family Funday Fridays, she said. Those reached not only locals, but people beyond the Dalton-Whitfield County community, and, due to their popularity, “we plan to continue to offer this Noon Arts Series for the foreseeable future.”

A major element of returning some semblance of normalcy to the Guild was bringing individuals back into facilities, and the Guild has hosted summer art camps for youth this month. The Guild also held its first gallery opening since March on July 10.

Though this month’s gallery opening featuring a trio of artists still wasn’t “normal,” it was at least a return toward something resembling normalcy, Savannah Thomas, the Guild’s gallery manager, explained. “I’m glad we’ve been able to find ways to make everyone feel safe.”

That included mandating masks inside the facility, checking the temperatures of individuals before they entered, moving the bar outside, and limiting food offerings. Similar precautions are in place for the youth art camps at the Guild.

“We recognize there is a need in our community, and if we can do so safely, we feel like it’s our responsibility as a guild to offer this programming in-person, but safety is the number one priority,” Thomas said. “I actually taught two months of an online class in April and May, which is such a different experience from teaching in person, and especially for this younger age group, they need that” in-person guidance.

The financial state of the Guild was on an upward trend from fiscal years 2015-19, and “with two fiscally healthy years under our belt, we were confident that we had turned the corner on our past financial struggles,” until the pandemic hit, “aftershocks” of which could lead to months or even years of decreased revenue, Brown said. Consequently, the Guild launched a COVID relief campaign with a goal of raising $75,000 in support of general operations “to carry us through these uncertain times.”

In fiscal year 2020, which ended June 30, total contributions — restricted, general, government grants, Sustaining Partners and Friendship dues — made to the Guild totaled $261,760, which was down from $344,498 in fiscal year 2019 and $280,639 in fiscal year 2018, but still up from $196,887 in fiscal year 2017, she said. The Guild revamped the Friends of the Guild model and “was ready to relaunch” when the coronavirus halted the effort, but “once we get back on our feet and work our way through our COVID relief campaign, we will be ready to pick up the pieces and do a much larger and re-energized launch of Friends of the Guild.”

Despite the hurdles caused by the pandemic, “I choose to be hopeful,” Brown said. This is “a speed bump along the way,” and “undoubtedly we will overcome.”

Fiscal year 2020 notes

In fiscal year 2020, the Guild received a $10,000 Partner Grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts, “a huge honor,” as it is the “most prestigious grant” from the Council for the Arts, she said. Based on merit in support of general operations, the grant “validates our mission and the quality of the work we’re doing in the community,” and the Guild has been informed it will again receive that grant in fiscal year 2021.

The Guild formed a new community partnership with The Mill at Crown Garden, which has completed renovations of two new event spaces, for event rental bookings, Brown said. The Guild will handle event rental bookings for The Weaving Room and The Cotton Room at The Mill at Crown Garden, and “it is our goal for early fiscal year 2021 to rebuild our event rentals website page to address these additional spaces and to offer better information for all available rental spaces, (as) additional revenue brought in through our event rentals will help to offset other Guild program costs.”

The Guild did not host a curated InConcert series in fiscal year 2020 after doing so the prior two years because attendance was not what “we hoped,” so the Guild took a year to reevaluate, and “perhaps we will revisit the idea in fiscal year 2021 with a fresh perspective,” she said. The Guild did host several other concerts, however, as well as offering a Downtown Dalton Busking series during the lunch hour with support from the Community Foundation of Northwest Georgia, and that was well received, so “we would love to continue this in the year ahead.”

Also in fiscal year 2020, the Guild selected more than a dozen new works to add to the lauded Robert T. Webb Sculpture Garden in celebration of the garden’s 10th anniversary, she said. The Sculpture Garden currently boasts 38 pieces, and it remains “the only garden in the state of Georgia open from dawn till dusk, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”

“It is completely open to the public, purposefully designed with no gates or physical barriers,” and the “accompanying Guide by Cell program and descriptive brochures allow visitors to have an accessible, educational and enjoyable self-tour,” she said. The Sculpture Garden “is a true gem of our community and region.”

The public unveiling of the new pieces and the anniversary celebration were delayed by the pandemic, she said. The Guild plans to hold those events soon, perhaps around the time of the Guild’s annual Festival in September.

The 2019 Festival brought together more than 100 artists and thousands of visitors for a weekend of festivities, Brown said. While the Guild’s net income for the event was roughly $18,500, finances are a secondary consideration with the Festival, as “we truly feel this is (our) biggest gift to the community.”

This year’s Festival remains scheduled for mid-September, although it’ll likely look different than previous editions due to the pandemic, she said. There could be more hybrid events, for example, making the Festival a blend of in-person and digital offerings.

Another fiscal year 2020 highlight was introducing Creative Circle, an online platform and in-person group that meets virtually and face to face to share work, discuss the creative process and offer feedback.

Creative Circle was created “so artists could tell us what they needed,” as priorities of the Guild include “nurturing emerging and existing artists,” Brown said. It’s a network that will be “whatever (artists) need it to be.”

The Guild formed a partnership in fiscal year 2020 with the Dalton Chamber Choir, an all-volunteer choir that is the latest evolution of a group established in 1993, Brown said. “It’s an awesome merger for both groups, and we’re pleased to have them.”