Remember those times when you were an excited little kid running around in the summer heat and patchy grass? Your mom was screeching after you trying to put some shoes on your feet, to no avail. You couldn’t care less about shoes, you were running around looking for something to scratch that creative itch aside from your small mountain of toys inside. 

Then, bam! You trip over some innocent-looking rock and fall onto the grass. But you know what, it didn’t bother you. That rock seemed much more important at the time (kid priorities). Naturally, you pryed it up from the dirt and were amazed at all the new and interesting things nestled underneath! Was that a plain, boring earthworm or a tiny galactic warrior snake sent to defend the yard from evil? It could be anything you wanted, the world was your oyster. 

Our priorities change when we get older, and sometimes we don’t always pick up that proverbial rock. The arts scene in Statesboro is kinda like that; it’s ripe with cool new experiences and opportunities. Yet, you’d never know it was right under your nose this whole time if you don’t take a second to look.

The Averitt Center for the Arts came into our community to help change that. For almost 20 years, we’ve made it our priority to emphasize the importance of art and art education with kids and adults. We’ve grown with our community through the years to create a safe space for people to explore different artistic skills and materials. 

As a kid, I grew up in a town much smaller than Statesboro. The sports departments always took heavy priority in my schools. Budgets were always cut. My fine arts teachers went on with passion and the few supplies they could gather for us kids. Despite it all, those art teachers and the lessons I learned from them gave me hope that I could one day create something wonderful and be happy doing it. 

Now, I haven’t made anything extraordinarily impactful nor have I become the next Andy Warhol. But taking a chance to explore my artistic interests was the best thing I’ve done. Art has opened so many doors and allowed me to connect with people I never would have interacted with, aside from a polite passing nod at the grocery store. Having accessible opportunities to embrace the arts is unbelievably valuable not only to myself but to a community of others who need encouragement to learn and try new experiences.

This upcoming fall, we are providing just that, great, accessible opportunities for all ages to get involved in the arts. We’ve redesigned our theater classes, added some fun, new dance classes, and opened up our visual arts programs to include specialty classes alongside our basic instruction courses.

The Averitt Center has programs, classes and summer camps I dreamed I could be a part of as a kid. Luckily, adults have plenty of opportunities to explore at the Averitt as well.

Some of the most popular events we hold are monthly workshops for painting and pottery. Our Paint-N-Party happens on the second Friday of each month. Each session has a different theme so our students can gain experience painting a wide variety of subjects and scenes. Many people love attending with friends or family to enjoy painting together with help from our knowledgeable instructor. It’s also created a great deal of fond memories for our students. You can see this month’s theme and more on our website under the workshops tab. 

We also hold a few monthly pottery workshops, so I hope you’re not afraid to get messy. Try Your Hand at Clay is our monthly hand-building workshop, which also includes a new theme each session. In the past, we’ve made a variety of projects from ceramic bunnies, to functional bowls, platters, and vases. Each session, we teach or expand on a specific technique in pottery like coils, slab and pinch. We also delve into the plethora of decoration techniques we know that can work with your project. However, our Give it a Spin! Workshop teaches you to work on the pottery wheel, building new forms, and shaping clay a pro. Since its start, people have seemed to enjoy this workshop a great deal. Due to this increasing demand, we are offering morning sessions in addition to our usual evening sessions for this coming fall season.

 Additionally, we’re expanding our workshops list this season to include ballroom dance workshops. This fall you’ll learn dances like Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, Cha-Cha and Rumba, all dances that work well with oldies music and today’s latest hits. It’s the perfect opportunity to get close to your special someone or keep that flame burning bright. After dancing among the beautiful autumn leaves, the music won’t stop. We will have more dance workshops available to spruce up the spring with new dance styles and fun. Spring ballroom dance workshop details will be available to view on our website soon!

These aren’t the only opportunities for our community to enjoy, so don’t worry! We often have pop-up workshops with a wide variety of subjects and classes year-round. We also have a brand new season of live music concerts, stunning theater productions, hilarious comedians, and more. 

This upcoming season is our grand 20th season of shows. To celebrate, we’ve prepared a special selection of professional performers to rock the Emma Kelly Theater stage along with exclusive Averitt Center productions, and community shows. We’re also bringing back a few Statesboro favorites you just might recognize. Details on our new season and a peek into what’s to come will be available in our newly designed season magazine. We’ll be mailing out a batch of them soon, so watch your mailbox. If you aren’t on our print mailing list, we will have plenty of copies ready to give out in our Main Gallery lobby.

So, stop on by at 33 East Main street in downtown Statesboro. You know you’re there when you see the historic white columns and bright red doors. Our box office staff will be at the front desk ready to welcome you in. Don’t forget, you can also enjoy the free current gallery exhibition inside. New exhibitions are displayed throughout the year, so you are more than welcome to stop by often.