About the Cumming Arts Center
The Cumming Arts Center/Sawnee Association of the Arts (CAC/SAA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, all-volunteer organization. It has been based at various locations over the years until, in 2018, it leased the City of Cumming’s Brannon-Heard House at 111 Pilgrim Mill Road.
The organization has a long history dating back to 1970, when it was established by a small group of art enthusiasts to meet the need for an art culture presence in Forsyth County. It has since evolved into a vital community asset with over 200 members and serves as a hub for visual arts for Cumming and residents throughout Forsyth County.
In addition to member exhibits, the new year will feature a wide variety of art adventures, including Forsyth County events highlighting the work of art students and local non-members as well as continuing to host the 22nd Annual Christmas Festival at Lanier Tech. The Center’s 2025 schedule includes art classes in various media, open studio hours, and other existing opportunities for dedicated art professionals, aspiring artists, and hobbyists.
2026 Cumming Arts Center Officers
Kim Romaner, President
Kim has served as Vice President on the Cumming Arts Center Executive Board of Directors in 2025. She and her husband Michael moved to Cumming in the summer of 2024, and she was immediately attracted to the Cumming Arts Center-a hub for artists, art lovers, unique gift makers and shoppers, and so much more! Kim is a technologist and entrepreneur who has founded three small businesses: a certified Apple reseller, a business and technology consulting firm, and a business brokerage. She also has a corporate background with the Miami Herald and other companies and hopes to bring everything she's learned to the benefit of the Sawnee Arts Association and the Cumming Arts Center. She's a published author and writer and has in the last few years picked up the paintbrush to express her creativity in new ways. Her favorite art modalities are acrylic abstracts and landscapes, as well as the occasional watercolor landscape. Kim always wants to learn new art techniques, and the classes she's already taken at the Cumming Arts Center have helped her enormously.
Debra Mollohan, Vice President
Since moving to Cumming with her family in 2021, Debra has embraced the community’s love of the outdoors, gardening, and the arts. Her career spans business consulting, corporate marketing, and healthcare practice management, with professional experiences in Florida, Kansas, and Atlanta. She attended college in North Carolina, Tennessee and London, and earned a degree in Communications from Lenoir Rhyne University. Wherever she lived, Debra sought out museums, hiking trails, and opportunities to connect with nature. Her previous board experience includes the American Heart Association, the American Stroke Foundation, CASA of Forsyth County and the Kansas City and North Fulton Medical Group Management Association. An avid gardener and birdwatcher, Debra and her husband enjoy traveling and discovering new trails, museums, and art galleries. Thanks to the wonderful and patient art instructors at the Cumming Arts Center (CAC), she also works on watercolor painting. Debra is eager to contribute to the CAC Board, helping the organization grow and supporting local artists in sharing their work more widely with the North Georgia community.
Heather Lee, Secretary
Heather is a passionate painter with a love for acrylics and a curiosity that drives her to explore all kinds of artistic mediums. With a background in Fine Arts, Graphic Marketing, and Social Media, she brings a creative and modern approach to everything she does. She has shared her love of art through lessons with family and friends, and by hosting fun, engaging paint parties. Currently she offers regular art classes at the Cumming Arts Center (CAC) where creativity, learning, and inspiration come together. Whether picking up a brush for the first time or looking to grow your skills, her goal is to create a space where everyone feels welcome and supported because she truly believes that art has the power to connect, uplift, and transform.
Mike Zioimek, Treasurer
Mike Ziomek’s passion for art began when he was in grade school. His cousin, a school art teacher, would come home and share art projects with him and his brother. Since then, he uses his love for art to balance his left-brain analytical thinking with his right-brain creativity. His hobbies include number crunching, cooking, painting, and solving TV murder mysteries. Mike and his wife moved to Georgia in 2016 after they retired, so they could be closer to their grandkids. Together they enjoy helping their church and local non-profits serve the community. Mike has served on several boards and has managed the finances for large, small, for-profit, and non-profit organizations. He looks forward to bringing his wide range of experiences to the Cumming Arts Center.
2025 Advisory Council
Art McNaughton, Advisory Council
Art McNaughton, CEO of the Atlanta Artists Center, is an Advisory Council Member for the Cumming Arts Center. Art grew up in Chicago and graduated with a BFA from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. Always being fascinated by realistic painting styles, Art adopts this style in much of his work. He particularly enjoys depicting the interplay of light, reflections, and surfaces. He combines this passion with a fascination for glass and metal reflections, primarily found in the automotive world. His depictions of autos and motorcycles was the introduction to work for Warner Brothers television and the “Black Lightning” TV series. More recently he has worked on the Netflix movie “Reptile”.
Alan Young, Advisory Council
Wildlife artist Alan R. Young is well known throughout the South for his birds of the Appalachian illustrations. He specializes in birds, not only for the variety of species, but for his love of nature. Since that time, Alan has won numerous fine art awards, with works in private and corporate collections from the United States to Europe; both prints and originals. Included are the New York, Ohio, and Georgia Audubon societies, Coke-Cola, Georgia Power, and others. He is considered one of the top wild bird artists in the Southeast, often featured in national and regional publications. Other noteworthy accomplishments include the creation of the North Georgia Wildlife Arts Festival, and the judging of various other art festivals and events and instruction in Dry-Brush Watercolor technique.
Ellen Lewis, Advisory Council
Ellen Lewis is an Atlanta artist who has been honing her creative skills as a fine artist since her first paid art job at 16 years old as a calligrapher. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 1992 with a BFA in 3D Design and Illustration and a minor in Graphic Design. She says her artistic thought process is based on “the desire to make ideas come to life.” Her 3D work has been featured in package design, 1996 Olympic events, movies, television, high-end holiday decor, Broadway, and residential construction. In addition, some of Lewis’ noted interactive Fine Art 3D work has been on display on MTV, The New York Art Directors Club, and The Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan. “I visualize in raw, vibrant color,” she says. “Color is my driving force. Color can evoke just about every emotion.”
Gregory Johnson, Consulting Artist
Gregory Johnson, Sculptor, is a Consulting Artist for the Cumming Arts Center. Gregory was born in Chicago and one of a very small group of sculptors whose public art commissions we see around us in Forsyth County and beyond. He moved to Atlanta in 1981 and created a large body of bronze statuary in a variety of themes, including depictions of famous historical figures, art patrons, and children. In 2012, modern art began to dominate his thinking, prompting him to create contemporary stainless-steel sculptures. Currently, Gregory works in his studio in Cumming and has a team of 175 subcontractors, including designers, engineers, foundry workers, fabricators, and other specialists, who help him produce a wide range of monumental works — over 1500 to date — located in 44 states and 7 countries. One of his sculptures is on display currently on the Cumming Arts Center grounds.
Our History
In 1970, a group of art enthusiasts saw a need for an art association to support the arts in Forsyth County. Prompted by an announcement placed in the Forsyth County News to “anyone interested in joining an art association,” approximately 30 local residents met in the town of Cumming’s only high school, Forsyth Central, to discuss taking this idea to the next level. Thus began the organization known at that time as The Sawnee Association of the Arts. This name was later changed to the Sawnee Artists Association.
The group met with the mayor and other organizations within the county. With a starting grant of only $100, the crusade for the art center began with its first venue … an art exhibition at The Old Jackson Building on the square in Cumming. Then in 1979, after more than a decade of tireless fund raising, the Association was able to put a down payment on a 13-acre tract of land in Cumming. Energized by this major step, the group launched an all-out campaign to reach their goal of procuring enough funds to eventually build a community art center.
After several large donations and fundraising drives on the part of its members, the original tract of land was traded for a tract on Tribble Gap Road in Cumming. The organization was now 400 members strong and included artists, actors, attorneys, realtors, commissioners, bankers and other influential leaders in the community. Then, in 1980, local artist and SAA member, Greg Johnson, was able to acquire a development grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts and, in 1991, ground was broken on the site. With the aid of several large donations and a grant from the Office of the Governor, equipment was purchased for the building and The Sawnee Center was officially opened in 1992. In 2002, the SAA opened The Hamilton Gallery which allowed members to showcase their work.
Due to unforeseen events, the gallery was closed in 2005 and the Sawnee Center was sold. At this time. The Sawnee Association was reorganized and renamed The Sawnee Artists Association. The Sawnee Artists Association continues to serve the Forsyth County Community as a non-profit organization. Through exhibitions, festivals, scholarships, educational opportunities and other events, SAA is able to provide exciting opportunities for artists and supporters of the arts.
In 2018, SAA signed a lease agreement with the City of Cumming to rent the Brannon-Heard House in downtown Cumming. Currently, we showcase our member’s art and provide a Bistro gift shop in that historic location.
You can support our organization with a monetary donation, or join us as a member – both can be done on our website.
It is through the generous support of people like you that the Sawnee Artists Association is able to continue its goal to serve the citizens of Forsyth County and surrounding areas.
For additional information click→ Forsyth County News
