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.
2025 Cumming Arts Center Officers
Alison Sims, President
Alison Sims was born in Kent, England. At an early age, the family immigrated to Vancouver, BC. Both parents were artistic, studying architecture, drawing, painting and sewing, which was a great influence. She studied fine art in college, and later worked in the field of pulp and paper, concentrating on customer service. This brought her to Atlanta in 2000 where she met her husband and in 2016 moved to Cumming. Now, in retirement, she can dedicate her time to fine arts again. She purchased her first digital camera in 2007, and her greatest joy is primarily shooting landscape, wildlife, nature and anything old and rusty. In the last few years, she picked up a paint brush, concentrating on oil on canvas, some watercolor, gouache and felting. She is naturally inquisitive and loves to learn new techniques and meet fellow artists. Since finding the Cumming Arts Center, she is excited to be a member of its growing arts community and hopes to see member artists at its many upcoming events, especially the Christmas Festival at Lanier Tech in November which includes so many talented artisans from the area.
Kim Romaner, Vice President
Kim Romaner 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.
Christine Wood, Secretary
Christine Wood is a Georgia native who comes from a long line of people who work with their hands. She has professional experience in several different backgrounds, including cake decorating, designing marketing materials, administrative work, and special education. She loves to sing, play guitar, draw, paint, write, bake, take photos, and make handbuilt pottery. She spent six years living in Chicago, which gave her many opportunities for personal growth, cityscape photography, and walking on frozen lakes. She joined the organization in the spring of 2024 as a way to meet and gain inspiration from other artists. Her position on the board gives her the chance to participate and contribute in a meaningful way, and she is very thankful to be part of this community.
Mary Warren, Treasurer
Mary Warren works in finance and is all about numbers. Yet ten years ago she picked up a paint brush and started taking art classes. There blossomed the love and challenge of creating art on canvas. To nourish her growing love for art, she became a member of the Cumming Arts Center. At her first member meeting, there was an announcement that there was an opening to fill the Treasurer position on the Board and she answered. She is honored to give her time and financial expertise as Treasurer to a non-profit organization where artists can flourish and give back to the Cumming community. She realizes and is thankful she has found the perfect intersection of art and numbers.
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
