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Callanwolde At 50
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Callanwolde Mansion By Clare S. Richie
The year is 1972, the Omni Coliseum opened to host the Atlanta Flames and Hawks, NASA launched the Space Shuttle program and Callanwolde began its next chapter. Today, the community art center serves 12,000+ people annually through art classes, gallery exhibitions, musical performances, summer camps, field trips, venue rentals, and more on its Briarcliff Road grounds.
“So much is happening here on campus every day,” said Andrew Keenan, Executive Director of Callanwolde Fine Arts Center. “People come here for very specific reasons and may not know the full breadth of programming.”
Rick Berman, the first Ceramics Director (1973-1980), remembers converting the basement duck pin bowling alley into a pottery studio.
“We opened with five morning wheel classes, five evening wheel classes, and a waiting list,” Berman recalled. “It was a huge success and it’s been like that ever since. We developed a real family there and it just keeps getting better.”
Candy Caserella, a pottery student since the late 1980s agrees. She recently purchased a Callanwolde Legacy Brick with the inscription “A place of joy.” “It’s a fabulous place to create and meet people interested in arts,” Caserella said, emphasizing the reasonably priced, high-quality instruction for beginners on up.
Completed in 1920 as then Coca-Cola Company president Charles Howard Candler’s home, it was named for his ancestor’s “Callan” Irish castle and “wolde” for woods. In 1959, Mr. Candler’s widow donated the estate to Emory University which later passed it to First Christian Church. The church sold off 16 acres and leased the mansion to establish an art gallery. As the property deteriorated, the church put it up for sale – including the mansion, carriage house, gardener cottage, two greenhouses, and out-buildings. “1972, that’s when DeKalb County took formal ownership of the property,” Keenan said. “They started leasing it in 1971. It took a year to raise the money.”
The Callanwolde Foundation aided by a matching grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) raised the funds to purchase the estate. Callanwolde operates with DeKalb County as a nonprofit.
One improvement came from an unusual source.
“We didn’t have classes in the summer for many years – until 1996,” Keenan said. The Italian Olympic Committee rented the mansion for its 1996 Summer Olympics hospitality headquarters and paid its rent by having air conditioning installed in the historic home.
Today, the estate boasts five gas kilns, seven electric kilns, 25 throwing wheels, 12 looms, a Jewelry studio, 3,000 square feet of dance space, and a photography darkroom. Music is piped through the mansion by the original organ’s built-in pipes and ceiling panels. The grounds feature gardens, nature trails and a 550seat amphitheater.
While the historic property requires constant upkeep, Callanwolde’s board is
Pro Prime Movers at their spring concert. (Photo by Julian Mejia)
prioritizing community engagement and access. Keenan described a four-pronged approach that includes financial aid for students and programming focused on veterans, Title 1 public schools (K-12) and underserved seniors. For seven years, Callanwolde has partnered with the local Department of Veterans Affairs to offer weekly painting and drawing classes to veterans. The focus on community engagement A group of ceramics students work on various hand-building projects in inspired donor and artist, Tony Ragunas (method-artz.com), to recently join the the Pottery Studio. board and help raise more funds to make Callanwolde a “city-wide resource.” “Our future is very bright,” Keenan said. “I’ve been associated with Callanwolde for 20 years [as a student, board member and executive director]. I’ve never been more optimistic. We have the opportunity to do so much more for the community.”
