A CITY OF AND COLOR, CULTURE CREATIVITY

Suwanee’s colorful, engaging Town Center can only be attributed to the City’s greater mission of utilizing public art to enhance resident life and establish a unique sense of place. It can be said that the impressive collection of public art the City has curated today does all of this and more, but that wasn’t always the plan.

In 2007, it occurred to Nick Masino, former mayor of Suwanee, that “all great cities have great art.” This statement spurred the City’s revolutionary public art movement that’s still built upon today. While public art hadn’t been widely recognized by the state or even much of the Southeast at the time, Suwanee saw endless potential for art to be accessible, educational fun and a future centerpiece of the community.

The City first formed an ad-hoc committee to create a place for art in city developments. The committee asked developers to commit 1% of construction costs to public art, whether including art in the development or donating to the City’s public art fund. The initiative was cemented in 2009, allowing Suwanee to create and purchase all the art and art programming they own today using only fundraising dollars.

SculpTour, which Suwanee is known for today, was another project entirely. It started in 2011, pulling inspiration from Columbus, Georgia’s Art On Loan program. The concept of SculpTour is simple: an endless, rotating art exhibit. The public art installations that make up the tour are swapped for new art every two years, allowing the City to reinvent its downtown atmosphere and keep supporting small artists.

Suwanee’s first Public Art Master Plan was unveiled in 2015, bringing with it three tenets pertinent to the City’s overarching mission. Art should be temporary, interactive and boost city image in some way. Every piece sourced by the City follows at least two of the three tenets.

Each city in Gwinnett County has its own, unique niche. Suwanee’s is art.

Before SculpTour, Suwanee’s greatest asset was its picturesque parks, which happen to make perfect backdrops for works of art. By fusing these two strengths, Suwanee created its artful identity, which is ever-present today.

“When it comes to a city’s needs, public art is at the very top of Peter Kageyama’s city hierarchy from his book, ‘For the Love of Cities.’ It’s not a necessity, but it adds the ‘interesting’ element that draws people in and makes them want to know more about a city,” explains Denise Brinson, Suwanee’s Assistant City Manager.

Suwanee has certainly succeeded in its goal of piquing interest. It has reached art admirers across the country and other parts of the world through engaging and exploratory art. And with a greater awareness of Suwanee comes a greater awareness of its businesses, amenities and hotels, generating a well-rounded supply of income for the entire community.

This mentality has fueled Suwanee’s newest arts initiative, the Art for All Capital Campaign. The campaign seeks to raise $1.25 million in private contributions which will support three new public art pieces as a part of the City’s highly anticipated Town Center Expansion.

The inclusion of public art city-wide is paramount because of the wonders it has done for Suwanee’s internal sense of community. Works of art on display across the City don’t just bring value in appearance. Each sculpture, painting or monument is representative of its maker, many of which reside right here in Georgia, and what better place to hold the stories, memories and cultures of a community than the very center of it.