VALDOSTA —
Eddie Norris always envisioned Spring Into Art as an art exhibit that would include everyone but would increase in quality as the years progressed.
With the 25th Annual Spring Into Art scheduled to open Monday evening at the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts, the man credited with starting the show should find an exhibit that matches his vision.
Dr. Ronald Zaccari, a regional artist and former Valdosta State University president, described this year’s Spring Into Art as the best he’s seen during his dozen years in Valdosta. Zaccari was helping Bill Shenton, the center’s curator, mount the show’s 455 pieces of art Friday afternoon from 239 registered artists.
Turner Center Executive Director Cheryl Oliver says this year’s exhibit has more paintings and photographs than other media.
“It seems we have more large-scale 2-D works this year,” Oliver says. “Bill says half the field is made up of paintings. He also says the quality of work is exceptional, including that of many local, familiar artists and several new artists who’ve submitted extraordinary works.”
Had someone told Eddie Norris in 1982 that Spring Into Art would last 25 years and showcase hundreds of works, he likely wouldn’t have believed it.
“When I arrived, there was almost nothing in terms of cultural arts in Valdosta,” says Norris. “... There was football but little art available.”
Though an artist, Norris arrived in Valdosta as a bank president. He had been sent to South Georgia to oversee the building of a downtown headquarters for First State Bank & Trust.
For years, Norris says, people said the downtown First State interior more closely resembled an art gallery than a bank. This description would prove prescient for both Spring Into Art and the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts.
In a phone conversation last week, Norris remembers when the Valdosta community’s commitment to visual arts could almost be found in one, always-moving spot.
“Dorothy Pearlman operated the Lowndes/Valdosta Arts Commission out of her car,” Norris says. First State helped Pearlman and the arts commission secure the former Langdale Turpentine building on North Patterson Street near Valdosta State.
Still, when plans were developed for Spring Into Art, even the new LVAC building was too small for the concept.
While many credit Norris with Spring Into Art, he credits the former Merry Jo Whidby, now Merry Jo Kurrie, with the idea: An art show that would display Valdosta and South Georgia’s talents in the visual arts. Since LVAC was too small and people believed the bank looked like an art gallery, Norris says First State seemed the natural place to host Spring Into Art.
“We decided early on that we were not going to exclude students, amateurs, or anyone wanting to participate,” Norris says. “We wanted to encourage the development of the arts in Valdosta. So it started that way and it became a self-policing deal. People wanted to enter better works each year. People tried harder each year to be in it and they tried harder to do better.”
That aspect of Spring Into Art has never changed. Unlike many art shows, as long as artists follow the guidelines, their works will be displayed.
In most shows, artists enter then a judge decides what will be included in an exhibit; everything else is cut from the show. In Spring Into Art, judges choose prize winners but all pieces are exhibited for viewing.
For several years, LVAC hosted its other exhibits in its small quarters while Spring Into Art opened each April in First State Bank. In the early 2000s, things changed and, in some ways, didn’t change.
First State Bank began preparing to move its headquarters to a new building on Perimeter Road. Former state Sen. Loyce Turner was a First State founding member. He had a revolutionary idea. What if the old bank became a new arts center?
His late wife, Annette Howell Turner, loved the arts. She was considered one of the region’s chief advocates for the arts. To pay homage to her and support the arts, Loyce Turner not only suggested that LVAC make its home in First State’s soon-to-be-vacated downtown offices, he and the Turner family donated $500,000 to the idea.
The Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts was born, located in the building where Spring Into Art originated. Months of fundraising, planning and renovation followed, but the arts center was a success.
And Spring Into Art served as the event to introduce the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts. In April 2003, the center opened to the 16th Annual Spring Into Art.
Eddie Norris retired from banking in 1999. He and his wife, Ann, returned in 2001 to their home in Columbus, Ga. He continues working in art and has entered past Spring Into Art exhibits. For the 25th Annual Spring Into Art, the Norrises plan to attend Monday evening’s reception.
He will choose his favorite work which will receive the $500 Eddie Norris Award, says Cheryl Oliver. It is a one-time award, she says, to honor the man who started Spring Into Art as First State’s president a quarter century ago.
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