Heavy rain didn’t dampen the turnout for the 38th Annual Spring Into Art reception at the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts.

Sometimes the cliche speaks volumes because it’s true.

Rain fell all afternoon. Thunder echoed through the skies. Lightning flashed. Storm alert devices sounded with tornado, storm and flood warnings.

Still, people came to what is the largest art show in South Georgia. 

Spring Into Art is also the most democratic of art shows. 

Pay the fee, follow the rules and the art will be displayed. Judges jury and select winners and runners-up in multiple categories. Pieces are selected for the Colson Calendar. No work is juried out. Every work finds a place on a wall or on a stand in the Turner Center’s galleries.

The opening reception is one of the biggest social events of the year.

Word of advice for next year: Attend the opening reception to visit with folks and be seen. Return to the arts center in the following days and weeks to see the art.

During the reception, you can’t see the art for the people.

But there are always people you’ll be glad to see.

Roberta George is such a person.

The arts center named Roberta the 2025 recipient of the Lena Bosch Lifetime Achievement Award.

“The award recognizes individuals who have exhibited outstanding, creative, innovative and visionary leadership in the growth and advancement of the arts in our community through involvement with the Turner Center,” according to the Turner Center website. “The award was established in 2020 to recognize Bosch’s lifetime of contributions to the Lowndes-Valdosta Arts Commission Inc., the Turner Center and to the overall arts community.”

Past recipients include Bill Sineath and Dr. Ron Zaccari.

Roberta’s contributions to the arts community could fill a book. 

She is a former director – the first director – of the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts. Roberta was key in leading the move into the Turner Center. The center’s Roberta George Children’s Gallery is named in her honor. 

She served as Lowndes/Valdosta Arts Commission director for a decade. During that period, she encouraged and inspired numerous local and regional artists while helping them develop exhibits and shows at the arts center. 

A writer, Roberta founded the Snake Nation Press in 1989. “Snake Nation Review” grew from a circulation of mostly regional and Southern venues to a literary magazine that is read in cities throughout America. Snake Nation Press also publishes books. Snake Nation Press has often been cited as one of Writer’s Digest’s 50 best small literary presses in the United States.  

Roberta has led a writing group of local writers for years.  

She has been a yoga enthusiast for decades and led a weekly yoga class for several years.

She spent her early childhood in Arizona. She came to Valdosta as a teenager. Receiving the award, Roberta mentioned her late husband Noel George, whom she met at a Catholic church communion breakfast. She was finishing high school and he was finishing college. They married and have seven grown children, five daughters and two sons, and numerous grandchildren.

Before the Turner Center, Roberta led LVAC from a building further north on Patterson Street. The building was small but its scope was immense. From that small building, Roberta, Adann-Kennn Alexxandar and Elaine Kent organized art exhibits, the Presenter Series, children’s theater, open mic nights, book readings, hosted various meetings, tours, etc. 

Roberta and LVAC’s small staff created an oasis for the region’s artists. They usually stopped what they were doing to visit with guests, board members and always the region’s creative folks. Roberta created an atmosphere that was as creative and as artistic as the works on display.

She’s still creating. She has a new book, “Something for Nothing,” based on a story from her family, that Snake Nation Press will release in the coming weeks. 

The continued success of Spring Into Art, all of the people milling through the galleries and the Turner Center itself are all a testament to the creativity and love that Roberta George fostered so many years ago.

 

Dean Poling is a former editor with The Valdosta Daily Times and The Tifton Gazette. Snake Nation Press is the publisher of Poling’s books.