My father Bill Suttles and I are so honored and grateful to everyone at The Madison-Morgan Cultural Center for all of their hard work in putting this exhibit together.
Suttles Arts will include eighty-eight works by Bill, Pat (deceased), and son Todd Suttles. The exhibit opens October 23, 2020, and runs through 2020. There is an online virtual tour for those not willing to risk exposure to COVID, but the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center will remain open with managed access for safety.
Suttles Arts at The Madison-Morgan Cultural Center is also part of the 2020 Atlanta Celebrates Photography Festival.
The Madison-Morgan Cultural Center is a multi-disciplinary non-profit institution that endeavors to enrich the lives of the residents of its immediate community and the broader region by presenting high-quality programming and educational opportunities in the fields of visual and performing arts, history, and other humanities. MMCC will preserve and interpret its historical buildings and will cooperate with other organizations that have mission-compatible goals.
Madison-Morgan Cultural Center welcomes visitors Tuesdays-Saturday 10AM-5PM. The Center is closed on Sunday, Monday & Holidays.
Admission Fee: Adults: $5, Seniors: $4, Students: $3, Children 6 and under: Free, MMCC Members: Free.
The Madison-Morgan Cultural Center is located in Madison's 1895 Romanesque Revival-style public graded school building. Romanesque Revival reflects the popularity of the ancient and exotic style popular at the end of the eighteenth century. Constructed of red brick with slate roof, electricity, and interior finishes of heart pine and plaster, the building stands as a monument to the creative ingenuity prevalent at the turn of the century.
Most rural areas built one-room schoolhouses well into the 20th century. However, in 1895, Madison's first graded school building was built to house Madison students, grades one through seven. The term "graded school", molded into the terra cotta panel over the door of the red-brick schoolhouse, refers to the progressive educational facility that offered the citizens of Madison a separate classroom for each grade. The students were not mingled into one or two rooms as they were in many of the outlying schools. The building was also one of the first brick schools in the area. Later a separate building was built for high school students, grades eight through eleven and, even later, a lunchroom building and gymnasium were added to the property.
Built by the Board of Education of the City of Madison, the building served as a public school until 1957, when the schools in the county consolidated and outgrew the old facility. The old Graded School on South Main Street was abandoned. The high school building and gym remained on the property. Concerned citizens petitioned the School Board and city and county governments to protect the building and to ensure the protection and preservation of the elegant old structure. Even so, there was talk of razing the building. Then in the early 1960s three civic-minded men organized Morgan County Foundation, Inc. with the avowed purpose of securing the building and making it available to the public. Robert Turnell, Kay Tipton, and Joe Bell were the original trustees and worked with an eight-member Advisory Board to endow the foundation and to decide upon a use. Public meetings, newspaper articles, and personal visits convinced many that the Foundation was an idea whose time had come. At that time the public library was housed in the upstairs of the gymnasium in a small and uncomfortable space. The Foundation board offered the main building to the Library Board to use as its headquarters and the library and staff subsequently moved in. The building was shored in and the classrooms remodeled for bookshelves.
Early in the 1970's, members of the Library Board decided that the building was inadequate for their purposes and voted to construct a new building near the public schools. This again raised the question of what use to put the building. Time had taken its toll on the structure and major repairs were needed. The auditorium, in particular, was in dire need of work; the roof was leaking and the school rooms were in need of renovation.
With advice from Dr. Philip Weltner, then Executive Director of the Woodruff Foundation and a longtime friend to Madison, and others, the decision was made to work toward restoring the building's exterior and adapting the interior for use as a Center for the performing, visual and decorative arts, keeping in sight always the goal to retain as closely as possible the character of the original building. At that time Madison's only large auditorium was at the high school and the town did not have a museum or art gallery. The Madison-Morgan Cultural Center opened its doors to the public for the first time on July 6, 1976.
(706) 342-4743
434 South Main St.
Madison, GA 30650
About The Building -The Center occupies an elegantly restored 1895 Romanesque Revival Building and is located in the heart of Madison, Georgia's National Register Historic District. As one of the first graded public schools in the Southeast, it operated as a school until 1957. Following an extensive renovation, the building reopened in 1976 as the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center.
Since its reopening, the Center has been recognized for its restoration and adaptive reuse of the award-winning structure as well as its reputation for excellence in arts and humanities programming. The original school bell still rings for many visitors who enjoy the Center's programs.
Inside its walls, the Center houses several permanent collections: a history exhibit highlighting the Piedmont region of Georgia in the 19th century, a restored c. 1895 classroom, and an Arts and Crafts gallery that showcases original furnishings from the Arts and Crafts Period. The original school auditorium is part of the main building and today is the site of the Center's annual main stage productions.
About The Theatre -Unique to Georgia and possibly the entire Southeast, the elegant, historic, apse-shaped Theatre of the Cultural Center, where school assemblies were once a daily routine for local students, offers a remarkable experience to visitors and audiences alike. The intimate 395-seat theater contains original woodwork, ceiling, seats, and chandelier.
The Center has used the Theatre to build a reputation for excellence in performing arts through the presentation of theatre, dance, music, lectures, and other programs featuring regional, national and international talent. A series of student performances featuring music, dance, and theatre are offered to regional schools, drawing over 10,000 students annually.
Such noted performers as the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Nnenna Freelon, Royal Shakespeare Company, Misha Dichter, Bobby McFerrin, the Vienna Boys Choir - and most recently, Sam Hunt, Bela Fleck, and Chris Thile - have graced the stage of the Theatre.
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