CommerceNewsTODAY

Optimism is building that Commerce’s inaugural Folk to Fine Arts Festival and Expo this week will draw a sizable crowd.

The event takes place Friday through Sunday in the Commerce Civic Center. Organizers expect to have 30-35 artists on hand Friday evening (and some of them throughout the weekend), and more than 50 artists will be represented in some 20 booths. [Full Story »] 

The top students and teachers of the Commerce, Jefferson and Jackson County school systems took center stage Monday evening as the Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce held its annual STAR Student/Teacher, Teacher of the Year reception.

The event, at the Commerce campus of Lanier Technical College, recognized four STAR students and their STAR teachers and 21 teachers of the year – one from each school in the county.
[Full Story »] 

The Commerce area is not widely regarded for its art community, but it turns out that there is a wealth of artistic talent in and around Commerce. That talent — along with the work of artists from Northeast Georgia and Tennessee to Florida, from folk artists to potters, from print makers to portrait artists — will be on display for the first time this weekend at the Folk to Fine Arts Festival and Expo.

Some of the artists are well known, if only locally, and others have much wider reputations. Some are your friends and neighbors whose work is private, not for sale and perhaps known only to a small circle of family and friends. All of them share a passion and a talent for expressing themselves through pencil and paint, clay and glass. [Full Story »]