New Exhibit To Debut At Sandy Springs Festival

SANDY SPRINGS, GA -- The nonprofit organization that works to enhance the cultural identity of Sandy Springs will unveil its newest community exhibit this week at its flagship Sandy Springs Festival.

Heritage Sandy Springs will roll out L’Chaim Sandy Springs! A Toast to Jewish Participation in Our City, which salutes the many contributions of the Jewish community to the city.

Using a series of nine oversized panels designed in the popular Instagram® interface, the exhibit highlights the Jewish community’s growth and impact on the civic richness of Sandy Springs. The two-sided panels feature photographs and interviews with area leaders and community members. Sandy Springs is home to many Jewish organizations including six synagogues, five Jewish day schools, and the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app).

“Sandy Springs embraces a variety of ethnicities and cultures, and we are excited to highlight the special contributions of our Jewish community,” said Carol Thompson, executive director of Heritage Sandy Springs. “We look forward to unveiling this new exhibit at the community’s largest and most beloved event!”

Thousands of visitors are expected to visit the exhibit when it opens at the 32nd annual Sandy Springs Festival, which runs Sept. 23-24. Following the festival, the exhibit will travel for three years to locations throughout Sandy Springs, including the Sandy Springs branch of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System as well as several area schools and synagogues.

L’Chaim Sandy Springs is sponsored by Fulton County Arts and Culture, The Sandy Springs Society, Georgia Humanities and the Southern Jewish Historical Society. More information on the exhibit is available at www.heritagesandysprings.com under Historic Resources.

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The Sandy Springs Festival will also feature additional educational activities for both adults and children, such as blacksmithing and woodworking demonstrations, candle and butter making, performances by Kat Nagar and Atlanta Historic Dance, and lectures by local historian Clarke Otten. These free activities will take place in and around the Heritage Sandy Springs Museum:

11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 23: “Indian Trails and Pioneer Tales 6,000 BC to 1800 AD”

Our community has been home to many people starting from a time referred to as the Archaic Period until today. In this session we will cover the various periods of development of the Native Americans through the first recorded European explorer (DeSoto), then through the changing landscape of Colonial development, and the expansion of Georgia to include what is now Sandy Springs.

1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23: “From Frontier Settlers to Community 1800-1860”

In this session we look closely at the first settler families to move into our area, even before it became officially part of the State, to a period just before the Civil War when the area was a thriving community. Find out about many of the early families whose names are now known to us as some of the older street names.

3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23: “Oak Grove (Sandy Springs) in the Civil War 1861-1865”

This session covers the little known story, yet pivotal role, our area played during the Civil War. Learn how our little community, for over a week, had a larger population than any city in the south except New Orleans. While no significant battles occurred in Sandy Springs the area was greatly impacted by over 60,000 invading Union troops who rested and resupplied here before the final march on the city of Atlanta.

1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 24: “Post-war Reconstruction to Bedroom Community 1870-1960”

This session covers the period of slow recovery after the Civil War and the reestablishment of the farming community. Watch as the area evolves from a struggling agricultural one into a playground retreat for some of Atlanta’s wealthiest families and then further into a bedroom community in the mid 1900’s.

3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 24: “Roads, Churches and Schools, Milestones of Community Development 1820-1960”

In this session we will cover how the various places of worship and schools helped cement the foundations of our city and how trails evolved into permanent roads connecting us with each other and the rest of the state.

Image via Heritage Sandy Springs