Gwinnett Daily Post

Photo: Andrew McMurtrie Debi West, left, and Barbara McGuire, right, call the silent auction winners during the start of the ArtWorks! Gwinnett Awards ceremony Monday at the Hudgens Center for the Arts in Duluth. The event, named Fusion: 1st annual ArtWorks! Gwinnett Awards, celebrated the full array of arts and creativity in Gwinnett.

DULUTH -- More than 200 of Gwinnett County's art community braved the chilly, foggy night for ArtWorks! Gwinnett's first awards ceremony at the Hudgens Center for the Arts on Monday evening.

It was a night to celebrate everyone and everything in the art community across the county and plenty of people went home with a certificate and one of a kind piece of art.

"I couldn't be happier about (Monday) night's awards," ArtWorks! Executive Director Sally Corbett said. "I think that we had a great cross-section of art disciplines represented and we had many generations of the arts come together."

During the ceremony, Vince "The Voice" Bailey emceed while local artists gave performances, like Duluth's Zephyr Instrumental, poet Max K. Grimm, North Gwinnett High School dancer Christina Leamon and dancers of the Malaysian Association of Georgia.

There were numerous nominations across 11 areas, including Creative Business, Community Art Program and Art Presenter. Three women, Cynthia Sutt, Ann Parsons Odum and Barbara Howard, went home with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. The biggest winner was Margaret Parsons Andrews, who was the proud recipient of the Vision Award.

"This is overwhelming," she said during her speech from the balcony. "I've seen the Art Center grow more than I can ever dream of."

The organization has plans to plant a tree in her honor.

"I think anyone who walked in to the ceremony wondering if Gwinnett had an arts community walked out knowing that we do," Corbett said.

For more information about ArtWorks! Gwinnett, visit artworksgwinnett.org.