Shown is the building at 109 W. Ninth St. in Lumberton, the ownership of which the Robeson County Board of Commissioners approved transferring to The Robeson County Community Art Guild. The organization’s members are visual arts enthusiasts whose goal is the advancement of the arts in Robeson County.

Shown is the building at 109 W. Ninth St. in Lumberton, the ownership of which the Robeson County Board of Commissioners approved transferring to The Robeson County Community Art Guild. The organization’s members are visual arts enthusiasts whose goal is the advancement of the arts in Robeson County.

Welcome to The Community Art Guild. We are a group of folks who live with a passion to promote the visual arts and other artistic mediums in and around Robeson County.

We are a 501C3 nonprofit organization comprised of volunteers. We are growing in numbers at the moment.

We exist as an organization, totally apart from the Robeson County Arts Council and Inner Peace Center for the Arts. We have evolved from the memory of the Community Art Guild of the 70s, 80s and 90s, which was formed by many artists, including Lee Werner, Connie Bailey, Clyde Jacobs, Willie Hawley, Nila Chamberlain, Betty McKeithan, Pat McNeil, W.R. and Erma Hester, Elsie Nobles, Bobbie Britt, and Jim Tripp. This Guild brought many of Lumberton’s artists to the attention of the community through exhibitions held in various locations.

After nearly three years of searching, asking and extremely hard work by Richard Monroe, we now have a home, compliments of the Robeson County Board of Commissioners, (special thanks to Jason King, assistant county manager, and Commissioners Lance Herndon and David Edge), the Luther Johnson Britt home, 109 West Ninth St., Lumberton. This is another addition to the development of downtown Lumberton.

This house was the home of Luther Johnson Britt, Beta Brooks Britt and Emily McClelland Britt. Mr. Britt was a practicing attorney in Lumberton for 61 years. His son Luther Johnson Britt Jr. was a distinguished Lumberton attorney for many years, prior to his election to the North Carolina General Assembly as senator for Robeson and Hoke County. Luther Britt Jr. was married to Sarah Williams Britt, a novel Lumberton lady of distinction. Her love for the history of Robeson County is remembered well in the preservation of the Proctor Law Office in downtown Lumberton.

We hope to honor this historic Lumberton family as we place this home into service as the center for The Community Art Guild. The facility will provide a location for events of multiple avenues. It will be a cultural center for the visual arts, a show place for art exhibits, and an educational center for classes related to visual arts, including hands-on classes, demonstrations by artists, and lunch and learn sessions. It is our dream to make this family home into a fixture the community of Robeson County will yearn to visit for its history and for its future.

The executive board of The Community Art Guild include Nila Chamberlain, chairperson and executive director of Development; Richard Monroe, executive director of Finance; Jim Tripp, executive director of Marketing and Membership; Bobbie Britt, executive director of Human Resources; and Sandra Hayes, executive director of Records.

Jim Tripp is the executive director of Marketing and Membership for The Community Art Guild.