Arts On The Creek was founded in 2008 and hosted the first arts festival in the new City of Johns Creek. Originally a committee of the Johns Creek Chamber of Commerce, founder and President Ron Cioffi, Noelle Simon, Treasurer Tina Sadler, Edouard Charles and numerous other community-minded volunteers established a three-day festival at the Chattahoochee Christian Church on Bell Road.
After formally changing the name to AOTC in 2009, the festival moved to the Johns Creek First Methodist Church at Medlock Bridge Road. The first festival drew only a few hundred spectators but soon exploded to an estimated 2,500 in 2009 and added dozens of booth artists. New volunteers who took a leadership position include former President Scott Kallish, Johns Creek Symphony Orchestra Maestro Wayne Baughman and Georgia Piedmont Youth Orchestra Founder Lyman Louis and Cherie Heringer.
From 2010-12, there was no doubt that AOTC was recognized as the city’s most visited event, attracting more the 20,000+ each fall. The festival was hosted on the grounds of Perimeter Church on Medlock Bridge Road. A large children’s area was added and the festival featured two full days of music, dance and theater on a full-size stage. We featured family-themed outdoor movies at night. The most important connection was started that year when we moved our indoor juried art show – which displayed outstanding, high-quality work – into the Johns Creek Arts Center. Instead of a two-day event, the show was displayed for a month at the city’s best known visual arts institution.
Beginning in 2012, the City of Johns Creek finally stepped up to found the Johns Creek Arts Festival. AOTC agreed to sunset its festival and scale back our involvement. Since 2012, AOTC hosted the High School Artists Show. Each year we volunteer our time to display the artwork of students at four high schools: Centennial, Chattahoochee, Johns Creek and Northview. We also introduced The Block Party, that allowed children to build a building block into a larger artwork. In 2022 we inaugural Book Fest, hosting 16 area authors who donated funds to display their books and sign autographs. Book Fest was the brainchild of Treasurer Kathy Cioffi, who published her first novel Mama Tried earlier in the year.