The Bainbridge Arts community has gained a new member, as an artist of some renown has moved to Bainbridge.

Andrew C. Sabori and his wife Roberta have chosen to make Bainbridge home after meeting here with Phyllis Lucas and Mike Inlow at the Firehouse Arts Center.

The couple has recently been living in Lakeland, Ga. where he was restoring the Milltown Murals.

This fall he will teach a six-week art appreciation class at the Arts Center. It will cover art from the cave man to the age of the impressionists. There will be two sessions, one during the day and the second in the evening, both geared toward young adults and up. He will also be available for private classes in pencil sketching and acrylic painting for any level of student.

Sabori first came to Bainbridge to discuss bringing his educational traveling exhibit titled, “Coming to America—The Immigrant Experience.” It is based on a lost mural from Ellis Island he discovered when he went to find information concerning his ancestors who immigrated through Ellis Island from Sicily.

The mural was a lost WPA mural that once hung inside the dining hall at Ellis Island. Titled, “The Role of the Immigrant in the Industrial Development of America,” it was a multi-panel work created by artist Edward Laning in the mid-1930’s. It hung in the dining hall and because of the mural’s location it remained unknown to the world.

Sabori, who has worked on murals in cities from coast to coast for years, managed to find out about the mural by accident. His wife spied a small photo of the cafeteria with the mural in the background.

He was inspired to try to duplicate it, but he couldn’t find the original anywhere. After three years of searching, the Library of Congress finally called and told Sabori they had found photos of the lost mural if he was still interested.

From that beginning he created several large panels entitled, “The Lost Murals of Ellis Island.”

The educational exhibit has been traveling South Georgia, with appearances in Moultrie, Perry and Albany, Thomasville and Valdosta. It is scheduled to come here to the Firehouse Arts Center in May.

Sabori’s interest in Art began when he was eight years old, living in San Jose, Calif. He attended Santa Barbara Art Institute and transferred to the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.

In the 60’s he became known for his posters advertising rock stars appearing in concert in San Francisco, Monterey, Vegas and cities on the East Coast. He has painted murals in the casinos at Vegas and in New York and New Jersey.

He is even on a first name basis with many of the rockers who are still around. He has a large album of his pencil drawings of many of the musicians and other celebrities.

When the 1996 Olympics came to Atlanta he created historical murals for towns in Georgia through which the torch traveled. He also has murals in Albany at the Aquarium and the Museum of Art.

Although he is known for his murals, and the work he does restoring murals, he says he is first and foremost a portrait artist.