A life-size fiberglass cow named Kirby now stands on the front lawn of the Donaldson-Bannister Farm at 4831 Chamblee Dunwoody Road. It is there for good. On Saturday, November 21, a short drive away on Ashford Dunwoody Road, Spruill Center for the Arts will unveil a new mural on a smoke house that has stood since the 1840s.

Both new works are going onto 19th-century farm property that Dunwoody saved from private use and opened to the public. In this city, the oldest ground has become the place where new art goes, and the two farms show it in different ways. One keeps a single permanent piece about its own past. The other hands its oldest outbuilding to a new artist every year.

Kirby Is Named for a Dairy on the Same Road

The city picked the name before anyone picked up a paintbrush. Rough Draft Atlanta reported in September that the blank cow was already waiting at the farm, and it quoted the city's explanation of the name:

"Kirby is named for the Kirby family, who operated a dairy along Chamblee Dunwoody Road in the days when DeKalb County was one of the South's leading milk producers."

That puts the cow on the same road as the dairy it remembers. The city's call for artists asked for work that "should represent Dunwoody," with a "preference for bright, cheerful use of colors," made from materials that can handle the weather. The city budgeted $5,000 to cover the artist's fee and all materials, paid in two $2,500 installments, and it took on transporting and installing the cow itself.

Dunwoody's Art Commission chose a local artist to paint Kirby. The city scheduled her finished work for a public unveiling at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, November 10, and described the cow as one that "will permanently grace the lawn" of the farm.

Kirby Is One of Twelve Cows Across DeKalb

Kirby is Dunwoody's entry in "The Cows Are Coming," a countywide project from Arts DeKalb. Arts DeKalb presents the project as a celebration of the DeKalb Arts Council's return. Each of these 12 cities has its own cow:

• Avondale Estates
• Brookhaven
• Chamblee
• Clarkston
• Decatur
• Doraville
• Dunwoody
• Lithonia
• Pine Lake
• Stonecrest
• Stone Mountain
• Tucker

Rough Draft reported that the cows would go into prominent spots in each city between October 26 and November 6. The program, which Rough Draft calls the 12+1 Initiative, comes from Arts DeKalb, which launched in March. Every city had the same assignment and the same fiberglass animal. Dunwoody put its cow on a historic farm and named it for a local dairy, which ties a county project to one particular road.

The Farm Lawn Has Been Public Since 2005

Kirby's site matters to the story because the land itself took a long time to become public. Dunwoody Preservation Trust's history of the property traces the farmhouse to about 1870 and follows it through several owners:

The City of Dunwoody owns the property, and Dunwoody Preservation Trust runs it.

Kirby is not the first artwork made for this farm. The Dunwoody Diorama is a relief about 19 feet long, carved from a red oak that died while the farm was being rehabilitated. It hangs under the side porch of the newer barn, facing Chamblee Dunwoody Road. The farm's first big art piece came out of the farm's own restoration, and its newest one is named for a neighboring family's dairy. Kirby is the farm's first piece of art on the open lawn.

The farm also fills up in the holiday season. DHA and Dunwoody Preservation Trust, working with EEP Events, scheduled Light Up Dunwoody at the farm for November 15. The listed program featured music, dancers, Santa, reindeer, a tree and menorah lighting, and a craft corner run by Spruill.

Spruill's Smoke House Gets a New Mural Every Year

The second property follows the same pattern of an old farm turned into a public place, but it treats art differently. According to Past Tense Georgia's history of the Spruill farmhouse, the Spruill family's Smoke House was built with a log cabin around 1842. The cabin was taken down in 1905, and the Smoke House is still standing. In 1991 the farmhouse and outbuildings were donated to Spruill Center for the Arts, which restored the house and has used it for exhibitions, events and its holiday sale ever since.

Kirby will stay on its lawn for good. The Smoke House carries a new mural each year. Under the 2026 AMPLIFY prospectus, Spruill maintains each mural for 11 months and then starts a new installation on the same wall. This year's mural is the seventh, and it will stay up through the coming year.

A selection committee of people from the Spruill community and the wider Atlanta arts community chose the finalists and picks the winner. Spruill's AMPLIFY page lists three 2026 finalists:

1. Tamar Atik is an English/American artist based between the U.S. and Mexico. She has painted murals in the U.S., Mexico and Guatemala, and she works mainly in acrylics, using geometry, pattern and border to create balance.
2. Chad Creasy is an Atlanta native, a graduate of the Atlanta College of Art and a painting instructor at Spruill. His figurative oil paintings, including his "Majestic Creatures" series, use animals to stand for human emotion.
3. Ayana Ross was born in Savannah and works in Atlanta as an oil painter. She has taught art for more than 18 years, and her paintings mix contemporary realism with decorative ornament to explore themes across generations.

One finalist teaches at Spruill, and another has painted murals in three countries. Whoever wins, the Smoke House's next year will reflect someone's point of view arriving on a wall from the 1840s.

The unveiling runs from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, November 21, at Spruill Gallery, 4681 Ashford Dunwoody Road. The mural itself will be revealed at 2 p.m., with live holiday music, drinks and light bites. The event is free.

The Holiday Art Fair Runs Around the Mural

The reveal is part of Spruill's 33rd annual Holiday Art Fair, so the unveiling takes place in the middle of a market. Spruill describes the fair as one of Dunwoody's oldest holiday markets, with handmade gifts and art from more than 100 Georgia artists and artisans. It runs from November 13 through December 23. In November it is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. It is closed Mondays and on Thanksgiving Day, November 26.

Opening night was set for November 13 and the free photos with Santa for November 15. These dated events are still ahead:

The wine tasting links the fair to a Dunwoody business, since Spruill's event page says the wines come from Winestore Dunwoody. Seeing both pieces this season takes a short loop between two 19th-century addresses. Start with Kirby on the Donaldson-Bannister lawn on Chamblee Dunwoody Road, then go to the Smoke House at Spruill Gallery on Ashford Dunwoody Road, where the newest mural will be up from November 21 until next fall's replacement.

Many Dunwoody homes sit near the city's preserved places, and their value comes from that local history as much as from square footage. Nadine Lutz knows these streets and the history behind them. If you're thinking about what your Dunwoody home is worth or what comes next, schedule a consultation and we'll start with your own corner of the city.