Ashantilly Center, Inc. and the Ashantilly Press

06/10/2026

In Georgia, Willie’s Wee-Nee Wagon is known as one of the best hot dog joints you’ll find across the Peach State! Located in Brunswick, this longtime roadside favorite has the kind of old-school feel that makes it stand out the second you pull up. The business began in 1975 as a small hot dog cart on Norwich Street before growing into its well-known spot on Altama Avenue, right across from the College of Coastal Georgia. Today, you still order inside, pick up your food from the front window, and settle in around the screened-in picnic area for a true local experience.

The menu goes way beyond hot dogs, with famous pork chop sandwiches, fresh burgers, slaw dogs, chili cheese fries, onion rings, and sweet tea that keeps people coming back year after year. The pork chop sandwich has become one of Willie’s biggest claims to fame, often ordered with mustard, grilled onions, relish, tomatoes, and a side of hot peppers. The chili has plenty of flavor, the slaw is chopped fine with a nice crunch, and the service keeps the line moving without losing that friendly Southern feel. Whether you stop in for lunch, a quick bite, or a full plate of Brunswick comfort food, Willie’s Wee-Nee Wagon feels like the kind of classic Georgia place people remember long after they leave.

06/08/2026

06/06/2026

The Meet and Greet with the 12th Artist in Residence at the Ashantilly Press, Martin Mazorra was so much fun! Everyone who stopped by saw his gorgeous artwork and enjoyed talking with him about his art-form. He will be creating more that we look forward to sharing with everyone June 17 from 4-6pm. His Cannonball Press work is well known in this modern day world of letterpress as art! You will be able to purchase items from this residency as well as work he brought with him. Thank you for supporting Ashantilly!

05/31/2026

In this article, we cover 26 Plants that LOVE a sprinkle of used Coffee Grounds.

05/30/2026

Come to our Welcome event for our 12th Artist in Residence at the Ashantilly Press! Thursday June 4 drop by the shop to welcome Martin! Light refreshments and he's bringing some of his work with him for you to see! Then will be in the residency working on whatever he chooses....June 17 we'll see what he's created and will have a Closing Reception in the Old Tabby 4pm - 6pm

05/26/2026

Please share

Please share with those who want to learn more about letterpress as art!

DARIEN, GA — The Ashantilly Center is proud to announce that Brooklyn-based woodcut and letterpress artist Martin Mazorra has been selected as the Summer 2026 Artist in Residence at the Ashantilly Press in Darien, Georgia. Mazorra will spend three weeks in June working at the historic print shop on the grounds of the Ashantilly Center, creating new works inspired by the craft and tradition of letterpress printing.
The community is warmly invited to meet Martin Mazorra at a Meet and Greet on Thursday, June 4, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. His residency will conclude with a Closing Reception on Wednesday, June 17, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Guests will have the opportunity to view the work created during the residency and to purchase prints directly from the artist.

ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
The Ashantilly Press Artist-in-Residence program is a paid, three-week engagement open to letterpress printers and book artists. Residents receive a stipend and housing providing a rare and immersive opportunity to work with the Press's collection of antique letterpress equipment in an environment steeped in coastal Georgia history.
During his time at Ashantilly, Mazorra will make full use of the historic equipment to produce new prints and book art projects — each piece hand-set, hand-printed, and reflective of the time-honored tradition the Press was built upon.

ABOUT MARTIN MAZORRA
Martin Mazorra was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 1972. He earned his BFA from West Virginia University in 1994 and his MFA from American University in Washington, D.C., in 1996. Now Brooklyn-based, Mazorra is one of the foremost practitioners of woodcut and letterpress in the United States — a purist’s purist. Every print he makes is hand-drawn, hand-carved, and hand-printed on a vintage Vandercook press using moveable type. No polymer plates. Nothing digital.
In 1999, Mazorra founded Cannonball Press in New York City — a collaborative printmaking enterprise dedicated to producing affordable, boldly graphic limited editions with a social conscience. Over more than two decades, Cannonball Press has partnered with more than one hundred artists, consistently delivering prints that fuse craft, wit, and urgency.
Mazorra’s print series span a remarkable range of subject and sensibility. His Broadside Attraction works — large-scale installation pieces exhibited at venues including Mad Art Gallery and Preacher Gallery — command gallery walls with the bold graphic authority of antique circus posters. His Language of Flowers and Floral Epigrams series — exhibited at Flatbed Press in Austin, Texas — draw on the Victorian practice of floriography, transforming the coded language of flowers into layered meditations on sentiment and human vulnerability. Other notable series include Ice Cream for Change, Circus Sideshow, and his ongoing Oversized Floriography prints, celebrated for their lush imagery and meticulous hand-printing.
Mazorra’s work is held in the permanent collections of some of America’s most prestigious institutions, including the Yale University Art Gallery, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Taubman Museum of Art, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, and the K. Caraccio Print Collection, among others. His prints have found their way into private collections across the country, prized by collectors drawn to work that is rigorous in its craft and fearless in its imagery.
A sought-after educator and speaker, Mazorra currently teaches at Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design in New York City. He has lectured at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Savannah College of Art and Design, Auburn University, Amherst College, the University of Kentucky, the University of Northern Illinois, and Hui Press in Maui, among others. He is the recipient of the Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program Studio Grant (1999), a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship in Printmaking, Drawing, and Artists’ Books (2007), and a United States Artists Ford Foundation Fellowship.
To learn more about Martin Mazorra and his work, visit www.martinmazorra.net.

ABOUT THE ASHANTILLY PRESS
The Ashantilly Press is a historic letterpress print shop located on the grounds of the Ashantilly Center in Darien, Georgia — one of the Georgia coast’s most storied cultural and historic properties. The estate was once the mainland home of Thomas Spalding, a prominent early Georgia legislator and planter. The Ashantilly Center was founded by artist, printmaker, and environmentalist William G. Haynes, Jr., who established the Press in 1955 after studying typesetting and hand printing at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York. Haynes went on to work alongside some of the foremost book designers of his era, and his well-stocked print shop produced fine letterpress books and ephemera for decades.
Today the Ashantilly Center operates as a non-profit educational and cultural landmark, continuing Haynes’ legacy through letterpress and book arts classes, an internship program, and the Artist-in-Residence program. Surrounded by the natural beauty of the Georgia coast, the Center celebrates and preserves the arts, history, and environment of the region.
For more information about the Ashantilly Artist-in-Residence program and upcoming events, visit www.ashantillycenter.org.

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05/23/2026

Please share with those who want to learn more about letterpress as art!

DARIEN, GA — The Ashantilly Center is proud to announce that Brooklyn-based woodcut and letterpress artist Martin Mazorra has been selected as the Summer 2026 Artist in Residence at the Ashantilly Press in Darien, Georgia. Mazorra will spend three weeks in June working at the historic print shop on the grounds of the Ashantilly Center, creating new works inspired by the craft and tradition of letterpress printing.
The community is warmly invited to meet Martin Mazorra at a Meet and Greet on Thursday, June 4, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. His residency will conclude with a Closing Reception on Wednesday, June 17, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Guests will have the opportunity to view the work created during the residency and to purchase prints directly from the artist.

ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
The Ashantilly Press Artist-in-Residence program is a paid, three-week engagement open to letterpress printers and book artists. Residents receive a stipend and housing providing a rare and immersive opportunity to work with the Press's collection of antique letterpress equipment in an environment steeped in coastal Georgia history.
During his time at Ashantilly, Mazorra will make full use of the historic equipment to produce new prints and book art projects — each piece hand-set, hand-printed, and reflective of the time-honored tradition the Press was built upon.

ABOUT MARTIN MAZORRA
Martin Mazorra was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 1972. He earned his BFA from West Virginia University in 1994 and his MFA from American University in Washington, D.C., in 1996. Now Brooklyn-based, Mazorra is one of the foremost practitioners of woodcut and letterpress in the United States — a purist’s purist. Every print he makes is hand-drawn, hand-carved, and hand-printed on a vintage Vandercook press using moveable type. No polymer plates. Nothing digital.
In 1999, Mazorra founded Cannonball Press in New York City — a collaborative printmaking enterprise dedicated to producing affordable, boldly graphic limited editions with a social conscience. Over more than two decades, Cannonball Press has partnered with more than one hundred artists, consistently delivering prints that fuse craft, wit, and urgency.
Mazorra’s print series span a remarkable range of subject and sensibility. His Broadside Attraction works — large-scale installation pieces exhibited at venues including Mad Art Gallery and Preacher Gallery — command gallery walls with the bold graphic authority of antique circus posters. His Language of Flowers and Floral Epigrams series — exhibited at Flatbed Press in Austin, Texas — draw on the Victorian practice of floriography, transforming the coded language of flowers into layered meditations on sentiment and human vulnerability. Other notable series include Ice Cream for Change, Circus Sideshow, and his ongoing Oversized Floriography prints, celebrated for their lush imagery and meticulous hand-printing.
Mazorra’s work is held in the permanent collections of some of America’s most prestigious institutions, including the Yale University Art Gallery, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Taubman Museum of Art, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, and the K. Caraccio Print Collection, among others. His prints have found their way into private collections across the country, prized by collectors drawn to work that is rigorous in its craft and fearless in its imagery.
A sought-after educator and speaker, Mazorra currently teaches at Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design in New York City. He has lectured at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Savannah College of Art and Design, Auburn University, Amherst College, the University of Kentucky, the University of Northern Illinois, and Hui Press in Maui, among others. He is the recipient of the Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program Studio Grant (1999), a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship in Printmaking, Drawing, and Artists’ Books (2007), and a United States Artists Ford Foundation Fellowship.
To learn more about Martin Mazorra and his work, visit www.martinmazorra.net.

ABOUT THE ASHANTILLY PRESS
The Ashantilly Press is a historic letterpress print shop located on the grounds of the Ashantilly Center in Darien, Georgia — one of the Georgia coast’s most storied cultural and historic properties. The estate was once the mainland home of Thomas Spalding, a prominent early Georgia legislator and planter. The Ashantilly Center was founded by artist, printmaker, and environmentalist William G. Haynes, Jr., who established the Press in 1955 after studying typesetting and hand printing at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York. Haynes went on to work alongside some of the foremost book designers of his era, and his well-stocked print shop produced fine letterpress books and ephemera for decades.
Today the Ashantilly Center operates as a non-profit educational and cultural landmark, continuing Haynes’ legacy through letterpress and book arts classes, an internship program, and the Artist-in-Residence program. Surrounded by the natural beauty of the Georgia coast, the Center celebrates and preserves the arts, history, and environment of the region.
For more information about the Ashantilly Artist-in-Residence program and upcoming events, visit www.ashantillycenter.org.

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04/28/2026

Thank you for following Ashantilly Center and the Ashantilly Press! Our founder, William "Bill" G. Haynes, Jr. was VERY well known in the last half of the 20th century for his exquisite book designs. Hand-set type is an art as well as a science. Many of the other book arts are as well! The Press has classes periodically so keep up with us on Instagram, subscribe to our YouTube channel too (Ashantilly Center and the Ashantilly Press)! Call 912 437-4473 for a tour of the "Old Tabby" home to the Haynes family and originally built by Thomas Spalding of Sapelo Island circa 1820. It burned in 1936 but Bill persuaded his parents to rebuild. It became a lifelong project, never completely finished! We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit run by a hardworking Board of Directors. Located on a land grant beside Black Island Creek obtained by William McIntosh from King George, the site sits next to the former family cemetery of the Spaldings, now St Andrews Cemetery. Come visit for a bit of the incredible history of this important and lovely bit of Georgia and our country's past!