One of the best things about life in the midstate is the number of opportunities for kids to gain not only exposure to the arts but quality instruction, too. Take music, for example. In addition to the programs available in the schools -- both public and private -- numerous other opportunities exist, all of which combine to ensure that the riches we currently enjoy will long endure.

This weekend, we have the chance to see and hear the Macon Symphony Youth Orchestra, the product of collaboration between the Macon Symphony Orchestra and the Townsend School of Music at Mercer University.

Saturday’s free performance is slated for 7:30 p.m. at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Bolingbroke. Those who are moved by young talent will undoubtedly enjoy the MSYO’s several components, variously led by Connie Davis, Jonathan Baker, Ann Letsinger, Brandi Crosby, Sarah Carter, Stephen Hoy, Emily Hall, Emily Brandenburg and Elizabeth Skinner. Another inspiring look at young talent is on the calendar for March 1. The First Friday event at the 567 Center for Renewal downtown will be the second Bibb County Schools Student Exhibition, featuring work selected by teachers in Bibb elementary, middle and high school art classes. Mark your calendars.

Entertainment weekend

While this weekend offers nothing like the logjam of opportunities available last week, there’s plenty on the calendar, including the final performances of “The Octette Bridge Club” at Theatre Macon. Also running is “Honeymoon at Graveside Manor,” which will continue through March 2 at Warner Robins Little Theatre. At the Grand Opera House, “Legends of Motown” will bring music and dancing from Detroit.

Also this weekend, the Music and the Arts Series at Vineville United Methodist Church features organist Wilma Jensen in concert at 4 p.m. Sunday. That same afternoon, the Hayiya Dance Theatre will celebrate 16 years in Macon with a performance at the Douglass Theatre.

Theater flood

I often speak of the flood of quality entertainment that rains down on us, but during the past week’s deluge, Mercer University Theatre’s production of “The Seagull” was itself flooded out, a calamity that brings to mind a recent news release: Mercer is a finalist for a national ArtPlace grant to convert the former Tattnall Square Presbyterian Church to an additional (and, I suspect, welcome) theater facility.

Contact Larry Fennelly at LarryFennelly@AvantGuild.com.