COLUMN: Macon Arts Alliance wants your input on future of local music

Want to have an impact on the future of music in Macon?

You can by filling out a survey for a study undertaken by the Macon Arts Alliance and Sound Diplomacy, a global consultancy firm that specializes in shaping successful “music cities.”

The survey is online at www.maconartsalliance.org/music.

Macon Arts and Sound Diplomacy are encouraging all interested parties to not only take the survey but to tell others to take it in order to get as many viewpoints as possible.

Members of the Sound Diplomacy team were in Macon Monday and Tuesday meeting with musicians, music venue operators, festival and event promoters, music business professionals, city officials and plain-old music fans to kick off the effort and encourage participation in the survey.

According to Julie Wilkerson, Macon Arts’ executive director, that included meeting with people like Mayor Lester Miller, county department heads dealing with permits and zoning, Wes Griffith of the Moonhanger restaurant and venue group, Ed Grant Jr., of Grant’s Lounge, David Jarrell of GABBA Fest, Karla Redding of the Otis Redding Foundation, BRAGG JAM officials and many others including music educators in public schools and area universities.

It also included an open-to-all town hall meeting.

“We want to reach and hear from as diverse and wide an audience as possible through meetings and especially through the study,” Wilkerson said. “We’re trying to benefit from as many viewpoints as we can and these first meetings with Sound Diplomacy were to help them get a sense of who we are and what we offer in Macon. They not only met with interested parties but toured Macon’s downtown, neighborhoods, venues and related spots. That included the H&H Restaurant, the Big House Allman Brothers Band Museum and the site of Macon’s coming amphitheater.

“This is the first phase of a plan that will develop into future actions to benefit everyone and help secure Macon’s future as a music city.”

This first phase study is made possible by a grant from the Community Foundation of Central Georgia.

Official wording underlying the effort goal is that Macon Arts and Sound Diplomacy have “partnered to develop a strategy that aims to support Macon’s music ecosystem as it recovers from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and we imagine the future of Macon as a Music City.”

Jamie Weatherford of Rock Candy Tours, a company offering tours highlighting the places and tales of Macon’s musical past, was among those in meetings and at the town hall. He and others voiced the fact Macon’s music history is secure but raised the question, “What about its future?”

The study hopes to address that question with recommendations.

Will the study accomplish anything?

That remains to be seen but much of the answer rests with you and others in your circles throughout the community from players and lovers of hip hop to Americana/roots music, blues, gospel, all manner of rock, classical, jazz and on and on. Parents of hopeful musicians might want to be sure to chime in as well as those concerned with parking in a music city.

The survey only takes a few minutes and I’m assured it’s secure and confidential. It takes only a few minutes and the first question or two pinpoints your interest or involvement in the music scene and then guides you through pertinent questions.

If you have several interests, you can take the survey again to reflect each. But now is the time to go online, fill it out and encourage others to do so also. It will help.

Speaking of the Macon Arts Alliance, one of their key events is coming in one week, April 22-30. It’s their 17th Annual Fired Works show, Georgia’s largest exhibit and sale of functional and sculptural pottery.

Once again, it will be in the Round Building at Carolyn Crayton Park, formerly Central City Park, at 115 Willie Smokie Glover Dr.

This year’s featured artist is Roger Jamison, a retired Mercer University art professor well known for his pottery and wood-fired kiln and workshop in Juliette, Ga. Jamison’s kiln, which is used by others also, gives pieces a unique, earthy finish.

Wilkerson said this is the first year in three years the kiln has been fired for use – the first time since COVID-19.

Special activities during the popular Fired Works exhibit and sale include an artist talk by Jamison on April 23 at 11 a.m. and a children’s clay workshop on April 23 at 1 p.m. which is free for children 10 and under on a first-come, first-served basis with spaces limited.

Admission to the exhibit-sale is free but a $5 donation is suggested.

More on Fired Works is at www.maconartsalliance.org under the Special Events tab.

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.