On Dec. 8, 2015, the Georgia Music Foundation announced the 12 recipients of its inaugural Georgia Music Preservation, Education and Outreach Grant program. “Our board recognizes the critical funding needs of deserving music education and preservation programs across the state,” says board chair Dallas Davidson. Twelve schools and organizations across the state were awarded $60,000 to benefit projects taking place in 2016.
In a luncheon held at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta, Foundation board members, representatives from the grant recipients and special guests were treated to performances by Three Arrows, featuring siblings Etowah, Sarah and Selu Adams from Georgia Pick and Bow Traditional Music School in Dahlonega, and students Tajee Barnes and Coley Gilchrist from the Academy of the Arts Summer Camp presented by the How Big Is Your Dream? Foundation. The board then announced grants in the amount of $5,000 each to the following organizations and their projects:
Albany Civil Rights Institute Freedom Singers
Albany, Georgia
The project will develop an educational video and an accompanying lesson plan for 8th graders documenting the Freedom Singers’ interpretative program and including interviews with Rutha Harris, an original member of the SNCC Freedom Singers and leader of the Albany Civil Rights Institute Freedom Singers. Funds will also provide support for the newly established Junior Freedom Singers program, featuring fifth through ninth graders who debuted in September with a performance of songs from the Civil Rights Movement.
(L-R) GMF board members George Fontaine Jr. and Ben Harbin; Christian Lopez of UGA’s Special Collections Libraries and Dr. Jean Kidula of UGA’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music; and GMF board members Bo Henry, Karla Redding-Andrews and Dallas Davidson. (Photo by CatMaxPhotography.com)
The Athens Music Project Oral Histories
University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries
Athens, Georgia
The project, administered by the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries in Athens, Georgia, will collect, preserve and provide enhanced access to oral histories documenting the myriad of music history and communities in Athens. Christian Lopez, Lead Media and Oral History Archivist, will oversee the project, which will conduct in-depth oral histories focusing on interviewees’ personal experiences as part of a legendary Georgia music culture and community renowned regionally and nationally for its cultivation of creativity, and as a global destination for musicians.
(L-R) GMF Board Member Karla Redding-Andrews and Dr. Yamma Brown, a member of the Board of Directors of the Augusta Museum of History and daughter of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. (Photo by CatMaxPhotography.com)
The Godfather of Soul, Mr. James Brown Exhibit
Augusta Museum of History
Augusta, Georgia
The Augusta Museum of History’s current exhibit, The Godfather of Soul, Mr. James Brown, engages audiences from around the world in the artist’s life, music, and legacy. Grant funding will support the first phase of a three-year project to enhance and expand the exhibit. Currently, the exhibition includes an array of costumes and personal artifacts worn by Mr. Brown, family photos and candid images and audio-visual stations featuring concert performance footage, highlighted tracks and studio records. The museum’s Executive Director Nancy Glaser will lead the project through conceptual designs, fabrication and installation.
(L-R) GMF Board Members George Fontaine Jr. and Ben Harbin; University of West Georgia Graduate Student Brian Crews; Dr. Ann McCleary, Director of the Center for Public History, University of West Georgia; and GMF Board Members Karla Redding-Andrews, Bo Henry and Dallas Davidson. (Photo by CatMaxPhotography.com)
George Mitchell, Art Rosenbaum and Fred Fussell Mini-Documentaries Project
Center for Public History at University of West Georgia
Carrollton, Georgia
In 2014, the Center for Public History, University of West Georgia, directed by Dr. Ann McCleary, began an interview project profiling folklorists George Mitchell, Art Rosenbaum, and Fred Fussell, who, beginning in the early 1960s, gathered and recorded significant portions of Georgia’s blues music culture. Center for Public History student Brian Crews conducted the interviews as part of his Joseph R. Johnson graduate assistantship, a position that was endowed in 2006 by the Georgia Music Foundation and Fred and Dinah Gretsch for students to research and document Georgia’s rich music heritage. The grant will enable the Center for Public History to edit this fascinating and insightful interview footage into a mini-documentary—a measure to recognize the historians’ vital, lasting work—to be publicly accessible online.
(L-R) GMF Board Members George Fontaine Jr. and Ben Harbin; Greg Burns, Band Director for Louisville Middle School; GMF Board Member Karla Redding-Andrews; Jefferson County High School Director of Bands James McMillan; and GMF Board Members Bo Henry and Dallas Davidson. (Photo by CatMaxPhotography.com)
Louisville Middle School Band Program
Louisville, Georgia
The grant will be used to purchase desperately-needed musical instruments and educational materials for the Louisville Middle School Band program. An economically disadvantaged school located in rural Jefferson County, with more than 90% of the student body on the free or reduced lunch program, LMS was once considered a “failing school” by the Georgia Department of Education, but under new school leadership, has made miraculous gains in math and reading scores on the Georgia Milestones Assessments. Principal Ken Hildebrant and Band Director Greg Burns want LMS band students to achieve the same level of success by expanding enrollment and improving the ability of the program to provide a superior music education.
Jefferson County High School Warrior Band
Louisville, Georgia
As a growing program, the Jefferson County High School Warrior Band plans to gain between 30 and 40 new students next August, 2016. Grant funds will allow the program to facilitate the expansion by purchasing additional instruments and uniforms. It will also allow the program to replace outdated equipment, which can include drum sticks, mallets, tuba bits, drum heads, reeds, brass oil and polish. The grant will allow Dr. Alan Long, school principal, and James McMillan, band director, to hire clinicians and expand the students’ repertoire by purchasing sheet music. Music is a vital motivator for students in the Title 1 school where the county’s poverty level is high enough to allow its SNS program to receive 100% reimbursement meaning all students eat free.
(L-R) GMF Board Members George Fontaine Jr. and Ben Harbin, Amelia Nickerson, Karla Redding-Andrews, Bo Henry, Kiki Wilson and Dallas Davidson. (Photo by CatMaxPhotography.com)
Robert Shaw: Man of Many Voices Documentary
Foundation for Public Broadcasting in Georgia, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia
Robert Shaw — Man of Many Voices is a film and educational website based on the life, legacy and music of Shaw, considered the icon of American choral music. The documentary examines Shaw’s life and influence as of one the world’s most beloved musical artists, exploring his unique gift for crafting and conducting exceptional music and his passion for social justice. A free music education website, scheduled to launch in spring 2016, targets singers, music educators and students. The purpose is to share supplemental educational materials for the film; to make items rediscovered through the film archival research process including annotated scores, letters and videos available; and to house additional articles, lessons plans and training guides to share Shaw’s techniques with the next generation of artists and audiences. The Atlanta film premiere of Robert Shaw: Many of Many Voices is scheduled for April 24, 2016 and will be released nationally by PBS in 2016. The Robert Shaw film team includes partners Georgia Public Broadcasting and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and production principals Kiki Wilson, a 32-year veteran of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and arts administrator and fundraiser Amelia Nickerson.
Savannah Music Festival’s Musical Explorers Program
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah Music Festival (SMF) presents the year-round Musical Explorers program to teach underserved children about music theory, music history and regional cultural traditions. The program introduces Irish folk songs, Malian traditional music, Cajun music, soul music, musical theatre and country music. Musical Explorers includes teacher training sessions, printed and electronic teaching resources, teacher-led music lessons and professionally-produced student concerts at Savannah theaters. The Savannah Music Festival leadership includes Executive and Artistic Director Rob Gibson, Education Director Jenny Woodruff and Marketing and Managing Director Ryan McMaken.
(L-R) Etowah, Sarah and Selu Adams, siblings who perform together as Three Arrows, have been a part of the Georgia Pick and Bow Traditional Music School in Dahlonega for nine years. (Photo by CatMaxPhotography.com)
Georgia Pick & Bow Traditional Music School
Dahlonega, Georgia
The school’s mission is to preserve and promote the traditional music of its region by offering affordable after-school music lessons in traditional Appalachian music on fiddle, guitar, banjo, mandolin and upright bass to 4th through 12th graders. The 2016 project will immerse students in the roots and history of the traditions they are learning by taking them on a field trip to East Tennessee State University’s Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Studies program in Johnson City, TN. They will then travel to nearby Bristol, TN/VA, the “home of country music.” They will tour the Birthplace of Country Music Museum and take a walking tour of theaters, recording studios and other historic music landmarks. The program is directed by Ann Whitley-Singleton and led by a Board of Directors including Joel Cordle, president, and Margo Booth.
The Georgia Music Foundation Board of Directors with the How Big Is Your Dream? Foundation team. (L-R): Student Tajee Barnes, George Fontaine, Jr., student Coley Gilchrist, Ben Harbin, HBIYD Board Member Marsha Robinson, Bo Henry, Karla Redding-Andrews, Dallas Davidson and HBIYD Executive Director Jorel “JFly” Flynn. (Photo by CatMaxPhotography.com)
How Big Is Your Dream? Foundation
Atlanta, Georgia
The HBIYD Academy of the Arts Music Summer Camp (AASC) provides a positive environment of learning instructed by professional, world-renowned artists and regional music 3ducators. The HBIYD AASC offers a comprehensive curriculum designed to encourage individuals that aspire to have a career in the field of Music and Performing Arts. The program serves youth from underserved communities in Atlanta and provides music therapy for youth with special needs. The program was officially launched in 2011 by in-demand drummer and producer Jeron “JFly” Flynn and his wife Christy. JFly speaks to young males at facilities including the DeKalb Regional Youth Detention Center to encourage them to dream big and work hard, and hosts an annual music festival in his hometown of Waycross to help fund the Foundation’s music education and scholarship programs.
(L-R) GMF Board Members George Fontaine Jr. and Ben Harbin; Nuci’s Space Youth Programs Coordinator Debbie Watson; Nuci’s Space Development Representative Kristie Greene; and GMF Board Members Karla Redding-Andrews, Bo Henry and Dallas Davidson. (Photo by CatMaxPhotography.com)
Nuçi’s Space
Athens, Georgia
The grant will support two projects at Nuçi’s Space. The first will support the continuation of the restoration and preservation of the St. Mary’s Steeple, the remaining fixture of the church at which R.E.M. played their first-ever show on April 5, 1980. Whitsel Construction, a firm experienced in historic preservation, was hired to help stabilize and restore the historic St. Mary’s Steeple. The second project will provide scholarships for our Camp Amped program. Camp Amped is an outreach program that reaches out to a younger generation of musicians ages 11-17. Project principals for Nuçi’s Space, whose mission is to prevent suicide by providing obstacle-free treatment for musicians and artists suffering from depression and other such disorders, as well as to assist in their emotional and physical well-being, include Executive Director Bob Sleppy and Youth Programs Coordinator Debbie Watson.
Otis Redding Center for Creative Arts
Macon, Georgia
When fully developed, the Otis Redding Center for Creative Arts will be a Macon-Bibb Community and Schools partnership and serve as an aggregator and facilitator of community resources and opportunities while designing, implementing, and sustaining programs, resources, partnerships, and sustainable practices and culture through music, creative arts, and entrepreneurship, available to all students. Presently located in downtown Macon and administered by the Otis Redding Foundation’s Program Director Caroline Payne, the Center currently offers lessons in piano, guitar, flute, drums, cello and voice and oversees the annual Otis Music Camp.
The Georgia Music Foundation’s nine-member Board of Directors includes: Dallas Davidson, Chair; Karla Redding-Andrews, Vice-Chair; Dallas Austin; George Fontaine Jr.; Ben Harbin; Bo Henry; George Fontaine Jr.; Wycliffe Gordon; Dinah Gretsch; and Amantha Walden.
