Proposals unveiled for Georgia Music Hall of Fame
The question of what to do with the Georgia Music Hall of Fame is edging closer to a resolution.
At the Macon music museum on Friday, the four cities vying to control the hall made their formal presentations to seven of the nine members of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame Authority board.
Last year, the state decided it would no longer subsidize about half of the 15-year-old hall’s annual operating costs; that led to formal bids from Dunwoody, Woodstock, Athens, Dahlonega and Macon, which hopes to retain the museum under city guidance. Dahlonega has since dropped out of consideration.
The Hall of Fame is not in Gov. Nathan Deal's budget for fiscal year 2012.
During the 5 ½-hour gathering, city representatives including Danny Ross, chairman of Dunwoody Music Conservacy, Inc.; Matt Forshee of the Athens Economic Development Foundation; Donnie Henriques, mayor of Woodstock; and Mike Dyer, chairman of Halls of Fame Inc., in Macon, unveiled their plans to rejuvenate the struggling hall of fame, which attracted 23,000 visitors in 2009.
The proposals were required to include a conceptual plan, a financial plan and a risk management plan.
After the presentations, the authority board engaged in a fervent debate about scoring, with board member Rob Gibson, executive director of the Savannah Music Festival, suggesting all of the proposals be rejected.
Fellow member Dr. Kirby Godsey, vice-chair chancellor, Mercer University, firmly shot back, “If we don’t come to a resolution, we’re closing the Georgia Music Hall of Fame this summer.”
The board agreed to reconvene Jan. 26.
Some proposals largely focused on population. Ross highlighted the 100,000 people who work in Dunwoody and the foot traffic at Perimeter Mall, the temporary suggestion to situate the hall.
Others argued the opposite.
“If they were to put [museums] somewhere based on population, everything would be in Atlanta,” Dyer said, chairman of Halls of Fame Inc.
Woodstock officials, meanwhile, trumpeted their proximity to 500,000 people within a 10-mile radius, but also emphasized their city’s small-town feel.
“What separates us from Dunwoody is that it’s a part of the city of Atlanta. You become a small piece of a big puzzle,” Henriques said. “If you choose Woodstock, you da man."
And the Athens team took an unconventional approach, proposing the University of Georgia as a central hub to display the 30,000 musical artifacts from the current hall, but also share them with existing museums throughout the state.
Also discussed in the presentations:
- Macon argued to keep the hall because of its geography – the center of the state – and that no disruptions to current operations would be necessary.
Dyer said that the City of Macon has committed funds to “ensure financial stability for at least five years” and that the city, which has never run the hall, would intensify its statewide marketing and hire an architect for advice to make the building more functional.
- Dunwoody's Ross detailed a plan to exchange exhibits with other established music museums, such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in a partnership similar to the High Museum with the Louvre.
Perimeter Mall will donate 10,000 square feet of space for the Dunwoody location, which would move after about three years to the proposed Performing Arts Center of Dunwoody.
Ross projected attendance of 125,000 in 2012, and tripled by 2016.
- The Athens team immediately acknowledged the unusual nature of its hub-and-spoke idea based at UGA.
“We know we’re not meeting the specific requirements [of the proposal], but we feel strongly about this," Forshee said. "We believe the model you're working under doesn't work. We’re not diluting the resource, we’re taking it to the people.”
The Athens’ proposal also highlighted significantly reduced operating costs with no need for a new building.
- Team Woodstock noted the connection of its name to music and that its burgeoning Elm Street Cultural Village is expected to draw 100,000 annually.
Renovation of an existing exhibit hall – next to the 6,000-seat amphitheater to begin construction in October -- would include converting part of the parking lot into a walk of fame resembling a keyboard, replicating the Gretsch Theater currently at the hall, and opening a gallery space for events.
Staff writer Howard Pousner contributed to this article.
About the Author
Melissa Ruggieri has covered music and entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 2010 and created the Atlanta Music Scene blog. She's kept vampire hours for more than two decades and remembers when MTV was awesome.
