At a Tuesday luncheon featuring home-grown string band tunes, the Georgia Music Foundation announced $60,000 in grants to Georgia organizations promoting musical and cultural education.
It is the inaugural series of grants being awarded by the organization.
“Our board recognizes the critical funding needs of deserving music education and preservation programs across the state,” said board chair Dallas Davidson.
The grants will go to middle school band programs, cultural centers, documentarians, summer music camps and other efforts.
Founded in 1994, the not-for-profit Georgia Music Foundation served in its earlier years as a support organization for the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. According to its website it "seeks to foster an appreciation for the state's rich music heritage by supporting programs of music preservation, education and outreach."
Among the foundation’s projects is a yearly “Georgia On My Mind” concert to raise funds for the grants program. Next year’s show will take place on May 10 at the famed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
The performers for the 2016 show haven’t yet been announced but previous concerts have featured Luke Bryan, Thomas Rhett and Cole Swindell.
The grants, of $5,000 each, will go to these recipients:
•The Albany Civil Rights Institute Freedom Singers: to help develop an educational video and an accompanying lesson plan for 8th graders documenting the Freedom Singers.
•The Athens Music Project Oral Histories, to help preserve the history of music in Athens.
•The Augusta Museum of History, to expand their James Brown exhibit.
•The Center for Public History at the University of West Georgia, in Carrollton, to help produce a film on music documentarians George Mitchell, Art Rosenbaum and Fred Fussell.
•The Louisville (Georgia) Middle School band program, to purchase new instruments.
•The Jefferson County High School Warrior Band, to purchase uniforms and new instruments.
•The Foundation for Public Broadcasting in Georgia, to support a free music education website that supplies educational materials to accompany the PBS documentary "Robert Shaw, Man of Many Voices," about the longtime ASO conductor.
•Savannah Music Festival's Musical Explorers project, to teach music theory, music history and regional traditions.
•Georgia Pick & Bow Traditional Music School, in Dahlonega, to preserve and promote the traditional music of the North Georgia region.
•The Academy of the Arts Music Summer Camp (AASC) sponsored by Atlanta's How Big Is Your Dream? Foundation, which encourages children from underserved neighborhoods to pursue careers in music.
•Nuci's Space, in Athens, to help with an historic restoration project and to support Camp Amped, Nuci's outreach program for young musicians, ages 11 to 17.
• The Otis Redding Center for Creative Arts, in Macon, which currently offers music lessons and oversees the annual Otis Music Camp.
Lisa Love, foundation director, stopped short of saying music education in Georgia is hurting, but pointed out that “it can always use more money and support. There are so many great schools and after school and summer camp organization doing so much with so little, that anything we can do is good.”
