Longtime concert promoter Peter Conlon will be inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in September. Whether there’s an actual hall after October seems to be in question. “I guess I’ll have to go down and buy the plaque at a yard sale,” he quipped.
The Macon museum, facing lower revenues and state funding, may close if it doesn’t raise $225,000 by Oct. 27.
“Right now we don’t have sufficient money to continue operating with the integrity and quality that the legacies of our inductees deserve,” executive director Lisa Love said. The museum relies on state funding for a hefty percentage of its operating budget and recent budget cuts imperil its future, she said.
Museum authority members met recently in Atlanta and say the facility’s days could be numbered.
“At the October board meeting, if funds have not been identified then the board will consider approving a plan to close the museum, effective Dec. 31,” a motion approved by the authority said.
Even if the short-term fund-raiser is successful, the $225,000 will merely see the museum through to the end of the fiscal year. Love and authority chairwoman Karla Redding Andrews, daughter of Georgia soul legend and hall inductee Otis Redding, would like to see more permanent measures.
“We’re going to continue to promote Georgia music as we have done but do it more efficiently,” said Andrews, who noted that the museum has cut costs by implementing furlough days, closing Sundays and Mondays and reducing the staff from nine to four full-time positions. Private investors, partnerships with other facilities and help from inductees could all be part of future financial health. One thing Andrews is sure of is the museum’s location. The state legislature decided in 1989 to locate the facility in Macon, saying Atlanta already had many tourist attractions and noting Macon’s musical heritage as the hometown of Redding and Little Richard as well as Capricorn Records.
“Everybody understands the importance of the hall staying in Macon,” Andrews said.
Well, not everyone.
“The Hall of Fame needs to be in Atlanta,” said industry veteran and 2007 inductee Bobbie Bailey, who has served as president of the Friends of Georgia Music Festival and executive producer of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame Awards Show. “It’s in the wrong place. It’s been in the wrong place since the beginning.”
The Georgia Music Hall of Fame was created in 1979, and the 43,000-square-foot building opened in 1996 at a cost of $6.6 million. A November 2008 state audit shows that it generated about $1.3 million from 2004 to 2008 and spent more than $5.5 million. Its state funding during that time was more than $5.2 million, the audit shows.
The report, compiled by the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, forecasts a continuing financial gulf and says the facility would need a significant spike in visitors — “from 27,075 in 2008 to 140,989 in 2012” — to become self-sustaining.
During a visit this week, Teresa Lains and daughter Gabriella and Josie Bazemore-Davis and daughter Abri, all of Rockdale County, had the place largely to themselves. They loved the exhibits and said the museum is fine right where it is.
“Atlanta already has so much,” Bazemore-Davis said. “It’s good to spread culture throughout the state.”
Lains, who found the wide-open parking lot and affordable ticket prices ($8 for adults) appealing. “When you move it to Atlanta, that’s a reason to put a bigger price tag on it.”
The museum, just off of I-16, highlights various genres of music with lots of artists memorabilia, audio and video clips and an interactive section for kids. Inductees include Usher, Dallas Austin, R.E.M., the Indigo Girls and Ray Charles. Macon Mayor Robert Reichert says his city is taking a number of approaches to ensure the future of both the museum and the nearby Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. The city anticipates a new Marriott will draw tourists and hopes it will be able to increase its hotel/motel tax 1 percent to 7 percent to reap additional revenue, he said. The city also hopes downtown revitalization efforts will boost the area in general and aid the halls of fame specifically.
“We want to do everything we can to keep them viable, to keep them open and to keep them here in Macon,” Reichert said.
Conlon, who is being inducted this fall along with a group including Christian rockers Third Day and the band Collective Soul, has never been to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame building.
“I haven’t been to Macon in years,” the president of Live Nation said. The awards ceremony, planned for Sept. 19, will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center. Conlon says it would make sense for the hall to locate here as well.
“It would probably do better in Atlanta,” he said. “They need to be where the people are. I’ve always done concerts where there are people. That’s the key to my success.”
Staff writer Leon Stafford contributed.
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