Hood to headline Music Ambassadors: Macon House Concert on the evening of June 9 following the symposium
MACON, Ga. – Art Matters: Engaging the Community through Embedded Arts Journalists is pleased to announce the final in its series of six public symposia on the role of criticism and arts journalism in fostering an informed and engaged community. The symposium will be held at Cox Capitol Theatre on June 9 at 2 p.m. This event is co-presented by Music Ambassadors: Macon (MAM), a program to bring nationally renowned musicians to play in unique, intimate settings in Macon, Georgia and acquaint them with the city’s legendary music history.
The symposium will feature a panel discussion on the role of music and music criticism in society, current trends in each field, and how the changing media landscape is affecting music and music criticism. Featured panelists are Patterson Hood and Josh Jackson.
The Arts Matters Symposium Series is free and open to the public, but registration is required for this event. Attendees can register at http://artmattersmusicsymposium.eventbrite.com.
Patterson Hood is an Athens-based singer-songwriter and co-founder of the band Drive-By Truckers. Hood will be headlining a Music Ambassadors: Macon house concert on the evening of June 9. Tickets for the house concert at $25 each and can be purchased online at http://musicambassadors.org.
Josh Jackson is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Paste. Under his editorial leadership, Paste won numerous awards, including the Plug Award and GAMMA Award for “Magazine of the Year,” and received three consecutive National Magazine Award nominations for General Excellence. Jackson has been named one of Media Industry (min) Magazine’s Top 21 Intriguing People, one of Relevant magazine’s 12 Revolutionaries and one of Georgia Trends‘ 40 Under 40 and received the 2009 Henry W. Grady Award from the University of Georgia’s Grady School of Journalism, where he graduated in 1990 with a special focus on magazines. He’s been a regular music and film critic for CNN Headline News and two Atlanta radio stations and has written over 100 pieces for Paste, including 13 cover stories. Prior to launching Paste, Jackson was communications director for the Luke Society and freelance writer and photographer, covering assignments on six continents.
Art Matters: Engaging the Community through Embedded Arts Journalists is a one-year initiative designed to engage the community through high-quality arts journalism. A $40,000 National Endowment for the Arts Art Works grant and a matching $40,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation support the $80,000 project. The project received one of only four national arts journalism grants funded by the NEA in 2013 and is the first time in seven years that Macon Arts Alliance has been awarded an NEA grant.
Macon Arts Alliance (MAA), in collaboration with Mercer University’s Center for Collaborative Journalism, will embed paid journalism interns in various arts organizations served by Macon Arts Alliance. These journalists will create news articles, blogs, video reports and more for local news outlets, the CCJ’s newsroom, Macon Arts Alliance’s Ovations365.com and other publications. The program provides for a critic-in-residence at the CCJ and a series of public symposia that will pair different artists and critics to discuss the state of various art forms and criticism.
About Art Matters
Art Matters is an arts journalism partnership of Macon Arts Alliance and Mercer’s Center for Collaborative Journalism that seeks to engage the community through embedded arts journalists. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works. Matching funding provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
About Macon Arts Alliance
The mission of the Macon Arts Alliance is to foster and support the advancement of arts and culture in Central Georgia. Macon Arts Alliance works to create an environment where arts and culture thrive and Central Georgia is recognized as an unparalleled cultural destination. Macon Arts Alliance is the designated local arts agency for Macon-Bibb County.
About the Center for Collaborative Journalism
The Center for Collaborative Journalism (CCJ) is a unique partnership between Mercer University, The Telegraph and Georgia Public Broadcasting, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Peyton Anderson Foundation. The Center’s groundbreaking collaboration has students, faculty and veteran journalists working together in a joint newsroom. Learning in a “teaching hospital” model, students engage the community.
About Music Ambassadors: Macon
Music Ambassadors: Macon’s mission is to make national musicians ambassadors of the city in order to build on its legacy of groundbreaking creativity. Secondary goals of the program are to showcase downtown Macon and the College Hill Corridor-for everyone in the region-as the safe, inviting, affordable, creative and livable spaces that they are, and to raise money for Historic Macon, the Macon Arts Alliance and Georgia Public Broadcasting. Music Ambassadors is part of the Knight Neighborhood Challenge, a project of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Community Foundation of Central Georgia.
