A look ahead at Macon’s arts and entertainment scene

Macon’s first-ever Fashion Week, the Nutcracker of Middle Georgia’s 40th anniversary and Joy Harjo bringing Indigenous creativity to Macon were but a few of the arts and entertainment highlights of 2025.

As we step into 2026, there are highlights ahead in all the arts, entertainment and related communities in Macon and Middle Georgia. Looking back and forward is warranted to stir memories and get a start on marking 2026 calendars.

This personal look — a writer’s notebook in a sense — can only scratch the surface, but that can’t be helped. I’ll be offering much more as, week by week, I further highlight events, people and the work going on to make Macon a brightly creative community and bring others into the light for maybe the first time.

Looking ahead: music and comedy

First, Bob Dylan is coming to the Macon City Auditorium on April 22. Love him or not, he’s been a top-level creative, musical and lyrical force in a class by himself since the 1960s, eschewing fame’s trappings for a don’t-look-back attitude — see what I did there? — toward keeping his music new.

The folks running the Macon City Auditorium, Atrium Health Amphitheater and Macon Coliseum under the Centreplex umbrella have a tremendous start to 2026 lined up. At the auditorium, Larry the Cable Guy is coming Jan. 20, and Kamala Harris on Feb. 11. That’s hitting two ends of the spectrum, right?

At the Atrium Health Amphitheater, look forward to The Masters of Funk (Feb. 28), bluesman-guitar great Joe Bonamassa (March 20), Babyface (May 16) and the Goo Goo Dolls (Aug. 27). Katt Williams brings The Golden Age Tour to the Macon Coliseum on Feb. 21, and there’s a whole lot of Macon Mayhem hockey going on — and Monster Jam-ing — there too.

If you’re a fan of Irish music and dance, the Piedmont Grand Opera House is the place to be when “A Taste of Ireland” brings award-winning performers to the stage on Jan. 15. 

The Bored Teachers’ unique comedy show, “Is It Friday Yet?,” is on stage Jan. 22, bringing relatable classroom and teacher comedy, and the Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra continues its season on Feb. 23 — all at the Grand.

Combining music and comedy with a roaring ’20s look and feel is the New York-based jazzy R&B duo Acute Inflections, who will be transforming the Anderson Conference Center on Eisenhower Parkway into an elegant Harlem Renaissance revival on Jan. 25. The duo has been featured on HBO, Amazon and NPR. Find tickets at acuteinflections.com.

Count on the Macon Film Guild to program great, interesting films at the Douglass Theatre all year. This month, it brings the Norwegian film “Sentimental Value” on Jan. 11 and the documentary “Immediate Family” on Jan. 20. It tracks legendary studio musicians Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel, Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar and Steve Postell through the 1970s as they back Carole King, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Fleetwood Mac and many more. These are the ’70s studio greats who followed their ’60s forerunners, known as the Wrecking Crew.

Finally, in this run of coming events is a one-of-a-kind opportunity Feb. 27-March 1 to meet and see the photographic work of May Pang in an exhibit and sale at Gallery West. The photos primarily consist of John Lennon during what’s called his “lost weekend” — actually more than a year in the mid-1970s — when Pang and Lennon were a couple, spending much of their time in California collaborating with the likes of Harry Nilsson, Elton John, David Bowie, George Harrison, Mick Jagger and Ringo Starr, all while Lennon produced much of his best solo work.

Stay tuned for news of the Middle Georgia Lit Festival coming to Warner Robins on Feb. 7. It’s doubling the number of writers and booksellers from last year’s 80, plus there will be more breakout sessions.

On March’s First Friday, take the opportunity to visit internationally acclaimed artist Cedric Smith’s gallery exhibit and artist talk in downtown Macon at the Wesleyan Leadership Lab. There’s more to come but mark those calendars now.

Observations from 2025 and a look ahead

For me, a highlight of new art in Macon in 2025 was the work of collage artist Maura Luccesse. Moving here last year from Florida, her painstakingly created collages made purely from cut magazine pieces — no drawing or paint allowed — are remarkable. She’s selling her work and picking up local and national commissions all the time as people become acquainted with her art. You can see examples and make purchases via her Instagram account, @braincandy, or see it live at Gallery West and soon at the Society Garden.

An artist who surprised me was Macon’s Colin Penndorf. I’ve known Penndorf for years, but mainly for his arts organizing, curating work and overall entrepreneurial spirit. I was shocked to finally see his actual work, from illustrating fantasy fiction with intricately drawn maps to creative drawings and printmaking. He is a truly gifted native son as an artist, promoter and community builder.

Among many other elevated moments were celebrating Macon musical icon Newton Collier’s 80th birthday; attending the sold-out premiere of young local filmmaker Phillip Serafin Weaver’s “Midknight”; touring the newly relaunched childhood home of Little Richard as a museum honoring his career and the Pleasant Hill neighborhood he grew up in; and getting in on activities with photographer/cinematographer Jave Bjorkman and his talented friends at Third Street Studio/And So We Go Productions.

Look closely and you’ll see a thread running through all of this, but it’s not a singular thread; it’s three entwined. 

One is the art itself in its many forms and fashions — fine and commonly recognized art and art that is part of our daily lives, such as fashion. The second is the people who create the art or who make the art happen by setting the stage or working behind the scenes. The last is the resulting community that’s built and the good that comes from such efforts aesthetically, economically and even spiritually.

What’s cool to do around town will always be in view as I write, but also look for a focus on who’s doing it — expected or unexpected. From very visible creatives to art entrepreneurs to those carrying on traditions of creating instruments and even some whose work seems utilitarian but couldn’t happen without an artist’s view. For instance, Michel Hernandez, a young entrepreneur will open Michel Design Studio, a microblading and permanent makeup services studio at the end of the month.

Or how about those who keep the makeup and greasepaint on our community theater actors? Or a top Macon tattoo artist? 

But I need your help. I can’t fulfill every request in this space, but I’m eager to hear from you about such worthy folks and happenings of all kinds in our arts community. My email is always below.

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com. Find him on Instagram at michael_w_pannell.