It’s time to start planning your 2025 Macon arts calendar. Here are some events to get you started

Ready for a year-end look back and suggestions for things to look forward to in 2025?

This isn’t my baker’s top half-dozen list, best-of ranking or a litany of highlights because, frankly, there are too many stellar shows, events and people in Macon’s arts and entertainment world for that.

Instead, I’ll call it my “not comprehensive you should have been there” list because it’s reflective of things I consider worthwhile that many might not be aware of. Some are lesser known, some better known, but all should be on your radar for consideration.

You can thank me later.

The Macon Film Guild’s monthly movies at The Douglass Theatre

maconfilmguild.org

If you’re a movie lover, you take advantage of the remarkable array of independent films the Macon Film Festival brings to town each year.

But did you know you can see “art-house” type films month after month that are making waves internationally, getting high marks from critics but not getting released into neighborhood cineplexes?

The Film Guild was created to bring such films to a big screen in Macon.

Films like the recent “Tokyo Cowboy” or the highly creative documentary on David Bowie, “Moonage Daydream.” Or “I Am Everything,” the Little Richard biopic or “Io Capitano” or “Fallen Leaves” or “The Worst Person in the World.” Or, reaching way back, “I’m Not There” or Willem Dafoe playing Vincent van Gogh during the last months of his life in “At Eternity’s Gate.”

Never heard of these films? Well, that’s kind of the point. Most are masterpieces but not Hollywood-buzz blockbusters.

The Film Guild shows narrative works at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on the second Sunday of each month and documentaries at 7:30 p.m. on third Tuesdays. The Guild is a membership-based, non-profit organization and tickets for non-members are, get this, just $5.

Museum of Arts and Sciences Family Days and children’s programs

masmacon.org

Is there a better place in Macon or Middle Georgia to take kids than the Museum of Arts and Sciences?

Amid collections of wonderous art and mind-boggling science exhibits, there’s always room for children. There are animals, birds, reptiles, crafts, hands-on fun, places to roam, picnic and astonishing field trip possibilities. In days ahead, there are plans to revamp and expand further the ways young minds and curiosities are informed, challenged and entertained.

As the grandfather of a 7-year-old – here the recommendation gets truly personal – some of our best times together and greatest memories have been at the museum’s themed Family Days and regular programs. How great is it to sit together for a program parading live snakes, lizards and whatnot before us? Then get a little nervous when her’s is the first hand to shoot up to ask a question? A really good question, as it turns out. Then visit special reptile-day stations to touch stuff and make reptile-specific crafts and art projects?

I’ll never forget walking along trails at the museum years back and her discovering and falling in love with the much-oversized frog statue created by artists Tanner Coleman and Alexis Gregg. She hugged it, climbed all over it and could hardly be dragged away.

Keep tabs on their website and social media to keep up with all that’s going on.

McDuffie Center for Strings Young Artists and Labor Day concerts

mcduffie.mercer.edu

You’ve often had the opportunity to read here about the Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra and at times about the chamber music-oriented Fabian Concert Series, all connected to the McDuffie Center for Strings.

But did you know there are ongoing, free concert events featuring current and would-be McDuffie students?

The McDuffie Center Young Artists series presents concerts and recitals featuring students at the Center. They’re some of the most talented and soon-to-be-famous young musicians you’ll hear anywhere. Held at the Center’s HQ, the historic Bell House on College Street, the short-format concerts offer an intimate listening experience at no charge. If you want to be amazed, entertained and put in a good frame of mind about young people, this is for you.

Also, as Mercer University welcomes interested students and their families to a weekend of tours and look-sees each Labor Day Weekend, so too the McDuffie Center entertains a limited number of high school students for an intensive three days of master classes, coaching sessions and rehearsals led by world-class professionals. It culminates in a Labor Day concert featuring the talented high schoolers and McDuffie students in a variety of musical combinations.

Typically held on the Mercer campus in the McCorkle Building’s Fickling Hall, the concert is free and offers a rare musical experience not only for the students but for the community.

478 Creatives gatherings

maconartsalliance.org

This one is for creative souls defined in the widest way. From fine artists and sculptors to multi-media creators, digital creators, writers and beyond, 478 Creatives holds monthly meetings that take many forms. Sometimes it’s an artist’s studio talk, other times a workshop to explore a certain skill set or develop a bio suitable for social media and other uses. Or it could just be a time for creatives to socialize or have roundtable discussions on questions and issues commonly expressed.

Founded in 2021 by artists Erin Hawkins (Mama Hawk Draws) and Cara Heard, 478 Creatives may be best described in their words: 478 Creatives is a vibrant community of Middle Georgia’s diverse creatives, dedicated to fostering an inclusive environment where imagination knows no bounds. Our mission is to cultivate a thriving ecosystem where creativity flourishes, connections deepen and artistic endeavors thrive. We believe in the power of creativity to transcend boundaries and unite individuals from all walks of life. Welcoming creatives of every age, background and skill level, we are committed to providing a supportive space for exploration, growth and collaboration.”

Gatherings are free, except for occasional costs for particular workshops. If you have a creative bone in your body at all, even one you’re having a hard time locating, 478 Creatives is worth checking out. They do a good job of announcing things on their social media pages.

Museum of Arts and Sciences Wonderspaces art installations

masmacon.org

Yes, the Museum of Arts and Sciences again, but this time for adults. Amid worthy art and science exhibits, I’m pointing out the Wonderspaces immersive, multimedia art installations in the museum’s now high-tech Burgess Gallery. The first of six exhibits spread over two years is “HOSHI,” underway now through Feb. 15. Others, all different but all expressing new creative concepts and approaches, follow at regular intervals.

But an important part of this new venture involves putting internationally respected creators in contact with locals via live and live-streamed ART-TECH workshops.

Each exhibit will feature one workshop by Wonderspaces curators who are experts in staging and making this sort of exhibit happen and a second workshop is with the artist-creators themselves. I was at the “HOSHI” artist-related workshop and found it an invaluable experience.

Why? It allowed me and a few others the opportunity to hear, question and just be around some of the world’s most accomplished creators in the genre.

Was it more inspiring or more informative? Hard to tell in the case of artists Noemi Schipfer and Takami Nakamoto, collectively known as the Paris-based NONOTAK Studio. They’ve created installations worldwide and sets for movies as in the John Wick series. They were engaging, forthright, down-to-earth and excited to talk to us.

You should have been there, but there are more opportunities. Track the series and workshops on the museum’s website and socials. And of course, here.

Choral Society of Middle Georgia and other chorus performances

choralsocietymga.com

If I was shocked by anything this year, it was how much I enjoyed a combined performance of the Choral Society of Middle Georgia, Mercer Singers, Mercer University Choir and students of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings. I’m not saying I went in with a dislike for choral music, I’m just saying it’s not been my cup of tea.

That changed the moment the multitude of vocalists broke the pre-concert silence in Mulberry Street United Methodist Church’s auditorium. It was astoundingly powerful, beautiful and moving and I was immediately a new believer in what voices could be in that genre.

Who knew? If you have the chance to hear any or especially all of those choral groups together, take it. I’ll bet you’ll be a believer as well.

Finally, as the year closes and I bring encouragement to experience our arts and entertainment community in a deeper, wider way, I hope to expand my telling of it. I welcome your cluing me in on what’s of interest. I often say I love doing what I can when I can to highlight artists and events of all sorts, though, unfortunately, I can’t highlight everything. 

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