Museum of Arts and Sciences immersive exhibits, Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra

“On A Human Scale” opens Friday at the Museum of Arts and Sciences, the second of five immersive, multimedia ART+TECH exhibits at the museum over the next two years in collaboration with Wonderspaces.

An accompanying onsite workshop is Friday at 10 a.m. for those interested in what goes into the staging and installation of such high-tech artworks and exhibits. The workshop is free. Regular admission to the museum includes the exhibit during regular hours through June 21.

“I love that this exhibit is a high-level technological work that is extremely accessible to all ages,” said the museum’s Susan Welsh. “It’s hands-on and involves art, music and technology in a fun and vibrant way.”

“On A Human Scale” features an interactive instrument — a modern keyboard mounted in a traditional harpsichord — that triggers musical notes sung by people who were pre-recorded and appear singing their notes in real time on television monitors. 

The exhibit highlights diversity and shared humanity and started as an experiment in filming everyday New Yorkers singing. The individual voices are woven into the installation and activated by visitors playing notes on the keyboard. The exhibit’s visitors bring the audio-visual installation to life. 

Operating at the intersection of music, film and technology, Matthew Matthew sees himself using creativity as a force for positive change.

Wonderspaces presents the artwork of over 125 partner artists through permanent exhibitions in Scottsdale, Philadelphia, and Austin, Texas as well as the two-year cooperative exhibits in Macon.

Wonderspaces’ mission is to deliver art to new audiences. Its partnership with the Museum of Arts and Sciences offers area attendees the opportunity to regularly see and experience works by internationally known artists in the ART+TECH field.

Welsh said the Friday workshop, made possible through a grant from the Knight Foundation, offers those in technical and curatorial positions as well as artists, IT professionals, exhibit/event presenters, scholars, media representatives, students and others the opportunity to learn more about creating and staging such works.

While at the museum, also be sure to catch the “Crossroads: Arts, Science and Community Exhibition,” also an interactive exhibit, but this one focused on families and children age 8-12. It features numerous activity and learning stations,
including:

• Learning about shadows and color mixing
• Creating personal self-portraits
• Exploring video light microscopes
• Examining scientific specimens
• Participating in a maker space with 3D printers
• And Interactive Discovery Stations aligned with Georgia’s science and art curriculum

The exhibit builds on the museum’s recent technological advancements and partnership with Wonderspaces, which equipped the museum with advanced multimedia and interactive capabilities.

Since its beginning, the museum has been known for blending art and science and providing interactive learning experiences for children.

The museum is located at 4182 Forsyth Road with regular hours from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

To learn more, visit masmacon.org and onahumanscale.com.

Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra

The third concert of the 2024-2025 season of the Macon-Mercer Symphony is Monday at 7:30 p.m. at The Piedmont Grand Opera House.

Guest conductor is Paul Watkins and the program includes Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and Bartók’s Divertimento

The Macon-Mercer Symphony combines string students of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University with principal members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Watkins directed the McDuffie Center students twice in the last two weeks, along with members of the Mercer Singers choral ensemble. First, on Feb. 11 during a Fabian Concert at Mercer, which was a local preview of a Feb. 17 performance by the two groups at Carnegie Hall, then at the Carnegie Hall concert itself.

“The young people played marvelously during the Fabian series concert and then at Carnegie Hall,” Watkins told me. “Of course, Carnegie Hall is much larger and there was a much larger audience so we had the pleasure of quite a few McDuffie Center alumni joining us to add to our numbers onstage.”

Welshman Watkins has received acclaim for his inspirational performances and eloquent musicianship as a cellist, chamber musician and conductor. Among his many roles, he is artistic director of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Detroit and visiting professor of cello at Yale School of Music. 

A dedicated chamber musician, he was a member of the famed Nash Ensemble from 1997 until 2013 and the Emerson String Quartet from 2013 until 2023.

Watkins has been in Macon at the McDuffie Center many times and his connections to it and center director Amy Schwartz-Moretti and founder Robert McDuffie go back years.

“I’ve played with Amy at music festivals and such and we’ve always hit it off really well,” he said. “She’s had me play at the Fabian chamber series concerts in Macon and I’ve taught at the school. My wife is American, and when I moved to New York 30 years ago my mother-in-law, who was a pianist, told me of this wonderful violinist named Robert McDuffie. I can’t think of anything better for a musician to do than form a school and pass on what they know to future generations.”

Ticketing for the Monday MMSO concert can be found at www.thegrandmacon.com. Students with ID are admitted free.

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