by Melissa Macker, Executive Director
It’s crazy to think that we’ve been living with a pandemic for a year. Thankfully, some sense of normalcy has returned as we all find ways to do the things we love more safely—or maybe it just feels more normal now that we’ve been wearing masks for so long.
In those first weeks during the pandemic, it was hard not to fear for the future. How would we operate? How would we provide our community with the art experiences that they needed during a time of crisis? How would we continue to provide income for the artists who teach our classes regularly? How could we help the artists in the community? What would we do if our staff got sick? How would we pay our monthly bills without our regular revenue?
It was a scary time, but it was beautiful to see our community come together. One by one, our patrons, our donors, friends, and even other organizations in the community found ways to help us and the artists we worked with. Some supported us as we tried to figure out how to offer Corks & Canvas virtually for the first time, and others supported our artists as an Art Pen Pal or buying making a purchase in our online gallery. We even sold our unused art supplies via curbside pickup for a while!
We were humbled by the kindness of everyone who responded to our appeals for donations to keep us going. New City Church made a generous gift from their COVID-19 response fund to help us through those early months. NewTown Macon and the Community Foundation of Central Georgia helped our organization and others to navigate these strange new times we were in. We applied for all possible sources of relief, and the grants we received helped to offset some of what we lost. Every dollar we received was an encouragement that someone believed in us, whether it was a neighbor or a foundation.
The artists we work with also worked hard and came up with some creative ideas to keep us going. It was their idea to offer our very first art scavenger hunt. It was a hot day, but family and friends had a lot of fun finding every piece of public art in the Great Art Hunt! It was a safe activity that all ages could participate in. It was such a success, that we plan to do it every year (but maybe not in July next time).
Another success in the midst of the challenges was our pottery studio. Isolation has affected everyone, so several people joined our pottery studio last year as a safe way to find community and have something relaxing to do. Now we have more members than ever, and most days you can find a few people working in the studio. We started selling some of their work in our gallery, and a couple of our members will even have their pottery in Fired Works this year!
For now, we’ve figure out how to make things work with our new normal. Our classes are in-person, but smaller than before and socially distanced. Since we can’t invite large crowds for First Friday, our curator provides a virtual tour for every exhibit. Our gallery is open for visitors during the week, but we still sell a lot of art through social media. We’re excited to partner with the Local Love Box to provide a new way for our local artists and artisans, who have been most affected by the pandemic, to reach customers. We helped bring three new public sculptures to downtown Macon for the Macon Sculpture Walk last month.
For those of you who have supported us through this past year, and who continue to support us, we can’t thank you enough. We look forward to the day when we can once again welcome large crowds to art exhibits and classes in our little space.
