Last fall, I wrote about the Georgia House Music Industry Study Committee’s forum in downtown Savannah. Five legislators heard from a variety of Savannahians involved with music education, cultural tourism, instrument manufacturing, recording, event promotion and related fields.
The meeting in Savannah was the first of five such forums around the state. The committee also listened to music industry professionals in Athens, Macon, Augusta and Atlanta.
Back in September, I wasn’t quite sure what would come of all these meetings, and I’m still not quite sure.
But at least the committee has released a final report with a handful of specific recommendations that are worthy of discussion.
According to the final report, released this week by State Rep. Ben Harbin, R-Evans, the study committee “was formed to evaluate the issues facing Georgia’s music industry, identify opportunities and explore strategies to retain existing industry and talent and ensure future growth, investment and jobs.”
The first of the committee’s recommendations is for the state of Georgia to fund and implement a marketing plan “to aggressively promote Georgia music talent, business, education and tourism, as well as the music component of the Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act.”
Savannah could be a big winner if the state takes on such a role.
A comprehensive marketing plan implemented by the state would inevitably feature assets such as the major production facilities in Atlanta, the indie rock culture in Athens and the plethora of events available to tourists in Savannah.
We are home to the 17-day Savannah Music Festival and to a variety of other events like the Savannah Jazz Festival and Savannah Stopover.
Savannah is also home to several well-respected manufacturers and a variety of organizations involved with performance, education and related fields.
Simply put, Savannah is a hub for the arts in the Southeast. It sure can’t hurt if the state helps market that reality to the rest of the world.
The study committee is also calling for “a comprehensive economic impact analysis of Georgia’s music industry to provide a baseline from which to measure future growth.”
And that sounds like a fine idea, at least on the surface.
But I’m left wondering whether changes in technology will transform the industry in the near future as much as in the recent past.
Given the pace of change in the music industry, is it even possible to establish a baseline that will still be relevant a decade from now?
The study committee’s final report also recommends that the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries, which house collections from the closed Georgia Music Hall of Fame, offer better access and improve outreach.
I’ll confess to a cynical chuckle when I read that recommendation.
I’m sure there are ways that UGA librarians could strive to meet these goals. And Georgia’s universities are fine places to ensure preservation of all sorts of documents and artifacts.
But maybe we just need a new Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
Despite the fact that four other cities expressed interest in hosting the museum, the state closed the Macon facility in 2011 in the aftermath of the recession.
The Georgia Music Hall of Fame did not draw enough visitors in Macon, but it seems a pretty good bet that such a museum would be a major draw in either downtown Atlanta or downtown Savannah.
If we want to excite future generations about Georgia’s rich music history, we can’t lock up the past in the special collections of libraries.
One could argue that a state-funded museum is not worth the taxpayer money. One could argue that local nonprofit groups — like our own Savannah Rocks! — should take the lead.
It seems like a discussion worth having.
Are university libraries the best places to archive the state’s music history? If not, what other options do we have?
As I expected, the House Music Industry Study Committee’s final report focuses a lot on economic development. In recent decades, arts organizations have been under increasing pressure to show a literal “return on investment.”
This emphasis on economic impact has always presented something of a conundrum for those of us who think the value of arts and arts education is not so easily quantified.
I was disappointed that the study committee’s final recommendations largely ignored arts education, but the full document does note the “compelling testimony on behalf of music education in Georgia.”
According to the final report, “the Committee looks forward to forthcoming policy recommendations for multi-disciplinary arts education in the state from the newly formed Task Force on Arts Education, a statewide initiative led by the Georgia Council for the Arts in collaboration with The Office of the Governor.”
That sounds like a whole lot of bureaucracy, and I haven’t seen anything to indicate Georgia lawmakers are ready to invest more money in arts education.
Amidst the bureaucratese, the report also has this nugget about the Savannah forum in September: “Frankie Smith, a Savannah at-risk teenager who studies sound design and music education in the AWOL youth development program, passionately shared with the Committee how the program had changed his life.”
Can an economic impact study put a value on a teenager’s changed life?
City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 East 32nd St., Savannah, Ga. 31401.