The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Kayne Lanahan, CEO and founder of Savannah Stopover Music Festival.  Read on for Kayne’s notes on what it takes to create a mushrooming music scene…..

Photo by Matthew McCully

Just last week the manager of one of Savannah’s Broughton Street retail stores professed a profound desire to get involved in this year’s Savannah Stopover Music Festival because she was willing to do anything to help improve the “crappy” music scene in this town.

I hear this sentiment expressed over and over again in Savannah, primarily from the 18-34 year old demographic. Two years ago I would have stood there shaking my head and nodding “yes, yes, I hear you, I agree” but now I find myself asking the harder questions: What constitutes a “Music Scene” in a city? What if my scene is different than your scene? What if there is a “scene” and we just don’t do a very good job of promoting it across Savannah’s many microcosms of youth?

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Harry Delorme, self-confessed tinkerer and Senior Curator of Education with the Telfair Museum of Art.  Read on for Harry’s preview of an upcoming tinkerer’s paradise….

Chippewa Square, 2011 by Shinji Murakami

In an earlier post I wrote about the value of tinkering and do-it-yourself creative activity. I firmly believe that creative doing and making are rewarding and empowering experiences that cut across societal boundaries. Many now think that learning to do things ourselves may even be essential to our future survival.

The DIY movement has been catching on, and has inspired a broad spectrum of people to try everything from backyard gardening to experimenting with all kinds of technology.

Many of us consume technology in the form of gadgets and the content and connectivity they offer, without understanding what’s behind the magic. Some of the creative tools that make the magic possible are easily accessible if one has either the time to explore them, access to computers and the internet, or just someone to open the door to the possibilities.

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Roger Moss, co-founder and artistic director of The Savannah Children’s Choir.  Follow Roger’s notes below to hear you can make every year an exceptional year….  

ex•cep•tion•al

adj.

1. Being an exception; uncommon.

2. Well above average; extraordinary.

Three years ago the Savannah Children’s Choir was honored to have Keith Miller, a bass from the Metropolitan Opera, as our Artist in Residence. During his first session with our children, Keith made the statement that getting “100 is just the beginning.” This statement should make all arts organizations pause and reflect.

In other words, getting the notes played perfectly, with the correct inflections, tone, etc., is just the beginning. What will get audiences back and excited is when your organization is exceptional.

What is exceptional about your art? What is beyond “100’?

Why would or should audiences get excited about your art?

Have you really discovered your “voice”?

If you are an arts organization, what stands out about your work?

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. Today’s blog is from Elizabeth (Lizzie) Rushing, a talented writer living in Savannah. Lizzie has provided thoughts and opinions for a number of promient publications and previously served as the Arts Editor for South Magazine.

As Americans, we are the descendants of renegades and rebels. We are born of borrowed cultures on stolen lands. But wherein lies our honest identity? What does it mean to be a female American artist in these modern times?

Questioning a culture that is remixed and reformed, artist Kellie Walker initiates an exploration into Americana through her new collection, “Between Bones.” The exhibit, comprised of seven original works, lassos Walker’s childhood inspiration for the search.

A SCAD alumna and Savannah resident, Walker was born in Texas and raised in Kansas City. “My parents had their own Vet practice in the Texas hill country and my father specialized in large animal practice,” Walker says. “I grew up with a menagerie of critters running around the home.” Livestock, raccoons, squirrels, deer, cats and dogs, and “of course,” she says, “horses.” This cast of characters is metaphorically American: a mash-up of different breeds, mammals, from different walks of nature brought together for a chance at a better life. “My parents also always had these beautifully illustrated anatomical/ medical reference books laying around which fascinated me.”