Photo: The site of a Corner Concert. Photos courtesy of Corner Concerts.

Andrew Eck is a senior at Mercer University and the co-founder of Corner Concerts, a Knight Arts grantee.

Corner Concerts was founded to foster the late-night indie music scene in Macon, Ga. Moved by a desire further grow our historic music scene beyond bars, as well as explore a few vacant buildings, I launched an idea into mission: showcase live bands in unique, often forgotten Macon locales to promote the city’s music scene. 

A logistical visit to a local guitar shop turned into a partnership when audio engineer George Murray saw vision in what he heard–the Corner Concerts team was thus born in late 2014, and we have hosted eight concerts across downtown Macon to date. George and I believe Macon is an incredible, melodic place whose vacant buildings are some of its greatest gems. We want more Maconites, along with those venturing to Macon for its historic sounds and sights, to experience the melody of the city. With this in mind, we applied for a Knight Foundation grant–and received it. Below, we share answers to some of the questions we are most frequently asked about Corner Concerts.

How did you become a Knight Arts-funded project? We were approached by the Knights Arts director about applying for a grant to ensure the sustainability of our project. Knight Foundation wants us to provide affordable art to the community in the unique way that we do. All the money from the grant goes to the artists and allows our team to take bigger risks on bigger bands, or bands that have not played Macon before. We received $5,000 for eight shows over the next year.

Scenes from a Corner Concert.

What determines the success of a Corner Concert? This is actually a much debated topic for our team because we have so many goals, and the only metrics we can take are audience size and show revenue. We have had breathtaking shows with small audiences and decent shows with large audiences. This is a quandary because our team puts in so much effort, and when an amazing show loses money, it is hard to swallow.

But this is only one metric of our success. We ultimately want to give the opportunity for Macon to enjoy and take pride in the city by pushing the music scene boundaries. We believe for this to happen there must be a thriving art scene centered in a fully renovated downtown. We aren’t measuring this, but we know Macon is continuously working to get there.

How are you working to maximize the diversity of each concert? Our partnerships help us the most on this. We have partnered with the city, bars, Harley Davidson, Mercer University, Historic Macon and many others. Our shows are consistently different—from the venues located in different parts of town to different genres of music that appeal to diverse audiences. For example, we select a band that draws a young audience and set up it in a building that draws an older crowd.

Our plan for this year is to host even more unique shows. It is always exciting to get a group involved that would have otherwise not a had a stage to perform.

How are you gaining support in the community? Everyone in Macon wants to support music. It is our heritage, and that is just our problem. We talk about our past but not our future. The biggest need for Corner Concerts is to convey who we are and what we want to do. Explaining our idea was extremely difficult at first, but it has gotten increasingly easier as more people have seen our shows, heard the buzz, and seen the pictures from past shows.

A visitor to Macon is charmed by the city.

How do you think Corner Concerts is creating a lasting impression in Macon? One of the buildings [where] we have hosted a concert is under contract after being for sale for years. Since we created a venue out of another building, it too has gained growing interest. Our new partnership with Historic Macon and their endangered building list will allow us to create community engagement in historic preservation. As Historic Macon is creating their Fading Five endangered list, we will go through the buildings that we can and host our shows there. We hope this will offer an opportunity for the community to engage. One idea is to begin a petition to the owner focused on whatever the issue [is].

Where do you see Corner Concerts five years from now? We hope to see this organization be about much more than pop-up concerts. We want to be involved in band incubation, along with local band retention. Macon has every reason to once again be a renowned music city.