Introduction
Members of the Columbus, GA community continue to inform me that an arts and music collective is vitally needed. Yet, some of them continue to cite examples of independent music and arts businesses (independent from the mainstream cultural institutions in Columbus and the surrounding community) that have failed in the recent and distant past. However, all of these previous ventures were individual for-profit projects, rather than collective community ventures that involved a significant portion and cross section of the city’s population. Additionally, there are arts that are not even included in the mainstream cultural institutions that should be considered, including film and pottery crafts as well as homesteading. While I have explored the practical possibilities of creating this and understand what appears to be general resistance and only understand it as someone who recently moved to and away from the city, I also understand the hope that many have that this will change. I look to the recent private venture, the Estate, a live music venue featuring many local and traveling artists and bands. What makes this private venture different from previously failed ones is the venue leadership’s active requests for participation, solicited from the local live music attending community and local arts and music creators. I believe that the establishment of this venue has created a favorable atmosphere that is ripe for the introduction of this project, an arts and music collective that can succeed, that periodically works in collaboration with the Estate and, perhaps, utilizes the same space part time until the collective can become established.
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