100 maconmagazine.com | April/May 2025
INTERVIEW BY HALEIGH DEARDEN | PHOTO BY DSTO MOORE
Macon Chose Me is a photo series by DSTO
Moore highlighting residents who weren't born
in Macon but actively chose to move here and
enjoy positively representing the community.
K
irsten West says that
she's had "multiple
incarnations in one
lifetime" because
she's done so many
things through her
career. A Midwest native turned
California hippie, stints in Canada
and Connecticut led her to Chicago,
for a long career as an insurance
executive. But Kirsten fell in love with
Kirk West, the Allman Brothers Band
tour manager and photographer. She
came up with the idea to purchase
and renovate The Big House, now
a nonprofit museum dedicated to
Allman Brothers history. We'll tell
more of that story in our June/July
edition, the Music Issue. Along the
way, she's been a magazine publisher,
ran the Capitol Theatre, and started
Gallery West – originally meant to be a
temporary pop-up, it's now celebrated
its 10th anniversary this year, and
Kirsten is making plans for her next
chapter. No longer a nomad, she'll still
be in her beloved Shirley Hills home,
but she's ready for some rest and
Kirsten West
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