Macon Magazine

April/May 2025 | maconmagazine.com 33 Don't miss April's show featuring 478 Creatives - learn more about them on the next page. surrounded by a group of restored historic cottages that were first built for the mill workforce to live in, but are now considered an arts village. As leader of the Mill Hill effort, the Mill Hill Auditorium was named for Jan Beeland and her husband, Robert, whose architectural firm won the low bid for its restoration. It's significant that it's the only project the two ever worked on together, and is exemplary of the passion many in the community feel for not only the arts but Macon's history, its growth, and the good of all of its creators and citizens. "Macon Arts Alliance brings so many people and organizations together," Beeland said. "Our job to promote the arts and to help artists, promote them, sell what they create, and make them an important, cared for element of the community is undergirded by a love the Arts Alliance has always had for creative people and for the community we live in." "It's clear the arts have played a major part in Macon's quality of life, in the renewal of downtown and now at Mill Hill, and just as clear the arts and those involved in the arts have a most important part to play in its future. I believe the Macon Arts Alliance is an evolving organization that will always be happy to play a part." Auditorium. It has become the site of Bicentennial Park, which will have its ribbon cutting on April 29, and, as a neighbor adjacent to the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, is set to be central to activities as the sacred space seeks to become a full-fledged National Park. Bicentennial Park will feature multiple large sculptural pieces created from an international call for artists, facilitated by MAA and evaluated by a team of advisors and local stakeholders. The park's landscape design was created by Wimberly Treadwell, whose great-grandfather P.E. Dennis was part of the architecture team to create Macon City Auditorium, the signature project of Macon's centennial celebration. For Treadwell, the opportunity to build on her legacy in Macon by designing the signature bicentennial project is a "full circle moment," she said. One of the major sculptural installations will be complete by the April 29 ribbon cutting, with the others being placed throughout 2025. The artists are diverse, ranging from locals Alexis Gregg and Tanner Coleman, to Santa Fe-based Muscogee citizen Kenneth Johnson, to New York artist Ilan Averbuch, to Castro Solano from northern Spain. Its development is exemplary of the kind of work MAA can do and how it does it by joining hands with multitudes of partners, including the likes of neighborhood residents, community stakeholders, Macon-Bibb County, the Urban Development Authority, and initial funding by the National Endowment for the Arts' Our Town Program with matching funds from Knight Foundation. Both former Macon Mayor Robert Reichert and Beeland recall a car trip back from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport following a trip to Bradenton, Fla., where they saw an arts project that combined an arts center with cultural development and the physical and economic redevelopment of a blighted area. While discussing it on the way home, all agreed Macon needed such a project. Beeland recalls Reichert shouting out, "Mill Hill, let's make it happen!" Now under management of MAA after renovations were led and funded through the Urban Development Authority, Mill Hill is the location of numerous art shows and community events. It serves as a rental venue for community and personal occasions. Beeland now serves as the board chair for the Urban Development Authority, so she still has an eye on the venue even after retiring from her role at MAA. The space is home to services like the Mill Hill Bakers Collective, a low-cost, shared commercial kitchen space serving professional and hobby bakers, and the Tech Toolshed. The art center was once a community center for Bibb Mill workers, and is ABOVE Jan Beeland in front of Mill Hill Community Arts Center. "Macon Arts Alliance brings so many people and organizations together. Our job is to promote the arts and to help artists, promote them, sell what they create, and make them an important, cared for element of the community."

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