Macon Magazine

October/November 2025 | maconmagazine.com 71 "This is Bicentennial Park, a convergence of forces in Macon's story. As finishing touches are put in place, it weaves itself into the fabric of the city's history and looks to be a prominent location for its future." moving history forward. Averbuch was inspired by his research on the city: "We were very attracted to the history of Macon, the sort of separation between white and Black and Native American. At the same time, I knew some of the musicians that came from Macon, and I did a Google search and was blown away. There is an interaction there, and so I'm thinking, how do we take all this history and move it forward?" In Averbuch's view, societal walls like race and class separate us. But his vision hopes to transcend those barriers. "A wall is something that can move, people can move it," he said during the sculpture installation. "It's very architectural, but it's also figurative. You will really feel that there is a movement, a human movement. It's about community. There are communities on either side of the wall, and they are taking it on a ride. I hope that they will read symbolically into all these images, and with the background of the history of what happened here." He added that the boat also alludes to the forces that brought people here, from those who arrived as immigrants, to Africans who were enslaved in the Middle Passage, to Indigenous communities travelling the Ocmulgee by canoe. Next came Kenneth Johnson's large marble piece over the summer, titled "ECKE – Mother Ground." Johnson, a Muscogee citizen, says ecke refers to the word mother in the Muscogee language. Created out of Georgia marble, the piece evokes that Macon is built upon the ancestral Muscogee homelands. A female figure is carved into the stone, which Johnson purposefully faced West, towards Oklahoma, where the Muscogee Nation is located after forcible removal from their lands during the Trail of Tears. Also etched into the stone are the ceremonial fires that the Muscogee carried from here to their settlements in Oklahoma. Below the flames are a circle with four points. "What it represents is the people, that are really the flame spiritually," said Johnson. "You're made up of earth, water, fire, winds, the breath in your lungs. You rub your hands together. That heat just shows that you are still alive. That's what that is, and what it really means is the people are back." A fascinating element is the intentionality behind a red color in the design. "There is a special clay that the warriors used to paint themselves before stickball games or before battle. We took that same clay, indigenous to this area, and this is a commercial paint that's matched to the clay," Johnson explained. Johnson worked with local sculptor Tanner Coleman, who sent him a sample of the clay. Eventually, Johnson envisions applying that clay on the spot with other Muscogee people on an annual basis, renewing the ritual of his ancestors and tying the work to the Ocmulgee River. Eventually, there will be a bronze statue of a stickball player standing in front of the mother figure. The field in front of the sculpture is sized to be suitable for the sport, which is similar to lacrosse and has a long history of being played by North American Indigenous tribes. "So there's duality," Johnson said about the bronze figure. "The stickball players traditionally are male, but it's the women who open up the ground, so there is this very male symbol within this mother earth." Tracie Revis of Ocmulgee Mounds National Park and Preserve Initiative, who served on the Macon200 committee explained what Johnson's sculpture meant to her as a Muscogee woman. "I think the representation, for me, reflects so much on the growth that Macon has had over the last couple years," she said. "Macon is embracing our history, letting us have a place back in our original homelands. It really does represent a time of reconciliation for our people to come back. Having this here serves to welcome us back home, into our original homeland. But the sculpture also is for Macon, acknowledging what happened in our story." A third major piece yet to be installed is by Spanish artist Casto Solano, which will feature cut steel panels with vivid images from historic photographs of Macon on them. Called "The Living Story of Macon," the panels will feature themes of architecture, transportation, music history, Black excellence, Muscogee culture, and the industrial mill workers. A fourth sculpture sits at a staircase between the park and Mill Hill Community Arts Center. Made by Macon-based artists Alexis Gregg and Tanner Coleman, this piece is called, "Column of Change" and returns home to Macon after a stint on the Beltline in Atlanta. The pole matches other brick elements of the park, and reflects the style of the couple, who specialize in carving and using local brick. Finally, several wind sculptures commissioned by the Urban Development Authority have been installed. Additionally, Macon Arts Alliance has built a pavilion at the edge of the community arts center this year, inviting community members to bring their events into the outdoors and in view of the park. The pavilion is dedicated in honor of local leader Steven Fulbright, who passed in 2022. Envisioned by designer Treadwell as

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