Hitting a High Note
Published Aug 18, 2009
The Savannah Music Festival generates an annual economic impact of nearly $12 million.
The Savannah Music Festival was launched in 2003 and generates an annual economic impact of nearly $12 million.
For nearly three weeks each spring, the festival presents a celebration that promotes arts and music education and brings together a cross-section of artists and audiences.
The festival produces more than 100 programs for adults and children in theaters, schools, and historic and intimate venues throughout the Savannah area.
More than 400 classical, jazz, blues, bluegrass and international artists, and dance, film and narrative programs make the festival a destination event. The 2010 festival is set for March 18-April 3. For more, go to www.savannahmusicfestival.org.
It’s a Gas
A Coastal Georgia project will bring more natural gas to markets throughout the Southeast. The Elba Express is a 190-mile natural gas pipeline project that will begin at a liquefied natural gas facility on Elba Island, five miles from downtown Savannah, and connect to other pipelines for East Coast markets.
In addition, a division of Houston-based El Paso Corp. is expanding its liquefied natural gas terminal on Elba Island, adding 8.4 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and 900 million cubic feet per day of send-out capacity, doubling the facility’s capabilities.
The first phases of both projects are slated to be done by mid-2010.
Full Speed Ahead
The St. Marys Submarine Museum is in historic downtown St. Marys; its mission is to educate visitors about the “Silent Service.”
A wide variety of submarine artifacts, memorabilia and information are available for viewing, many of them from the decommissioned submarine USS James K. Polk.
The museum features a submarine helm station and a working periscope that juts out of the museum’s roof.
For more, go to www.stmaryssubmuseum.com.
Three Decades of Arts Smarts
The Savannah College of Art & Design started classes in fall 1979 with seven faculty members and 71 students.
Today, the 9,000-student and 500-faculty SCAD is recognized as one of the nation’s top art-and-design universities.
Programs of study range from interior design to television and film to advertising design.
SCAD has rehabilitated more than 60 Savannah buildings crossing four historic districts. Among them is Arnold Hall, a former Chatham County high school that was refurbished into 80,000 square feet of space that includes a gallery and a technologically advanced, 607-seat auditorium for lectures and presentations. Go to www.scad.edu for more on the college.
Dig This Garden
LeConte-Woodmanston Plantation and Botanical Gardens in Liberty County is a former inland swamp rice plantation and former home of Dr. Louis LeConte, a renowned scientist and botanist.
The 18th-century botanical gardens are being restored to their former glory and will include a combination of landscaped, structured and free-flowing gardens with native, exotic and historic plants discovered and cultivated by LeConte.
Current structures and features include a home site, a pavilion, a period tool shed, a gazebo, an office, nature trail and the Jean Clyatt Avenue of Oaks.
The expansion will feature a multipurpose chapel as well as a memorial brick pathway meandering through the gardens. For more, go to www.leconte-woodmanston.org.
Art Pops at This Gallery
The Soda Shop Gallery was established in August 2005 in downtown Sylvania.
The gallery showcases the talents of Screven County artists, who display and sell their works, which include paintings, stained glass, sculptures, photographs and turned wood.
The gallery is located in a renovated historic building on the downtown square in Sylvania and is staffed entirely by volunteers.
The gallery can be reached at (912) 564-7200.
King George’s Men Slept Here
Fort King George Historic Site in McIntosh County is the oldest English fort remaining on Georgia’s coast.
From 1721 until 1736, Fort King George was the southern outpost of the British Empire in North America. A cypress blockhouse, barracks and palisaded earthen fort were constructed in 1721. Now open for public tours, the park includes a blockhouse, officer quarters, barracks, a guardhouse, moat and palisade. A museum and film cover the Guale Indians, the Santo Domingo de Talaje mission, Fort King George, the Scots of Darien and 19th century sawmilling when Darien became a major seaport. For more, go to www.gastateparks.org/fortkinggeorge.
Taking on Water
The Tybee Island Marine Science Center has made promoting knowledge of the marine ecosystem of Coastal Georgia its principal work since 1987.
The center includes exhibits featuring alligators, batfish, turtles and a variety of other native species and a touch tank that lets visitors handle hermit crabs, spider crabs, whelks and horseshoe crabs, among other species.
In addition, the center offers numerous programs, including marsh treks, beach walks and a “sea camp.”
For more, go to www.tybeemarinescience.org.
Putting on the Ritz
The Ritz Theatre opened in 1899 to house opera productions and the offices of the Brunswick & Birmingham Railroad.
It evolved into a performance house that hosted Vaudeville shows and became a movie theater in the age of motion pictures.
Following a period of decline in the 1960s and 1970s, the city of Brunswick acquired the theater, located in Old Town Brunswick historic district, and refurbished it.
The Golden Isles Arts & Humanities Association has managed the theater since 1991. Today, it hosts events ranging from concerts to recitals to public forums.
Its lobby serves as an arts gallery and information center for visitors. For more, go to www.goldenislesarts.org.
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