Thursday Dec 28, 2023
The Opportunity to Preserve Savannah’s World-Class History and Memories
The Savannah Philharmonic is dedicated to ensuring that everyone across the Savannah region is able to access and enjoy the performing arts. An integral part of achieving this goal is making sure that our community has a purpose-built, state of-the-art performance hall that will showcase the full range of performing arts for current and future generations of Savannahians. In this episode you will learn that Savannah once had such a space!
Listen in on this important conversation around the fate of the Johnny Mercer Theatre and the plan for preservation and restoration. Our guests for this episode are Savannah Philharmonic's Executive Director Amy Williams - and the President of Corcoran Austin Hill Realty, Chairman of the Board for the Historic Savannah Foundation, and seventh generation Savannahian - Austin Hill.
Amy discusses the magnificent opportunity for the Savannah Philharmonic to grow at the same rate Savannah is growing - so they can continue to be something for everyone.
Austin says, "the city is growing rapidly - and we are attracting an incredible amount of people who are supporting the Philharmonic, and the arts. We can't afford to go a decade, or whatever it would take, without a space like this. It's the only venue that has this capacity - and we desperately need it."
The City of Savannah is actively working on a plan to present the project to the community, and while we do not know the exact cost of this meaningful historic preservation and restoration project, the first step is to commission a feasibility study that will define the parameters of the larger program. This feasibility study will outline the requirements for creating a hall that delivers to the standards we at the Savannah Philharmonic support.
Please share this episode and join us by writing to your alderman to share your interest in having this study completed on all this incredible space could be.
Learn more about the voices in this episode:
Executive Director, Dr. Amy Williams