Dunwoody officials are disappointed by the Georgia Music Hall of Fame Authority’s decision to turn down the city’s bid to display Georgia’s musical heritage.
On March 31, the authority voted to scrap the bids from four cities hoping tobecome the location of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame: Athens, Dunwoody, Woodstock and its current home of Macon, the Associated Press reported. The hall of fame will remain in Macon for at least another year, according to the AP.
“Obviously we’re very disappointed,” said Danny Ross, a Dunwoody city councilman and the chairman of the Dunwoody Music Conservancy. “I think we provided a proposal that was very visionary.”
Dunwoody proposed using technology to create an interactive experience at the music hall of fame and using rotating exhibits to keep visitors coming.
On March 25, the Dunwoody Music Conservancy urged the Georgia Music Hall of Fame to consider accepting the proposals of Athens and Dunwoody together.
Ross said Athens proposed cataloguing, digitizing and distributing the intellectual properties housed at the Hall of Fame, while Dunwoody’s proposal included using digitized versions of the music and providing the physical museum facility.
“We felt those two proposals really were a ball glove situation,” Ross said, maintaining that a joint proposal was just an idea and no agreement was made with Athens.
The Dunwoody group has had a hard time selling its vision for the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. At one point, Dunwoody’s proposal was ranked last among the cities competing for facility by the Georgia Music Hall of Fame Authority.
The Georgia General Assembly cut state funding to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and officials began looking for a new location for the facility because it was losing money due to poor attendance in Macon.