Julie Wilkerson is the director of the Macon Arts Alliance, a local arts agency in Bibb County that was founded over 40 years ago. Wilkerson explained that the Macon Arts Alliance serves as both an umbrella arts agency as well as a cultural liaison to the county government because Macon does not have an official cultural officer. In addition to gallery shows, the organization traditionally hosts two annual ceramics festivals. In 2023, they decided to host another festival: a mural festival.
Wilkerson was visiting a friend in Sacramento when she learned of their festival, and she thought that it would be a good idea to bring one to Macon. “Turns out a lot of cities have mural festivals, and a lot of them are just celebrations of the murals in those towns. They’re mural walking tours,” Wilkerson said. She explained that these festivals were a way to showcase public art. At the same time, she learned about mural festivals, Macon had charged the Macon Arts Alliance with spearheading a cultural plan for Macon, a big part of which was branding Macon as a vibrant cultural community.
So, Julie Wilkerson created the Macon Mural Festival, which showcases murals from various artists from across the country, including artists as far away as California and New York.
Wilkerson explains that murals and public art more broadly draw people to specific locations, “It’s Instagramable. It’s a photo opportunity. They want to see it, but it’s also a really good way to tell the story of your community.”
Erin Hawkins, a local artist and muralist in Macon agrees. Hawkins emphasizes that public art brings people to Macon but also feels that community cooperation and involvement from the people here is important as well.
“When people get to be a part of it, they’re more invested in it, and so they’re going to take care of it, and they’re going to make sure nobody tags it or destroys it,” Hawkins says, “It just becomes so important for our community to have more public art so that we’re just all more invested in showing off the best (Of Macon).”
Hawkins had a particular interest in art ever since she was a little girl, but it wasn’t until she moved to Macon in 2015 that she was able to pursue murals and art full time. She initially began her career working at a PR Firm and a startup company in Washington D.C. where she did graphic design. Hawkins remembers, “I decided at some point I wanted to do less computer work and start painting murals, because why not?” Hawkins now paints full time under the name ‘Mama Hawk Draws.’
“It’s been 11 years of building community and working on getting my artwork out into the community, and people knowing what to expect when they work with me, and the high caliber of work and professionalism, but still, something creative and fun and whimsical,” Hawkins explains. “And now I’m lucky enough that I have a portfolio that has a wide range of different clients, both schools, businesses, private residents, and public art that is fun. It makes it super interesting that not every project is the same,” She explains that sometimes she works alone, but other times she’ll work with kids or sometimes other adults.
“I love it all, and I love the diversity of it. And I think that’s one of the coolest things about having your own business, is that you get to pick and choose the projects that you want to do,” Hawkins explains. Recently she opened Tanglewood Art Studios, as another way to foster community through art.
For Hawkins, art has always been a way to build community. Julie Wilkerson agrees, especially about the power of intentional public art, “It’s a good way to tell your history. It’s a way to make people think, to connect people together, to connect people to the past, or to connect people to the future.”
