A "Third Place" Of Continuous Arts And Culture Programming And Opportunities
Live Performance
Visual Art
Artist Gatherings
and Creative Experiences.
The Story So Far
For 15 years, Media Arts Council (MAC) has been a leader in the Delaware County arts scene – programming everything from a fine art gallery, a film festival, and a multitude of live performances, from professional music to community poetry readings, craft making to protest art.
And Now The New Mac Arts Center
With the new MAC Arts Center, we will be far more active! A larger home on State Street in the heart of Media allows MAC to make the arts the true beacon of a welcoming and diverse downtown.
The MAC Arts Center - Your “Third Place”
MAC exists to connect local artists and their work with you, and this next evolution of MAC can accomplish this by making a “Third Place” – not your home, not your work, but a Third Place to experience your life, in a public sphere, a place to experience art and culture continuously with the people closest to you.
This is, at its best and most complete, the purpose of art: from the Hindu veda about art’s purpose – art gives us laughter, teaches us how to live, and opens us to the wonder of the universe.
In our own small way, MAC can accomplish this.
Let’s imagine…
Imagine A Great Day
In a place, where you can have a morning cup of coffee, experiencing visual art, while listening to a rebroadcast of a comedy performance from the night before…
Coming back at lunch to hear a radio drama written by the writers group who meet in The MAC…
And come back before your date night dinner to hear a mini concert by a local singer songwriter.
That’s a pretty great day!
Here’s another:
Morning coffee with the latest bound art book by one of our MAC Artists while listening to the African Drum concert from the night before…
Lunch is an avant garde sonic exhibit from our current guest artist, the kids (or the kid in all of us) come to the gallery to make holiday cards or to start the Media Treasure Hunt, followed by the serial audio drama A Murder in Media before dinner…
Back again after dinner for dessert catered by one of our restaurant partners and a showing of award-winning short films from the Media Film Festival.
Whew!
Experimentation Is The Name Of The Game
MAC will continue to produce live programming that seeks to feed the human need to examine our lives through art and support artists creating to that need. But now we will be able to do so in a space that reflects our abilities.
As we enter a post-Covid world filled with hope, we have an opportunity, and an obligation, to re-examine and re-invent how art and culture venues serve the public, offering art that supports the realities of people’s modern lives and tastes, as well as being partners with the local economy.
ART On The Walls
MAC Artists (a collective of local professional artists) will continue to have full month shows every month. We will also have the ability for regional and national guest artists to exhibit at the same time—an amazing opportunity. This blend of local, regional, and national art will push our own artists into the larger conversation, which allows for greater diversity from both inside and outside the region, and this diversity creates excitement in Media and what it offers.
Live At The MAC!
Live programming will focus on performance that is under an hour – making MAC’s programming a complement to our partner restaurants and retail stores, giving room for art before and after dinner, as well as during the peak retail hours. Exciting opportunities and partnerships will be available between MAC and restaurants to make packages of live programming and dining.
What's Coming
Music
Classical music, World music, Singer/songwriters, Folk, Jazz, Cabaret.
Improv Comedy Troupes and Solo Performance Artists
Audio Drama
Experimental Perormance
Poetry, Storytelling, Art Slams, Open Mic, Curated Variety Show
Readings and Lectures
Readings, plays, screenplays, short stories, abridged classics, historical writings
And More!
Live Programming And The Digital World
All the live programming can be livestreamed, turned into podcasts and the like, allowing MAC to offer recordings of the live performances during the day, bringing revenue both to MAC as well as the Artists. This is an important experiment, creating a world where local and regional live arts can use the digital world to increase revenue, reach a wider audience, and create fans across the world.
Membership Clubs
Film Clubs
This will consist of two programs: State Street Movie Night and Films at The MAC. These are membership only clubs – we do not sell individual tickets.
State Street Movie Night meeting at various times during the year, usually twice a month, as a discussion group for curated films led by State Street Movie Night members. Emphasis is on forgotten classics and a lively post screening discussion.
Films at The MAC will meet the Wednesdays of the month that State Street Movie Night does not use. Focus is on films that are a part of our collective cultural literacy.
Arts and Culture Clubs
Writers Club – a monthly meeting haven for writers of any kind, to share together in a supportive space.
Open Studio – a monthly meeting sanctuary for fine artists of any discipline.
Board Games BYO – A weekly opening of the space to boardgamers and RPGers. MAC would provide tables, and snacks for sale.
Drop-In Craft Making – An interesting evolution of our craft making workshops, we will offer our craft making workshops as a package of supplies, and a recorded instruction video. Participants can sit and craft from a curated selection at any time of the day that is good for them. And the glitter stays at MAC!
Weekday Curated Music Playlists, Audio Drama, Readings
Stop in for coffee in the morning or bring your lunch and have a taste of art during the day. Try rebroadcasts of our live events, offered digitally to patrons streaming from The MAC to their internet connected devices. Options might include:
Music, lectures, and readings from the live performances.
Audio drama from our serial performances. Missed the previous episode? Get caught up at The MAC.
Playlists from local musicians – what music inspires them?
Interactive “tastings” of combined works of art.
What's Next?
More than anything, bring someone with you – come to the concerts, the readings, the craft making. Bring a cup of coffee in the morning and stare deeply into an artist’s vision of the world. Bring friends to an improv comedy show, and laugh like you are still in 5th grade. Your presence is what makes this exciting. You, putting together thoughts and emotions that are fresh and new, feeling joy in a novel idea, anger at an injustice, seeing beauty where you didn’t expect it – your response is the purpose of art.
You can also sponsor incredible artists and thinkers – ticket sales do not cover the full costs of bringing professional artists to you, and we have a mission to make the arts available to everyone, even those who aren’t doing as well financially as we are. Your support brings top-talent artists to Media (something good for you) and helps bring great art to everyone in our community (something good for everyone else). You should brag about that. And if you don’t want to – let us do it for you!
Help build a place of arts and culture that makes Media the place to go to for experiences that grow us as human beings and connect our community in bonds of joy and creativity.