That Which Endures: Atlanta’s Folk Art Park

A quarter century out, the legacy of the Atlanta 1996 Summer Olympics lives on. The event, held from July 19 to Aug. 4, marked the anniversary of the Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece a century earlier. For any city, designation as the Summer Olympics site is a significant honor.

Inside the Arts

One remnant of the Summer Olympics with which many Atlanta residents may be less familiar is Folk Art Park. Constructed under the direction of the Corporation for Olympic Development in Atlanta (CODA), Folk Art Park spans a section of the Downtown Connector at the intersections of Piedmont Avenue and Baker Street, and Cortland Street and Ralph McGill Boulevard.

Camille Russell Love

Camille Russell Love

Love has been executive director of the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (@ atlantaoca) for more than two decades.

The park boasts artwork by twelve regional artists. Among them are prominent names such as Eddie Owens Martin, R.A. Miller, James Harold Jennings, Vollis Simpson, Archie Byron and Howard Finster. The initial proposal for the park won the international design competition for Urban Spaces in New American City and was the first public art project situated on Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) property. The project’s goal was a simple one, sort of—to create a space that would engage pedestrians and motorists while celebrating the diversity and power of Southern folk art.

The Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico defines folk art as, “decorative or utilitarian…is handmade…is learned formally or informally, or is self-taught… is of, by and for the people; all people, is inclusive of class, status, culture, community, ethnicity, gender, and religion.” To this dictum, Atlanta’s Folk Art Park is true. The artists come from different walks of life and represent various backgrounds. Most were not formally educated and are self-taught.

Archie Byron (1928-2005), is one such example. Before art, or a tree root, more accurately, discovered Byron, he owned a security company. In fact, when an assassin’s bullet killed his childhood friend, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Byron’s company provided bodyguards and surveillance for Mrs. King and the children. Seven years later, while out on a security job, he noticed a tree root that resemble a gun. Intrigued, he brought the root home and his wife challenged him to create something with it. Byron’s career as an artist began in that moment. And like Byron’s, such stories abound at Atlanta’s Folk Art Park.

The Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) recently completed a three-phase restoration of Folk Art Park. Visitors once again can immerse themselves in this unique and quintessential Atlanta cultural environment as it was created 25 years ago. As one OCA staff person observed, “One thing I love about this array of monuments is that it communicates something special about Atlanta – one doesn’t need to walk through the halls of academia to have one’s voice heard and revered. There is a sort of transcultural intelligence showcased in this area that speaks to the ancestral roots within every human.”

A virtual tour of Folk-Art Park can be accessed in the Google Play store by searching for City of Atlanta’s Public Art.

Back in those days, vinyl was the way to get your music

From the Crates

Kelly McCoy

Kelly McCoy is a veteran Atlanta broadcaster who writes about the days popular music only came on vinyl records, which often were stored in crates.

In past From the Crates columns, I’ve written about my memories and experiences at wonderful concerts at some of Atlanta’s prime venues from back in those days.

Wherever you enjoyed your first concert, I feel fairly safe in saying that you were listening to the radio when you first heard — and heard about — the group or performer you were going to see. More than likely, in the 60s or and 70s, their hits were heard on AM radio, because that was before FM stations started playing not only singles, but cuts from albums.

Yes, we actually played 45s on the air!

Chances are they were “stock” copies, just like the ones you bought and played at home. But there were special copies made just for radio station use, too. Those promotional copies were unusual. Some had the same song on both sides – one side had a mono recording, the other was stereo. Most had “intro times” on them to inform the on-air person how many seconds they had to speak over the beginning of the song.

We played records a lot, and after much use, a hit record often accumulated pops and scratches that didn’t help the song quality. If you heard a song broadcast that had a fuzzy, crackling sound at the beginning, the term for this noise was “cue burn.” We had to “cue the record” to the right location on the single so it would immediately begin once we started the turntable.

Quite often a record was marked to show whether the song faded at the end or ended abruptly, with what we called a “cold ending.” If the records didn’t have this information printed on them, it could be written on the label by hand, or — to really look professional — with a typed sticker.

All the information helped an on-air person to run a “tight board.” The enemy of radio is “dead air,” when nothing is being broadcast. The sound of silence is the worst radio nightmare. Silence occurred when someone wasn’t paying attention or didn’t have enough song length for a bathroom break. We just hoped for long songs when we had to pee.

Now, back to the vinyl.

Record stores were ample in the 70s and 80s. The bigger groups back then included Record Bar, Turtles, and Franklin Music. There were the great old family, or “mom and pop” stores. Jim Salle’s Music Store in Buckhead is where you could buy 45s, albums, instruments, and concert tickets. Clark Music on the square in Decatur was another local fave.

For a nominal fee and obligation to be a regular customer, Columbia House record club could allow you to purchase albums by mail for mere pennies and a subscription to buy more. We had Richway stores, K-Marts, Zayres and other discount places that sold vinyl.

Sears stores sold records and tapes. They also sold musical instruments. I remember shopping at Sears on Ponce de Leon and in Buckhead.

Peaches Records and Tapes, the “mother ship,” opened in 1975.

Not only could you find any album by any artist known to mankind, Peaches offered merchandise included clothing and the highly coveted Peaches record-storage wooden crates.

Most major artists that were touring through Atlanta would hold promotions there to meet their fans, and, of course, offer plenty of fresh copies of their music for purchase.

By the late 70s, there were around 45 Peaches locations. They closed in the early 80s, but longtime Atlantans still tell stories about Peaches.

Vinyl has made an amazing comeback in recent years as some fans think the old records sound better than new methods of delivering music. I recently read an article that said even cassette tapes are returning, so I guess we can look forward to seeing more long strands of skinny tape on the side of the road.

I also must mention the 8-track tape. Yes, the convenience of playing them in your car or home was wonderful, “scratch free” and convenient but it did take years for me to be able to listen to some songs without the anticipated interruption that would happen midway through the tune as the next “track” began. Remember?

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