Free concert Saturday in Chatsworth City Park
A free concert Saturday, March 12, in Chatsworth City Park could be a preview of coming attractions for the North Georgia community.
Two home-grown talents — bluegrass master Jim Pankey and rising star Shelby Satterfield — will take the stage in support of an arts and culture project officials in Murray County are looking to expand on.
Chatsworth is one of eight communities chosen for the 2016 Thriving Communities Initiative, a visioning strategy for economic and cultural development that is engaging people from across a 16-county region in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. The initiative is overseen by Thrive 2055, a network of businesses, local governments and nonprofit organizations.
The eight communities have been tasked with creating projects that use the town’s unique art and culture to bring vibrancy to their communities. To fund the projects, each community is eligible for grants of up to $20,000 through the Lyndhurst Foundation.
To test the projects, each community must create a pop-up event to survey the public’s opinion and reaction, says Lori McDaniel, a member of the Murray County project team, which has identified making downtown Chatsworth a more vital and interesting area.
After two months of interviews and surveys, the team has proposed building a community performance space — a small band shell or covered stage in City Park.
Team member Steve Anglea says support for Saturday’s concert is vital to this first phase of planning.
“We will be surveying those in attendance to see how they feel about the concept we are proposing and any other ideas they may have to add to our final presentation,” he says. “Community input and participation is very important to this process.”
Both performers are from Chatsworth. Satterfield sings and plays guitar. Pankey plays clawhammer and Scruggs- style banjo. He has won Georgia and Tennessee state championships, is an instructor at the Folk School of Chattanooga, teaches at music camps and gives private lessons.
Additional activities will be set up in the park for families to enjoy. In the event of rain, the concert will move inside the Chatsworth Depot on First Avenue behind the Wright Hotel.