WE DID IT!!!!

Thank You... ... we raised $5,000!

Thanks to all of you, we raised $2,500 to match the challenge money provided by an anonymous donor. We now have $5,000 which will pay the artist to design the bus shelter and ship it to us to be installed this fall. This project has been a labor of love for the AAAC Board, Chris Evans (former president and architect), our attorney Laura Nehf, The Unified Government of Athens-Clarke County(especially Keith Saunders of SPLOST) and the Athens Transit System.

This gift to the citizens of Athens has brought worldwide recognition to our city and proved that pairing private and public money can bring exciting functional public art to our community.

Athens Area Arts Council seeks to make riding the bus in Athens a fun and inspirational experience for everybody. “Art Rocks!” is a collaborative public and private partnership designed to create artist-designed bus shelters to transform basic public transportation in Athens, GA.

Four extraordinary, artist-designed bus shelters, chosen by a jury composed of community leaders, Athens Transit bus drivers, and local bus riders, recognize the Athens’ music scene which has brought national attention to our town for decades. Two shelters, “Beat A Drum” and “Murmur” honor R.E.M.’s music. A third shelter brings to life the renowned B-52’s “Love Shack”. The fourth shelter is itself magically musical, with flute-like bars that create enchanting melodies as the wind drifts through.

Often inspired by Athens' artists and always willing to give to our community, R.E.M contributed their music to support this complimentary video in hopes that it would inspire contributions. The song featured in the video, "Beat A Drum", comes off the astonishingly beautiful Reveal, released in 2001; twenty years after the release of their debut single, "Radio Free Europe".

The Athens Area Arts Council is managing the construction of these shelters. Athens City Commissioners' allocated the money that would have built a standard green box shelter to this project and AAAC has to come up with the rest. With your help we have now covered the remaining construction costs. ($5,000 for each shelter). We have already raised $5,000 and installed one. And we just raised an additinal $5,000 for the next installation.

Thank you for joining us in this unique opportunity to visually show how much we all care for our very own community, our public transportation, our musicians, our artists, our people; and show all who visit this iconic, diverse little town how truly inspirational we really are!

You have helped make a difference in the beauty and inspiration of Athens public transportation with your generous donations of $10, $25, $50, or $100 — an in the case of one anonymous donor — $2,500.

ROCK ON!

If you have a question or prefer sending a check, contact Athens Area Arts Council or send a check made payable to Athens Area Arts Council, P.O. Box 122, Athens, Ga. 30603.

All donations to Athens Area Arts Council are tax deductible.