call for public art: morton theatre mural

Athens Downtown Development Authority (ADDA), the Morton Theatre Corporation (MTC) and The Unified Government of Athens-Clarke County (ACCGov) invite professional artists to submit qualifications for consideration for a mural in the Morton Theatre lobby. The selected artist(s) will work with stakeholders and government staff to create a mural that enhances the user experience and celebrates the contributions of the Morton Theatre in Athens and the Northeast Georgia region.

Project Overview:

The Morton Theatre is located in downtown Athens GA on the storied “Hot Corner” of West Washington and Hull Streets. Built in 1910 by Monroe Bowers ("Pink") Morton, the Morton Theatre is one of the first, and the oldest surviving vaudeville theatres in the United States, uniquely built, owned, and operated by an African-American. The Morton Building housed not only the theatre, but also many of Athens’ Black doctors, dentists and pharmacists and other professionals. The theatre was opened on May 18, 1910 with a piano concert followed by local, regional, and nationally touring vaudeville acts. 

In its heyday, the Morton Theatre hosted early acts such Butterbeans and Susie, Blind Willie McTell, Curley Weaver, Sissieretta Jones, Cab Calloway, and Bessie Smith. When built, the Morton Theatre was the only space in the city where white and Black audiences could attend these shows together, with white audiences seated up in the bleachers. Morton’s Colored Opera House, as it was called by some, became a space where audiences were entertained, celebrated during graduation ceremonies of the segregated Knox Institute, and informed during community meetings, debates, and conventions of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. As vaudeville fell out of favor, the theatre saw burlesque acts, before transitioning the space, at the dawn of the silver screen, to a movie house. A fire in the projection booth led to the theatre's closing in 1954. The theatre, left empty for four decades, was overtaken by rousting pigeons. Businesses, however still operated in other spaces in throughout the Morton Building. 

In 1980, using a combination of state and federal funds, the building was purchased by the nonprofit Morton Theatre Corporation. Local bands at that time, such as Dreams So Real, the B-52’s and R.E.M. occasionally used the vacant, dilapidated auditorium for rehearsal space and filming music videos. In 1987, the citizens of Athens-Clarke County came to the rescue of the Morton through the passage of the Special Projects Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) referendum that included the restoration of the theatre.  In 1991, ownership of the building was handed over to the Athens-Clarke Unified Government, followed in the fall of 1993, by the signing of a management agreement between the Athens-Clarke Unified Government and the Morton Theatre Corporation. 

The Morton, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, reopened as a unit of the Arts Division of Athens-Clarke County Unified Government's Leisure Services Department, and is supported by the Morton Theatre Corporation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The Morton operates today as a 480-seat rental facility that hosts live theatre, music concerts, church services, weddings, dance concerts, receptions, seminars, award shows, pageants, community events, and more.  

The site for the mural is located in the lower lobby of the Theatre. The lobby includes a box office, front welcome desk, seating and is an area of gathering for all visitors to the Morton Theatre. The dimensions of the larger interior wall is approx.