MACON, Ga. — Over the years, members of the Macon community have worked together to revive Capricorn Records back to its former glory.
For curator Jared Wright, that work began in 2013 during a graduate school internship at the University of West Georgia.
Decades after closing, old files and original recordings from Capricorn Records had been placed in containers and moved to a Macon storage unit.
"[The owner of the files] wanted someone to go through it who knew what they were doing and I needed an internship for grad school so I combined those two happenstances," says Wright.
Wright spent almost four months archiving the label's past, including reels of Gregg Allman recordings and Jimmy Carter campaign songs.
"As an archivist, you can't help but dig into every little folder especially when you've got the time," says Wright. "You get the real history of the record label in going through each little bit of paperwork like that."
While Wright was sifting through files, NewTown Macon purchased the Capricorn building with plans to repair it after years of decay.
"I wrote a proposal for what might be done with a space like that," says Wright. "That document eventually found its way into the hands of someone at Mercer, who got in touch with me, and I became part of a much, much bigger project."
From there, Wright curated the museum for Mercer Music at Capricorn with a focus on making the exhibit interactive and immersive.
"It gives you that sense of being able to go through the collection of materials kind of like I did through that archive," says Wright. "The whole cultural landscape of Macon, it's not one specific thing, but I think once you look at it as a whole you can see why it all happened here."
You can see the exhibit and the pieces of memorabilia Wright found for yourself at Mercer Music at Capricorn.
The museum is open from Wednesday to Sunday and can be found at 540 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in downtown Macon.