{"id":3270,"date":"2015-12-22T17:39:11","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T01:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/?p=3270"},"modified":"2015-12-22T17:40:18","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T01:40:18","slug":"in-praise-of-nucis-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/2015\/12\/in-praise-of-nucis-space.html","title":{"rendered":"In Praise of Nuci’s Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

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MUCH of the time, it\u2019s hard to know who the good guys are. Other times, essential things become clear. A few weeks ago I attended an event for the Athens, GA, musicians resource called Nuci\u2019s Space, which was formed in honor or a young man, Nuci Phillips, who took his life in 1996. The place is dedicated to keeping musicians from despair.<\/p>\n

That night, we heard from a man who came close to killing himself but was saved by the place\u2019s counseling. A very poised 13-year-old boy talked about the way the Nuci\u2019s Space music camp gave him hope after his father committed suicide. It was a heavy night. In any case, the people who keep this place running definitely deserve a salute on CultureCrash: In a perfect world, we wouldn\u2019t need a place like this. But every city should have something like Nuci\u2019s Space for its musicians and artists.<\/p>\n

Nuci\u2019s does a number of things, from providing practice space for musicians to offering mental-health counseling and helping musicians get medical insurance. Are musicians more prone to psychological maladies than other people? Probably; Edmund Wilson\u2019s \u201cThe Wound and the Bow\u201d is perhaps the most poignant inquiry into the relationship between art and pain.<\/p>\n

Nuci\u2019s services are available to everyone who contacts the place, even if its mission focuses on members of the local music community. \u201cNuci\u2019s Space has flourished due to the need for a safe place for musicians,\u201d Bertis Downs, longtime advisor to R.E.M., told me. \u201cBy providing support in mental health, and in community-building and sustainability, Nuci\u2019s has become an integral part of the town\u2019s unique cultural community. And emphasizing education of middle and high school students has been a huge part of its evolving mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve known a cultural institution with such widespread support. Mention the place to folks in the music scene here, and they know someone whose life was saved by the little blue building. Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers endorses the place. So does Velena Vego, who books the 40 Watt Club, and her husband, David Lowery of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker.<\/p>\n

\"3605_10151268071522566_216843175_n\"<\/a>

Photo courtesy Nuci’s Space<\/p><\/div>\n

Kai Riedl, director of the Athens Slingshot Festival, describes the Nuci\u2019s Space this way:<\/p>\n

Nuci’s is a priceless intersection where all the ages, styles and\u00a0actual needs<\/em>\u00a0of the musical ecology Athens can interact. Even more than a place, Nuci’s carries the torch for the idea that Athens takes its music scene seriously both on and off the stage by adding necessary weight (and action) to the conversations surrounding creativity, economics and mental health. For a town like Athens that broadcasts the city’s creativity as a cultural asset, Nuci’s is the counterbalance to the idea that music is all fun and games, especially in a time where it definitely is not! Things are hard right now in the music industry, from top to bottom, which makes a resource like Nuci’s all the more important.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Riedl says the place has \u201cshifted the conversation about mental health in creative circles, if even just a little bit.\u201d Here\u2019s hoping that Nuci\u2019s Space, a nonprofit which always struggles for funding, can continue to help anchor the lives of musicians in a difficult time. If you can help the place financially, please do. If not, please spread the word.<\/p>\n

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[contextly_auto_sidebar] MUCH of the time, it\u2019s hard to know who the good guys are. Other times, essential things become clear. A few weeks ago I attended an event for the Athens, GA, musicians resource called Nuci\u2019s Space, which was formed in honor or a young man, Nuci Phillips, who took his life in 1996. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[197,58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-deep-south","7":"category-music","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3270"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3273,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3270\/revisions\/3273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}