Dear Editor,
As you may know, Georgia Writers Museum (GWM) has been closed since June for renovations. Made possible by a few prestigious grants and the generosity of you, our Lake Country friends and neighbors, we have new lighting and flooring, new interior walls, a new presentation wall, and state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment.
New hands-on interactive exhibits are currently being designed and will be implemented as we continue to raise the necessary funds.
We hope to be completely finished by mid-2025. Yet, while closed for these renovations, GWM continued delivering programs and events. In its ninth year, our popular monthly “Meet the Author” series brings readers and writers together with contemporary Georgia authors. True crime lovers flocked to our Crime & Wine series.
In January, 350 guests heard Kathy Kleiner Rubin, author of A Light in the Dark, recount her experience as the only Ted Bundy survivor. Event ticket sales funded research that helped solve the first Crime & Wine case hosted at GWM, the homicide of Melissa Wolfenbarger.
This summer, GWM was honored to be the only museum invited to the Black Writers Weekend in Austell, Georgia, where we debuted our new traveling exhibit, “African American Distinguished Georgia Writers,” funded by Georgia Humanities and the Southern Literary Trail. Over 3,600 guests viewed the exhibit at its first two stops, the second at Lawrenceville’s Aurora Theater. In 2025, it will travel across the state in partnership with Georgia Public Libraries.
This fall, more than 250 guests had a sneak peek at GWM’s renovations during the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s tour of Eatonton. In October, Haunted Eatonton led 200 people through historic downtown Eatonton as community actors brought local lore to life.
Our most important commitment is to inspire future generations. This year, we worked with more than 2,000 students, and 875 primary school students enjoyed Story Time with GWM volunteers. Seven hundred elementary school students “cheered on” reading at our Reading Pep Rally. Six hundred 3rd through 8th-graders from across the state entered our annual Spooky Story Contest, and 60 of 730 local middle school students were selected to participate in the “Share Your Story” writing course with a chance to publish their very own book!
So, to you, our donors, supporters, and visitors, we give sincere thanks and appreciation for our success. Your donations and support are the inspiration to continue pursuing the mission we accepted 10 years ago—to connect people to the literary arts of Georgia.
GWM President, Lou Benjamin, Eatonton