By Amy Jablonski, 2023-09-28
Pyewacket, Black Excellent Men and Exhale, three bands started by young adults in Lynchburg, have risen to fame in the local music scene. Each has a connection to the Madison House of the Arts, the nonprofit that helped cultivate the talents of each band member and helped them grow into what they are today.
The graffitied blue house on Madison Street started as the home of Carrie Robinson. Ten years ago, she opened her basement and backyard to residents who wanted to share their art and music.
After Robinson decided to move away and sell the house, Chris Townsend said that he knew that the house and the creative outlet it had cultivated needed to be cherished. In 2021, he and another donor bought the house and turned it into the Madison House.
Townsend, now the director of the Madison House, wanted to create a healthy atmosphere for young musicians and help them develop coping mechanisms, he said. As a travel photographer for some world-renowned bands, he had seen too many talented artists become addicted to drugs, and he wanted to make sure that these young musicians didn’t follow that same route.
“They needed an outlet; the outlet was bigger than putting murals on walls,” Townsend said. “It was bigger than just building an art scene. They needed a community outlet. … They needed to be able to say, ‘OK, here’s my art, this is what it means. I need you to hear me.’”
Townsend has worked to create a community of expression without hate.
“I want them to be able to express their feelings. Because obviously, they have a need for that,” he said. “But let’s try it through art. Let’s not go out in the community and raise hell. Let’s do it here and get out of your system on canvases for free.”
Townsend wanted the Madison House to be more than just a place for music — he wanted to be able to give back, so the nonprofit works to feed and support the community around it.
“I know five people on this block that don’t have water,” Townsend said. “And it’s not just drinking water. They need water to bathe their children.”
Most shows hosted at the Madison House charge admission in the form of suggested donations of water. The piles of water and other donated items at the end of each performance are a heartening sight, tangible evidence of each band’s talent, he said.