TIFTON — The Tifton City Council honored the legacy and impact of late arts advocate Syd Blackmarr during its Oct. 21 meeting.

Council members declared the first Saturday of November as Syd Blackmarr Day, a memorial and recognition of Blackmarr’s decades-spanning efforts to expand the arts community in Tift and its surrounding counties.

Beginning her work with the creation of the Arts Experiment Station at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in 1976, Blackmarr contributed nearly 40 years of passion to the arts scene of the Tiftarea.

She had a hand in creating an eight-county arts coalition that spurred the formation of arts organizations in counties around Tift, was the leading mind behind the Love Affair arts festival, inspired and aided in the creation of other arts events like Fiesta del Pueblo and Arts in Black, and helped build the Tifton Council for the Arts, which she continued to support until passing away last year.

Vice mayor Josh Reynolds, presiding over the meeting on behalf of mayor Julie Smith, who was unavailable, offered a proclamation to Blackmarr’s family designating Syd Blackmarr Day as such.

Reynolds acknowledged and praised Blackmarr’s impact on both the community’s art scene and the community as a whole, asserting that the legacy she had left had truly changed Tifton for the better.

Additionally, he proudly declared that the entire month of November would be recognized as Arts Appreciation Month in honor of Blackmarr’s efforts and love for the arts.

Fittingly, the first Saturday of November will also be the main day of the Arts Affair, a festival organized by the Tifton Council for the Arts intended to serve as a celebration of the arts and a successor to Blackmarr’s Love Affair.

The event will take place over both Friday and Saturday, beginning with a concert the evening of Nov. 1 and inviting local residents to enjoy a full day of arts celebration and demonstrations Nov. 2.