Description
The purpose of the Nuçi Phillips Memorial Foundation is to provide a rehearsal complex/music center called Nuçi's Space, where musicians can gather to practice, play and plug into the Athens music scene at affordable rates. All proceeds will be used to provide low cost professional counseling services for musicians suffering from depression and to maintain the building itself. Nuçi was a talented musician, a good student at the University of Georgia and a kind and gentle person. He was very health conscious and shunned smoking and drugs to the point that he even resisted medication which would sometimes alleviate his depression. His battle to feel good ended in November of 1996 when he took his own life. Although his life was short, he touched many with his music and humanity. The Phillips family feels that the best way to celebrate his life is by supporting his fellow musicians and insuring that the music plays on. We will be working closely with the Sims Foundation of Austin, Texas, which was founded in memory of Sims Ellison, bassist for the prominent rock band Pariah, who took his own life in June of 1995. Because there are Nuçis and Simses in every community, it is our dream to replicate our center across the country. We would like to assist musicians who are so often the victims of depression by creating an environment of support, understanding and compassion. Erich Fromm, the psychoanalyst, wrote, "For those who suffer from alienation, cure does not consist in the absence of illness, but in the presence of well-being."To achieve such a space, the Phillips family has purchased an old warehouse in the heart of downtown Athens. It will be converted into air-conditioned, heated, soundproofed rooms where musicians can come to practice in an affordable, secure environment. We will also act as a resource center for musicians. Whether their question is how to make a CD, how to cope with the stress of life in a rock band, or how to feel good, Nuçi's Space will be the place they can turn to. We will make sure that they can find the help that they need and that they can afford to pay for it.We feel certain that if there had been such a place tailor-made for musicians when Nuçi was a student at UGA, he would have sought it out. We know that Nuçi and Sims and all the other music makers who have been victims of this insidious disease of depression are smiling down on us and cheering every step of our endeavor.
