About Harold McMillan
Harold McMillan is the founder/director of DiverseArts Culture Works, an Austin nonprofit producer of multidisciplinary art and culture projects and programs. Involved and active in Austin's art and music community for the past 20 years, he is known primarily for his efforts to provide access and exposure to traditions derived from African American Culture and other forms of artistic expression outside the classical European tradition. Within the broad scope of theDiverseArts mission, McMillan functions as publisher/editor, writer, festival and concert producer, record producer, documentarian/cultural historian, gallery owner, and performing musician. A sample of his production credits include: founder/executive producer of the Clarksville Jazz and Arts Festival, Austin Jazz and Arts Festival, Austin Blues Family Tree Project, Clarksville Jazz Sessions; founder/publisher of Austin Downtown Arts Magazine; founder, DiverseArts Little Gallery and DiverseArts New East Arts Gallery.
McMillan's professional tenure in Austin has been spent almost entirely in the nonprofit sector in service and management positions in higher education, art and culture, social work, and low-income housing programs. He holds a BSW in Social Work from East Texas State University (now Texas A&M-Commerce), and has graduate training in Administration and Planning from the Graduate School of Social Work, University of Texas at Austin; and a Master of Arts in American Civilization from the University of Texas at Austin. Past and current community service and organizational affiliations include: City of Austin Music Commission, Cultural Contracts Music Advisory Panel, Texas Commission on the Arts Touring Roster Peer Review Panel, International Association of Jazz Education, and the ACC Commercial Music Advisory Board.
Harold is the proud father of his son, Hayes Michael McMillan.
Production Credits:
Founder/Executive Producer/Director
Clarksville Jazz and Arts Festival
Austin Jazz and Arts Festival
Austin Blues Family Tree Project
African American History Month Concert Series
East Side Circuit Performance Series
Word/Jazz Performance Series
Juneteenth BluesFest
Congress Avenue Live Performance Series
Austin Jazz Hall of Fame
Kenny Dorham Memorial Concert
DiverseArts Little Gallery Visual Arts Series
Founding Editor and/or Publisher:
River City Bluez Letter
The Back Page (Office of VP and Dean of Graduate Studies, UT Austin)
Austin Downtown Arts Magazine
Clarksville Jazz and Arts Festival Souvenir Program Books (historical, biographic, oral/cultural history content)
Contributor/Editor:
Nokoa--The Observer, Art/Entertainment Editor
Austin Chronicle
CitySearch Austin (website)
On Campus (UT Office of Public Affairs)
Record Producer/Associate Producer:
I'll Be Home for Kwanzaa (Bagel Label) (Austin's first and only Holiday recording featuring a range of African American Jazz, Blues, and gospel groups and featured soloists)
It's a Small World (Austin Acoustic Music Festival/Chocolate Records)
Organizational Sponsor and/or Co-Producer:
Women in Jazz Concert Series
Austin Acoustic Music Festival
Executive Producer/Selected Touring Shows:
Jimmy Smith Quartet
McCoy Tyner Trio
Ellis Marsalis
Jason Marsalis Group
Roy Hargrove and Crisol (Chucho Valdez, David Sanchez, Russell Malone, Frank Lacy, Sherman Irby)
Roy Hargrove Quintet
Nicholas Payton
Charles Neville
Kermit Ruffin
Ray Barretto
James Clay
Bobby Bradford
Carmen Bradford
Kenny Garrett Group (Kenny Kirkland, Jeff Watts)
Mark Whitfield
Stefan Harris
Oliver Lake
Run DMC
Independent Concert Producer Credits/Venues:
Pease Park
Waterloo Park
East 11th Street@Waller Street
Congress Avenue (10th@Congress Avenue)
West End Business District (6th Street@Blanco Street)
UT Austin Memorial Student Center Courtyard
Austin Music Hall
State Theater
Ritz Theater
Antones
La Zona Rosa
The ArtPlex
Bombay Room/Clay Pit
Victory Grill
Chester's Lounge
East Side Lounge
Scotty's BBQ
Huston-Tillotson Student Center
Huston-Tillotson King-Seabrook Chapel/Auditorium
UT Austin Memorial Student Center (Cactus Café and the Tavern)
Liberty Lunch
Continental Club
311 Club
Catfish Station
Caucus Club
Hut's
Numerous other Austin Venues no longer in business
Oral Historian/Documentarian:
Over 500 pages of transcribed oral history interviews with selected African American musicians with direct links to pre-integration Black East Austin detailing the music scene and local cultural history; especially the history of the 11th/12 Street Entertainment District
(Most of these interviews are also documented on videotape and/or audiotape)
In excess of 100 hours of documentary performance (video) footage of this core group of African American musicians (jazz, blues, gospel) and others. Most of these performances are also documented on analogue or digital audiotape.
Several hundred black and white (and a few color) archival still images, prints and negatives of this core group of musicians, and others.
At this point, this archive constitutes the single largest collection of documentary materials on this musical community.
Executive Producer/Video and Television
Through documentary efforts of the Clarksville Jazz and Arts Festival, Blues Family Tree Project, and the African American History Month Concert Series, produced in excess of 100 programs/video segments for the Austin Music Network (performances produced during the 1990s).
This work constitutes the largest single body of work for local television of jazz, blues, and gospel programming by a single producer on the Austin Music Network (as of 1999 and probably still so).
This body of work also constitutes the largest single body of work by one producer featuring the most local African American musicians on the Austin Music Network (as of 1999 and probably still so).
