📣 Why this Orlandoan champions Central Florida Community Arts

Plus, a new round of trivia for our Pulptown+ members.

By Katie Johnston

Hey, hi, hello there. 

Welcome back to a new week of Pulptown and another Tuesday of meeting each other in your inbox. 😉 

In the spirit of newsletters past, we’re bringing back our “Locals to Know” series. It’s when we cede the spotlight to a local person or organization who’s made their mark on the larger Central Florida community. Keep an eye out over the weeks to come for more of these interviews, and if you know of someone or some org that we ought to feature, don’t hesitate to send them our way. 

Today we’re talking to Justin Muchoney, the Vice President of Creative and Production at Central Florida Community Arts, a local org on a mission to make the arts affordable and accessible, one Central Floridian at a time. 

Real talk: You’re in for a real treat today. Sitting down with Justin felt as familiar as sipping on a Mojo Jojo on the corner couch at Drunken Monkey, with the faint familiarity of Death Cab for Cutie playing in the background. He makes you feel almost as if you’ve been friends your whole life. What a gift, right? And his passion for CFCArts is electric — as if you’re hearing about it all for the first time. For many of us, that might be the case. But after today, you'll have no excuses.

Without further ado, here’s more about Justin and what he’s doing over at CFCArts…

📣 Locals to Know: Justin Muchoney of Central Florida Community Arts

Name: Justin Muchoney

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Social Media: @cfcarts

Website: Central Florida Community Arts

Justin is a native to Pittsburgh, PA, but like many Orlandoans, moved here for a career at Disney. He’s been a part of the CFCArts family since the very beginning, conducting and leading the Symphony Orchestra for 10 years now. He met CFCArts’ founder while working at the theme park and welcomed the thought of connecting with musicians and artists, building something from the ground up, and collaborating with passionate people who were also eager to find a place to connect.

Get to know Justin: What led you to your current line of work?

Even prior to moving to Orlando, my background is in music, education, directing, conducting, producing, non-profit work, leadership consulting and a variety of other eclectic ways to create, collaborate, and be inspired by the people around me. The combination of all those curious interests, along with the remarkable network of kind and creative people in our community, has led to some great opportunities. I just keep saying yes and walking through the next open door to see where it leads. 

What’s one thing you want the community to understand/know about CFCArts?

That yes, we are a performing arts organization, but first and foremost we are a community.  Everyone is welcome, everyone can perform and contribute and belong. We want to provide a place to feel welcome and included, to make friends and build deeper connections in our community, to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, and to feel a sense of pride in who we are and where we live. We build community and serve our members, the arts just happen to be the tool we use.

What’s coming up at CFCArts this year?

We are rapidly growing our impact in the arts and health space by expanding programs for seniors, for adults with early stages of Alzheimer's, for young adults with downs syndrome, in music therapy, and so many other places. And we are producing concerts and performances throughout this season — a stellar Big Band concert, our choir singing some of the greatest music from Broadway, our 170-member symphony orchestra performing music from some of your favorite movies, our youth theatre company tackling Charlotte’s Web, Willy Wonka, and Aida, and so much more. But the best part of it all is our people — so the most important thing coming up is that our season is just getting started and it’s a GREAT time to get involved!

How can Orlandoans best support CFCA? Volunteer opps? Attend events?

First, join us!  No matter your background or experience, if you want to sing or act or play an instrument or stage-manage or learn to build sets or just about anything else, we can probably find a way to help you get connected. And of course, we’d love to see the city come out to our events and concerts — not just because they are great, but because they are performed by great people. 

🎯 Wanna play a game?

Things to do

Submit your events to our calendar.

Today

🍿See "The Tragedy of Macbeth" in its final week at the Enzian thru Thursday, Jan. 20 (Maitland)

Tomorrow

🍿Get cozy and settle in for a night of Orlando Fringe Mini Digi-Fest thru Jan. 23 (Online)

🌱 Vegan this, vegan that — shop local vegan vendors at this weekly pop-up market outside The Veranda (Thornton Park)

Saturday

🍻 Celebrate Ellipsis Brewing's 4-year anniversary (Orlando)

🍺 Grab a fanny pack and your crimping iron, because the annual 90s Pub Crawl is going down this weekend (Downtown)

One more thing…

Alright, that’ll do it. Let’s plan to meet back here tomorrow for the regularly scheduled programming of your top headlines and then some, shall we? 

And if you haven’t listened to this week’s episode of 15 Minutes in Pulptown, what’re you waiting on? Former Night Mayor Dominique Greco and I talked about the new orchestra led by AdventHealth doctors and nurses, Universal Orlando’s Mardi Gras lineup, the I-4 Eyesore’s 21st birthday, Winter Mini Fringe Fest, Orlando Beer Week, the new Orlando Hospitality Alliance, and so much more. 

‘Til tomorrow,

– ✌️ Katie at Pulptown

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