SAVANNA – Most musicians will tell you that in order to write a song, you need a muse.

But in order to perform one, you need a museum — at least you do if you’re part of the lineup at the Savanna Museum and Cultural Center’s concert series, where the emphasis is on the cultural part of the museum’s moniker. That’s when history waits in the wings while music takes center stage at the museum in the city’s downtown.

Live Music at the Cultural Center, now in its fifth year, has become one of Savanna’s most anticipated cultural traditions. On the final Friday of each month, from January through October, the museum’s Community Room is filled with people and music in a candlelit, nightclub-style space.

Each evening offers a 90-minute performance featuring a mix of local favorites and accomplished Chicago-area musicians. Chicago cultural icon and Poetry Slam founder Marc Kelly Smith hosts the night, often sharing his own poetry and inviting audience members to read during intermission.

Museum events coordinator Juliene McCormick said the heart of the program lies as much in the atmosphere it creates as in the music itself.

“The joy comes not just from the excellent musicians’ performances, but also from watching the community come together in mutual enjoyment and appreciation,” McCormick said. “[I enjoy] working alongside dedicated volunteers and the concert series’ incomparable host … Marc Kelly Smith.”

The series is rooted in a sense of togetherness in sound and spirit, with a variety of various genres performed. The goal for each performance, Smith said, has always been to bring something different to Savanna. Rock and blues have made plenty of appearances over the years, but Smith said the series is intentionally broad in blending musical genres with spoken word. Smith’s poetry is sometimes woven directly into some songs as spoken interludes between verses.

This year’s series opened Jan. 30 with Mount Carroll musician Marques Morel sharing locally inspired tales through song, and the Feb. 27 concert featured Switchback — the duo of Brian Fitzgerald and Marty McCormack — performing its Celtic-American blend of songs. March’s performance will have Swanny Connection on the 27th, and Naomi Ashley will take the stage April 24.

While the line-ups may change, the emphasis on variety remains consistent year to year. Switchback also performed during last year’s series; other musicians from last year included Barb Bailey, The Avanti Trio guitar trio; an Andy Williams tribute; musician/historian Barry Cloyd; Ann Stewart and the Banjo Buddies Dixieland Trio; guitarist/singer Joe Solitz; singer/songwriter Sophie Coyote; and jazz duo Anne Burnell and Sami Scot.

Performers are announced about a month in advance on the Savanna Museum and Cultural Center’s Facebook page.

“The intention is to bring different kinds of entertainment here,” Smith said. “We’ve had classical, we’ve had a Mexican dance troupe. It’s an effort to bring out here access to a lot of different musical styles that we don’t normally get out here, and that maybe you’d have to go to Dubuque or the Quad Cities.”

Beyond the performances themselves, the evenings are designed to feel intimate and inviting. With the lights dimmed and the soft glow of candlelight providing a relaxed ambiance, guests can sip wine, enjoy coffee and baked treats, and enter door prize drawings.

They can also be part of the show. During intermission, audience members are invited to participate in a fill-in-the-blank poetry game, a recurring feature that’s become a favorite among the regulars.

Smith likes how these opportunities can add to the event’s mission.

“It gives people the opportunity to be creative,” Smith said. “There are usually around five to eight people who do it. What happens with that is, all of a sudden you have a different glimpse of your neighbors that you’ve known, but they’ve now opened up a little more. You get a little peek into their lives and what they’re doing, their sense of humor and what they’re passionate about.”

Smith brings that philosophy of creative wordsmithing to Savanna with a deep personal connection to the movement he helped create. Originally from the southeast side of Chicago, and having worked in construction, Smith has lived in Savanna for the past few years and has carried with him the legacy of Poetry Slam – a performance art form he began in 1986 at The Green Mill in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, where the original show is still held once a month.

Poetry Slam is a form of performance poetry in which poets recite original work with emphasis on both writing and delivery. The style blends the art of writing with live performance, encouraging interaction and energy between performers and audiences. What started as a local experiment in spoken word grew far beyond Chicago. With roots in live performance and audience participation, Poetry Slams spread across the United States and eventually around the world. Today, Smith said, roughly 2,000 cities globally host shows modeled after the original Green Mill format.

“Poetry readings up until then were very boring,” Smith said. “They were academic exercises, kind of snooty and kind of exclusive. Being an ex-construction worker, I didn’t quite understand why this passionate art form was presented in such a pretentious, passionless way. They weren’t performing, and it was just monotone.”

Through his presence in Chicago’s performance arts scene, Smith made connections with many musicians and artists, which came in handy when he moved to Savanna. Aspiring to enhance a culture of arts in his new community, Smith saw the Museum and Cultural Center as an outlet to bring more culture to the area.

The arts should have a more prominent place in Savanna and Carroll County, Smith thought, so he utilized his professional connections to help the museum bring unique musical visitors to the monthly event. He also had help from community members he got to know through the Bridges of Carroll County community gathering place in downtown Savanna.

“I got involved with people who were connected with the museum, and the Bridges community center,” Smith said. “I looked at this beautiful room that really wasn’t being used much, and I suggested to them that I have a lot of friends in the music and show business in Chicago, and I leaned on them to have them help with starting a series here. They owed me some favors, and they came out to get the concerts going.”

With its mix of musical styles, spoken word and audience involvement, the series creates a welcoming atmosphere that keeps people coming back, events committee member Penny Brown said, and helps the event resonate beyond Savanna’s borders, drawing both longtime locals and first-time visitors.

“I like the variety and the talent, and the camaraderie of all of the people in the community who come together to enjoy it,” Brown said. “It’s a good time. It’s a wonderful thing that we have going on here, thanks to Marc for starting it up, and it’s a great thing for our communities. It’s wonderful that we have this in our small town. We have people from outside Savanna come to these events.”

Opened in 2011 inside a restored mid-1800s building, the Savanna Museum and Cultural Center has three floors of permanent and rotating displays of exhibits on the city and its history, as well as artifacts from Savanna’s prominent residents. Highlights include the Civil War Soldier Gallery and Hometown Heroes Exhibit. Collections of instruments and other music materials from “America’s Waltz King,” Savanna-born Wayne King, are displayed, as well as exhibits about local World War I Red Cross nurse Helen Scott Hay. Savanna’s railroad history with the Milwaukee Road and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy is here, too, displayed through a 1,000-square-foot HO-scale model railroad track.

The Community Room also hosts other programs and events, including the family-friendly Scavenger Hunt evenings, the Creativity on the Move artisan and crafter showcase in April, and the Festival of Trees during the holiday season from the day after Thanksgiving through mid-December.

McCormick attributes much of the museum’s successes to the dedication of the people who make it all possible.

“What makes the Savanna Museum and Cultural Center special isn’t just the amazing events and exhibits, it’s the dedicated volunteers, financial supporters, and our historical society that make them possible,” McCormick said. “Every gathering turns 406 Main into a place where community comes together and connections grow.”

For Smith, the music series reflects the same belief he had when he launched Poetry Slam decades ago: a belief that art works best when it brings people together in real time.

“It’s wonderful to see people come alive creatively,” Smith said. “The events committee is a real good, tight committee that works together to do something for their community, and they give back. For me, connecting with the local musicians has been a joy.”

Smith said sustaining that sense of connection is what ensures the series continues to grow and thrive.

“Once you get something like this going out here, it’s important to keep it going,” he said.

Concerts for the Savanna Cultural Center and Museum’s Live Music series begin at 7:30 p.m. on the final Friday of the month from January to October at the museum, 406 Main Street. A $10 suggested donation for concertgoers helps keep the series going. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday May through October. Find it on Facebook, go to savannamuseum.org or call 815-275-1958 for more information about the music series or the museum.