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Today in Mississippi
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February 2016
New
Grammy Museum
sings praises of America’s music greats B.B. King
By Debbie Stringer What do the Grammy Awards have to do with Mississippi? Plenty. Nearly 8 percent of Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners have Mississippi roots, according to Emily Havens, of Cleveland. Havens is executive director of the new Grammy Museum Mississippi, set to open March 5 on the campus of Delta State University in Cleveland. The 27,000-squarefoot museum, served by Delta Electric Power Association, comEmily Havens bines interactive activities, exhibits, films, special events and live performances that celebrate the many forms of American popular music—and emphasize Mississippi’s role in its development. Through interactive exhibits, visitors will be able to find information on every Grammy winner and watch performance highlights throughout the Grammys’ 58year history. The Grammy Museum L.A. is helping the Cleveland foundation collect and curate artifacts from recording artists to develop its exhibits. Artifacts ranging from Bob Dylan’s electric guitar to one of Beyoncé’s Grammy gowns and a report card from Elvis will be displayed. Exhibits will be updated continously to keep the museum relevant, Havens said. The first of many special museum events will be Art of the Craft: Songwriting with Grammy-winning songwriters, set for March 3 as part of the grand opening weekend. The traveling exhibit “Ladies and Gentlemen ... The Beatles” opens March 5 at the museum. Visitors will see instruments, rare photographs, video and tour arti-
facts associated with Beatlemania in America from their first press conference in 1964 to their 1966 concert at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. The Grammy Museum Mississippi and Delta State will present Beatles Symposium 2016: From the Cavern to the Candlestick April 1-2. The event centers on discussions with notable Beatles historians, live music and film screenings.
The $19 million museum is being touted as the most technologically advanced music museum in the world. About half the exhibits involve interactive activities: Visitors can write and produce their own song, learn historic dance moves, explore advancements in sound and play real instruments under stage lights. “Kids and adults can play their hearts out but only they can hear themselves. They all wear headphones,” Havens said. “It’s a great experience for kids who’ve been told, don’t touch that piano. Hopefully, this will be a catalyst for that kid who wants instrument lessons or wants to try something new.” The nonprofit Cleveland Music Foundation was formed in 2011 to raise funds for and oversee the museum’s development. The foundation acquired licensing agreements with the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles and The Recording Academy to build the only Grammy museum outside of California. Mississippi seemed the logical choice for a new Grammy museum location, Havens said. “Mississippi had more Grammy winners than the next five states combined when we started this project. So it really was a no-brainer. A lot of music historians credit Mississippi for being the birthplace of American music.” When foundation members pitched their museum
David “Honeyboy” Edwards
proposal to The Recording Academy, “they said yes, we get it,” Havens said. The museum’s educational potential in partnering with Delta State’s Delta Music Institute was another strong selling point. Delta State University is an educational affiliate of the Grammy Museum L.A. Local support for the project proved to be solid. “Almost half the money we raised is private, and out of those private donations, about 75 percent was raised here in Bolivar County, which is impressive to me,” Havens said. Additional funding included contributions from state legislators, the city of Cleveland and Bolivar County supervisors.
The Grammy Museum Mississippi will entertain and excite visitors of all ages, but its primary goal is music education. “We’re expecting to serve 20,000 to 24,000 school students the first year,” Havens said. The museum will expose students to all genres of America music and various aspects of the music industry, from studio production to stage lighting. Internships will be offered under partnership with Delta State and its Delta Music Institute, and an early learners program will teach youngsters about musical instruments. Music education programs will target to students of all ages and provide professional development opportunities for educators. A classroom equipped with two Smart Boards (interactive whiteboards) is available for their use. Underscoring its educational priority, the museum’s first visitors will be students chosen through a competi-