The National Museum of African American Music opened in Nashville last month. Billed as “the only museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the many music genres created, influenced, and inspired by African Americans,” the institution is bolstered by corporate support including a million dollar donation from Amazon and gifts totalling $1,650,000 from HCA Healthcare.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony in Music City included performances by country artists Kane Brown and Willie Jones. A feature in The New York Times explains the new museum contains “six interactive sections covering 50 genres of music with a focus on gospel, blues, jazz, R&B and hip-hop.” Meanwhile, The Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame filed for bankruptcy last month.
What impact, if any, will these divergent events have on jazz-based institutions including Kansas City’s American Jazz Museum, The National Jazz Museum in Harlem and The New Orleans Jazz Museum. Are other music museums including Clarksdale’s Delta Blues Museum, Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Detroit’s Motown Museum, Memphis’ Stax Museum and Tulsa’s Woody Guthrie Center at risk?
How will genre-specific entities respond to this changing environment? And is the cultural marketplace oversaturated or will public interest and financial support for the National Museum for African American Music revive enthusiasm in established entities? There are more questions than answers in a moment that may prove to be a decisive inflection point, but it’s certain that adapting to the evolving landscape is essential to the future success of institutions like the American Jazz Museum.