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Delta
Blues Museum
Director's
Note
September
13, 2019
DELTA
BLUES MUSEUM
Clarksdale, Mississippi
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Happy Fall!
We are thrilled
to report that Budget Travel named us the "Best
Museum in Mississippi". Also, we were nominated
in three categories of River Travel's �Best
of the River Road� in River Travel Magazine and
were among the five finalists in all of them: #1 Best
Roadside Attraction; #1 Best Education Center; and
#5 Best Interpretive Center.
The Mississippi
Arts Commission (MAC) is supporting the museum with
a general operating grant of $23,100 for FY2020. Read
the press release here. Their support is vital
to ongoing museum operations. We are grateful for
MAC's ongoing support of the Delta Blues Museum and
the arts in Mississippi. |
Beginning on September
28, there will be a festival or two every weekend in Clarksdale.
Visit our events
page for the festivals and dates. On October 19, during
the Deep Blues Festival, we will be hosting the "Deep Blues
Festival 5k Fun Run" to benefit the Delta Blues Museum.
Registration forms for the run are online.
Please sign up to run, or just to get the t-shirt - either
way you will be supporting the Delta Blues Museum.
Visitors to the Delta Blues Museum this quarter included a tour group from the Association of African American Museums. We are thrilled that they chose to meet in Mississippi and that the Delta Blues Museum was one of the selected destinations.
Since
our last communication, more work has been done on
the new permanent exhibits, generously funded by a
grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Here are a few glimpses, but they don't really do
it justice - come see for yourself!
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of our new exhibits, we are still raising funds to
make these plans a reality. You can help us by purchasing
a blues brick; becoming
a member of the Delta Blues Museum or donating
to our "Deeper
Roots" fund.
The Delta Blues
Foundation is one of the designated charities on the
upcoming Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise October 26th
- November 02, 2019 sailing on Holland America's ms
Eurodam from San Diego, CA to Cabo San Lucas, Puerto
Vallarta & Manzanillo. We are grateful to the Legendary
Rhythm and Blues Cruise staff, Big City Blues Magazine,
and Gimme 5 for this opportunity. During the cruise
there will be opportunities to support the museum
in the silent auction. I will be moderating a panel
discussion with Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, James
"Super Chikan" Johnson, Mr. Sipp and Latimore. |
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Our Arts & Education students have been busy working on a new CD. The recordings have been completed and we are currently working on the artwork and licensing. Stay tuned for the CD release date. This CD is made possible thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Delta Blues Museum Band will be performing live in downtown Marks, MS at the September Song Festival from 1 pm - 2 pm on September 28. If you are in the Delta, come check it out!
So many great
things have been happening during our 40th Anniversary
celebration. We are forever grateful to Sid Graves
and the Carnegie Library Board of Trustees for having
the vision to start the Delta Blues Museum on January
30, 1979. We sincerely appreciate all our supporters
around the globe. We hope that you have been able
to celebrate with us in person or via social media.
You can follow us on Facebook
and Instagram.
Please comment and share our posts.
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DBM Band members and teachers after
a full afternoonof recording for their new CD
"Deep Down in Blues Alley". |
I look forward to seeing you in the gallery, at a festival, and/or on the Legendary Blues Cruise.
Shelley Ritter,
Director
About
the Delta Blues Museum
Established in 1979
by the Carnegie Public Library Board of Trustees and re-organized
as a stand-alone museum in 1999, the Delta Blues Museum
is Mississippi's oldest music museum and the nation's first
museum dedicated to the American art form known as the Blues.
A 2013 recipient of the IMLS National Medal for Museum and
Library Services - the nation's highest honor for museum
and library service to the community - and a 2014 winner
of the National Arts & Humanities Youth Program Award, the
Delta Blues Museum is dedicated to creating a welcoming
place where visitors find meaning, value and perspective
by exploring the history and heritage of the unique American
musical art form, the Blues. The Museum is honored to be
a Great River Road Interpretive Center.
The "Delta Blues Foundation"
is a qualified 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that supports
the work of Delta Blues Museum. All funds solicited through
the Delta Blues Foundation are raised to benefit the Delta
Blues Museum. On-line tax deductible contributions to the
Delta Blues Foundation include the Deeper Roots program
and the General Fund (a monetarily unrestricted contribution
made to the foundation in support of the museum). Memberships
and the Buy a Brick program are funded directly to the Delta
Blues Museum and are not considered tax deductible.
For more
information on events or programs, please call (662) 627-6820,
or visit the Museum web site at www.deltabluesmuseum.org.
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This newsletter is supported
in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission,
a state agency, and,
in part, from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal
agency.
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