This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 17, 2012 - The Blues Museum project, which has been moving slowly and largely behind the scenes, is rocketing into a public phase. The change has come about because of a $6 million contribution from Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. and Lumiere Place Casino.
With last week's announcement of the gambling money, backers say that the museum project is firmly positioned to succeed – and open as planned in 2014.
Rob Endicott, chairman of the board of directors for the National Blues Museum, talked about the impressive donation to the Museum’s capital campaign at a coffee shop in Lafayette Square early Thursday morning. As you might expect, he and other members of the Blues Museum effort are excited.
“We’re very elated about Pinnacle being the first one to make a major donation to the National Blues Museum project,” Endicott says. “It was a big shot of confidence for what we’re envisioning with the Museum. It’s also very important because you have to have someone make that first jump into the pool when you’re trying to raise the necessary funds for a project like this.”
Taking Endicott’s metaphor a step further, Pinnacles “jump into the pool” was a full-on cannonball – essentially boosting the funds raised for the Blues Museum to half of the $14 million total estimated to be needed.
Background
In August 2010, a press conference was held across the street from the then-closed Kiel Opera House to announce a new music festival – Bluesweek – scheduled to be held during the last weekend in August.
Bluesweek has become an annual event, and will next play Memorial Day weekend, May 24-26, 2013, around the Soldiers Memorial area.
But the Bluesweek concept has also become the springboard for an effort to bring a National Blues Museum to the old Dillard’s store in the Laurel building at 6th and Washington.
This Blues Museum effort follows an unsuccessful attempt in 2003 to establish a Museum on Laclede’s Landing. The new Blues Museum project has proceeded slowly and methodically, remaining largely under the radar except during Bluesweek events. So it was understandable that some in the blues community as well as music fans in general may have doubted whether a Blues Museum would actually be based here.
So what are the next steps in the funding process? According to Endicott, it’s now time to take the capital campaign to a new level.
“Up to this point, our fundraising efforts have pretty much been behind the scenes,” Endicott says. We recently “set up state of Missouri tax incentives for corporate donors to our capital campaign. But with this donation in place, we’re going to put a focused effort into broad outreach efforts to raise funds. And we’re going to put a public face on those efforts as we move into 2013.”
Despite such an impressive donation to the Museum’s capital campaign, Endicott does not see the timetable accelerating.
“We still have a 2014 target date for opening,” explains Endicott. “We’d love to be able to do it faster, but we also want to make sure we do it right. And we’ve been visiting other museums to help us see what will work for us – and what doesn’t seem to fit.”
Designers lined up
The museum also has an impressive group of consultants in terms of the design of the project, according to Dawne Massey, project director for the Blues Museum.
“We’re fortunate to have two excellent advisers working with us to help tell the broad story of the blues,” Massey says via e-mail. “Bob Santelli is an amazing blues historian and author, and he’s been so generous with his time for this museum. He’s now the executive director of the Grammy Museum in LA. He’s worked at both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland and the Experience Music Project in Seattle, so he knows what it takes to create, open and run a music museum. Plus, he convinced Patrick Gallagher of Gallagher & Associates to help us figure out the initial steps for designing a museum within the space we have. There’s no way we would be this far along without Bob and Patrick.”
In terms of the design of the Blues Museum, both Endicott and Massey stress that the goal is to not only communicate the history and broad influence of the blues – but to do so in a way that’s as interactive and involving as possible.
“Our goal is to make the museum informative and entertaining for Blues aficionados, while also making it accessible for casual music fans who may not know – or even think they like – Blues music,” Massey says. “Our belief is that blues is the foundation for all modern American music, so everything from jazz to hip-hop has roots in the Blues.”
“We want to be able to communicate the historical framework of blues,” Endicott says. “But we want to also make it easy for visitors to plug in and out of that narrative. We want to make it an interactive environment – similar to the Experience Music Project in Seattle, which Bob Santelli was also involved in designing.”
As the Museum’s capital campaign picks up speed, the Bluesweek Festival will also grow and help fuel awareness of the Museum and St. Louis’ place in blues history and tradition. Mike Kociela of Entertainment St. Louis, who was a prime mover in creating the Bluesweek Festival, sees the annual music event and the Blues Museum working hand-in-hand to make St. Louis a centerpiece of blues music and blues history - and make St. Louis a central attraction for blues fans around the world.
“The idea for Bluesweek came to me when I first visited the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 2010,” says Kociela. “And in making Bluesweek happen, we opened up the possibility of making a National Blues Museum a reality here in St. Louis. With the Museum happening and Bluesweek gaining momentum, I think we have the opportunity to make St. Louis a true tourist destination for music fans. And I think this can make a huge impact in rekindling awareness of St. Louis’ music tradition – and rebuilding the music industry here.”
This week’s $6 million donation to the National Blues Museum’s capital campaign is certainly a major step forward. But according to Endicott, much work remains to make the Museum a reality.
“It’s comparable to building the Arch,” says Endicott. “It really isn’t the Arch until the last piece is put into place. But we can now see the finish line – and how the pieces will need to come together to get us there. Up until now, we’ve had a concept of how it all would hopefully work. This donation makes it all real. There’s a whole lot of work in front of us still. But it’s a great feeling to be so much closer to the goal of a National Blues Museum here in St. Louis.”
For more information, go to the National Blues Museum Project and the annual Bluesweek Festival websites.
Terry Perkins is a freelance writer.