(CLARKSDALE, MS) – “As we continue to celebrate our 40th anniversary, I want to thank you for helping the Delta Blues Museum preserve, protect and perpetuate blues history and culture for these four decades,” says DBM Director Shelly Ritter. “It’s amazing how much we have grown from our humble beginnings in the Myrtle Hall Branch of the Carnegie Public Library, to an area in the main library branch and then, during our 20th anniversary, to the former Yazoo Mississippi Delta Freight Depot where we are currently located.
Speaking of expansion, our new exhibit installation is well underway: These permanent exhibits will highlight all aspects of blues history using Clarksdale as a compass. Beginning with the music’s origins in Africa through the “field hollers” and songs sung on Delta plantations, to the first recording of Muddy Waters and the Migration of people and the music, all leading to the future of the Blues with current Clarksdale artists like James “Super Chikan” Johnson, Anthony “Big A” Sherrod, and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, our exhibits will bring all of these stories to life through instruments and music, large-scale graphics, and engaging multimedia.
Our immediate challenge is to fully fund these exhibits so that we might attract and reach an even wider audience to share this important story of America’s music:
Please help the Delta Blues Museum raise $100,000 in matching funds for our National Endowment for the Humanities grant by donating online or sending a gift today.
Your contributions are critical to our future programming and will be used to make these planned exhibits a reality, offer more educational programs in the classroom and online, and upgrade our website so we may share our resources more widely.”
