Page 54 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2016

King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, which opened its group of civic leaders, county leaders and even people at the
doors in 2008 in Indianola, MS. state level that wanted to do this,” Walker said. “The Los Angeles
“If there is any one person who really helped get this vision to museum was very interested in having a museum on or near a
reality – a lot of people raised a lot of money, but in terms of the college campus, particularly one that has a recording program,
vision – I would point to Allan,” Walker said. “He is tremendously and would let the state foot the bill.”
creative.” Funding for the $20 million museum was split almost equally
Walker and Hammons started the non-profit Cleveland from three sources: the state of Mississippi, Bolivar County and
Music Foundation in 2011. Soon thereafter, they contacted the the city of Cleveland, and $8 million from private donations.
Recording Academy, also known as the National Academy of “It makes sense to have it here because the Mississippi Delta
Recording Arts & Sciences, the major music industry organization is considered the birthplace of American music, and, of course,
perhaps best known for its GRAMMY Awards. the Delta blues being the genesis of so many great forms of
“The GRAMMY people were impressed that there was a American music,” Walker said. “Mississippi’s Elvis Presley is the
king of rock and roll, Jimmie Rodgers is the king of country music
and the king of the blues, of course, is B.B. King.”
The executive director of the GRAMMY Museum in Los
Angeles, Bob Santelli, agreed. “You take the state of Mississippi
out of American music history and you have a very large gap
to fill,” Santelli told the Associated Press, which also reported
the museum could generate around $20 million a year in tourist
revenue to the region.
Dedicated to “celebrat[ing] the enduring legacies of all forms
of music; the creative process; the art and technology of the
recording process; and the history of the Grammy Awards,” as
stated on its website, the GRAMMY Museum encourages visitors
Miss Mississippi and youth learn iconic dances in the interactive History of Dance to “explore the past, present and future of music, and the cultural
exhibit Photo courtesy GRAMMY Museum Mississippi, Photographer Rory Doyle context from which it emerges.”
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52 Blues Festival Guide 2016