Preservation Hall at 50, an exhibit formerly at the old U.S. Mint. Photo courtesy Music at the Mint.

I’m hopeful again. The Louisiana State Museum (LSM) has 6000-square-foot exhibit planned focusing on New Orleans jazz that will be housed on the riverside second floor of the Old U.S. Mint. The Old Mint was where the old Jazz Museum was located until 2005. Projected opening is early 2017.

The exhibit will cover the entire spectrum of jazz in New Orleans, from its origins to modern times, will contain multi-media exhibits, as well as showcase part of the LSM’s extensive jazz collection, the largest in the U.S. But this permanent exhibit will not happen without a substantial amount of money being raised to support it and to maintain it. There’s the rub.

Plans have been drawn up, exhibit and multi-media specialists have been identified. The only piece left is fundraising (isn’t it always the money?).

Efforts are underway by the Louisiana Museum Foundation (LMF) to raise at least $500,000, dedicated money for the jazz exhibit. Just so you understand how it works, the Louisiana State Museums cannot raise their own money; they administer the museums; they have a non-profit fundraising organization, the LMF. But that foundation is responsible for raising monies for the entire Louisiana State Museum system around the state, which includes the Cabildo, the Presbytere, the Old U.S. Mint, the 1850 House, Madame John’s Legacy (all in New Orleans); the Capitol Park Museum (Baton Rouge); E.D. White Historic Site (Thibodaux); the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame & Northwest Louisiana History Museum (Natchitoches); and the Wedell-Williams Aviation and Cypress Sawmill Museum (Patterson).

To make things even more complicated, there’s another non-profit group, the Friends of the Cabildo, that focuses its effort on the New Orleans museums.

Information on both of these organizations’ boards are listed on their respective websites. What concerns me is that the LMF—because of its mission to support the museums statewide—will not give the jazz exhibit (it’s not a museum at this point, even with the planned exhibit) its due. They were incorporated to support the state’s museums. And total revenue in 2013 was only $820,464, down from the previous year. The Friends of the Cabildo revenues for 2014 were $323,868.

It’s awfully ambitious to expect to get $500,000 for this exhibit, but the LMF has hired a development professional, Jeff Hale, formerly of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, to assist in the effort to raise money specifically for the music exhibit. “The revenue I can raise will be specifically marked for the jazz exhibit,” said Hale, when asked about whether revenues would go into the “general fund” for the LMF, and thus benefit all the other museums in the state.

I’m afraid politics is going to get in the way. But I’m cautiously optimistic about the LMF being able to raise the funding. However, I personally believe that another non-profit is needed just for the jazz exhibit, and ultimately a full-fledged music museum.

The reason I say this is because I’ve taken a look at the boards of both the LMF and the Friends of the Cabildo, and they contain some eminent, arts-supporting board members, but I don’t know how much they are committed to music as part of New Orleans heritage, and how important it is to create not only a jazz exhibit, but a thoroughly comprehensive New Orleans music museum.

It’s good, in a way, that this is planned and could happen at the Old U.S. Mint (not an ideal location, but it definitely could be developed): the LSM owns the collection; they have the bricks and mortar; they have administrative staff. But what they don’t have is the money.

Indeed, perhaps some of the other music-oriented non-profits in this city should allocate some serious monetary support for the jazz exhibit and a music museum and unite in an effort to make this happen, perhaps by the formation of that music museum non-profit. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation’s revenue in 2013 was $32,303,540; WWOZ’s was $4,009,486; French Quarter Festivals $3,547,258. This is a project that they could all cooperate on and solidify their positions as premiere music entitles by supporting a permanent exhibit that celebrates the city’s music, every day of the year, not just during festival periods, or on the radio. There’s money in them thar non-profits that should be invested in a museum. All it can do is to help these organizations achieve and fulfill their mission statements.

The exhibit (hopefully a full-fledged museum, given the support) can be a permanent educational source for locals and visitors, and especially for the children of this city. We need this now.

Should we stop at a jazz exhibit? What else do we need to see (and hear) in a New Orleans music museum?

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