Curating Music in Museums and Special Collections

Presented in Partnership with the New Orleans Jazz Museum and the Tennessee State MuseumThis panel will discuss what music museums and archives do and who we are. It will detail how we preserve and promote ideas and histories of music and musicians. The curators here will also talk about how they chose what to exhibit, what to collect, and how to present this. The challenges and benefits of this work will also be talked about.

Moderator:

David Kunian serves as the Curator for the New Orleans Jazz Museum and the Music Curator of the Louisiana State Museum where he has curated exhibits on Louis Armstrong, Early Jazz in New Orleans, women in New Orleans music, a history of New Orleans drumming and drummers, painters Emilie Rhys and Noel Rockmore, Louis Prima, Professor Longhair, Pete Fountain, 300 years of New Orleans music, James Michalopoulos’ music paintings, painter Frederick Brown, King Oliver, and Erika Goldring’s photos of the Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Indians. He is the archivist of the 70,000 piece music collection. Kunian's writing has appeared in the Oxford American, Downbeat, Offbeat, Gambit Weekly, and Beat Street. He had completed a dozen radio documentaries on various New Orleans musical characters and institutions such as James Booker, Earl King, Lee Dorsey, the Dew Drop Inn, and Jonathan Freilich. Mr. Kunian completed his Masters in Musicology at Tulane University.

SPEAKERS:

John Troutman is Curator of Music and Musical Instruments at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. He is the lead curator of the museum’s permanent exhibition, Entertainment Nation, and co-curator of Treasures and Trouble: Looking Inside a Legendary Blues Archive. His books include Kīkā Kila: How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed the Sound of Modern Music and Indian Blues: American Indians and the Politics of Music, 1879-1934. His edited edition of Robert “Mack” McCormickʻs Biography of a Phantom: a Robert Johnson Blues Odyssey, received an end-of-year New York Times’ Critics Pick of 2023, made the Kirkus Reviews’ list for “Best Biographies of 2023,” and was the winner of Living Blues Magazine’s Critics Poll for Best Blues Book of 2023. He co-produced Smithsonian Folkways 6-LP boxset, Playing for the Man at the Door, for which he received two Grammy nominations in 2024 for “Best Historical Album” and “Best Album Notes.”

Brenda Colladay is a public historian with over twenty-five years of experience researching, building, and caring for collections; curating and directing the development of museum exhibits; and supervising preservation projects. Institutions and properties she has worked with include the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, Marty Stuart’s Congress of Country Music, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and Nashville’s historic RCA studios. She also served as an advisor for Ken Burns’s "Country Music" documentary series.

Richard White is the Chief Curator. Richard is a native of Nashville and attended Hillwood Comprehensive High School. He holds a B.A. in History from Belmont University and a master’s degree in History from Middle Tennessee State University. Richard serves on the executive board of the Nashville City Cemetery Association. He is a contributing author and series editor for Civil War Flags of Tennessee, a cooperative publication from the Tennessee State Museum and the University of Tennessee Press. He is a contributing writer and editor for the Tennessee Historical Quarterly and is a 2022 graduate of the Tennessee Government Professionals Institute. Richard has more than eight years of experience with the Tennessee State Museum, beginning in the Education Department before advancing to the Collections Department.

Melissa Weber is curator of the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, a unit of Tulane University Special Collections. Founded in 1958 as the Archive of New Orleans Jazz, the Hogan Archive supports research of the music and culture of New Orleans and its surrounding region from the 19th and 20th centuries forward. In her role, Weber oversees responsible stewardship, accessibility, and discoverability of Hogan Archive collections and primary source materials. A native New Orleanian, Weber has presented papers or participated on panels at conferences for the American Musicological Society, International Association for the Study of Popular Music, National Council for Black Studies, National Council of African American Librarians, Radio Preservation Task Force of the Library of Congress, Society of American Archivists, and the Society for Ethnomusicology, among others.

Dr. Bryan Pierce is the current Chief Curator of the National Museum of African American Music. He previously held the position of Digital Archivist at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas. In both his academic work and as a museum professional, Pierce has specialized in subterranean African American aesthetics in music and decorative arts. He pursued a PhD from Arkansas State University and throughout his time at ASU, Pierce worked at the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum. He was also on the exhibition development team for the Boyhood Home of Johnny Cash. After completing the doctoral program, Pierce accepted an Assistant Registrar/ Curator position with the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

This Lunch and Learn event is in-person in the Museum’s Digital Learning Center at 12:00. No RSVPs are required to attend this free event. After the program, visitors are invited to explore the museum exhibt located on the second floor. It will also be livestreamed on the Museum’s website at TNMuseum.org/Videos. If you have any questions please email [email protected].

Boxed lunches made by Apple Spice Nashville are available for purchase for $12.24 to enjoy during the event. The lunches will include a sandwich, chips, and a cookie. Lunch orders must be placed by noon on Wedensday September 18th, 2024. Please order your boxed lunch on the ticket registration page.

Host or Publisher Tennessee State Museum