Last Monday on MLK Day, there was a virtual ribbon-cutting that originated in Nashville. It called attention to Music City’s newest museum – the long-awaited National Museum of African American Music.
The event included dignitaries whose decisions over years have enabled this new institution – the donors in the private sector, the leaders in state and local governments – as well as (of course) some fine music to mark the occasion.
Just as that ceremony came off in spite of all the necessary COVID-19 restrictions, so too has this museum project overcome the many challenges along the way – financial, thematic, organizational – that characterize nearly all ambitious civic projects that are worth doing.
This moment was also a milestone. Watching on-screen as the ceremony unfolded on Monday, I was reminded of other projects and what is essential to making great things happen in a modern city.
Fundamentally they are three:
1. A sufficiently Big Idea, capable of stirring the imaginations of citizens and government officials.
2. A Key Leader (or leaders) who can carry the idea forward and draw others to it.
3. Good Organization to keep the project on track to completion, undergirding the forward program and lifting the potential for private-sector support.
Those conditions make for a sturdy a three-legged stool, and we have seen this theory prove true many times in Nashville. It was true for the founding of the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in the 1970s and 80s, of the Bridgestone Arena in the 90s, and the Frist Art Museum, the Schermerhorn, and the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum that opened in the spring of 2001.
We could also cite other proposals that have failed to materialize because they did not meet this test, lacking one or more legs of our three-legged stool: Either the basic idea wasn’t big enough, or the leadership was lacking, or the organization was inadequate to the task.
Generally, with any important project, it‘s as important simply to have the long view and much patience. Great things take time – in order to perfect the creative idea, to organize around the vision, or to explain it to others who might contribute dollar support to the cause.
Planning for the African-American music museum began nineteen years ago. And many details have evolved since 2002 from the early concept planning, the location, the facility design, and exhibit programming. An early strategic turn - probably the most important shift of all - was to re-focus the mission from a local black history museum (of which there are several across the U.S.) to the much broader cultural focus on the roots and scope of African-American music.
That was the pivotal moment. This was when the project took on fresh purpose and new life with vast possibilities: A broader storyline, more national in scope, and with greater potential for diversifying Nashville’s calling card for music tourism.
One way that re-focusing came about was through an early series of three citywide brainstorming events in 2004. These were held at Stratford High School, Tennessee State University, and Vanderbilt University, with big turnouts and robust discussions among Nashvillians. More names were mentioned of composers and musicians who ought to be honored, and how.
A year later that enthusiasm from the grassroots factored in persuasively with Mayor Bill Purcell’s commitment – and subsequently confirmed by Metro Council – to support the project financially. That decision established official credibility for the proposed museum, which was helpful to enlisting private-sector contributions.
Pivotal choices in more recent years have helped to make the new museum economically feasible. One of these was to move the project site to 550 Broadway adjacent to the city’s hottest tourist zone with its heavy volume of entertainment foot traffic.
There have been true heroes in the process. In addition to Mayor Purcell, we should be grateful for these:
Dr. T.B. Boyd III, the founder and first chairman of the NMAAM project
Francis S. Guess, my dear friend and early visionary who ultimately connected many civic leaders with NMAAM goal.
Governor Phil Bredesen who made the original site possible, on the prominent southeast corner of Jefferson Street and Rosa Parks Blvd. More recently the location shifted to 550 Broadway.
Kevin Lavender, the banker and steadfast volunteer board leader.
Henry Hicks, the current CEO of the project.
Ben Rechter, the philanthropist and former Chamber of Commerce board chair who embraced this cause and gave it a new dimension of civic support.
Lucius Outlaw, the Vanderbilt academic who spearheaded the planners’ understanding of what a national music museum could and should be.
Heroes all.
© Keel Hunt, 2021
