Artifacts being collected for Jamaican Music Museum; museum to open 2011?

Title: Artifacts being gathered for museum of Jamaican music

Source: KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP)/ Jamaica Observer

Date Published: Wednesday, March 10, 2010

URL: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/music-museum_7469448

Abstract:
Article reports on plans to open the new Jamaican music museum in 2011. Yet the date is not official. Information is also given about the proposed scope of collection and some of the artifacts it will collect, preserve and showcase. The political/government agency responsible for the museum is also mentioned.


Excerpt:

Jamaica plans to open a music museum next year that officials say will feature rare pieces from the island's music history, such as the sole album that the late reggae star Bob Marley produced before he gained international fame.

Artifacts will include a cassette tape in which another reggae great, Peter Tosh, jams a blues song with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones....

The museum is requesting donations to help preserve Jamaica's vibrant music history. The island's music preservation took a major hit two years ago when officials discovered that a massive collection of 1970s music, including original recordings by Marley and Tosh, disappeared from the archives of the former Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC).

Jamaican Music Museum gets new collection; permanent home still forthcoming

Author: BASIL WALTERS Observer staff reporter
Title: Jamaica Journal — first edition on Jamaican music launched
Source: Jamaica Observer
Date published: Sunday, March 07, 2010
URL: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/JAMAICA-JOURNAL

Abstract:
The article reports on the launch of a special Jamaica Journal issued on the subject of Jamaican Music. At this event, the Minister of of Youth, Sports and Culture Olivia Babsy Grange highlights plans to establish a permanent home for the the museum of Jamaican Music, as well as a digitisation project aimed at digitising the music collection.

The article also reports on the handing over ceremony of a collection belonging to Dermott Hussey, a broadcaster, music historian and collector of Jamaican music for over 50 years, to the museum. Hussey's rationale behind donating the collection to the museum is also reported.

Excerpt:

Stressing that downtown Kingston is the future cultural mecca of Jamaica, Minister Grange announced that a permanent home for the museum of Jamaican music will soon be established there, if everything goes according to plan. She also stated that her ministry has recently received equipment to digitise the entire collection of the music. The minister with responsibility for entertainment said she is determined to have a joint relationship with all the cultural entities that have collections of the music. These include the JBC (Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation) archives, the National Library, the JCDC.

She congratulated Dermott Hussey on making his important collection available to the Music Museum. "This collection of records, films, and documents will be an invaluable part of the museum which is still in its embryonic stages," she declared.

Jamaica Music Museum Update: Controversial but contemporary collection

Author: Mel Cooke
Title: Non-exclusionary approach taken to museum, Dermott Hussey donates entire collection
Date Published: Sunday | January 17, 2010

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100117/ent/ent7.html


Abstract:

The article reports on some of the comments made by the curator, and Jamaica Music Museum director, Herbie Miller during a tour of the Jamaica Music Museum exhibition. Miller shares in this article's report the mission of the museum and how controversial some of its collections and items are. The article reports on some of the items that were donated to the music museum and its donors. It also documents some of the comments and reactions made by visitors to the museum.


Excerpt:

The last and latest Jamaican music genre in the mini-exhibition on Jamaican music is dancehall. It is written that "perhaps the most controversial and polarising genre of Jamaican music, dancehall, currently dominates the island's musical landscape".

While walking through with The Sunday Gleaner, Jamaica Music Museum director Herbie Miller said, "that's why a museum is so important. We are not just looking at the past. We are looking at the present and the future." At this dancehall stop, he points out to The Sunday Gleaner that many people did not like ska, which is now considered classic. Similarly, many people did not like reggae, which is now called the golden age of Jamaican music.

"Our duty as a museum is to collect it all, whether we like it or not. Let future scholars look at it and figure out what it means. Who knows? The world may develop in a way that what is seen as negative now will be seen as positive," Miller said, singing a few lines from Cole Porter's Anything Goes.

Jamaica Music Museum update

Author: Mel Cooke
Title:Jamaica Music Museum - a sample of what can be
Date Published: Sunday, January 17, 2010
Source: Jamaica Gleaner
URL: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100117/ent/ent1.html

Abstract
Article reports on the state of the Jamaica Music Museum. Its mission is described. According to its main curator, the museum will contain sections that will chronicle the technological changes in instrument construction and music production and the changes in Jamaican music genres (thereby containing information on Jamaica's social history, technology and specifically about music history.


Excerpt

Herbie Miller stands near the middle of Jamaica's musical chronology in words, images and artefacts along the side of a partition at the Institute of Jamaica, downtown Kingston, and said "I like to call this our 22 yards of Jamaican music history."

That distance is, of course, the length of a cricket pitch, and the sport has its own rhythm. But the director of the Jamaica Music Museum is referring to another kind of rhythm, the music that is woven into the tapestry of Jamaican life.

Institute of Jamaica issues open invitation

Title: Come on over! Institute of Jamaica issues open invitation
Source: Jamaica Gleaner
Date Published: Sunday | July 12, 2009
URL: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090712/arts/arts1.html

Abstract:

The various summer attractions that the Institute of Jamaica has to offer visitors to see and experience are outlined. Some of the museums operated by the Institute are also mentioned in this article.

The article also contains comments by Vivian Crawford, Executive Director of the Institute of Jamaica, about the major clientele visiting the Institute, which comprised of school groups. However, the Director states his desire for the Institute to reach out to families.