The Louisiana Music & Heritage Experience
New Orleans music advocates and those who brought us the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame have huge plans for a museum in New Orleans
Jazz, sometimes referred to as “America’s classical music,” was born right in New Orleans. Blues, by most accounts, sprung up nearby—and from it sprouted Baton Rouge’s particular brand of “swamp blues”. Further Southwest, Louisiana French music, zydeco, and swamp pop emerged; all indigenous to Louisiana, too. Even Shreveport has a too-often neglected strain of country, gospel, and big band music history. Louisiana’s cultural capital is largely derived from the wide breadth of music born from its swamps, prairies, and city centers. So, why don’t we have a museum dedicated to the many stories of Louisiana’s music?
It’s a question that New Orleans entrepreneur and social activist Chris Beary has wondered about for a long time. Now, he’s doing something about it, with plans barreling ahead to launch The Louisiana Music & Heritage Experience—a comprehensive, modern museum where exhibitions and programming will aim to tell the stories of the state’s music, educating visitors and championing the many musical legacies born in the Bayou State.
“There are close to fifty music museums in America now, and the most conspicuous place that does not have one is New Orleans,” said curator of The Louisiana Music & Heritage Experience Bob Santelli. “And if you consider the state of Louisiana being one of the most musically diverse and musically important states in the union, along with Mississippi, it's hard to believe that there isn't a major museum that ties in all the music forms, that tells the very comprehensive story that involves religion, and food, and language, etc., into this great music story.”
In true New Orleans fashion, the idea for the Experience came to Beary as a result of his Mardi Gras sub-krewe, the Funky Tucks. During the Krewe of Tucks Parade, the Funky Tucks rolls The Funky Uncle Lounge, a rolling soundstage with studio-quality live music, performed from a parade float. When the COVID pandemic shut down New Orleans’s live music scene in March of 2020, Beary and the Funky Tucks pivoted their parade concept to produce live music streams, where local artists would perform hour-long music sets, followed by twenty-minute interviews.
“There are close to fifty music museums in America now, and the most conspicuous place that does not have one is New Orleans. And if you consider the state of Louisiana being one of the most musically diverse and musically important states in the union, along with Mississippi, it's hard to believe that there isn't a major museum that ties in all the music forms, that tells the very comprehensive story that involves religion, and food, and language, etc., into this great music story.” —LMHE Curator Bob Santelli
The primary goal was to raise money to pay musicians while gig work was scarce. And over the course of 113 shows, The Funky Uncle raised nearly a million dollars, helping over 900 musicians pay their bills and buy groceries in the process. But something else unexpected happened: while listening to the interviews, Beary realized that most local musicians have incredible stories that seldom make it to their audiences. He was inspired to harness those stories, and help share them with the world.
“It really gave me a sense of the depth of commitment that a lot of musicians have to their history,” said Beary, who is now serving as the Louisiana Music & Heritage Experience developer and board director. “That's when the light went off. I was like, ‘Wow, we have a treasure here that we need to take, and we need to really put this treasure somewhere in a way that preserves it so that we can inspire the future.' That's kind of how the seed germinated. And I started talking to anybody who would listen.”
Consequently, the Board of Directors reflects an impressive list of Louisiana musicians and music advocates, including Irma Thomas, Adonis Rose, and Sean Ardoin. Among those to whom Beary evangelized was Reid Wick, the Recording Academy’s New Orleans-based Membership & Industry Relations representative, who is now a developer of the project as well as board vice chair. Reid connected Beary with Terry Stewart, the former president and CEO of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, who excitedly joined the project as CEO of the Louisiana Music & Heritage Experience.
"I was like, ‘Wow, we have a treasure here that we need to take, and we need to really put this treasure somewhere in a way that preserves it so that we can inspire the future. That's kind of how the seed germinated. And I started talking to anybody who would listen.” —LMHE Developer and Board Director Chris Beary
“This is not just a historical entity, and something that preserves this music—it is a huge economic driver for the city and for the state,” Stewart said, pointing out that the tourism hub of New Orleans made perfect sense not only to maximize the economic impact of the project, which will operate as a 501c3 nonprofit and educational institution, but the cultural impact, too. “It's just so legitimate to have it right here in this town, which is, again, the place that musically changed the world, with Congo Square and everything else. So there are both economic and cultural and historic and artistic reasons why it should be here.”
Another major player in the project is curator Bob Santelli, who in addition to authoring over a dozen books about American music, was one of the founding curators of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. He is also the founder of the Grammy Museums in Mississippi, Los Angeles, and New Jersey. Santelli’s extensive background studying music and curating experiences around it makes him highly qualified for the job, but he admits that weaving all of Louisiana’s complex music history into a narrative is a task of monumental proportions.
“This is, without a doubt, the most complicated, most challenging museum to put together. I've done nine of these in my career, and not one comes close to the complexity and challenges that this brings,” Santelli said. “Not only are there so many different music forms, that weave in and out of each other, but more than any other place in America, you’ve got to tell the story of food, you have to tell the story of religion, you have to tell a story of geography and the Mississippi River, you must tell the story of the difference between urban and rural, you need to tell the story of language.”
“This is not just a historical entity, and something that preserves this music—it is a huge economic driver for the city and for the state,” —LMHE CEO and former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame CEO Terry Stewart
Since educational initiatives and resources are such an important part of the Experience, Beary has also brought on Jan Jorgensen as project manager and education specialist. Besides multiple decades of teaching experience, Jorgensen contributed to developing the educational components of multiple Grammy Museums. Acting as the “educational liaison” between the Experience and Louisiana schools and universities, she plans to create a state-wide Teacher Advisory Board to help guide The Louisiana Music and Heritage Experience’s educational efforts.
Besides the displays in the museum itself, plans include extensive digital exhibitions and online educational components, making the resources more accessible to those outside New Orleans.
“We want the state legislators, civic leaders, teachers, parents, pastors to understand that we're educationally driven, that this is not a something that is simply a celebration of music, it is an opportunity to show how music, which is our greatest national resource, it is the creator of our national identity more than anything else in culture. [We want them to understand] how this can impact you, and how this can be brought into your community to better serve it,” Santelli said. “And so digital displays, streaming programs, using technology to get our points across is something we're going to be very bullish on, and are starting to do that right now.”
According to Beary, every dollar invested into the massive project will return as a dollar in economic development each year moving into the future. He points to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which cost around $92 million to build in the early ‘90s, and now contributes over $200 million to the economy each year. “So it's a phenomenal opportunity for us to get a world-class facility, a big economic boon, bring recognition to what we're doing, and what we have done. And then also inspire the future,” Beary said. “I like to say preserve, educate, and inspire. That's kind of our mission.”
Of course, a mission that powerful is no small undertaking. The 120,000 square-foot facility, which, in addition to interactive, multimedia exhibitions, will include performance venues and educational components, is estimated to cost around $150 million to complete.
“We know we can have that economic impact, just like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame had,” Beary said. “We will be an institution on par with that. It also brings an elevating of the level of music quality, performance, treatment of musicians—that we don't have in the Louisiana area, that really supports musicians as individuals and their future.”
Learn more about the Louisiana Music and Heritage Experience at lmhe.live.