Director's Note

There’s lots of news to report from our Museum—your Museum—here at NAMM Headquarters in Carlsbad, California. Where to start though… How about at the bottom. As in, the new carpeting. And some refreshed exhibition displays. And a new logo, or at least a new look for our logo, which is still a work in progress. And the terrific response to our current special exhibition, LOW: The Power and Beauty of Bass. If you live in the area or have visited recently, perhaps you’ve attended one of the concerts related to that exhibition. Over the past few months, we have presented nearly one concert per week! Why? Because we are committed to the ongoing celebration of fabulous instruments and live music, and, of course, to the musicians who put it all together and fill our world with glorious sounds. Victor Wooten, Alphonso Johnson, John Clayton, Bert Turetzky, Katie Thiroux and the unique JAMB Bass Clarinet Quartet all performed here recently and opened our eyes and ears to the lower end of the sound spectrum.

More news. Really nice news! We have received three very generous grants recently that will help us keep the musical momentum going (maybe even speed it up!). First, a Community Arts Grant from the City of Carlsbad’s Cultural Arts Office will support a full summer of Sunday afternoon concerts (see p. 7 for more details). Second, thanks to the Carlsbad Charitable Foundation, this fall we will collaborate with North County Lifeline on a project designed to help change the lives of two vulnerable youth populations through hands-on music experiences. This is an important new initiative for both organizations, and we are very excited about its prospect to make a difference in the lives of its participants. And third, a two-year grant from the Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation will provide us with the foundation and impetus to begin our next major museum exhibition upgrade. Stay tuned for much more coming on this topic!

So things are buzzing around here!! And at the center of all this programming and growth is a carefully designed document—our Strategic Plan. Now in the third and final year of our current plan, we… Wait. I wrote more, but our editor cut it!! So here’s a promise: we’ll talk about the current plan—and the next one—in our next issue of notes (and I won’t show our editor this page next time!).

Almost finally, watch for a brand-new Museum website this Fall! It will be visually stunning, full of information, and it will be mobile-friendly so you can stay easily connected to our many offerings from any mobile device as well as your trusty desktop. And really finally, the first Museum exhibition of the Fall will be prominently featured on the website. It will focus on the history and centennial celebration of one of the most iconic—if not the most iconic—acoustic guitar models of recent history, C.F. Martin & Co.’s “Dreadnought.” It was named after the British warship commissioned in 1906, HMS Dreadnought. And, like the battleship, the guitar was a game-changer. As noted by Greg Reish, Director of the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, “The Martin Dreadnought has remained one of the primary tools of musicians across a staggeringly wide range of styles and decades, a ubiquitous sound that has inspired brilliant artistry and musical innovation for a hundred years.”

I have more news, but that editor again… See you at the Museum. And make sure to make music a part of your life!