The City of Gaffney, in cooperation with The Humanities Council of South Carolina will explore the many aspects of America’s roots music as it hosts the local showing of New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music, a Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition. New Harmonies will make its first stop in Gaffney, and will be on view beginning April 9, 2011 and continuing through May 29, 2011.
When you stop and listen, you quickly realize that music is all around us—at a local festival, at a dance hall on a Saturday night, or on your radio or your .mp3 player. Whether you’re hearing Blues, Country Western, Folk, or Gospel, American roots music reveals the American story – peoples reshaping themselves in a new and changing world. As Americans from a variety of heritages shared cultural influences, musicians found new ways to play unique sounds learned from new neighbors on traditional instruments. The inevitable intermingling of musical influences created exciting new sounds – new American music.
The City of Gaffney and the surrounding community has been expressly chosen by The Humanities Council of South Carolina to host New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music as part of the Museum on Main Street project – a national/ state/local partnership to bring exhibitions and programs to rural cultural organizations. The exhibition will tour twelve communities in South Carolina from April 9, 2011 through January 5, 2013.
Through a selection of photographs, recordings, instruments, lyrics and artist profiles, New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music will explore the distinct cultural identities of American roots music forms. The exhibition will examine the progression of American roots music, as rich and eclectic as our country itself. Other musical genres profiled include Zydeco, Tejano, Bluegrass and Klezmer.
“Allowing all of our state’s residents to have access to the cultural resources of our nation’s premiere museum is a priority of The Humanities Council of South Carolina”, said Randy Akers, the council’s executive director. “With this special tour, we are pleased to be working with the City of Gaffney to help develop local exhibitions and public programs to complement the Smithsonian exhibition.”
New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music is part of Museum on Main Street, a unique collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), state humanities councils across the nation, and local host institutions. To learn more about New Harmonies and other Museum on Main Street exhibitions, visit www.museumonmainstreet.org.
Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.
The New Harmonies exhibit will be on display at the City of Gaffney Visitors Center, located at 210 West Frederick Street, just outside of Historic Downtown Gaffney.
For questions contact the City of Gaffney Visitors Center at (864) 487-6244.
Article courtesy of the Gaffney Ledger (February 24, 2010)
Back
News Home
