Hearing cultural heritage : using music in public exhibition, education, and programming

This project examines music-related exhibitions, collections, and programming initiatives at the National Museum of African American Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C. and the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) in Austin, Texas, to understand how differing cultural heritage institutions engage with music and the performing arts. By using interviews of cultural heritage workers at each organization and engaging with existing scholarship concerning material culture in musicology and museology, the study will consider how each institution’s mission, audience, collection scope, size, and access to resources affect their approach to music history. By examining two contrasting institutions with divergent cultural motivations and institutional traits, this project ultimately seeks to show that a wide variety of cultural heritage institutions throughout the United States can overcome the challenges posed by music and performing arts material in order to successfully integrate music history into exhibitions and public programming of cultural history.