CLEVELAND, Miss.–If you know who Harold Jenkins was, or who is called the “singing brakeman”, or what town Chester Burnett is from (you’ll get answers to the trivia after you read the article), then you might already be well-educated on the contributions Mississippi has made to the world of music. Otherwise, you might want to make plans to visit the Grammy Museum in Cleveland when it opens in 2015.
Ground was broken Tuesday on what is expected to be a state-of-the-art, $18 million facility on the campus of Delta State University, already the home of the Delta Music Institute.
“What this means is not only that the Delta has a phenomenal Grammy museum, one of two in the United States, but it brings the creative economy to Mississippi even more than we could’ve hoped for,” Gov. Bryant told News Mississippi. “To have people from all over the world, literally, come to see Cleveland, Miss. and to learn that this is truly the birthplace of America’s music and there would not be America’s music without Mississippi. That’s what it means and we were glad to be a part of it.”
Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and a host of other regional officials involved in the project were the first to move dirt, but the mission now is to secure the rest of the funds necessary to complete the deal. As of now, $12.5 million has been raised. That leaves nearly $6 million left to complete the funding for a 20,000 sq. ft. building, with interactive exhibits on the likes of Muddy Waters and B.B. King and Robert Johnson.
As a taxpayer, you are funding it in part. The State of Miss. presented a $1 million check for the project, as did Bolivar County, and $3 million came from the City of Cleveland.
ANSWERS to trivia: Harold Jenkins was Conway Twitty. The “singing brakeman” was Jimmy Rodgers and Chester Burnett was Howlin’ Wolf, from West Point. There’s the pay-off.
