NAMM's New Museum of Making Music to Celebrate Grand Reopening on June 15 After several years of planning and a recently completed remodel and transformation of its physical space, NAMM's Museum of Making Music will celebrate its grand reopening to the public on Tuesday, June 15. The re-envisioned Carlsbad-based cultural institution will reveal a vibrant, dynamic, and immersive experience across four new galleries. A multimedia-rich approach offers a fresh perspective of the ecosystem of music products, their history, and cultural impact and will inspire visitors to make their own connections to the role of music-making in their lives. As the only museum of its kind in the world, the new MoMM welcomes visitors from near and far on a journey of musical exploration and discovery as told through instruments, artifacts, and multimedia displays featuring video stories, photographs, performance clips, and interviews from the instrument creators, artists, and industry innovators. Across the MoMM's four new galleries, guests will experience key themes of "Making the Instruments," "Providing the Instruments," "Using the Instruments," and "Beyond the Instruments," and develop a greater knowledge of how instrument creators and external events have brought us the music we make and enjoy. Grant explains: "Visitors will be able to immerse themselves in each of the galleries through the depth of historical information, as well as make personal discoveries through their emotional and philosophical connections to music." The first gallery, "Making the Instruments," explores how instruments develop and change through time due to emerging technologies, economic and social trends, popular culture, and global migration. The instruments are presented in product groups and paint a picture of how instrument development, history, culture, and people contribute to the ever-evolving world of music, the company says. The second gallery, "Providing the Instruments," reveals how instruments have entered and traveled through the marketplace and into our hands throughout a century of ever-shifting musical, economic, and social landscapes. Visitors will experience the inspiring stories of entrepreneurship and perseverance, hear musical samples from the 1900s to today, and discover the impact of pivotal moments in history, changing economic climates, and evolving musical tastes on our ability to access the musical instruments we need. In the third gallery, "Using the Instruments," the magic of music takes flight. The gallery features a panoramic multimedia display exploring the theme of music as a journey. Included in the immersive experience are images from iconic rock and roll photographers Henry Diltz, Bob Gruen, Neal Preston, and Ethan Russell, donated by The Morrison Hotel Gallery. The gallery encourages visitors to explore the impact of music-making on one's own life and to examine the far-reaching effect of pivotal musical moments on the world. A conclusion area called "Beyond the Instruments," examines instruments through a broader lens and invites visitors to consider instruments as more than their physical selves: becoming works of art, catalysts for cultural change, sanctuaries of comfort and connection, tools for emotive expression, and much more. Notably, the area includes the Live Electronic Orchestra (LEO), designed by Don Lewis, a catalyst for the development of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) protocol, spearheaded by Ikutaro Kakehashi (Roland Corporation) and Dave Smith (Sequential Circuits). Upon reopening, the MoMM's special exhibition area will feature a new display, "A Moment to Reflect." The limited-time exhibition will center on the intrinsic experience of making music through instruments found throughout nature and in the world-at-large. In addition, it will invite visitors to reflect on the origins of what has today become a robust, global industry of music and sound products. With a focus on the youngest music makers, the Interactive Gallery also includes a dedicated area featuring hand drums, ukuleles, and more to encourage hands-on instrument access, reaffirming you're never too young to make music. Alongside this, each of the three main galleries will also feature a dedicated STEAM Learning Station. In the future, docent-led student groups can explore the worlds of music and musical instruments through facilitated activities from the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. The new MoMM was made possible with generous gifts from The Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation, The Arizona Foundation, The County of San Diego, Juniper Networking Solutions, The Morrison Hotel Gallery, Other World Computing, The Parker Foundation, Sweetwater Sound, and ZUZA Marketing Asset Management. Private family foundations, businesses, and hundreds of individual donors also contributed to bringing the vision of the MoMM to life. To offer a gift to the redesign campaign, please visit: www.museumofmakingmusic.org/renovation/support. Many local, San Diego-based companies complemented the work of the Museum of Making Music's and NAMM's internal staff. These include: Archmony Design; Burger Construction; Giles Woodworks; Reelin' in the Years Productions; Sonny Portacio Photography; Spark & Anvil; StudioGrafik Design; Tim Whitehouse Photography; and Workhorse Signs + Graphics. Other contributors included Tami Stewart, Exhibit Specialist, a legion of MoMM volunteers, and various artifact donors and lenders, and interactive instrument donors. 
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