There are many great music and musical instrument related exhibitions happening all the time throughout the world. Here are some of the special exhibitions that AMIS members know about. If you have one to add please let us know at blogs.amis@gmail.com.
Ongoing Exhibitions:
Han de Vries Collection of Dutch Oboes - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Closes January 22, 2019 (Opened Nov. 7, 2018)
Oboe, Richard Haka, ca. 1680-1690 'The Dance Class,' Jan Havicksz Steen, 1660-1679
Precious sTones from the Museum - Slovak National Museum, Bratislava, Slovakia
Closes January 29, 2019
Barenaked Ladies - National Music Center, Calgary, Alberta, Canada Closes February 2019
Drumsville!: Evolution of the New Orleans Beat - New Orleans Jazz Museum
Closes March 15, 2019 (Opened November 8, 2018)
Drumsville!: Evolution of the New Orleans Beat celebrates both the New Orleans Tricentennial and International Drum Month, along with the development of the drum kit in New Orleans and the ongoing evolution of rich local drumming traditions.
Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ Closes March 17, 2019 (Opened October 7, 2018) Read a description on the AMIS blog here.
Facing South - Carolina Music Museum, Greenville, South Carolina
Closes March 31, 2019 (Opened March 27, 2018)
Harpsichords and pianos that were in the Carolinas from the 18th to mid-19th centuries tell the stories of the people who sold, bought, repaired, played, and listened to these instruments. The exhibition interweaves information gleaned from newspaper advertisements, personal accounts, and material artifacts to demonstrate how historical factors shaped the development and cultivation of music in the Carolinas.
Doisneau and Music - Musée de la musique, Cité de la musique, Paris, France
Closes April 28, 2019 (Opened December 4, 2018)
Bob Dylan: Electric - Chicago Writers Museum
Closes April 30, 2019 (Opened Nov. 16, 2018)
DuPage Music Maker Exhibition - DuPage County Historical Museum, Wheaton, IL
Closes July 29, 2019 (Opened September 15, 2018)
Emmylou Harris: Songbird’s Flight
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Nashville, TN
Closes August 4, 2019 (Opened October 5, 2018)
Accordions: Expanding Voices in the USA - Museum of Making Music
Closes August 31, 2019 (Opened December 13, 2018)
Just over 60 years ago, accordions were at the forefront of our musical landscape. With annual sales topping a quarter of a million instruments, they were seen and heard on stages, in stores, and in classrooms across the country. But musical tastes shifted dramatically by the end of the 1950s, and, within 10 years of this incredible high, accordion sales and interest plummeted almost to the point of disappearing. Today, accordions and accordionists are making their voices heard again! The Museum of Making Music’s special exhibition, “Accordions: Expanding Voices in the USA,” takes a close look and listen at the current state of the accordion across the country, highlighting stories and recordings from some of the players pushing it forward.
The Electric Guitar: Inventing an American Icon - Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix
Closes September 15, 2019 (Opened Nov. 9, 2018)
Stay Tuned: Rock On TV - Rock Hall of Fame Museum, Cleveland, OH
Closes Summer 2019 (Opened May 26, 2018)
Freer & Sackler Galleries, Washington DC: October 14, 2017 to mid-2020
Closes mid-2020 (Opened 2017)
Outlaws & Armadillos: Country’s Roaring ‘70s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Nashville, TN
Closes February 14, 2021 (Opened May 25, 2018)
Upcoming Exhibitions: Year of Music - Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
The Archaeology of Music: An Exhibition of Artistic Expression Through Generations Museum of Ontario Archaeology, London, Ontario, Canada
January to June 2019
Music is a human universal that has been used as a form of communication, inspiration, and entertainment for millennia. In Ontario, the oldest objects we recognize as instruments, bird bone whistles, spans back thousands of years. Objects such as those are fragments of the past. The Archaeology of Music will piece together these fragments to create a multi-sensory, multi-vocal educational journey that will lead visitors to explore how music was created and what it may have sounded like.
Guitar: The Instrument that Rocked the World (touring exhibition) St. Louis Science Center, St. Louis, MO
January 19, 2019 to April 14, 2019
Metropolitan Museum of Art
April 8 to October 1, 2019
Electro Dream: From Kraftwerk to Daft Punk Philharmonie exhibition space, Cité de la musique, Paris, France
April 9, 2019 to August 11, 2019
Since its advent more than thirty years ago in the underground nightclubs of Chicago and Detroit, electronic music has spread around the world. It has given rise to not only a vast musical culture, but also a political and counter-culture dimension. Set to music by Laurent Garnier, this exhibition examines the different facets of the electro phenomenon.
Timothy Duffy: Blue Muse - New Orleans Museum of Art
April 25, 2019 to July 28, 2019
Guitar: The Instrument that Rocked the World (traveling exhibition) The History Museum at The Castle, Appleton, WI
May 19, 2019 to January 2020
Wire & Wood: Designing Iconic Guitars MODA, Museum of Design Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia
June 2, 2019 to September 15, 2019
Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, OH
Nov. 20, 2019 to September 2020