Detroit Sound Conservancy Formed to Preserve, Share Detroit Music History
Scholar seeks to unite musicians, fans, industry with community conversations, preservation projects
DETROIT (June 20, 2012) — Every day, lovers of Detroit sound lose another hero. Every day, lovers of Detroit sound lose another landmark. Every day, lovers of Detroit sound lose the opportunity to celebrate and educate. And every day, the legacy that Detroiters do have of our music-making, that immense sonorous panorama of activities and connections that lovers of Detroit sound here and around the world adore, becomes more fragmentary and harder to conserve. Detroit needs a Detroit Sound Conservancy.
The Detroit Sound Conservancy (DSC) steps into this transitional moment, announces its formation, and launches its first two projects, the first a guided Detroit music tour, the second, an online effort to collect information and organize Detroiters for upcoming projects. The group will celebrate these efforts on June 22 at a kick-off fundraiser.
Founded by native metro Detroiter and oral historian Carleton Gholz, PhD, the DSC’s mission is to facilitate connections to conserve Detroit’s musical history through physical archiving, digital outreach, and collaborative fundraising. First and foremost an organizing effort, the DSC’s long-term goal is to become the go-to organization for accurate information and effective strategy in the struggle to increase and maintain Detroit’s capacity to conserve its musical heritage. The DSC imagines gathering oral histories, preserving the written records of Detroit music journalists, encouraging the digitization and dissemination of music-related audio and video, and organizing around historical landmarks and collections critical to telling the story of Detroit music.
Gholz, the group’s president, is joined by officers Patrice Merritt, executive director of the Detroit Public Library Friends Foundation; Kim Silarski, publicist for Concert of Colors and the Arab American National Museum; and LaVell Williams, local musician and former manager for the record store Record Time. The DSC has established a Web site at http://detroitsoundconservancy.org and a Facebook page at http://facebook.com/DetroitSoundConservancy.
Model Z.: Model D. Open House and Detroit Sound Conservancy Fundraiser
The DSC invites Detroiters to meet its board members at the house-warming celebration for Model D Media’s new office space inside the legendary former Zoot’s Coffee at 4470 Second Avenue in the Cass Corridor on Friday, June 22 from 5pm – 11pm. This event, which will serve as the DSC’s first official fundraiser, is also being sponsored by the Detroit Public Library Friends Foundation and its E. Azalia Hackley Collection which is taking this opportunity to raise funds for this newly-formed group. Donations may be made via cash, check or via PayPal at http://detroitpubliclibrary.org/ and clicking on DPL Friends Foundation. Recommended donation $10. More information at http://modeldmedia.com.
Detroit Sound Conservancy Pilot Music Tour with Pont:Productions
The DSC has partnered with Jocelyne Ninneman of Pont:Productions to produce a guided music tour of Detroit for the 14th Annual Allied Media Conference (AMC) taking place at Wayne State University from June 28 through July 1. The tour features local Detroit music storytellers in an attempt at understanding the relationship between cultural tourism and grassroots organizing a key area of concern for the DSC. For those interested in attending the Detroit Sound Conservancy Pilot Music Tour on Saturday, June 30 from 2:00pm – 4:00pm, departing from Wayne State University, please register through Allied Media Conference via http://www.alliedmedia.org.
Detroit Sound Conservancy collaboration with DetroitWiki
The DSC has partnered with the DetroitWiki Project to gather accurate information and identify possible partners and projects. The DetroitWiki is a volunteer-driven effort to collect information about Detroit that anybody can freely edit. It has information about historical places, current topics, meeting plans, biographies, and more. The collaborative project was founded by Matt Hampel, a Fellow at Code for America who is working with the City of Detroit to develop new tools that promote transparency and civic engagement online. This project is ongoing via http://detroitwiki.org/.
For media and information requests, contact Carleton Gholz at detroitsoundconservancyATgmail.com