Phoenix’s MIM Offers Visitors a Look at Instruments From Around the World
PHOENIX – Imagine an enormous toy box – a container so huge that it is actually a beautiful, two-story building that can hold an example of every kind of toy in the world.
Substitute musical instruments for toys, and you’ve got the Musical Instrument Museum. This one-of-a-kind showcase has been thrilling visitors here since 2010.
Like toys, the guitars, pianos, etc., beg to be played. Visitors are not afforded that privilege for the most part, but they do get a multi-sensory experience. LCD video screens, most of them 40 inches in diagonal measurement, accompany the displays. And with the Sennheiser Guideport system that each guest receives, the instruments come alive in sight and sound.
The belt pack worn by the guests automatically triggers headphone audio for the appropriate video display when its wearer stands in close proximity. Written material augments the displays, as well.
There also is an Experience Gallery, where guests can play many of the types of instruments seen elsewhere in the museum.
Fans of acoustic rock might consider MIM to be a musical Mecca. The following noteworthy artifacts were on display recently:
The acoustic piano John Lennon used in 1971 to compose “Imagine.”
Remnants of Keith Moon’s “Pictures Of Lily” drum kit, which he detonated during a 1967 Who performance on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour television show.
Janis Joplin’s “Hummingbird” guitar, which she played during the 1970 recording sessions that produced “Me And Bobby McGee.”
The Eric Clapton Royal Blues prototype guitar, an acoustic model commissioned by “Slow Hand” and Hiroshi Fujiwara. It has not yet been marketed due to a pending change in the instrument’s blue color.
The “D-18” acoustic guitar, manufactured in 1961 by C. F. Martin & Co. and played by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on “Mr. Bojangles” in 1970.
Another impressive display is a 30-foot wide exhibit that features Martin guitars, which are created in Nazareth, Pa.
In order to protect the treasures, some of which are on loan, the museum’s temperature is kept at 72 degrees Fahrenheit, plus or minus 2 degrees. The relative humidity in the building is maintained at 50 percent, plus or minus 5 percent.
Bob Ulrich, a former CEO and chairman of the Target Corp., is the founder of MIM. The museum is a privately owned, non-profit foundation that has a board of directors.
“Bob was actually in Brussels and visited the musical instrument museum there, which is smaller and focuses mainly on Western instruments, not the entire world,” said Cullen Strawn, MIM’s curator of musical instruments. “He and a friend hatched the idea for creating a museum that would be very large and would cover music and culture and musical instruments from all over the world and that would have interactive technological enhancement.”
Media relations manager Erin Miller, added, “I’ve been told that (it was) less than five years from that idea to (the) opening, which is extremely fast in museum time.”
The decision to locate the facility in Phoenix was based on a combination of land availability and proximity to other western USA destinations.
“People come here for other reasons anyway,” Strawn said, “to visit places like the Grand Canyon. They come for conferences, golf and so forth. And there’s a portion of the community that’s very receptive to a type of world class offering like this. Also, an evaluation was done that (showed) the area is kind of underserved in terms of offerings like this. Phoenix is kind of a crossroads, too, for people who are passing through on their way to other places, like Vegas or Santa Fe.”
“There aren’t a lot of other metropolitan places where you can place a 200,000 square foot museum,” Miller said, “and I think Cullen really touched on it – Arizona really gets a lot of international visitors. So, we’re really in the perfect location to capitalize on that. We’re very close to those big entertainment and tourism destinations.”
Miller revealed the following attendance figures for MIM’s first three years: 2010 – 97,034; 2011 – 215,226; 2012 – 196,540.
Another part of the museum is the MIM Music Theater. Acts that represent all different musical genres make concert appearances in the intimate, 300-seat setting. Some recognizable names that have graced the stage are Judy Collins, Rickie Lee Jones, Mickey Hart, Jorma Kaukonen, Leo Kotke and the Desert Rose Band.
Ticket prices are set according to each performer. “I would say $30 to $40 would be a pretty accurate average (price range),” Miller said. “We have some shows that are called musical interludes that are $7 or free with museum admission, all the way up to some of the bigger names who have been in the range of $60-plus.” The duration of the shows is 60-90 minutes, depending on the performer.
The museum’s upper level consists mainly of the Geographical Galleries, where instruments are displayed according to the region of origin.
Strawn explained some of the difficulties of acquiring instruments from far-flung locations.
“A number of things can happen that make that process difficult,” he said. “One is travel. In any particular part of the world at a particular time, political situations can change that can make things difficult, as far as getting around and connecting with the right people and getting objects out of the country. There are, in some cases, approval processes that have to happen at the official level.
“For example, I have musical instruments I’ve collected from Mali in West Africa, and all had to go through approval of their national museum. So, at that level, you can run into snags – especially if you’ve done your job as a collector and you’ve found very nice stuff, but they want to keep it in the country.
“Then, even when musical instruments leave the country and they come to this country, they have to pass through customs (and) U.S. Fish and Wildlife. So, if there are materials on those musical instruments that are restricted by a system that’s called cites (SIGH-teez) and if the proper documentation is not there, then Fish and Wildlife may decide not to release that instrument at all. It would be returned or they would just keep it and destroy it.
“So, after all the work that’s gone into the travel, the research and the negotiations, it just doesn’t happen at all – it doesn’t come full circle.”
While museum memberships aren’t sold, there is a donor-based program that helps to fund MIM.
“We have what we call the Circle of Friends program,” Miller said. “Most museums are not financially sustainable, and we want to ensure that MIM is available for future generations to visit. So, as a part of our donor-based program, a person can purchase the minimum buy-in, which is $250, and get either 10 museum passes or two unlimited passes to use throughout the entire year.
“And that program has lots of other benefits. There are talks with curators, there is the ability to purchase concert tickets in advance, there are special previews for exhibitions – things of that nature. So, this isn’t your traditional membership program which traditionally runs in the $60-70 range, but it instead provides unique benefits for people who are participating, while ensuring that the museum has a solid financial base for years to come.”
According to Miller, the average museum visit lasts 3 hours 38 minutes. There are more than 12 hours of high quality video content displayed in the gallery, and the museum has about 15,000 objects. About a third of them are on display at any given time.
“We’d like to encourage people in this area who haven’t visited to come, regardless of whether they’re a musician,” Strawn said. “Some people think they have to be a musician in order to enjoy it. Or some people think they have to be a die hard music fan. But … often times the family members, who might have come along with those types of people, have a magical experience, in large part because of the way the instruments are displayed and because of the way you have the audio right there in your ears when you’re watching the videos.
“It’s an incredibly exciting, immersive experience.”
The first stand-alone, traveling exhibition from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to visit MIM will be “Women Who Rock,” which is coming in October.
“There is something for everyone, and so many different, new things are being added each week, that I’m sure (all visitors) will find something of value,” Strawn said.
