STARKVILLE — Just an hour south of Starkville lies one of the greatest collections of country music artifacts in the world, a collection that will soon have a new museum thanks to a partnership with the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Marty Stuart’s Congress of Country Music is housed in Philadelphia, and its venue manager Natalie Dreifuss spoke with Starkville Rotary Club Monday about its expansion plans.
The Congress already has more than 22,000 items collected by the legendary mandolin player, but it will be getting even more thanks to a partnership with the Hall of Fame in Nashville. The combined collections will populate a museum in the works.
“It has suits worn by multiple different artists, instruments on instruments on instruments, guitars and mandolins,” Dreifuss said. “I can’t say exactly what will be in the museum at this point since some of the Hall of Fame’s own collection will be coming to Philadelphia.”
Starkville has its own pieces of country music history, like the place where Johnny Cash was arrested for public drunkenness and picking flowers along Mississippi Highway 182. Sid Salter, MSU’s vice president for strategic communications, recounted at the meeting the story of his distant cousin Stuart. At the age of 12, Stuart heard Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs play and promptly left town on their bus, eventually landing in a band with Johnny Cash.
“He was a virtuoso mandolin player, one of the four or five best in the world,” Salter said. “He started collecting ephemera when he was young – clothing, hats, boots, guitars, placards, posters, ticket stubs from Nashville royalty. It was one of the largest private collections anywhere, and when his career slowed down he started building this Congress of Country Music.”
The Congress today runs a range of programs, including live country music shows and mentorship opportunities for up-and-coming musicians. Dreifuss focused Monday on the partnership announced in August with the Hall of Fame, enabling both organizations to swap artifacts and build more cohesive collections.
She said the partnership was technically an acquisition of the collection by the Hall of Fame, which now has the responsibility to assist in the collection’s preservation and storage. The Hall of Fame will loan some of its collection to the coming museum along with expertise from its preservation and administration personnel.
The museum’s campus will take up most of the block and include a greenroom, administrative building and community hall. The Congress hopes it will attract more than 100,000 patrons each year. The Congress will charge for tickets, though current tours of the Ellis Theatre are free. Dreifuss says education tours might not carry a surcharge, and projected an opening date of 2027.
More details will be released in December.
The Congress will continue holding events for both school-age children and more mature budding musicians where they can interact with some of the biggest names in country music. Dreifuss told Starkville Rotary that the Congress wants to expand its existing work experience programs and think up new opportunities with the Hall of Fame.
“We offer young people a unique opportunity to connect directly with world-class artists,” she said. “These experiences provide a behind-the-scenes look at their craft. Looking ahead, we’re developing job shadowing programs with sound techs, lighting designers and production managers.”
The museum hopes to expand its collection with travelling exhibits as well, with Dreifuss naming Taylor Swift’s collection at the Grammy Museum as a prospective rotating addition.
“Seeing these men tour Stuart’s collection and look at every single thing just in awe, it’s different when Marty is there, because he’s the storyteller,” Dreifuss said. “But even just being able to walk through all these pieces, Johnny Cash’s black coat, you can feel the spirit of every one of these pieces. It’s overwhelming, and it’s hard to explain unless you’re there.”
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