After several years of planning and a recently completed remodel and transformation of its physical space, NAMM’s Museum of Making Music (MoMM) celebrated its grand reopening to the public. The re-envisioned Carlsbad-based cultural institution revealed a dynamic and immersive experience across four new galleries and fresh perspectives of the ecosystem of music products, their history and cultural impact that will inspire visitors to make their own connections to the role of music-making in their lives.
Beginning today, the MoMM will be open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Under the direction of state and county health protocols, the MoMM will utilize COVID mitigation strategies and cleaning throughout the museum, as well as a ticketed registration system to manage the flow and number of visitors to the new space.
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.
The MoMM’s hands-on opportunities also underwent a redesign at “Sit & Play” stations throughout the galleries. In the popular Interactive Gallery, visitors will enjoy a suite of instruments for solo exploration and collaborative performances. Available instruments include a variety of stringed instruments, including a banjo and a guitar from San Diego-based Deering Banjo Co. and Taylor Guitars, respectively, a MOOG Grandmother synthesizer, a Pioneer DJ Station, a harp guitar, a Harpejji K24, a theremin, a Chapman Stick, and much more.
The Museum of Making Music first opened to the public in March of 2000 to celebrate the centennial of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) as an industry association and to provide a historical context of making music. Since that time, the MoMM has welcomed visitors from near and far and presents an ongoing vibrant and varied schedule of exhibitions, concerts and educational programs throughout the year. Prior to the pandemic, the MoMM hosted thousands of school-aged children each year, many from Title I schools, for tours that provided educational enrichment.
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