The NMM is excited to release to you a brand new article of musical delights. Written by curator Ana Sofia Silva, "Digging the Fifties" takes readers through some unseen highlights of our collections, with intriguing stories, commentary, photos and more, celebrating our 50th Anniversary with 50 objects extraordinaire. Read more below to see how we're "Digging the Fifties!"
By Ana Sofia Silva, Curator, National Music Museum
The special exhibition “As Good as Gold: The First 50 Years (1973–2023)” is showcasing part of the history of the National Music Museum (NMM) through a small selection of treasured musical instruments, highlighting important timeline periods of its collecting process in the past 50 years. However, the NMM collections are vast and comprehensive, and with this special occasion, the author saw the opportunity to write about some objects that are not so widely known. Therefore, in addition to the special treasures being celebrated, 50 objects from the musical instrument collection were chosen to be featured in this article. As an adequate (and “fair”) requisite, the objects were selected within the group of catalog numbers ending in 50.
The selected objects were chosen for their interesting stories, whether these relate to particulars of the instruments themselves, like unusual shapes and mechanisms, or to the people connected to their making, provenance, or collection. The article itself was not meant to be an exhaustive essay about each instrument, but merely a brief presentation or a “curatorial perspective” on what the author thinks makes each one of these objects special in the collections of the NMM. After all, collections are fundamental for documenting and preserving history, and at the NMM, objects can tell many different stories of music, culture, and people.
Click on the button below to download the full article and explore these stories, or follow along as they are featured in a series of NMM Notes articles and other social media content, from now until the end of our anniversary year!
Here's to 50 years, we hope you dig it!
Don't forget — our entire first floor, featuring seven galleries filled with breathtaking new permanent exhibitions, is open for visitors. Come see "As Good As Gold: The First 50 Years," explore our interactive exhibitions, shop the NMM store, and more, every Tuesday through Saturday!
