New Harmonies

American Roots Music

New Harmonies logo New Harmonies is the sixth exhibition in an ongoing partnership between state humanities councils and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). The partnership is known as Museum on Main Street, and it serves rural communities. Through a selection of photographs, recordings, instruments, lyrics and artist profiles, New Harmonies explores the distinct cultural identities of Gospel, Country, Blues and other forms of roots music as they record the history of the American people and set the foundation for many musical genres appreciated worldwide today.

The Missouri Humanities Council is hosting the state’s exclusive tour of New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music in 2009 and 2010 . The exhibition will travel to six Missouri communities each year.

Image of two musicians

Matt Meacham and Ed McKinney (right) of Sunny Side Up playing
at the Old-Time Music and Ozark Heritage Festival in West Plains

The selected towns for 2009 are:

Host Towns are using a Wiki Space at newharmonies.missourihumanities.org

Matt Meacham Signs On to Advise "New Harmonies" Towns

Portrait of Matt MeachamMatt is a folklorist with the West Plains Council on the Arts. He came to West Plains in February 2007 from southern West Virginia, where he conducted a one-year study of that region’s musical life for the West Virginia Humanities Council in preparation for the possible establishment of a regional music interpretive center there.

Since moving to West Plains, he has conducted research on traditional artistic activity in the Ozarks of south-central and southeast Missouri and on the possibility of pursuing National Heritage Area status for those regions.  He has also participated in planning for the 2007 and 2008 Old-Time Music and Ozark Heritage Festivals in West Plains.    

This semester, he is teaching a general music appreciation course as an adjunct instructor at Missouri State University-West Plains.  He also performs as a guitarist, mandolinist, and singer with Sunny Side Up, a local bluegrass band, and has made guest appearances on the Southern Missouri Bluegrass television program.    

He jokes that he missed being a native Missourian by only eight miles, having been raised near Chester, Illinois, a small town on the Mississippi River not far from Ste. Genevieve and Perryville.  After graduating from Centre College in Kentucky in 1999, he spent two years writing for a regional newspaper and teaching music at a small parochial high school in southwestern Illinois.

He then began graduate study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a master’s degree in musicology in 2003.  He is nearing completion of a second master’s degree in folklore, also from UNC.

Matt will meet people from the host communities at an MHC Program Planning Meeting in May. From then through the duration of the exhibit’s stay in Missouri, he will stay in close contact with the hosting organizations as they plan events and auxiliary exhibits in conjunction with New Harmonies.

Unprecedented Level of Interest in Missouri

MHC evaluated proposals from thirty-three communities, more than had ever applied in a single state for a MOMS touring exhibit. In recognition of that exceptional demand, the Smithsonian Institution offered Missouri the only open slot in the 2010 tour of "New Harmonies," so we have scheduled seven more towns for 2010. They are:

Cassville - hosted by the Barry County Museum
Hannibal - hosted by the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum
Jefferson City - hosted by the Lincoln University Library in partnership with the Cole County Historical Society
Maryville - hosted by the Nodaway County Historical Society
Nevada - hosted by the Vernon County Historical Society
Trenton - hosted by the Grundy County Historical Society & Museum
Unionville - hosted by the Putnam County Historical Society, Inc.

Museum on Main Street is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution, the Federation of State Humanities Councils, and the Missouri Humanities Council. Support for Museum on Main Street is provided by the United States Congress.

More information about New Harmonies is available on the Smithsonian Website at http://www.museumonmainstreet.org/newharmonies/index.htm .  It includes a recommended reading list of books related to the exhibition as well as tools for teachers to create lessons on the theme. We also have a downloadable PDF document describing the exhibit.

updated December 23, 2009