Update on Canada’s Music Hall of Fame
For a country that consistently punches above its weight when it comes to exporting music to the rest of the world, it’s a crime that we don’t have a place that commemorates and celebrates our accomplishments. Fortunately, that’s in the process of changing.
The National Music Centre, a 160,000 square-foot collection of all things Canadian, should have its groundbreaking sometime this year at a site in Calgary. Organizers are well on their way to achieving their funding goal of $132.5 million.
A step towards that is an official name change. The Cantos Music Foundation–the prime catalyst being this project–is now officially known as the National Music Centre. Here’s a note from President and CEO, Andrew Mosker:
We began collecting Canada’s national music collection in 1997 with a number of Canadian examples of innovations in music technology. We made a big leap forward in the effort with the acquisition of the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame Collection in 2009,” says Mosker. “Our programming, like the recently launched National Jazz Summit, has taken on a national scope and our partnerships, like the one with the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to build the Canadian Music Hall of Fame collection, have all brought us to the point where we are proud to be able to call ourselves the National Music Centre. And this is only the beginning.
I, for one, am looking to visiting this place once it’s completed.
It's disappointing that they're putting it in Alberta, a province which is a shame and disgrace to every self-respecting Canadian living in the rest of the country. I would have liked to have gone.
I agree with the comment above. Toronto or Montreal would've been a more logical choice.
And yet, they've (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Halifax…) had decades to do something about and they haven't… maybe this is why Calgary is the Cultural Capital of Canada this year (along with the Niagara Region).
Maybe.
Calgary is the wrong place for a Canadian music hall of fame. Just because the Harper gov't tries to proclaim Calgary a 'cultural centre' and funds a music centre there, doesn't make it an actual music centre. Clearly, there are more vital music scenes in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. Never has a city been so white-bread and culturally devoid as Calgary, unless an annual 10-day rodeo and jackasses walking around in cowboy hats count as 'culture'. It's worse than putting the Rock & Roll Hall in Cleveland. Makes no sense. Big mistake on the part of the Canadian music industry for missing out on the opportunity to build a Cdn Hall of Fame in the city that it should be in: Toronto.