Detroit Sound Conservancy Formed to
Preserve, Share Detroit Music History
Scholar seeks to unite musicians, fans, industry with
community conversations, preservation projects
DETROIT (June 20, 2012) -- Every day, lovers of Detroit sound lose another hero. Every day, lovers
of Detroit sound lose another landmark. Every day, lovers of Detroit sound lose the opportunity
to celebrate and educate. And every day, the legacy that Detroiters do have of our music-making,
that immense sonorous panorama of activities and connections that lovers of Detroit
sound here and around the world adore, becomes more fragmented and harder to conserve.
Detroit needs a Detroit Sound Conservancy.
The Detroit Sound Conservancy (DSC) steps into this transitional moment, announces its
formation, and launches its first two projects: the first, a guided Detroit music tour; the second,
an online effort to collect information and organize Detroiters for upcoming projects. The group
will celebrate these efforts on Friday, June 22 at a kick-off fundraiser in Midtown Detroit.
Founded by native metro Detroiter and oral historian Carleton Gholz, PhD, the DSC’s mission is
to facilitate connections to conserve Detroit's musical history through physical archiving, digital
outreach, and collaborative fundraising. First and foremost an organizing effort, the DSC’s long-term
goal is to become the go-to organization for accurate information and effective strategy
in the struggle to increase and maintain Detroit’s capacity to conserve its musical heritage.
The DSC imagines gathering oral histories, preserving the written records of Detroit music
journalists, encouraging the digitization and dissemination of music-related audio and video,
and organizing around historical landmarks and collections critical to telling the story of Detroit
music.
Gholz, the group’s president, is joined by officers Patrice Merritt, executive director
of the Detroit Public Library Friends Foundation; Kim Silarski, publicist for Concert of
Colors and the Arab American National Museum; and LaVell Williams, local musician and
former manager for the record store Record Time. The DSC has established a Web site
at http://detroitsoundconservancy.org/ and a Facebook page at http://facebook.com/DetroitSoundConservancy.
The DSC invites Detroiters to meet its board members at the house-warming celebration for
Model D Media’s new office space inside the legendary former Zoot’s Coffee at 4470 Second
Avenue in the Cass Corridor on Friday, June 22 from 5–11 p.m. This event, which will serve
as the DSC’s first official fundraiser, is also being sponsored by the Detroit Public Library
Friends Foundation and its E. Azalia Hackley Collection, which is taking this opportunity to
raise funds for this newly formed group. Donations may be made via cash, check or via PayPal
at http://detroitpubliclibrary.org/ and clicking on DPL Friends Foundation. Recommended
donation $10. More information at http://modeldmedia.com.