Blues Foundation Moves to Dream Location on South Main

“…Be prepared to give until it hurts.” Bill Wax, President

The Blues Foundation is moving to South Main next year, fulfilling a 30-year-old dream for a permanent home to showcase the music and the artists who make it.

The Memphis-based international nonprofit organization’s board voted Saturday to buy ground-floor commercial space at 421 S. Main, the Hotline Lofts building.

“In the printed program of the third annual Blues Music Awards in 1982, there are drawings of a proposed Blues Hall, so this indeed has been a dream of the Blues Foundation and a goal of the Blues Foundation since its earliest days,” said executive director Jay Sieleman.

It’s near the National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis College of Art graduate school, Memphis Music Foundation, the Folk Alliance International and Memphis chapter of the National Academy of the Recording Arts & Sciences.

It’s really walking and trolley distance for the music fans, the blues fans, who come from all over the world, particularly for our events, the International Blues Challenge and the Blues Music Awards,” Sieleman said. “We cater to everyone, but particularly the blues music tourist.”

The foundation’s 25-member board met by teleconference to consider the purchase. Plans call for staff offices; exhibits showcasing Hall of Fame inductees through memorabilia, artwork and audiovisual presentations; and a retail store focusing on Hall of Fame recordings and literature and Blues Foundation-branded merchandise.

The foundation is dedicated to preserving the art form and its heritage, education and celebrating recording and performance excellence. It has 3,700 individual members and 190 affiliated local blues societies representing about 50,000 people around the world.