Herbie Miller ... director/curator of the Jamaica Music Museum. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

At last Thursday evening's symposium to announce a list of top 100 Jamaican popular songs at the University of the West Indies, Mona's Undercroft, Herbie Miller brought the large audience "peace, love and harmonious greetings from the revitalised Jamaica Music Museum (JAMM)".

It proved to be an introduction for many to the museum, although the idea has been around for almost a decade. Miller emphasised that he called it "revitalised" because "it's not new. It was established eight years ago but was underdeveloped and underpromoted because of one reason or another. It just never got off the ground".

Organisational and creative responsibility

However, Miller said, two years ago, chairman of the Institute of Jamaica, Professor Barry Chevannes, approached him and suggested that he take "organisational and creative responsibility" to re-establish the museum. Former Minister of Tourism and Culture Aloun Asamba supported the initiative fully.

Miller said current Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Olivia Grange, also saw the importance of "jump-starting the establishment of JAMM" and an agreement to finalise Miller's position as director/curator was made.

JAMM's mission is to "collect, conserve, exhibit and raise awareness of the history of Jamaican music, covering the range of our diverse heritage and to strengthen the public's sense of identity within the context of the nation's history".

Miller said that "in order to achieve these objectives, the museum is to encourage and organise activities (such as last Thursday's symposium), to raise awareness of the historic breadth of all genres of Jamaican music, including both ritual and secular, to highlight its social implications and to cooperate with others to increase the study and dissemination of our music".

Miller said the museum's policies "are expressed in areas of work required to achieve its objectives". Hence, the museum's structural objectives are:

To continue the ongoing search for a suitable building to house the museum.

To build a collection that will conserve, document and display tangible and intangible testimony to Jamaica's musical history, heritage and that illustrates the cultural, social and political history of the nation and people.

To make JAMM a research centre and develop relationships with tertiary and other educational partners local and internationally.

To support individuals and organisations working to develop areas of research directly linked to the history of Jamaica and its music.

To make it not only a national attraction but also an attractive tourist destination.

Speaking to exhibitions, Miller said, "our mandate is to raise awareness of the historic events in the daily lives of Jamaicans at different levels, suited to each segment of the public through the building and display of permanent collections, temporary exhibitions, virtual and online exhibitions and the museum's various other activities, which will include performances and pubic and community educational-outreach programmes.

"By so doing, we aim to increase public knowledge and foster an interest in learning about Jamaica and its culture through music, by providing a quality experience and through communication and public outreach to position the museum as an entertaining, vibrant and animated experience, as well as an essential reference for anyone wishing to learn about the history of Jamaica and its music," Miller concluded.

Music history

There have been few private efforts to document Jamaica's extensive musical history. In addition to the Bob Marley Museum at 56 Hope Road, dedicated exclusively to preserving the memories and memorabilia of the late 'Tuff Gong', Reggae XPlosion in the Island Village Plaza, Ocho Rios, St Ann, provides an extensive overview of Jamaica's music history.

Among its many features are a digital photo archive and music-related artwork, a jukebox, a replica of a mobile record shack, vinyl records and, naturally, lots of music being played.

In addition, there are individual efforts, such as singer Ken Boothe's home-photo museum, featured in the entertainment section of the most recent Sunday Gleaner.