CLEVELAND (AP) — The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
landed a Manhattan-style payday Monday from last fall’s 25th
anniversary concerts at Madison Square Garden.
The hall announced that its affiliated foundation in New York
will create a $5 million rock hall endowment from proceeds of the
blockbuster concerts Oct. 29 and 30 and an upcoming concert
DVD.
The rock hall anniversary concerts featured Simon and Garfunkel,
Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, U2, Metallica,
Mick Jagger and others.
“Why this money is important is that we have a really unique
museum,” foundation president and CEO Joel Peresman said by phone
from New York after the announcement at the rock hall in
Cleveland.
“We have something that families like going to. I always say
it’s the one museum that you can take your kids to where they won’t
hate you. Everyone likes to go.”
Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the rock hall, said the
endowment would help maintain updated technology after a $35
million, 1½-year rock hall renovation is completed. The overall
project includes a separate rock archive and library.
“It’s to keep this magnificent palace right where we’ll be after
the renovation,” he said.
Peresman said the endowment backing should put to rest any
suggestion of long-distance friction between the museum and
foundation.
“It’s not really like two sides here. We’re all on the same
page,” he said. “Everything that the foundation does is focused and
geared to the museum.”
Last year, Cleveland hosted the induction ceremony for the first
time since 1997. The glitzy event has typically been held in New
York — a sore spot for blue-collar Clevelanders who felt
snubbed.
The foundation selected Cleveland as home of the rock hall in a
national competition and it opened in 1995 in an I.M. Pei-designed
glass pyramid building alongside Lake Erie.
Cleveland’s rock roots date to the 1950s, when radio personality
Alan Freed popularized the term rock ‘n’ roll. He said the term
“seemed to suggest the rolling, surging beat of the music.”
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