Crain’s Chicago Business reports that the The Chicago Blues Experience is to open in Spring 2019.
The privately run Chicago Blues Experience is raising $25 million in equity capital against a projected budget of $30 million.
The museum was originally planned for a site on Navy Pier and investors had pledged around $40 million to the project which has to be put on hold when a lease was not signed.
Having just signed the lease for the facilty’s new site near Millennium Park, Sona Wang, managing director and co-founder of the Blues Experience, expects that many of the original backers will offer their support again.
Key advisers to the Chicago Blues Experience are Terry Stewart, a former president of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, and Bob Santelli, executive director of the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.
The Chicago Blues Experience will have historical artifacts as well as interactive exhibits in the 50,000-square-foot facility.
Mark Kelly, commissioner of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, said, “The black music tradition of Chicago has shaped world music, yet we haven’t honored it, we haven’t celebrated it, we haven’t focused on it,” he said. “This gives us an opportunity to do that.”
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20170327/NEWS09/170329889/chicago-blues-experience-museum-to-open-spring-2019
