Institutional Rhythms: Jazz, the Smithsonian Institution, and Washington DC

FAIN: FT-286243-22

Christi Jay Wells
Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ 85281-3670)

Research leading to a book about the impact of the Smithsonian Institution on jazz patronage, 1960 to the present.

I plan to produce a monograph that investigates the Smithsonian Institution’s programming in and patronage of jazz music. Since the 1960s, the Smithsonian has been a prominent steward, patron, and impresario for jazz music through its recording anthologies, public concerts, and academic symposia as well as large-scale oral history projects, archival collections, and exhibitions. My book will explore how the Smithsonian has navigated its national/international reach as an institutional steward of a Black American art form and its role as a local stakeholder in Washington DC’s cultural ecosystem. Within the field of jazz studies, this work will give needed attention to the role of federal institutions as patrons and will contribute to an emerging body of work chronicling the post-1950 history of jazz in Washington DC. Broadly, the project considers the roles large institutions play within local arts economies and will thus contribute to the fields of cultural and arts policy studies.