Remembering Bill Ivey
We at the Nashville Jazz Workshop would like to extend our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of Bill Ivey, a steadfast advocate for the arts and former NJW board member, who passed away on November 7th. We are so grateful for his incredible work in Nashville and beyond.
Thank you to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum for their words:
“Bill Ivey, who led the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum as CEO from 1971 through 1997, died in Nashville on November 7. He was eighty-one years old.
Born in Detroit in 1944, Ivey earned an undergraduate history degree at the University of Michigan and then an M.A. in folklore and ethnomusicology at Indiana University. He was doing graduate work toward a Ph.D. in 1971, when he decided to apply for a job as director of the library at the Country Music Foundation (CMF), the umbrella nonprofit for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The Museum had opened on Music Row in 1967, and the board of the Country Music Association (then running the CMF) determined four years later that the Museum should have a proper library and research center.
Hired for the library job in August 1971, Ivey so impressed the board that by the fall of the year he was promoted to director of the CMF. Over the next quarter-century, he steadily built the staff and collections of the Museum. Ivey set a rigorous standard that ensured the Museum’s collections of artifacts, recordings, and library materials documenting country music would be unmatched. Twice he presided over building expansions, and through his leadership the Museum was transformed from a modest tourist attraction into the premier center for the preservation and study of country music past and present.
During his tenure, the Museum gained national accreditation, its budget increased fourfold, and its staff and programs grew accordingly. The Museum also acquired Hatch Show Print in a donation from Gaylord Entertainment in 1992.
In December 1997, President Bill Clinton selected Ivey to be the chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. After four years in that role, Ivey directed the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University and served on the faculty there from 2002 to 2012.
In addition to those full-time posts, Ivey also served at various times as president of the Recording Academy, chair of the Recording Academy’s board of trustees, and president of the American Folklore Society. In 1989, he helped found the Leadership Music nonprofit networking forum and served for years as that organization’s discussion facilitator. He also wrote liner notes for many historical albums as well as scholarly articles, and he published three books in his later years on popular culture, politics, and public policy.
He was a challenging thinker who helped cement the reputation of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum as a significant and authoritative music history center. His impact on the Museum and the wider arts world is incalculable.
