How to Make a Festival into an Archive, and Other Misadventures That Paid Off

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival was founded in 1970 and is one of the most iconic American Festivals. On July 5, 2000, Lyons walked into an unrenovated building and in the middle of the room was a pile of boxes haphazardly stacked. The Archive and Jazz Fest Founder Allison Miner had died in 1995, and now it was Lyons’ task to revive the collection and make the Archive a research facility. This presentation will address not just the Archive’s growth and development, but also how the Archive worked along with the Jazz Fest and the Jazz & Heritage Foundation to chart milestones of success and a few failures. Facing many challenges – natural, fiscal, and public health disasters– the Archive survived by serving the Foundation and keeping the past present.