The Friends of the Delta Music Museum Foundation is having a membership drive to keep the Museum and Arcade Theater open.

The museum is important because it showcases the musicians who have made music history along the Delta region from Memphis to New Orleans.

The budget for the museum has been cut for the remainder of the 2015 fiscal year and all of the 2016 fiscal year. The operations at the museum will be severely and dramatically reduced beginning April 13. The Delta Music Museum will be open one day per week with only one employee at the museum.

We want to let the community know that it is impossible to run the museum and the arcade one day a week without losing the tourism to the Miss-Lou area that the Delta Music Museum has worked so hard to bring to Ferriday and the surrounding areas. It takes years to build relationships with tour directors and to be recognized in the travel industry. If the museum is not open more than one day a week then it will be very difficult to get tours to re-schedule and the revenue lost from tourism will affect the entire Miss-Lou area.

The museum and Arcade Theater Performing Arts Center have approximately 13,000 visitors a year to walk through our doors of which include international guests from England, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, along with many other countries and the USA. Tourism contributes to the economy of Concordia Parish, Natchez and the surrounding areas with the tourism money being spent while they are here.

Suggested membership donation per person include Bronze Star, $25; Silver Star, $50; Gold Star, $100; Gold Star Plus, $200; Platinum Star, $500; Platinum Plus, $1,000.

Our new director of the Delta Music Museum is Lisa Marks and she would like for everyone to remember that the museum is free admission, open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Your donation is greatly appreciated. Your membership donation can be mailed or brought to the museum. All donations are tax deductible.

Museum mailing address is P.O. Box 1733, Ferriday, LA, 71334.

Foundation board members are Rena Pitts, president; Gwen Robin, vice president; and Cheryl Colvin, secretary.

For more information, call 318-757-9999.

 

Rena Pitts, president

Delta Music Museum Foundation