The National Endowment for the Arts’ listening tour stopped in Memphis recently, giving local artists and supporters a chance to show how the city’s rich musical heritage has been linked to successful economic development and arts-based neighborhood revitalization programs.

Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, was in Memphis recently and was given a tour of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and the Stax Music Academy by Deanie Parker, president and CEO of Soulsville. (Photos by Wiley Henry)

Deanie Parker, president and CEO of Soulsville, shows Rocco Landesman (left) a map of Soulsville USA, where a number of legendary musicians lived and launched their careers at Stax Records. Landesman was invited to Memphis by Pitt Hyde (center) of the Hyde Family Foundations.

Landesman (left), U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and Jeffrey T. Higgs, executive director of The LeMoyne-Owen Community Development Corp. listen while Charlie Santo, assistant professor of city and regional planning at the University of Memphis, lectures on “Returning Artists to the Soulsville Neighborhood: A Discussion of Memphis Music Magnet Project” at  the Stax Music Academy.

“Memphis is far along in this concept of the role of arts in neighborhood revitalization and urban renewal,” said Rocco Landesman, chairman of the NEA, who had been invited to Memphis by Barbara and Pitt Hyde of the Hyde Family Foundations.

Landesman is in the midst of a six-month “Art Works” tour of American towns and neighborhoods as part of an NEA effort to document the many ways art works support and enrich communities.  “The projects are so exciting here,” he said “The NEA has been talking the talk, but Memphis has been walking the walk.”

Memphis understands the importance of arts as an economic driver, said Landesman, who also is a businessman, college professor and Broadway theater producer. “They know already – because they’ve done it. And that’s what we’ll be talking about for the next four years; and I think Memphis is ground-zero for that.”

Landesman’s daylong schedule in Memphis on Jan. 15 included tours of Beale Street, the South Main Arts District, the Zipper Arts Zone in Midtown, Soulsville USA, and visits to the Memphis Music Foundation, the National Civil Rights Museum, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and the Stax Music Academy.

There were roundtable discussions as well at the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum, NCRM and the Stax Music Academy.

Charlie Santo, assistant professor of city and regional planning at the University of Memphis, facilitated the Stax Music Academy discussion on “Returning Artists to the Soulsville Neighborhood: A Discussion of Memphis Music Magnet Project.”

Memphis Music Magnet is an arts-based neighborhood revitalization initiative with an emphasis on “retaining talent and growing talent, as well as attracting talent from the outside,” Santo said. “We focused on music because the music industry in Memphis is not what it once was. We have a lot of talent in Memphis. And people recognize it as an asset.”

Soulsville is Memphis Music Magnet’s target area, where a number of music legends honed their skills, such as Lucie E. Campbell, Maurice White of Earth, Wind and Fire, songwriter David Porter, soul man Isaac Hayes, “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin, Booker T. Jones of Booker T. & the MGs, Memphis Slim, gospel composer Rev. Herbert Brewster, Al Green, Memphis Minnie, jazzmen Phineas and Calvin Newborn, and other notables.

Many of these artists once lived in the South Memphis neighborhood around Stax Records, now home to Soulsville USA. When Stax Records folded, the once bustling music center and surrounding community lapsed into decay.

The site is now home to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and Stax Music Academy. The area now is teeming with new housing and economic development initiatives, which are supported by The LeMoyne-Owen College Community Development Corporation.

The goal is to attract up-and-coming musicians and other creative workers who are drawn to cities where there is a thriving music industry and clusters of artists who energize and enrich the cultural scene, Santo said.

The Memphis Music Magnet idea was conceived by graduate students in the City and Regional Planning program at the U of M, said Santo. It was based on an arts-based neighborhood revitalization program in Paducah, Ky., called The Artist Relocation Program, and a Chattanooga, Tenn., program called ArtsMove.

“We’re putting a local spin on revitalization and tying it into the city’s heritage with specific focus on creating neighborhood-level change by attracting and supporting musicians and the music industry in Memphis,” he said. “We want to build on our existing assets and not try to create a new image from scratch.”

President Barack Obama and the First Lady are committed to the arts, Landesman said. “I think you’re going to see the most arts committed administration since (Franklin) Roosevelt,” said Landesman, the 10th NEA chairman since Congress established the arts agency in 1965.

“We are excited to learn what’s happening and bring it back to Washington,” said Sally Gifford, who accompanied Landesman to Memphis. “Clearly the people here are making this happen in Memphis. It’s cutting-edge; it’s on the cusp for the next step.”