The design plans for the Hall of Fame were presented to the Architectural Review Commission last week.
By Nancy Peckenham
The dream of creating a Folk Music Hall of Fame in the center of Newburgh took a step forward this month when the city’s Architectural Review Commission got a look at preliminary drawings of the proposed center on Liberty Street.
The idea of creating a Folk Music Hall of Fame in Newburgh came from Jim Sollami, a retired New York City firefighter who served as the Cornwall town supervisor for one term starting in 2002. Since leaving office, he has been a publisher and property developer in Newburgh, where he purchased a building on Liberty Street near Washington’s Headquarters that is a mere shell. He chose that site for the future Folk Music Hall of Fame because he believes that it can be part of the revitalization of the city and that folk music is more rooted in a community that is struggling than in an affluent community like Newport, Rhode Island, which has hosted a folk festival for more than 50 years.
Sollami first thought of creating the Hall of Fame a couple of years ago and enlisted the support of professionals and enthusiasts to take the first steps. River Architects of Cold Spring developed the design of the building, which includes two levels of exhibit space, a café, performance space, museum store and recording and educational areas. The city’s Architectural Review Commission had a positive response to the plans, Sollami said, though members proposed re-working the front of the building that is designed to evoke the soundboard of a guitar.
The ARC recommended some changes to the buildings facade as seen from Liberty Street.
The next step is fund raising to help the new non-profit organization work toward its goals of being an educational, literary and cultural corporation dedicated to the promotion and preservation of folk music and folk instruments. This winter he plans to begin a series of concerts that will help raise funds. Visit the group’s website at www.folkmusichalloffame.org to find out more about its upcoming plans.
Meanwhile, he is finishing his own book on the history of American folk music since the 1950s, writing a novel and his own songs. He plays the guitar and piano but Sollami says he prefers it when others perform his work. Having access to a place to play folk music is part of Sollami’s idea. “It will be a place where anyone can come and listen to traditional and contemporary folk music,” he said. “You’ve got to have a dream to make anything happen.”
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