Playing Arizona

A new Museum of Musical Instruments (MIM) has opened its doors to the public in Phoenix, Arizona: an exciting project which celebrates the rich diversity of the world’s music and musical instruments.

Our little Island of Malta has not been forgotten. It has also been included in this exciting project, forming part of the European section. We can proudly say that it is represented in the MIM by a number of locally crafted instruments representative of our musical culture. The Malta stand includes: bagpipe (żaqq), tambourine (tanbur), friction drum (rabbaba/żafżafa), guitars and whistles as well as photos, videos and recordings of the above instruments.

The museum is built over a vast area which includes not only an exhibition area but also an auditorium, a conservation laboratory open for viewing, a recording studio, galleries where visitors can see and hear instruments being played on video, and also a restaurant and café.

Founded, and largely funded, by Robert J. Ulrich, the former chairman and chief executive of the well known Target Corporation, the Phoenix Museum, spread out over two floors, includes some 12,000 instruments from all over the globe and has the unique aim of encompassing all world cultures.

The second floor is devoted to MIM’s extensive core collections, arranged in Geo-Galleries that focus on five global regions: Africa and the Middle East, Asia and Oceania, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the United States and Canada.