The Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles has launched an online fundraising campaign to help pay for its upcoming and long-awaited “Route 66: The Road and the Romance,” according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
The Autry wants to raise $66,000 within 30 days through IndieGoGo. The campaign launched Tuesday; through late Wednesday morning, it had raised more than $3,000.
The show begins June 6. Donations as low as $10 come with perks from the museum. The top tier of $10,000 gives you lunch with the museum’s president and curator, plus a slew of souvenirs and perks.
The Times also has some details about the exhibits and artifacts:
The show, which will run until Jan. 4, will include Jack Kerouac’s famed manuscript of “On the Road,” typed feverishly on a single continuous scroll; pages from John Steinbeck’s manuscript of “The Grapes of Wrath”; a Martin guitar that belonged to Woody Guthrie; Dorothea Lange’s famous photography documenting Depression-era desperation; and a new print of a photograph that L.A. artist Ed Ruscha first published in “Twentysix Gasoline Stations,” his early 1960s book documenting a trip along Route 66.
Here’s a video about the fundraiser by the museum:
(An image of the original manuscript scroll of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” which will be displayed at The Autry’s Route 66 show, by Steve Rhodes via Flickr)
While I look forward to this exhibit, it is unfortunate the location. I won’t beat the dead horse more than necessary, but it is important to note that anyone going to visit this exhibit must also let the Autry National Center know their displeasure of the Autry’s attitude toward the people of North East Los Angeles. The pillaging and plunder by the Cowboy Autry of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian artifacts and the subsequent limited access to the Route 66-landmark Southwest Museum is abhorrent. One has to wonder if the Autry’s choice of this exhibit is meant to partially blind the 2400-mile long, international Route 66 community to the Autry’s actions on Mount Washington at the Southwest Museum complex, which includes the taking of money from the Route 66 National Park Service program for upkeep of the still-closed Casa de Adobe.
If you’re aware of beating a dead horse too much, then I’ll assume you’ll stop swinging when more stories are posted in the coming weeks.
Unfortunately this dead horse seems to keep getting more lives provided via different means, so it needs to keep getting whacked at some more. We’ll see how and where it goes. The reality is that the negative aspect of the Autry National Center’s actions needs to be kept in mind when discussing the positive as well, and vice versa. I’m impressed and intrigued by the exhibit and the potential publicity it can bring to the road, especially since it will be located in the most populous metropolitan area that the road entails. I just wish that the fervor that ANC is bringing to the exhibit would carry to the Route 66 properties that the same organization actually owns.