Songbook Foundation presents Taylor Swift exhibit

Popup installation at Palladium explores pop artist’s role in music history

As central Indiana prepares for a historic run of concerts by Taylor Swift, the Great American Songbook Foundation is exploring the singer-songwriter’s place in popular music history through an online resource and a special popup exhibit at its gallery in Carmel.

The Songbook Exhibit Gallery, located in the Palladium at Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts, currently features From the Jazz Age to Streaming: The Soundtrack of the 20s-20s. The exhibit juxtaposes the popular music and culture of the 1920s and the 2020s in terms of how music has been recorded, marketed, purchased, and experienced, as well as how the music has reflected social disparities and other trends of its time.

Many of these issues are embodied in Swift, whose unprecedented success has sparked much conversation about artists’ rights, concert ticketing policies, and the very nature of pop celebrity and fandom, among other subjects.

Through Nov. 15, the interactive gallery will feature Swift memorabilia in historical context alongside iconic artifacts from artists across the past century of American popular music. Activities will include listening sessions, a friendship bracelet giveaway, and more.

In addition to the gallery exhibit, the Songbook Foundation has posted a multimedia online exhibit titled Taylor Swift: A New Chapter in the American Songbook, which places her songwriting in the storytelling tradition of the Songbook.

The Songbook Exhibit Gallery is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays at the Palladium, 1 Carter Green, Carmel. Visitors may enter through the west entrance near the Fifth Third Bank Box Office. Admission is free. The gallery also will be open to ticket holders preceding the upcoming Palladium concerts by Boney James on Saturday, Nov. 2, and The Piano Guys on Nov. 9. For more information, email Info@TheSongbook.org or call (317) 844-2251.