Notice the Carver Theatre, home since 1978 to the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. Founded in 1978 and opened as a museum on September 18, 1993, the Hall carries a clear mission: "to foster, encourage, educate, and cultivate a general appreciation of the medium of jazz music as a legitimate, original and distinctive art form indigenous to America. It also aims to "preserve a continued and sustained program of illuminating the contribution of the State of Alabama...
The museum offers more than 2,200 square feet of exhibits filled with paintings, quilts, instruments and personal effects of artists such as Ella Fitzgerald and W.C. Handy. As you stand here, imagine the stories held in those objects — both the intimate and the iconic. Beyond static displays, the Jazz Hall of Fame brings music into the city: it sponsors jazz performances around Birmingham and brings jazz to many local students with school visits from musicians.
This is a place where preservation meets living tradition, anchored in the Carver Theatre and part of the Birmingham Civil Rights District alongside the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, 16th Street Baptist Church and Kelly Ingram Park. Inside the Carver Theatre, the instruments and personal effects of Ella Fitzgerald and W.C. Handy are waiting for you.