The Michigan Audio Heritage Society (MAHS) Museum is a free, publicly-accessible storefront museum for the extensive music archive developed by musician and proprietor of the world-renowned Peoples Records, Brad Hales. Located inside the record store, the museum and archive features regularly changing exhibitions that highlight Detroit and Michigan's significant contributions to global musical culture. Original research and publications are an important feature of the museum's mission to preserve and provide a real context for this pivotal cultural legacy. An all-Michigan, Detroit-centric internet radio station will be online soon as well.
“People may not realize that Detroit is a popular destination for music-related tourism,” Hales states. “A worldwide network of rare record collectors exists, and Michigan has always been a hub for finding 'rares,' I see the same dealers and collectors again and again each year from England, Japan, France, Germany, and all over the U.S., who travel here because of our music.”
The name “MAHS” is a play on the last name of one of the soul producers who ran D-Town Records, and opened right next to Motown on Grand Boulevard.
The MAHS Museum's first exhibition presents artifacts of the iconic Detroit independent record labels Tribe and Strata. The exhibition opened with performances by the iconic Detroit group Vibes From the Tribe, featuring founding members Phil Ranelin, Jariby Shahid and Ron Williams.
In tribute to the legacy of Detroit's independent, artist-run jazz labels, the opening exhibition at MAHS presents materials and ephemera from both Tribe Records and its near contemporary, Strata Records. September 26 - December 31, 2014.
This project is generously supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's Knight Arts Challenge and Eastern Market Corporation
