The GRAMMY Museum Experience Prudential Center in partnership with the GRAMMY Museum, Bruce Spingsteen Archives, and Center for American Music at Monmouth University have announced a traveling exhibit titled “Bruce Springsteen Live,” beginning Friday, Oct. 1 and running through Sunday, March 20.
The exhibit features artifacts, live performance footage, instruments, stage costumes, exclusive interviews, concert posters, photography, and interactive displays to immerse fans in Springsteen and the band’s creative process.
“As we reopen the doors to our museum and so many of us return to the workplace, it only seemed fitting that we would look to ‘The Boss’ to lead the way,” said Mark Conklin, Director of Artist Relations and Programming at GRAMMY Museum Experience™ Prudential Center. “No musical artist has captured the spirit and resiliency of New Jerseyans in song better than Bruce Springsteen, so we couldn’t imagine a more appropriate exhibit at this moment.”
Notable artifacts include the Tunnel of Love Ticket Booth Stage Prop from the 1988 Tunnel of Love Tour, stage clothing and accessories from Springsteen and members of the E Street Band, as well as a Signed Human Rights Tour Itinerary from the 1988 six-week benefit world tour, raising funds for Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 40th anniversary of its sponsor, Amnesty International.
The itinerary commemorates the collaboration of music and activism, featuring the signatures of the tour’s various performers that include Springsteen, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, Youssou N’ Dour, and more.
Instruments featured include Springsteen’s Born to Run Esquire guitar, a modified Fender guitar featured on the album covers of Live 1975/85 (1986), Human Touch (1992), Wrecking Ball (2012) and most notably, Born to Run (1975).
Clarence Clemons’ Saxophone, nicknamed “The Big Man,” makes an appearance as well. The saxophonist played alongside Springsteen for 40 years, and upon his death in 2011, the instrument was passed on to his nephew Jake Clemons who, since 2012, continues to use it in performances as the newest member of the E Street band.
“Few performers embody the soul and excitement of live rock and roll like Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band,” said co-curator Robert Santelli, Founding Executive Director of the GRAMMY Museum®, and a longtime New Jersey music journalist. “This exhibit will undoubtedly get fans excited about seeing Springsteen again in concert, hopefully soon.”
A Create Your Encore Interactive kiosk allows for visitors to view Bruce’s handwritten set-lists and create their own encores to compare against Springsteen’s original.
“We are honored to work with the Grammy Museum on this unique Bruce Springsteen exhibit,” said co-curator Eileen Chapman, Director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music. “Opening it here in New Jersey makes it extra special; since so many of Springsteen’s greatest shows happened here.”
