A Conversation with the Interim Director of the American Jazz Museum

American Jazz Museum Interim Executive Director Carol Rhodes Dyson has been on the job since former Executive Director Juanita Moore left in September. Rhodes Dyson grew up in Kansas City, just blocks away from the museum.

By Laura Spencer

Kansas City, MO – On the American Jazz Museum website, its mission is listed like this: "to celebrate the experience of jazz as an original art form...in one of the country's jazz crossroads, 18th and Vine." The museum opened nearly a decade ago and includes the John Baker Film collection, the Blue Room jazz club, the Gem Theater, and the Changing Gallery. American Jazz Museum Interim Executive Director Carol Rhodes Dyson has been on the job since former Executive Director Juanita Moore left in September. Rhodes Dyson grew up in Kansas City, just blocks away from the museum. But she's lived on the east coast for a number of years, studying at Howard University in Washington, DC, and working extensively in museum and history projects. She talked recently to KCUR's Laura Spencer about moving home and her vision for the museum.