Future

Of The

Home

Photo credit : Courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz landscape architect

Future Of The Home

The John and Alice Coltrane Home will be a multifaceted space for immersion in history, education, creativity, and entertainment. Under two hours from Manhattan, the accessible location offers New York locals and world travelers a place to revel in their jazz fandom or newcomers to begin the journey of exploring America’s landmark genre. Artistic and spiritual aesthetics that have become synonymous with the Coltranes permeate worldwide, but the center of their illustrious milieu lies in The Home. Visitors will experience the lives of these two groundbreaking artists by walking in their shoes, inside their world, grasping firsthand the significance of the work made there, and the surrounding political and social contexts. The site will be the headquarters for a branching network of educational partnerships, music organizations, and virtual communities dedicated to the Coltranes’ work, pursuing the greater purpose, simply stated by John simply as “being a force for good”.

At The Home, visitors will experience a holistic theme throughout the design and layout of the exhibits and landscape. Within The Home, the rooms in which the Coltrane family lived, practiced, and recorded will be on display with supplemental additions to highlight their events and music. Outside, the meditation garden and surrounding grounds will similarly present a tranquil atmosphere inspired by the family’s life and legacy.

History, education, and creation will be the three primary functions of the space. The museum inside The Coltrane Home will showcase the lives and work of these landmark African American artists. Through this immersive learning experience, their music and ideas of will be examined through the lenses of the greater political and historical contexts of their time and place in late 1960s and early 1970s suburban America. As an education and events space, The Home will host classes in music, history, meditation, spiritual exploration, yoga, and improvisation as well as a curated events series. It will also serve as a meeting place for scholars and thinkers to discuss issues relevant to Coltrane Home themes. Students may additionally apply for an internship program assisting in all on site functions. The concert series will feature speakers and musicians selected by an annual guest artistic director. All events and programs will be open to the Dix Hills community and beyond. Creation, the third function of the space, will be most prominent in the basement studio section of The Home. This recording space, the birthplace of Alice Coltrane’s canonical Impulse! Records albums, “will offer professional” grade equipment and acoustics to be used by artists in residence and other musicians. Essential to The Coltrane Home and expansion of the Coltrane world is inspiring new sounds rooted in their ideas and motifs, and there is no better place for this kind of expression than in The Home itself.

I want to be a force for good

John Coltrane

The Music is in your heart, your soul, your spirit

Alice Coltrane