Bill Ivey

Career

Bill Ivey took over as the first full-time director of the Country Music Foundation and its associated Hall of Fame and Museum just months after starting there as a librarian, a role he held from 1971 until 1998. That long run included its share of controversy and scandal. In 1972, he launched the Journal of Country Music as its founding editor, staying in that position until 1975. A Billboard Country Award for album note writing came his way in 1974.

Ivey chaired the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences twice, from 1981 to 1983 and again from 1989 to 1991—the only person elected to two separate terms. In 1983, he remarked that the Grammys had been getting better at pleasing critics by recognizing current trends, but predicted the award for the year’s most imaginative record would never match the critics’ pick, adding that a little distance was probably healthy. He co-wrote the 30th Grammy Awards telecast in 1988.

President Bill Clinton appointed Ivey to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in 1994. In 1989, he helped found Leadership Music, a Nashville program designed to unite artists and executives for a stronger, more collaborative music scene. Clinton later tapped Ivey to chair the National Endowment for the Arts from 1998 to 2001. There, his “Challenge America” small-grant program is widely credited with rebuilding congressional trust in the often-controversial agency.

Ivey drew national attention in 1999 when he unilaterally pulled a grant to Cinco Puntos Press for La Historia de los Colores, citing worries the money could reach the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. The Lannan Foundation stepped in to cover and double the grant.

Writing

In 2007, Ivey co-edited with Steven Tepper the book Engaging Art: the Next Great Transformation of America's Cultural. In 2008 his book Arts, Inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights was published by the University of California Press.

In 2012 he released Handmaking America: A Back-to-Basics Pathway to a Revitalized American Democracy, and in 2018 he published Rebuilding an Enlightened World: Folklorizing America. Ivey also co-edited The Pocantico Gathering: Happiness and a High Quality of Life – The Role of Art and Art Making, Cultural Awareness in the Military: Developments and Implications for Future Humanitarian Cooperation, and Cultural Discourse: China-US Intangible Cultural Heritage Forums. He wrote articles on the music industry and on music history, including the lack of diverse representation in the early decades of 20th century music recording.

Did You Know?

• Ivey was the first full-time director of the Country Music Foundation and the related Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, having been promoted to the directorship a few months after first being hired as CMF librarian.
• Ivey coined the phrase 'Expressive Life' to define the part of the human experience shaped by cultural heritage and creative practice.