A pleasure and honor to have the GRAMMY Museum Chief Program Officer Rita George as a guest. Rita recently moved into the CPO position after years as Chief Operating Officer. Rita joined the GRAMMY Museum in 2008 when it opened. She has overseen everything under the sun from curating the museum, to curating 100+ travelling exhibitions, to managing staff, to DE&I initiatives, and MUCH more! As part of the leadership team, George provides support to the Museum's President and Board of Directors, policy development and HR initiatives.
Rita describes how hard the museum was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic closing to visitors for 15 months, and gets into the entire music industry and what's she's seen behind the curtain since March of 2020. The GRAMMY Museum, which is located in Downtown LA adjacent to Staples Center, had to pivot to entirely virtual galleries and Rita managed that. Rita also discusses all the music education programs she has helped assemble at the GRAMMY Museum and throughout the country. Additionally while the museum is a support system for the annual awards, the exhibitions are not beholden to them. The exhibitions don't just hone in on said artist's history with The Grammy Awards, rather the displays (photos, music, tour videos, & more) are a look into said artist's entire career around music.
Prior to joining the GRAMMY Museum, Rita worked for 13 years at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, OH and was part of that opening in 1995. She discusses her favorite induction ceremony performance (which the host agrees with), and discusses building up that museum as "Visitor Services Director." Rita also delves a bit into artist's she gotten to know and developed a rapport with. Rita also tells the great story of how she was hired away by the GRAMMY Museum in 2008. Take a listen to an interview with a C-Suite executive who deals in the business of music education, proliferates growth of the industry, wears many hats, and hear first hand someone's heart and soul fully immersed in their work. Rita George is an Ohio native and graduate of THE Ohio State University. www.grammymuseum.org