Music museum shelved, again

The state’s municipal development on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard will need to find a new anchor tenant. That’s because legislation to create a long-proposed museum showcasing the history of Texas music failed to gain passage in the Texas Legislature this session. For a while the matter led in part by Austin Sen. Kirk Watson seemed to be on a glide path toward passage from both houses. The legislation would have created the foundation needed to raise funds for the multi-floor museum and helped to give it an eventual home in the $550 million two-building complex that will be constructed next to the Bullock Texas State History Museum and across from the Blanton Museum of Art. The measure was ultimately done in by objections from a network of smaller, regional music museums from around the state, who refused to collaborate on the project and argued that an official state museum would likely put them out of business. That means the effort gets shelved again until 2019, unless it somehow makes its way onto the docket of an already loaded special legislative session.