Smithsonian’s hip-hop anthology exceeds Kickstarter goal
WASHINGTON — The Smithsonian’s third Kickstarter campaign to fund an Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap raised $368,841, blowing past its original $250,000 goal.
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and the National Museum of African American History and Culture collaborated on the monthlong campaign, which launched Oct. 17 and ended Thursday. It hit its all-or-nothing goal Nov 8.
The money will be used to create a 300-page book and nine-CD set chronicling the history of an American art form, its evolution and its influence around the world. The set will be released in December 2018.
In its first Kickstarter, the National Air and Space Museum raised $719,779 from 9,477 backers to restore and display the Apollo spacesuits worn by Neil Armstrong and Alan Shepard.
The National Museum of American History collected $349,036 from 6,451 backers through the second attempt.
The third Kickstarter attracted fewer backers than the first two, but its average gift was $131, larger than the average gift of $76 made to the Apollo space suit campaign and the $54 average gift for the preservation of the ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz.”
More than half of the 2,804 backers contributed at least $100 to receive a copy of the Boxed Set and a special remix, a $151 value, according to the website.
Those gifts are not tax deductible since the value of the reward exceeds the donation.
Officials offered the anthology at cost to attract fans to the project early and allow it to go into production, a spokesman said. The sale price has not bee determined, he said.