Elvis is rocking at the Musical Instrument Museum

The Musical Instrument Museum is hosting Elvis week from Aug. 10 - 16 to celebrate the history of the King’s music and his connection to Arizona. With this being Arizona’s centennial year the team at the MIM wanted to highlight the time that Elvis spent in Arizona.
Visitors can see Elvis pieces in the Artist Gallery. The exhibit is a permanent part of the gallery, but every year they review the pieces that they currently have and work with the Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. “Graceland” to renew the loan for the museum. They then work to choose pieces that they feel would be appropriate to show in the exhibit. Elvis had 7 musical performances while in Arizona and the MIM exhibit has two of the suits that he wore, including a white jumpsuit adorned with a cape and red and silver admonishments that weighed around 50 pounds. Visitors can learn about the exhibit during a presentation made by David Wegehaupt, the curatorial assistant, on Aug. 10 -11 at 3 p.m. and Laura Diekema, the special exhibits coordinator, on Aug. 12 at 3 p.m..
Another piece that the museum is very proud to feature is the last guitar that Elvis ever played on, the Martin D28. The Conservation Lab began working on it a year ago to fix cracks and damage that the Martin D28 had developed. The Conservation Lab also re-did the stitching on a decorated leather guitar cover that belonged to Elvis. Irene Peters, the head of Conservation, will be giving presentations about what they did and why, to conserve the Martin D28 and the guitar cover.
During Elvis week visitors will be able to immerse themselves in everything Elvis. The museum café will be featuring Elvis themed menu items that include Elvis lyrics right in the name. Menu items changes and feature everything from soup, main dishes and desserts including “All Shook Up Cobbler I’m itching like a man on a fuzzy Peach tree” for desert on Friday Aug. 10 and “Viva Las Vegas” “Let’s Set my Pork on Fire” smothered pork chops and homemade biscuits “Whole Lot of money that’s ready to burn” on Aug. 15 and 16.
The museum will also be showing Elvis’s film Charro! which was filmed in Apache Junction. Visitors can watch the movie and than see Elvis’s costume and movie script in the Artist Gallery.
Visitors will be invited to take part in different events through out the week; such as playing Elvis music, crafts like creating their own paper guitar, and entering to win prizes. Visit the MIM events website for more information.

Source: http://www.examiner.com