Carmel Live

About

This gallery, officially the Traditions Senior Communities Songbook Gallery, is inside the Payne & Mencias Palladium. It shows items from the Songbook Library & Archives, the collection kept by the Great American Songbook Foundation. Exhibits rotate, and the Foundation's focus is popular and jazz standards.

As of early November 2026, the gallery is closed while a new exhibit goes in. The new one is Unforgettable: Celebrating the Soundtrack of America, which the Foundation said on November 5, 2026, opens in November. It has not posted an exact date, so call before you go.

The exhibit will include a recreation of Irving Berlin's songwriting studio with his custom transposing piano, plus rare artifacts, interactive displays and the stories behind songs such as White Christmas and God Bless America. While the gallery is closed, the Foundation's site has online exhibits.

History

Michael Feinstein founded the Foundation in 2007. It is based on the Center's campus and also oversees the Songbook Hall of Fame and the Songbook Academy, a summer program for student musicians. It is working on plans for a separate museum in Central Indiana.

When to go

Once it reopens, the gallery's posted hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., plus one hour before select Center Presents shows at the Palladium.

The Foundation's White Christmas film screening is at the Palladium at 7 p.m. on Monday, December 7, 2026. Tickets are $5 to $30.

Check today's hours →

Good to know

Enter through the Palladium's west entrance, off 3rd Avenue, at the box office. Street parking and the city's self-park garages are free. The archives are open by appointment only. Email Archives@TheSongbook.org to ask.

Price

• Gallery admissionFree

The Center lists the Foundation's exhibits as free.

Prices checked November 2026 on the website of Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts. They can change, so check before you go.

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