A new beginning is on the horizon for the Long Island Coltrane Home. The 1950’s Ranch style home where the Coltrane family once resided is in the process of being transformed into a community resource that combines elements of a historic house, museum, and educational center that honors the Coltrane legacy. As a future center for the life and ideals of Alice and John Coltrane, the rooms in The Home will comprise three core elements in its strive to be a force for good: education, elevation, and creation.
Visitors to the Home will be encouraged to engage with the Home through sight, sound, and touch. The living room will serve as the lobby that welcomes guests into the Home, and will set the tone for the rest of the tour by introducing visitors to the history of the Coltrane family. Coltrane music will play in the room and will be accompanied by period accurate furnishing to replicate the space as it would have appeared during the 1960’s. The rehabilitated kitchen will host an audio-visual installation that will feature never before seen footage, interviews, and reflections from John, Alice, and their family. The downstairs master bedroom, dining room and the a Love Supreme Room will further encapsulate the elements of a historic house by being spaces that are dedicated specifically to the history of the Home. Photographs, memorabilia, and documents will be featured in each room to support the narrative that the Home creates and educates visitors and students on the life of the Coltranes.
With the restoration of the Home comes the restoration of Alice Coltrane’s basement studio. The studio will be transformed into a functional space with up-to-date recording equipment which could host music classes and educational programs. This will give students the exclusive opportunity to connect with their own creative spirits and elevate their talents in the same space that Alice Coltrane once did. The future may also allow the basement studio to be used for private professional recording sessions. To tie the experience together, snippets of Alice Coltrane’s history will adorn the basement to remind and educate its users about the everlasting reach of the Coltrane legacy.
As a part of the ongoing effort to bring the Coltrane legacy to Long Island K-12 school curricula and curious minds, the Home will host programs which could take place both on site and online. Educational programs, music classes, yoga programs in Alice’s meditation room and speaker series all have the potential to be hosted by the John and Alice Coltrane Home once its doors open. Expanding the scope of programs to include an online platform will let the impact of the Home to reach past its local community. Live stream capabilities will allow those willing to learn to come together and participate in the Home’s programs no matter where they reside.
The creative lives of both John and Alice Coltrane reflected a desire to be forces for good. The personal values that they held so deeply resonated within their music which continues to inspire to this very day. As the opportunity for the public to experience the Home draws near, visitors will soon see how education, creation, and elevation are represented within the rooms of the space. The Home takes the same fundamental morals valued by the Coltrane family and will reflect them in our programs and in the completed restoration of the space.