Mellencamp Picks a Home for His Archives

Indiana's own John Mellencamp will donate the record of his career to Indiana University. The school announced during a Mellencamp Symposium that the collection will include items related to Mellencamp's social activism, philanthropy, music, and art, the Herald-Times reports. Instruments and memorabilia will be included, President Pamela Whitten said. The donation by the singer-songwriter-painter "will be an incredible resource for arts scholars" and a "clear source of inspiration to our students," she said Friday. Mellencamp's multifaceted association with IU is deepening, per Variety.

The school said the symposium "brought academic scholars, music industry leaders, journalists and more to campus for a deep dive into the cultural and social impact of Mellencamp's vast oeuvre." The John Mellencamp Pavilion, an indoor training site for the school's athletic teams, opened in 1996, a project kicked off by Mellencamp's $1.5 million donation. A university museum has scheduled an exhibit of his paintings for next school year, and a statue has been commissioned to be installed near the Fine Arts Plaza on the Bloomington campus. The artwork will "symbolize the strong connection Mellencamp has to his southern Indiana roots," the school said. (More John Mellencamp stories.)