Rock Hall of Fame to open New York annex

NEW YORK (AP) — The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is going on the road to New York — the city that spawned hip-hop and gave Bob Dylan and the Ramones their start.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was expected to announce Wednesday that the Cleveland-based museum is opening an annex in downtown Manhattan. It is the first of several planned outposts that will take its collection of artifacts to a wider audience, possibly as far as the Middle East.

Billy Joel and Clive Davis were expected to join the mayor at the location in SoHo.

The 25,000-square-foot annex will house Bruce Springsteen’s 1957 Chevy and will feature a number of different exhibits, including one with New York City sites that have musical significance.

Museum officials are counting on the branches to provide new revenue streams, attract more philanthropy dollars and entice more people to visit the hall of fame in Cleveland.

Another annex being planned for Las Vegas will be located on or near the Strip and will be less focused on rock artifacts and more entertainment oriented, according to Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the rock museum. A city has not been selected for the proposed Middle East branch.

The annexes mark the museum’s first effort to build a presence outside of Cleveland. The concept follows a trend set by other museums like the Guggenheim and the Louvre, and comes in a year when the hall has announced some notable changes, including a major interior renovation of its lakefront museum and the return of the induction ceremony to Cleveland in 2009 after more than a decade-long absence.

The New York annex will be open for a minimum of two years, longer if it proves successful. It’s backed financially by Running Subway Productions, a New York-based entertainment company known for “Bodies ... The Exhibition” and the Broadway production of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”