Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way, influenced the music industry through the genre of rock music. The museum is part of the city's redeveloped North Coast Harbor.

2011-2014: Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power[]

On February 3, 2011, it was revealed that Lady Gaga will be among several female artists honored at the world’s first exhibit devoted to the most influential female artists of all time. The exhibit, entitled,Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power will celebrate women who “moved rock and roll music and the American culture forward,” according to the official press release.

The exhibit launched at the museum on May 13, 2011, with more than 60 female artists and filled two floors of the museum. Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power highlights the flashpoints, the firsts, the best, the celebrated -- and sometimes lesser-known women -- who moved rock and roll music and American culture forward.

Dates and locations

May 2011 to February 2012 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio
September 7, 2012 to January 6, 2013 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington
February 9th to May 5th, 2013 at the The Durham Museum in Omaha, Nebraska
June 14, 2013 to September 22, 2013 at the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle, Washington
October 19, 2013 to April 20, 2014 at the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in Phoenix
May 17, 2014 to August 24, 2014 at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan

1. Everett piano with childhood photographs and sheet music: Lady Gaga’s paternal grandparents bought this piano in 1966 for $780. When Gaga was not even a year old, her grandparents gave the piano to her parents. According to Gaga’s mother, “When Stefani started to crawl, she would use the leg of the piano to pull herself up and stand, and in doing so, her fingers would eventually land on the keys. She would stay there and just keep pressing the keys to hear the sound. We would then start to hold her up or sit on the bench and let her tinker, you know, things like ‘Chopsticks’ and ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb.’” Gaga began taking piano lessons when she was four. She wrote her first song when she was five. It was called “Dollar Bills (song)” and was inspired by Pink Floyd’s “Money.” She continued to play this piano until her parents bought her a baby-grand piano for her 13th birthday.

2. Armani Outfit: Lady Gaga wore this outfit at the 2010 Grammy Awards. Her song “Poker Face (song)” won the Grammy for Best Dance Recording, and her album The Fame won for Best Electronic/Dance Album.

3. Meat Dress by Franc Fernandez, 2010: Lady Gaga wore this outfit at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.

4. The Orbit by Nasir Mazhar: Lady Gaga wore this outfit in the "Bad Romance" music video.

Preservation of the Meat Dress[]

For the whole preservation process of the dress by Sergio Vigilato of American Taxidermy, see this page.

For the exhibit, the dress was housed in a clear, plexiglass case with silica gel canisters, which includes a detailed explanation as to why it still looks nearly as good as it did when Lady Gaga wore it “fresh.”

But when it’s on travel, the dress still needs to be carefully crated up and shipped in a climate-controlled truck:

“	We transported it in a climate-controlled truck. It had its own crate that was made especially for it, and the case itself has its own temperature-control environment. Actually, it’s not so much temperature as it is humidity. We have monitors inside that tell us the condition of the case and, yeah, the dress has held up pretty well.	”
—Juan Francisco