SHREWSBURY, NJ — Want to learn more about the boss of New Jersey?
Melissa Ziobro, the curator for the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music (BSACAM), will be speaking about her work with the archives at the Shrewsbury branch of the Monmouth County Library on Sept. 5.
Located at Monmouth University, the BSACAM preserves “the legacy of Bruce Springsteen and celebrates the history of American music and its diversity of artists and genres.”
Currently planning for a museum opening in 2026, the center is hosting ongoing efforts to stage a major traveling exhibit as well.
Ziobro’s work with the archives
Long before Ziobro stepped into her current role as curator, she worked as a historian in Fort Monmouth’s Command Historical Office.
When the base closed in 2011, Ziobro moved her part-time faculty role to full-time with Monmouth University — something that would later lead her to the Bruce Springsteen Archives.
“I taught a lot of classes in the Department of History and Anthropology,” Ziobro said. “But then I also started a number of classes for students who wanted to do public history — history outside the classroom like I had been doing at Fort Monmouth. So historic preservation, oral history, museums and archives management, things like that.”
It was in forming these classes that Ziobro said she first got in contact with the archives.
“While I was a full-time faculty member, I started partnering with the Bruce Springsteen Archives and having my students do experiential learning with the archives,” Ziobro said.
“So if I’m teaching an oral history class as their capstone project one semester, the students did oral histories for the archive,” Ziobro continued. “One semester I was teaching a museums and archives class, and their capstone project was a Bruce Springsteen exhibit at the library.”
For Ziobro, having the archives at Monmouth University was like a “perfect sandbox” for her students to learn real-world skills. She’s been working with the BSACAM since 2016, but it was only last August that Ziobro said she was offered a full-time curator role.
“Our team is just five people,” Ziobro said. “We all wear a lot of hats, because that is a very, very small team for everything that we are trying to accomplish.”
In addition to Ziobro, the BSACAM team consists of Executive Director Bob Santelli, Director Eileen Chapman, Programs Manager Jeri Houseworth and Administrative Assistant Annalaan LeMay.
Though their team is small, Ziobro said they’re fortunate to have access to Monmouth University departments since the BSACAM falls under the university.
“Even though we are a separate 501(c)(3), we get tremendous help from departments throughout campus,” Ziobro said.
On a day-to-day basis, Ziobro said she can be found doing a variety of things.
Whether it’s helping with programming or taking part in the archive’s monthly curator series, Ziobro said everyone on the team helps out in their own way.
“I help a little bit with programming when it’s educational or academic,” Ziobro said. “For example, I’ve got this monthly ‘Conversations with Our Curator’ series where I interview different authors about the latest scholarship related to Bruce and American music.”
“More broadly, I am doing oral histories with people who are part of Bruce’s world but also American music,” Ziobro continued. “We have a massive traveling exhibit right now — ‘Music America’ which tells the story of 250 years of American music history through over 100 artifacts from our collection and from teams across the country.”
Though the BSACAM is known for its expansive archive of Springsteen’s work, Ziobro stressed that the center is for American music history as well.
“Of course, we all love Bruce as a New Jersey hero, and his impact on music and culture is enormous,” Ziobro said. “But we are also very proud of that Center for American Music piece. Our collection mission is largely related to Bruce, and then we tell the broader story of American music history and the way music has both shaped and reflected American life with our exhibits, our special programs, our publications.”
Ties to Monmouth County
Alongside reflecting broader American music culture, what some don’t know is that Springsteen himself has close ties to Monmouth County.
From 1969 to 1974, Monmouth University was the site of many early Springsteen concerts, and the center itself is only a few blocks away from where Springsteen wrote his most famous song, “Born to Run,” in 1974.
For Ziobro, Springsteen’s ties to Monmouth hit even closer to home, as he played at Fort Monmouth multiple times throughout the years.
“He played there [Fort Monmouth] several times over the decades, going back to when he was a teenager,” Ziobro said. “You know, playing at the Teen Club through the height of his career, or when he would practice in our expo theater because the place afforded him so much privacy.”
Even Springsteen’s famous “Born in the USA” album cover has ties to Fort Monmouth, as Ziobro said the red hat peaking out of the back pocket of his jeans on the cover is related to a project that was based out of Fort Monmouth.
“The Bruce-Monmouth County ties are strong and they are deep,” Ziobro said. “And they continue to this day.”
Even for those who aren’t interested in Springsteen, Ziobro wants people to know that the BSACAM is a place for everyone to enjoy and somewhere for people to learn through music.
“I always want to address the people who maybe aren’t Bruce fans, right?” Ziobro said. “Not everybody is a Bruce fan — I know that’s like blasphemy to some, but what we have here is this really special opportunity to educate people through this very accessible prism of music.”
“I’ve been teaching for 17 years and I see it in the classroom sometimes, you see it in people on the street — they think history is boring,” Ziobro said. “And it’s like, absolutely not! History is all of these amazing stories about how we got where we are, what we’ve done well in the past, what we’ve done wrong and what we want to do better going forward.”
To learn more about the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music, you can visit their website.
For more details on Ziobro’s event with the Monmouth County Library, you can view event details here.
The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music is located at Monmouth University on 400 Cedar Avenue, West Long Branch.
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