People are you planning a trip to Nashville, Tennessee anytime in the near future, if you are the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is no longer pressed for space where everything is overflowing, a $100 million expansion has doubled and then some, its overall space and it now allows room to add more interactive and contemporary exhibits.
On Tuesday they’ll unveil the final part of its expansion, including two new exhibit galleries and a behind-the-scene gallery of unending archival projects. This new addition to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is expected to draw in a lot more contemporary country music fans.
Carolyn Tate, vice president of museum services, stated, “We’ve been lucky at collecting, but the archives were pushing out the door; and we wanted more room to be able to tell the complete story and to be able to offer a contemporary look into what’s happening today.”
The new expansion began in 2011 and more than $81 million was raised through private donations, fundraising campaigns and through other sources. The new addition added more than 200,000 square feet of space to an existing building, including an 800-seat theater, an event hall overlooking the city skyline, an educational wing named after Taylor Swift, storage and exhibit spaces, classrooms, retail shops and a working print shop.
It’s my opinion that this new addition will add to the tourist business visiting Nashville and be a tremendous benefit for the city. I love Nashville and its historic country music atmosphere. I’ve been there many times and I love visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum every time I go there. I’m a country music lover and I’ve followed country music for the majority of my life. It’s in my blood and it always will be a part of me and I’m looking forward to visit the new addition in the near future.
The new exhibit galleries is called the ACM Gallery and the Fred and Dinah Gretsch Family Gallery, and it’ll focus on the latest trends and emerging artists in country music, i.e., George Strait’s farewell tour, the record breaking single, “Cruise,” by Florida Georgia Line, and Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton pairing up to co-hosts for the Academy of Country Music Awards.
Mick Buck, curatorial director, stated the new exhibit space “emphasizes an importance of a connection between countries’ past and its heritage to today’s artists and stars.” Using as an example one of the new exhibits drawing lines from Buck Owens to Brad Paisley and Merle Haggard to Miranda Lambert.
Visitors will be able to explore and use the space as they create a digital profile while earning badges to make their own recordings, while thinking about writing their own song lyrics, as they look at original song lyrics and archive materials.
Fans will be able to sing to a cover version of a popular artist’s song inside a full-scale 75-foot replica of Taylor Swift’s tour bus or have a chance to climb through a 52-foot replica of an acoustic guitar as they learn the different parts of the instrument.
It’s my opinion this will be a great draw-in factor to position tourists right in the middle of the country music scene because there are many people interested in cutting their own recordings, especially checking on the probabilities of a song they’ve written. It’ll give tourist a brief “inside” look of how the music industry works.
Tate also said, “I think we’ve broadened our demographic in the past few years; and very consciously we’ve been collecting in the contemporary realm and we’ve continue to collect and honor the titans and the vintage folks and the hall of famers. We’re really looking at future hall of famers as well.”
The new exhibit space will give them more flexibility to bring in temporary exhibits alongside their permanent collections.
Tate also added, “We needed space to take advantage of opportunities falling into our lap, because many times real estate is booked two and three years out.”
Some of the new parts of the addition have already opened; this includes the CMA Theater and Event Hall for hosting private events and performances, and also the adjoining Omni Hotel and restaurants which are all under the same roof.
Hall of Famer Vince Gill will be there on Tuesday to unveil the new exhibits; along with Ricky Skaggs, Lee Ann Womack and Buddy Miller.
If you’ve never visited Nashville, Tennessee before you may want to select it as a vacation spot this year or in the future, it has a lot of interesting places to visit and a lot of great entertainment to enjoy…I can vouch for this. It’ll take a family a few days to enjoy everything there is to visit and to see. I highly recommend it with or without their family.
Barbara Kasey Smith is the writer of this article based on an abcnews.go.com article.
Source:
ABC News.Go.Com