Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum exists to preserve, celebrate, and share the important cultural asset that is country music. We’re caretakers-dedicated custodians of this enduring art form. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, located in downtown Nashville, has been called the “Smithsonian of country music,” celebrated for its broad cultural impact, educational mission, and unrivaled collection of historically important artifacts. Launched in 1967 on Nashville’s Music Row, the museum opened its current downtown location in 2001, and in 2014, unveiled a $100 million expansion that doubled its footprint. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum now includes 350,000 square feet of dynamic galleries, archival storage, retail stores, and event space, along with classrooms in the Taylor Swift Education Center, and performance space in the CMA Theater and Ford Theater, which regularly host nationally recognized live music and cultural events.

The museum’s storytelling mission centers in the core exhibition Sing Me Back Home: A Journey Through Country Music. With artifacts, photographs, recorded sound, vintage video, and interactive touchscreens, Sing Me Back Home reveals the origins, traditions, and honored architects of country music. Each year, new limited-engagement exhibitions launch to complement and expand on that foundation, including the annually updated American Currents: State of the Music, which highlights today’s stars, songs, and stories, and how they connect to country music’s rich history. Through a steady schedule of educational programs, workshops, and creative classes, the museum also engages schools, students, and families from across Tennessee and beyond. Each year, museum educators reach more than 100,000 participants with programs ranging from weekly instrument demonstrations to the museum’s flagship songwriting program for schools, Words & Music.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s creative platforms also extend into mission-driven media and multi-media. The museum operates the Grammy-winning reissue label CMF Records (The Complete Hank Williams and Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues, 1945-1970), and CMF Press, a book publishing arm that releases exhibit-related books in cooperation with other major trade publishing houses. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum owns and operates the legendary Hatch Show Print letterpress business (located inside the Museum complex). It also operates Historic RCA Studio B, the oldest surviving recording studio in Nashville. Preservation of Studio B is made possible through a partnership between the Mike Curb Family Foundation and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Since 1987, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, certifying that the museum operates according to the highest standards. Of the 17,500 museums nationwide, roughly 1,000 are accredited.

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