News Category: Museum

Give the holiday gift of museum membership — to friends, family, and even to yourself! You will receive two (2) additional museum passes with the purchase of a new museum membership or a renewal of membership. Offer available until January 31, 2016.  Visit our online store to purchase!

The Birthplace of Country Music Museum is hosting an American Alliance of Museums (AAM) webinar on Wednesday, December 9, 1:30—4:30 p.m. The free webinar, titled “Tackling Collections Backlogs for Small Museums,” is a wonderful professional development and networking opportunity for colleagues at local and regional museums, archives, libraries, and cultural institutions.

The webinar will share ways to approach a collections backlog, prioritize tasks, and implement practical solutions; presenters will also discuss how tackling a collections backlog fits within an overall collections management strategy. Time for pre-webcast networking and post-webcast discussion will also be included. Participants are also invited to tour the museum’s special exhibit, “Tennessee Ernie Ford: A Life on Stage,” for free after the post-webcast facilitated discussion.

“This webinar and discussion is a great opportunity for staff at all kinds of repositories to get together and discuss practical solutions to the backlogs that are common, especially at smaller institutions,” said Dave Lewis, Curator of Collections and Digital Media. “We especially encourage staff from institutions without a full-time collections manager to attend!”

There is no charge for this event, but attendees must RSVP through the AAM website: http://www.aam-us.org/resources/online-programs/tackling-collections-backlogs-for-small-museums.

Cyber Monday Deals

The Birthplace of Country Music is thrilled to announce the following Cyber Monday Deals.

The Birthplace of Country Music Museum has recently been recognized with a variety of industry awards and commendations, including the American Alliance of Museums 2015 Museum Publications Design Competition, the Southeastern Museums Conference 2015 Technology Competition, and the British Guild of Travel Writers 2015 Tourism Awards.

The museum won First Prize in Posters (for institutions with budgets over $750,000) in the American Alliance of Museum’s 2015 Museum Publications Design Competition. The winning poster was for the museum’s Grand Opening in August 2014. Designed by Hound Dog Press, it combined bold typography with striking graphic design and color to create a piece that works as an effective piece of branding and also a beautiful work of art.

“Receiving first place in an American Alliance of Museums award is quite an honor because this is a national competition, and the judges consist of colleagues at peer museums,” said Turner. “Design is such an important element of sharing the museum’s mission – be it through our exhibitions, our programs, or our promotional materials – and so it is wonderful to have the Grand Opening poster recognized and celebrated.”

For the 2015 Museum Publications Design Competition, the jurors chose the best in graphic design in 12 different categories and from around 400 entries from across the United States and the world. For more than 26 years, the Alliance has recognized and encouraged excellence in the graphic design of museum publications through the Museum Publications Design Competition, the only national, juried competition of its kind. Winners are chosen for their overall design excellence, creativity and ability to express an institution’s personality, mission or special features. The panel of judges includes graphic designers, museum professionals and publishers.

In October – along with media partners Hillmann & Carr, Inc. – the museum  also received the 2015 Media Production: Gold Award for the Greasy Strings Theater, a film experience that explores the musical techniques and skills behind the music from the 1927 Bristol Sessions, and the 2015 Gallery Installations: Silver Award for the Making Music Gallery, an interactive space where visitors can listen to, remix and sing 1927 Bristol Sessions songs. Also in October, the Birthplace of Country Music Museum was Highly Commended in the category of Wider World Tourism Projects in the 2015 Tourism Awards hosted by the British Guild of Travel Writers.

“It is so rewarding to see the museum and tourism industries commending us, and our partners, for the hard work that went into making the museum a truly interactive experience and an international tourist destination,” said Dr. Jessica Turner, museum director and head curator.

For more information about the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, visit our website birthplaceofcountrymusic.org.

Nearly 90 years after Ralph Peer ran a newspaper advertisement seeking regional musicians to sing for Victor Company’s new recording machine, the States of Tennessee and Virginia are putting out a call for artists and actors to participate in a new film celebrating the Bristol Sessions and the “Big Bang of Country Music.”

Plan A Films, led by Sundance Award-winning director Chusy Haney-Jardine, will hold a casting session at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. this Friday, November 13, 2015. Men, women and children ages five (5) to seventy (70) who can sing and play instruments, and musicians with no acting experience, are invited to audition.

Those interested in advance consideration, please submit a video (QuikTime or .mp4) singing and playing an instrument, along with a 30-second self-introduction using a Southern accent, to bristolsessionscasting@gmail.com. Filming will take place in Bristol in early December.

The film, commissioned by the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development and Virginia Tourism Corporation, is scheduled for release in Spring 2016 and will complement last year’s release of Orthophonic Joy: The 1927 Bristol Sessions Revisited, which features popular modern artists’ re-recordings of original 1927 Bristol Sessions classics such as “Shall We Gather at the River,” “Black Eyed Susie,” and “Bury Me Beneath the Willow.”

Orthophonic Joy: The 1927 Bristol Sessions Revisited Competing in Round One Nominations for The Grammys

Since its release in May of this year, Orthophonic Joy: The 1927 Bristol Sessions Revisited CD project has been well received by music lovers and critics. The album that pays homage to those seminal recordings has now been submitted for consideration in the first round of voting for the chance to be nominated for a Grammy. Twenty-six (26) entries in eight (8) categories, including Album of the Year, Best Gospel Performance/Song, Best American Roots Performance, Best Americana Album, Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Capella, Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals, Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, and Producer of the Year, have been sent for the first round of voting. Final Grammy nominees are expected to be announced in December.

The album features country music artists Ashley & Shannon Campbell, Ashley Monroe, Brad Paisley, Carl Jackson, Corbin Hayslett, Dolly Parton, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Emmylou Harris, Jesse McReynolds, Keb´ Mo,´ Larry Cordle & The Virginia Luthiers, Marty Stuart, Sheryl Crow, Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers, The Chuck Wagon Gang, The Church Sisters, The Shotgun Rubies, and Vince Gill with narration provided by Grand Ole Opry host Eddie Stubbs. The project by Grammy-winning producer Carl Jackson was made possible by the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development and Virginia Tourism Corporation.

The 58th Annual Grammy Awards are set to air on CBS Television Network on Monday, Feburary 15, 2016 at 8:00 p.m. ET.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ABOUT ORTHOPHONIC JOY