The Birthplace of Country Music Museum will open its doors free of charge on Saturday September 23, 2017, as part of Smithsonian magazine’s 13th annual Museum Day Live!. With this event, participating museums across the United States emulate the spirit of the Smithsonian Institution’s Washington DC-based facilities, which offer free admission every day, and open their doors for free to those who download a Museum Day Live! ticket. Tickets will be available for download beginning August 25, 2017.
Smithsonian recognizes the extraordinary power of museums, and other cultural institutions, to provide visitors with insight and inspiration. The event represents a nationwide commitment to boundless curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge wherever you are. Over 200,000 people downloaded tickets for last year’s event, and this year’s Museum Day Live! is expected to attract more museum-goers than ever before.
This year, Museum Day Live! will feature special interactive lesson plans created by Smithsonian in partnership with Microsoft using Minecraft: Education Edition. The Birthplace of Country Music Museum will be able to utilize the Smithsonian material-based lesson plans to enhance the Museum Day Live! experience.
“Museum Day Live! is a great opportunity for us to open our doors for free to our community,” said Dr. Jessica Turner, Director of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. “We also take this time to plan activities that will give families a chance to explore together through fun, hands-on experiences. We want to remind our community that museums are spaces to do things as much as they are to see things.”
Visitors who take advantage of a free Museum Day Live! admission to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum may also take in Things Come Apart, a Smithsonian traveling exhibit on display now through October 8 in the museum’s Special Exhibits Gallery. Through extraordinary photographs, disassembled objects and fascinating videos, the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service’s Things Come Apart exhibit reveals the inner workings of common, everyday possessions. The exhibit embraces STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) concepts and provides an ideal environment for hands-on experimentation, tinkering, and creative makerspaces. Though support from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee, the exhibit includes three hands-on Activity Kits created by the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation’s SparkLab.
Things Come Apart is an exhibition organized by Todd McLellan and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services (SITES).
“We will present some fun STEAM activities including an activity kit from our Things Come Apart exhibit, a MineCraft activity, and a screening of the PBS documentary American Experience: Tesla,” Turner added. “This will be one very cool day to be in the museum!”
Visitors who present the Museum Day Live! ticket will gain free entrance for two at participating venues on September 23, 2017. One ticket per email address is permitted. For more information about Museum Day Live! 2017 and a full list of participating museums and cultural institutions, please visit Smithsonian.com/museumday.
For more information, please visit Smithsonian.com/museumday.