The Country Music Hall of Fame recently received a sizable donation to go towards its expansion project. The Academy of Country Music is donating $2.5 million to help fund the project. A campaign for the expansion project was launched last year.
The Hall’s expansion includes more than doubling in size, from 140,000 square feet to 350,000. Included in the new square footage will be the ACM Contemporary Gallery, spotlighting emerging artists and current trends in country music.
In whole, the project will triple the existing exhibit space as well as add on needed archival storage, an 800-set theater and a new educational center including a children’s gallery, classrooms and a recording studio. The expanded museum will be integrated into a downtown campus with the Music City Center and the Omni Hotel.
The museum’s six-floor addition will unite the museum and the Omni Hotel on three levels, allowing the two entities to share space and facilitate visitors’ movements throughout the campus.
Since the museum launched its capital campaign for the expansion a year ago, over $70 million in cash and pledges have been secured. The project is expected to be completely in early 2014.