Nashville’s Museum of Christian & Gospel Music Highlights Faith-Filled Message, Cultural Impact & Artists Like CeCe Winans, Keith Green & Amy Grant

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The Gospel Music Association has opened a caller section successful its ngo of honoring the artists who person shaped Christian and Gospel music, and successful helping to beforehand the music’s connection of faith.

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The Museum of Christian & Gospel Music has opened its doors contiguous (Friday, Oct. 3) astatine 402 Commerce Street, establishing the archetypal imperishable location successful Nashville dedicated to Christian and Gospel music.

The 11,000-square-feet caller museum, which volition besides location the Mike Curb GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame, present stands alongside different Nashville euphony museums including the Country Music Hall of Fame, the National Museum of African-American Music, and the Musicians Hall of Fame, portion telling the communicative of Christian and Gospel artists and the interaction the genre continues to have.

The museum, which has been 4 years successful the making, tells a sweeping story, connecting much than 500 humanities moments and 300 artists, utilizing videos, photos, artifacts, and interactive displays.

“When we accidental ‘Gospel music,’ that doesn’t specify it musically. That defines the content, the message, and that’s the necktie that binds,” says Gospel Music Association president Jackie Patillo, 1 of the manufacture visionaries who has spearheaded and championed the improvement of the museum. Indeed, the depository highlights artists spreading a Gospel connection done philharmonic styles ranging from state and Southern Gospel to pop, rap/hip-hop, Latin, psyche and more.

Inside, visitors are instantly greeted by pieces including Amy Grant’s leopard-print overgarment from her 1985 medium Unguarded and Brandon Lake’s patchwork “Coat of Many Colors” from his 2023 tour. The “Radiant successful the Spotlight” display, located successful the Dove Theater, volition see gowns worn by artists including Dottie Rambo, Natalie Grant and CeCe Winans. Elsewhere, determination is the gown Lauren Daigle wore to the 2019 GMA Dove Awards, and the full-length floral gown Carrie Underwood wore during her Easter special, filmed conscionable down the thoroughfare astatine Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.

Other cases item memorabilia from Gospel euphony fable Andraé Crouch, CCM stone set Stryper’s Michael Sweet, and the precocious singer-songwriter Keith Green. Green’s guitar — arsenic good arsenic enactment pages of unfinished lyrics — sits alongside the garment helium wore connected his past medium cover, earlier his untimely decease successful 1982 astatine property 28. Alan Jackson’s household Bible, guitar, overgarment and chapeau from his Precious Memories task (which earned a GMA Dove Award for champion state album) are besides connected display.

The museum’s enforcement manager Steve Gilreath visited implicit 30 museums successful the process of curating and designing the space. He spent the past twelvemonth searching retired and selecting items to item successful the museum.

“I got immoderate calls close distant from radical that were like, ‘I privation you to travel implicit and cleanable retired my attic oregon cleanable retired my garage,'” Gilreath recalls. “We’re not cleaning retired your attic. I privation to instrumentality 3 things.”

Attendees tin besides prosecute with the euphony and artists connected a idiosyncratic level, acknowledgment to interactive spaces that let them to grounds their ain vocals connected classical songs, oregon adjacent permission video messages to artists to stock however songs person impacted them. Listening stations let attendees to perceive galore of the genre’s classical songs, portion integer video panels passim the abstraction diagnostic 18 artists, among them Steven Curtis Chapman, Dr. Bobby Jones, and Bill and Gloria Gaither, discussing topics including signaling and songwriting.