NASHVILLE'S NMAAM OPENS MLK DAY 2021

The National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM) will officially open on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 18, 2021, hosting board members, staff, elected officials and community leaders at a socially distant ribbon-cutting ceremony at the entrance of the museum at Fifth Avenue and Broadway in downtown Nashville.

Members will have the opportunity to tour the museum during Members Preview Weekend, 1/23-24. The museum will open to the public the following weekend, though tours will initially be held only on Saturdays and Sundays, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Given the escalating threat of COVID-19, the museum will allow a limited number of visitors inside the facility, with those visits scheduled only on weekends for the foreseeable future. Face coverings will be required for entrance, and guests will be asked to remain socially distant.) For updates about when tickets will become available, visit the museum's website.

"NMAAM is complete!" said NMAAM President and CEO H. Beecher Hicks III. "We have been preparing for this day for more than 20 years, but this museum has actually been more than 400 years in the making. We look forward to welcoming music lovers from around the world to this magnificent cultural experience. We also want to thank the thousands of people who have supported us along the way as we prepare to celebrate the history of African American music, which truly is the soundtrack of our nation."

The 56,000-square-foot museum, which anchors the new mixed-use downtown development Fifth + Broadway, is the only institution in the world dedicated to preserving and celebrating more than 50 musical genres and styles created, influenced or inspired by African Americans, including spirituals, the blues, jazz, gospel, R&B and hip-hop.

The museum boasts more than 1,500 artifacts, objects, pieces of memorabilia and articles of clothing, along with state-of-the-art technology. Each of its seven galleries will present a unique perspective on African American music and history.

Today is #GivingTuesday, and we're taking a look back at how far we've come. Your donation today will help us continue to share the story never before told about the history of African American music. https://t.co/HHhBSLQnYO pic.twitter.com/Ecjf7TzceN

— the NMAAM (@theNMAAM) December 1, 2020