The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, located in downtown Nashville, has been called the “Smithsonian of country music,” celebrated for its broad cultural impact, educational mission, and unrivaled collection of historically important artifacts related to country music. Chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964, the Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, educational organization.

First opened in 1967 on Nashville’s Music Row, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum launched its current downtown location in 2001. In 2014, the Museum unveiled a $100 million expansion that doubled its footprint. The Museum now encompasses 350,000 square feet of exhibition galleries, archival storage, retail stores, and event space. In addition, the Museum offers the Taylor Swift Education Center for students, teachers, and families, and dedicated performance spaces in the CMA Theater and Ford Theater, both of which regularly host nationally recognized live music and cultural events.

In 2024, the Museum was awarded prestigious National Medal of Arts by President Joe Biden. The medal is the highest award given to artists and arts institutions by the United States government. The White House Citation, which accompanied the medal, recognized the Museum’s work, which “preserves history, honors giants of the genre, and inspires future generations to write their own songs about the American story.”

Sing Me Back Home: A Journey Through Country Music is the title of the Museum’s central, permanent (though constantly updated) exhibition. With artifacts, photographs, recorded sound, archival video, and interactive touchscreens, Sing Me Back Home immerses visitors in the history and sounds of country music—its origins, its traditions, and the lives and voices of the many people who have contributed to its rich and varied expression. Each year, new limited-engagement exhibitions launch to complement and expand on that foundation, including the annually updated American Currents: State of the Music, which documents significant artist achievements, events, and perspectives in country music over the past year, as determined by the Museum’s curators and researchers.

Through a steady schedule of educational programs, workshops, and creative classes, the Museum also engages schools, students, and families from across Tennessee and beyond. Each year, Museum educators reach more than 100,000 participants with programs ranging from weekly instrument demonstrations to the Museum’s flagship songwriting program for schools, Words & Music.