NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — The lobby of the new Museum of Christian & Gospel Music in downtown Nashville was filled with the sounds of drills, vacuums and other power tools last week as workers scurried to put the finishing touches on displays ahead of the grand opening a couple days away.
“Do I feel ready?” asked Steve Gilreath, the museum’s bearded, jovial executive director. “No. But we’ll be ready.”
Two days later, the museum, located a block from the famed Ryman Auditorium, opened to the public. The opening comes as Christian music is experiencing a resurgence, said Jackie Patillo, president of the Gospel Music Association. Worship music, she said, has been highlighted on TV shows such as “American Idol,” and worship musicians were center stage at Charlie Kirk’s funeral, televised nationwide. The GMA’s annual Dove Awards show returns to Nashville’s downtown Bridgestone Arena for the first time in decades on Tuesday (Oct. 7).
“I think that revival is in the land, and I think that’s being proven by the surge of praise and worship,” Patillo said.
Patillo said she began work on the museum four years ago, during what she called a tumultuous time in the Christian and gospel music industries. She felt Christian music needed a “stake in the ground” or gathering spot, and thought a museum might fill the bill.
At the time, she said, the GMA’s Hall of Fame consisted of a website and a few cardboard boxes. Now, there’s an 11,000-square-foot museum …