culture
BLUEGRASS MUSIC HALL OF FAME & MUSEUM 311 W. Second Street • bluegrasshall.org Owensboro first began talking about what’s now the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in 1985. A preview version opened in 1992 in the RiverPark Center, and it opened full time a decade later after the state pumped $3 million into the facility. Finally, in October 2018, the new $15.3 million, three-story Hall of Fame opened. Its state-of-the-art Woodward Theatre has been used as a movie theater and venue for television shows, including filming for PBS programming. The Hall of Fame has taken over the publication of Bluegrass Unlimited, the genre’s leading publication, brought the Official Kentucky State Fiddle Championship to Owensboro as an annual event and created a 13-episode television series, “My Bluegrass Story,” for RFDTV. “This is the only bluegrass hall of fame and museum in the world,” Chris Joslin, the Hall’s executive director, tells visitors. “If bluegrass music has a permanent address, it’s Owensboro, Kentucky.”
Songwriter Series
Education
The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum launched “The Nashville Songwriter,” a new concert series, in September 2019. Songwriters perform and talk about their songs and experiences as songwriters.
The Hall of Fame offers beginner and advanced music lessons on guitar, mandolin, banjo and fiddle each fall and spring. There are also classes on band development and jamming. Clogging classes are also offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays year round. Each session lasts six weeks.
OWENSBORO CONVENTION CENTER 501 W. Second Street • owensborocenter.com
10 | GREATER OWENSBORO
The Owensboro Convention Center is western Kentucky’s premier meeting space. A fullservice facility overlooking the Ohio River in downtown Owensboro, the multi-purpose center now includes an indoor sports arena. Laura Alexander, general manager of the convention center, said the 45,000-square-foot main exhibit hall can be converted into three basketball or futsal courts or nine volleyball courts. The center boasts just under 102,000 square-feet of available space, including a 44,000-plus square-foot exhibition hall, the 8,900-plus square-foot Kentucky Legend® Pier outside overlooking the scenic Ohio River and additional ballroom, meeting and pre-function space.
