Women in Old Time Music exhibit coming to BCMM

The Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, VA has announced a new special exhibit for 2023, entitled I’Ve Endured: Women in Old-Time Music. It is set to open on March 23, and remain so through December 31.

The exhibit will identify and honor many of the women who had been important in carrying the music forward for generations, often in isolated communities, in the Appalachian region. Using audio-visual elements, objects, images, and text panels, the stories of these women will be shown, along with the ways that their roles in the music have been modified along with women’s changing roles in society.

Once the I’ve Endured exhibit opens later this month, the Museum will offer a number of special educational programs, with both student and adult learning tours.

Artists highlighted in the exhibit included pioneers like Lily Mae Ledford, Maybelle Carter, and The Bowman Sisters, through later performers like Elizabeth Cotton, Roni Stoneman, and Ola Belle Reed, to contemporary figures like Cathy Fink, Rhiannon Giddens, Nora Brown, and Martha Spencer.

Admission to this special exhibit is included in regular Museum admission. Tickets are $13 for adults, and $11 or students. Children five and under are admitted free of charge.

The Birthplace of Country Music Museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and on Sundays from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Further details can be found on the Museum web site.

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John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.