Tuesday, January 26, 1999
Music museum picks up pace
Fledgling bluegrass center trying to win back Fan Fest
The Associated Press
OWENSBORO, Ky. — A decade after plans for the International Bluegrass Music Museum were unveiled, only one-third of the museum is open and the remaining parts are more than two years away from opening.
A grand reopening is scheduled for late 2001.
“This has taken a lot longer than we ever expected,” Rodney Berry, president of the RiverPark Center Foundation, said last week.
But the museum's new chairman — Steve Brechter, vice president of United Technologies in Hartford, Conn. — says the once-troubled museum is finally on track for completion.
A $3 million grant from the Kentucky General Assembly last year “is our ticket to creating the museum we've all wanted since the beginning,” Mr. Brechter said.
Last year, the museum drew only about 2,500 visitors in the nine months it was open. But it did that without any advertising. And the visitors came from 41 states and nine foreign countries.
“If the museum ever gets open — and is nice — I think we can get the (International Bluegrass Music Association) Fan Fest back,” said Terry Woodward, chairman of the Owensboro-Daviess County Tourist Com mission.
In 1997, the music association moved its trade show, awards show and Fan Fest to Louisville after a decade in Owensboro. The events had outgrown the capacity of Owensboro's hotels, the organization's board said. Fan Fest alone draws about 8,000 people.
Mr. Brechter supports that goal. “We'd like to have a big event in Owensboro,” he said. “It could be Fan Fest. Or it could be something like a vintage instrument show.”
Now that the museum has its construction money, Mr. Brechter said, it has to turn its attention to creating an operating fund. “We're not sure yet what it's going to cost us to operate it,” he said.
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