The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, in partnership with YouTube and the country music community, will stage the most ambitious digital fundraiser in the museum’s history, BIG NIGHT (At the Museum). Premiering at 8 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020, the program is free to view on the museum’s YouTube channel.

BIG NIGHT will generate support for the museum and its ongoing work with exhibitions and educational programs. Since the museum closed in mid-March due to COVID-19, it has suffered significant financial losses and has been forced to cancel many of its planned educational events. The reopening Sept. 10 and the airing of BIG NIGHT in October on YouTube will support the institution’s ongoing work of education and interpretation. During the program, viewers will be encouraged to donate to the museum through YouTube Giving.

The pandemic created a unique set of circumstances that allowed staff to safely remove historic instruments from exhibit cases and be played. For BIG NIGHT, instruments and artists are carefully paired according to emotional and artistic connections.

The instruments clearly inspire the artists participating. These artists include: Alison Brown, Kane Brown, Carlene Carter, Rodney Crowell, Country Music Hall of Fame member Emmylou Harris, Miranda Lambert, Ashley McBryde, Country Music Hall of Fame member Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw, Keb’ Mo’, Country Music Hall of Fame member Ricky Skaggs, Country Music Hall of Fame member-elect Marty Stuart and The War and Treaty. The event is hosted by Stuart, with audio supervision by Dave Cobb.

More artists are slated to participate, and they will be announced in the coming weeks.

Information about the museum, its collection and education programs can be found on its website at www.CountryMusicHallofFame.org.