{Owensboro, Kentucky}...Terry Woodward, board chairman of the International Bluegrass Music Museum, says to raise $7 million by March to turn an old state office building in western Kentucky into a bluegrass music center. The vision for the International Bluegrass Music Museum includes a museum, an indoor theater, outdoor festival seating and a bluegrass-themed restaurant. Woodward says organizers want to offer fans a Bluegrass Opry on Saturday nights during the fall, winter and spring, something similar to the Grand Old Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. The vision for the facility also includes other musical productions, a national bluegrass disc jockey convention and a music film festival. If all plans succeed, up to 100,000 bluegrass fans could visit Owensboro each year by 2016, making an economic impact on the city of $25 million. Woodward hopes construction on the facility can begin in April, 2013, and he wants to see the center open by April 2014.
