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BCMA Cultural Heritage Center Recommended for $500k ARC Grant!

April 02, 2012

The Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development informs that the Birthplace of Country Music Cultural Heritage Center has been recommended for a $500,000 grant from Virginia's Appalachian Regional Commission program.

The letter states: "We received 26 proposals this past fall, requesting over $5.6 million in ARC funding. Your project was evaluated and was among the nine chosen to receive a recommendation for funding. This grant of $500,000 is in support of the Birthplace of Country Music Cultural Heritage Center."

"If the recommendation goes through, that would bring us to less than five percent of what we need to finalize the building project," states BCMA Board President John Rainero. "We look to be closing the gap very soon."

The Birthplace of Country Music Alliance has been working since 2004 to bring the Birthplace of Country Music Cultural Heritage Center to life in Historic Downtown Bristol. The donated structure, a former car dealership, resides on the corner of Cumberland and Lee Streets in Bristol, Virginia. Once completed, the Center will be a Smithsonian Institution affiliate, performance hall and education space that will pump $45 million into the region over the first five years it is open. Construction is slated to start in 2013.