Taylor Swift Donates $4M to Country Music Hall of Fame for Music Education
By now, everyone knows that award-winning country star Taylor Swift has a huge heart. And thanks to her award-winning, record-breaking music career, the 'Mean' hitmaker has a hefty bank account, too. What do you get when you put those things together? A gigantic donation to a new education center at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
In fact, the six-time Grammy award winner's donation of $4 million is the largest gift by a musician in Country Music Hall of Fame history, and now, the new education center will officially be known as the Taylor Swift Education Center. The exhibit and classroom space is scheduled to open in 2014. Not a bad legacy for the young country star, who will likely be just 24 or 25 when the center opens.
"In terms of what it will allow us to do, we do education very well now," museum director Kyle Young told the Associated Press (via Billboard). "It will allow us to do what we do better, serve more people, develop new programs, and I'm happy to say that as we talked through this opportunity with Taylor, she very much wants to be involved in an advisory capacity in what we do. Is there a better person out there who's in touch with a young audience? I think not. I was joking we should be paying her to do that. I was only joking."
Country music's sweetheart has a storied relationship with the Hall of Fame. She signed her record contract there and gave one of her first public performances on the building's plaza. In the past, she has donated her talents to the All for the Hall fundraiser benefits and loaned the museum her dresses, stage costumes and instruments for display.
Since May 2010, a free-standing Taylor Swift multimedia exhibit has been one of the museum's most popular attractions.
In addition to her generosity to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Swift has made the news a number of times in recent years thanks to her kind heart in general. Earlier this year, she invited two-time cancer patient Kevin McGuire to be her date at the ACMs after the 18-year-old invited Ms. Swift to his prom. Just this month, she made headlines for ensuring sure that a 13-year-old fan who missed Swift's stop in Sacramento (due to a tragic drunk driving accident) would have tickets for her next show in the city and even sent her a goodie bag to tide her over.
Who knows? Maybe the next Taylor Swift will find his or her start in the forthcoming Taylor Swift Education Center. After all, that's the goal for creating the education program.