Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame
When Cantos Music Foundation learned the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame Collection was in danger of leaving Calgary, the organization set forth on an emergency fundraising effort to acquire this important piece of Canadian music history and keep it in Calgary where more people would have the opportunity to see and interact with it.
As a result of our efforts and those of our generous supporters, Cantos acquired the custodianship of the CCMHOF Collection in 2009 from Deb Buck, widow of Canadian Country artist Gary Buck who assembled the collection of memorabilia over the last number of decades. When Gary passed in 2003, Deb began looking for an organization to take over operations – one that would take good care of the collection and help fulfill Gary’s vision for it as a basis for programs that promote the legacy of Canadian country music.
Currently, there are two pieces to the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame: the Collection, now under the custodianship of Cantos Music Foundation, and the commemorative plaques honouring past and future inductees to the Hall of Fame – an annual process governed by the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA). The plaques are currently under the custodianship of the Merritt Walk of Stars in Merritt, BC.
We are in negotiations with CCMA and the Merritt Walk of Stars to find a long-term solution and permanent home for both the induction plaques and the collection.
In the summer of 2009, the Hall of Fame Collection opened to the public for the 10 days of Stampede during which more than 24,000 people came through to learn more about the colourful people and stories that make up Canada’s country music past, present and future our plan is that the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame Collection remains on the Stampede Grounds until the completion of our National Music Centre project in 2012-13. We continue to build programming around the collection to ensure the stories of these great Canadian musicians come to life.
We are also in the middle of a massive effort to track down and contact all of the artists and their families to talk about nearly 1,300 pieces of memorabilia, their stories and the future of the Hall of Fame Collection within the National Music Centre. We have been able to find about 30 per cent of those with memorabilia in the Hall of Fame Collection and continue to search for others with the help of dedicated volunteers like Maryanne Gibson of Global Country and Dianner Kerr. If you’re an amateur detective and would like to help out with this venture, we can always use a few good people on the case! Please call Terry Palmer at 403-543-6283 to volunteer your time.
