The Songbirds Guitar Museum in Chattanooga closed for good in mid-August last year, but it continues to be a topic of conversation for many.
That’s thanks to a documentary made by a local filmmaker and a flurry of activity in the former museum space downtown in preparation for the Songbirds Foundation moving its nonprofit operation there in late summer.
Also, a new bar that will be run by WGOW radio personality Brian Joyce will go into the front area of the former Songbirds South. The museum, which also operated as a live music venue called Songbirds North, and its sister venue, Songbirds South, closed during the pandemic. The more-than-3,000 guitars in the collection have been returned to their owners and, while those places are no more, the brand and the spaces live on.
The former museum space, for example, is a beehive of activity, according to Songbirds Foundation President Reed Caldwell.
“We are rocking up here with designers and builders and we are starting to book shows,” he said.