A new museum celebrating country music, built in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, has opened on the border between Tennessee and Virginia in the south of the US.

Designed by Peyton Boyd Architects, the US$11m (€8.2m, £6.5m) Birthplace of Country Music Museum, which opens today (8 August) in Bristol, VA, has been in the pipeline for several years. The 24,000sq ft (2,229sq m) museum will feature several different exhibit spaces – featuring both temporary and permanent exhibitions – while also accommodating educational and interactive programming.

Rotating exhibitions from guest curators and other institutions, including the Smithsonian, will be featured throughout the year in the Special Exhibits Gallery. The museum will also be home to an extensive digital archive.

Exploring the history of the 1927 Bristol Sessions and their lasting impact on music heritage, the museum features a number of audio installations from StudioMUSarx, which includes a live performance theatre, orientation theatre, sacred music chapel recreation, working radio station and interactive music mixing consoles.

The main theme of the museum looks at the historic 1927 Bristol Sessions, which are widely recognised as the spark which led to the ‘big bang’ of modern country music. A variety of artists are featured at the museum, from the likes of Joan Baez to Nirvana, with the opportunity to give those recorded songs new sounds at the museum’s mixing stations, or alternatively sing-along to them at the karaoke station.