West Virginia Music Hall of Fame

The nonprofit West Virginia Music Hall of Fame was established in 2005, to honor the legacies of the state's performing artists in multiple music genres. This hall of fame is the brainchild of its founder, musician Michael Lipton, who was inspired by a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee. The first exhibit was records from his personal collection.[1]

The organization is staffed and governed by volunteers, and also offers their Music Career Counseling Program.[2] Nominations for artist inclusion into the hall are currently submitted by the public, but the first class of inductees was selected by the hall of fame's board members. Criteria for selection is primarily the nominee's cultural impact on state and national levels. They must either have residency, or place of birth, in West Virginia.[3] The first ten honorees inducted were the class of 2007, and all six of the then-living inductees made a personal appearance at the ceremony. The number of inductees varies by year, but so far have been fewer than the initial class.

Biennial festive induction ceremonies normally take place as a live event at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, and are aired on television by West Virginia Public Broadcasting. During the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, that year's induction ceremonies were taped at Nashville, Los Angeles, and Bakersfield, California, and broadcast at a later date, as well as posted on the West Virginia PBS Facebook page.[4] The Hall of Fame takes its traveling museum across the state,[5] and works in tandem with the West Virginia Department of Education as part of a West Virginia music history curriculum for the state's elementary schools.[6]