Thirty years ago, Corvette fans around the world rejoiced when their new home, the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, opened its doors to the world. Every five years since that day in August of 1994, caravans of Corvettes and their biggest supporters would return home to Bowling Green to spend a few days celebrating the next milestone in the NCM’s life.
2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the National Corvette Museum’s opening, one we at RacingJunk couldn’t ignore. Thus, we spent some time in Bowling Green checking out what all this special major milestone had to offer, including a special limited-time exhibit centered around one of the museum’s darkest days – the February 12, 2014 sinkhole disaster – and how the NCM is moving beyond its most well-known event.
“We are excited to open ‘Ground to Sky: The Sinkhole Reimagined’ as a tribute to the growth and vision of the National Corvette Museum and to remind Corvette enthusiasts worldwide how far we’ve come since that fateful morning,” said Kaye Wagner, Chair of the National Corvette Museum Board of Directors, in a statement. “This special exhibit allows us to reflect on the challenges we faced, and the tremendous progress we have achieved since then.”
Such progress includes the introduction of the ‘LUSTER: Realism and Hyperrealism in Contemporary Automobile Art’ fine art exhibit, the induction of several Corvette engineers, racers, and supporters into the Corvette Hall of Fame – including this year’s inductees: chief engineer Tadge Juechter, Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin and Jan Magnussen, and photographer Richard Prince – and hiring the first woman to run the National Corvette Museum as its fourth president/CEO, Sharon Brawner.
Back in 2019, the NCM celebrated its 25th anniversary by welcoming the all-new C8 era Corvette to its grounds. For the 30th anniversary, with hundreds of C8s in attendance, the new star of the show was the upcoming ZR1, the first turbocharged C8 from the nearby General Motors Bowling Green Assembly Plant, set to arrive later this year. Will the 35th anniversary welcome the new C9 era? Looks like we’ve got five years to see what happens.
