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Wednesday December 31st, 2003

Nashville, Gibson come together for GuitarTown public arts project to benefit charities

GuitarTown, a public arts project that will feature fifty 10-foot tall fiberglass Gibson Les Paul model guitars is set to launch in April 2004. All oversize guitar sculptures will be by local and nationally acclaimed visual artists and placed throughout Nashville in front of the city's landmarks and businesses for a period of one year.

Each guitar sculpture will be partnered with a celebrity and will be backed by a corporate sponsor. The project will unite the Nashville art, music and business communities to raise money for numerous charitable organizations. The first completed 10-foot tall guitar will be unveiled at a special event at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in April.

The guitars will complete a "tour" of Nashville and then be sold at a Gala Auction, with all proceeds benefiting more than 10 non-profit organizations and charities, including the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Downtown District, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and several others to be announced throughout the year. A similar project in Cleveland raised over $1 million. The GuitarTown project will be administered through the Gibson Foundation, a division of the Gibson Guitar Corp., which is dedicated to improving the quality of life through its support of the arts, education, health & welfare and environmental causes.

The GuitarTown Project has already met with great enthusiasm from the City with the appointment a Steering Committee of community leaders representing BMI, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Convention & Visitor's Bureau, Downtown Partnership, the Mayor's Office, the Metro Arts Commission, WSMV Channel 4, the Tennessee State Fairgrounds, The Tennessean, WKDF radio and others.

Legendary guitar players and songwriters Steve Cropper and Lee Roy Parnell are serving as the musician liaisons, reaching out to Nashville's entertainment community. A call for artists in January 2004 will be administered by the committee and any artist interested in participating can call toll-free 1.800.4GIBSON or contact the Gibson Foundation.