Waukesha GuitarTown project nets $105,000 for museum, clinic, schools

Aug. 09, 2012

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By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

Aug. 09, 2012 0

Waukesha - The Waukesha GuitarTown project raised a net of $105,000 for three local charities, steering committee chairman Rick Congdon said Thursday.

The committee decided to give $45,000 to the Waukesha Public Schools for purchase of new musical instruments and art supplies. Another $45,000 will benefit the planned Les Paul exhibit at the Waukesha County Museum. The other $15,000 will be donated to Waukesha Memorial Hospital to help fund the new Community Health Clinic, which will serve uninsured or underinsured individuals.

The project was a partnership with the foundation of Gibson Guitar Co., which manufactures guitars designed by the late Waukesha native and music legend Les Paul. Ten 10-foot-tall guitar sculptures and a series of playable Gibson guitars decorated by regional artists have been installed throughout the downtown as a community art project after a June 1 kickoff.

"The Waukesha family is proud that the GuitarTown project has united our business, music and arts communities to amplify our downtown and raise money for these worthy causes," said Waukesha Mayor Jeff Scrima, who first approached Gibson to bring the event to the city.

Other host cities have included Los Angeles; Nashville, Tenn.; Miami; and London.

About Laurel Walker

Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.