Various Artists
Sep 26, 2011
The Gibson Foundation, which is an arm of the Gibson Guitar Corp., will offer a limited edition run of the J-200 Ray Whitley Specials, and will donate all proceeds to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's 'Working On A Building' campaign. The $75 million campaign will support the museum's expansion in Nashville.
Each guitar will also come with a handmade, gold-leafed, custom frame and a custom case, and will be associated with a year in the life of Country music of the buyer's choice. The year associated with the guitar will be imbedded in the guitar's serial number.
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's expansion should be complete in the Spring of 2014, and will increase the museums size to more than 350,000 square feet. It will be integrated into a downtown campus with the Music City Center and the Omni Hotel- the museum's six-floor addition will unite the museum and the Omni Hotel on three levels.
CEO of Gibson Guitar Corp. Henry Juszkiewicz said, "Gibson is proud of our longstanding support for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. It seemed to us the best way to support the expansion campaign was to do what we do best: make a beautiful guitar, such as this icon of country music, the J-200, in order to encourage major contributions. This guitar is a spectacular representation of craftsmanship and tradition. Gibson is honored to have been a part of the making of Country music since the beginning, and we appreciate and support the efforts of the museum to preserve the music's rich history.
Museum Director Kyle Young added, "We are overwhelmed at this generous gift from our friends at Gibson. The J-200 is a historic instrument, and we are thrilled that Gibson is creating this limited-edition guitar to raise funds for the capital campaign to finance our museum's expansion. The end result will be that we are able to expand how we tell the story of this great, uniquely American art form, and preserve its legacy for generations to come
For more info visit www.countrymusichalloffame.com
By Elice Cuff
