George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Second Floor

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The guitar is the single most enduring icon in American history. This fully immersive exhibition gives visitors an opportunity to interact with the guitar from the historical perspective, focusing on its evolution and design, the music that guitars have helped to create, and the continued improvements in guitar technology. Featuring more than 60 instruments from the rare and antique to the wildly popular and innovative, along with performance video and audio, hands-on interactives, touch screens, and photographs.

In the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum…

Guitars through the Ages

• Early stringed instruments from Persia, Africa, and Europe
• Close relatives to the guitar from other countries
• The guitar’s evolution from the 16th – 19th century
• American styles emerge – C.F. Martin, Orville Gibson
• Electricity changes everything – George Beauchamp, Les Paul
• To rock and roll and pop culture icon – Stratocaster and the SG

This exhibition continues in the Springfield Science Museum

$3 special exhibition fee for all visitors ages 3 and up in addition to museum admission.

Exhibit organized by the National Guitar Museum.

Sponsored by United Bank
Media Sponsors: WGBY Public Television for Western New England  93.9 The River
Additional sponsors: Cooley Shrair P.C., Columbia Gas of Massachuetts, and Falcetti Music