Spring Forward with the MN Guitar Society

This year it is more important than ever for the Minnesota Guitar Society to increase the base of support for our growing programs of guitar instruction for K-12 students in public schools throughout the Twin Cities.

Since 2019, we have been running Guitar In Our Schools (GIOS), a program designed to support guitar instruction in mainstream music classes. Our partners have included schools in Minneapolis and St Paul. We plan to add more schools next fall. Support has come from the Augustine Foundation, the D'Addario Foundation, and individual donors.

In 2020, thanks to a one-year grant we received from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council's Arts Learning program,  we launched a second program, Guitar Opportunities for All Learners (GOAL). 

The first phase of GOAL is a partnership with the Special Education Department of White Bear Lake High School and the teacher there, David Melvin. Jared Waln, a teaching artist from our GIOS team, created and implemented classes in guitar instruction, and has worked with the students every week for the entire 2020-21 school year, both in-person and online. Depending on their needs, students have used standard guitars, or adaptive guitars and a methodology developed by the founder and head of the Guitar Department at Southwest High School in Minneapolis, who mentored Waln in spring 2020 during his residency at Southwest as part of our GIOS program.

The staff and students at White Bear Lake want us to return next fall. We want to do that, and also expand the GOAL program by adding a second school. To make this possible, we need your help. Please support us through the SpringForward MN campaign. GOAL makes a real difference in the lives of the students who participate.