Cigar Box Guitars at Coos Art Museum, Dec. 11

Cigar Box Guitars will be featured as part of Musical Instruments @ CAM an exhibition of instruments and instrument building, to be held at Coos Art Museum from December 11, 2015 to February 13, 2016. The Cigar Box Guitars represent a sampling of the 130 guitars built by the 2014-2015 fifth grade class at Sunset Middle School. The guitars, part of the Museum’s Studio-to-School program, were built over the course of three months under the direction of Sunset teacher Nick Krissie, who won a STEM Champion Award for his work on this project. Studio-to-School is funded by a grant from the Oregon Community Foundation and represents a partnership which includes Sunset School and Coos Art Museum. Many other community members and businesses donated materials or volunteered time to this project. During the construction of the guitars the students developed skills in science, technology, engineering, and math. They also learned about the rich history of this instrument in American music. At the culmination of this project, students had the opportunity to work with international cigar box guitar expert Justin Johnson. Justin spent a week with the students and taught them basic music theory, rhythm, and 12 bar blues. The students also had the opportunity to perform in concert with Justin at the Egyptian Theatre, in May.