Campaign Supports Guitar Students

By Kelly Garrison
Features Editor

For students at Long Beach Renaissance High School for the Arts, creativity plays an integral part of the academic curriculum.

That’s why supporters of the facility decided not to let a tight school budget get in the way of purchasing a collection of new acoustic guitars for students to use during practice at home. With the help of several partnerships, school staff this month organized a campaign to raise enough money for 50 guitars — and that’s just the beginning.

“These are kids who can’t afford instruments at home,” said Creativity Network Cofounder Antonio Ruiz, who is helping coordinate the effort. “When we get through this 50, there will be more, such as (materials) for kids in art classes who can’t afford them.”

So far, community members have committed to donate enough money to buy 20 to 25 guitars. Gilmore Music, located on Seventh Street, has contributed to the effort by offering the guitars at a discounted rate of $65 per instrument.

“It’s just another way that the big city of Long Beach is really (like) a small town,” said Mark Zahn, principal of Renaissance High School. “You ask people, and they come forward to help.”

Guitar classes at the high school range from beginner to advanced levels and include about 75 students altogether. Having extra guitars would allow students to borrow them for practice after school, Zahn said.

“They’ll take them home and probably beat them up, but that’s what happens,” he said. “It will give urban kids a chance to compete.”

Zahn said he didn’t know where to look for funding when a faculty member requested the new instruments for his students. He decided to seek help from the Arts Council for Long Beach, which had been conducting meetings at the school.

“The council understands that Renaissance is creating new artists and new audiences,” Zahn said. “…We have been working from a federal magnet grant to set the school up, and now we have to sustain ourselves. These are fiscally hard times in California schools.”

Campaign organizers say they plan to present the guitars to the school during a ceremony in the fall.

Renaissance High School, at 235 E. Eighth St., is in its fourth year of operation and emphasizes visual and performing arts in its curriculum. It operates with the help of a number of community partnerships, including the Arts Council for Long Beach and the Creativity Network.

To make a tax-deductible donation to the guitar campaign, write checks out to the “Arts Council for Long Beach” (include in the memo: “Buy a Guitar”) and mail them to the Arts Council for Long Beach, 110 W. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90802.

For more information, visit www.lbusd.k12.ca.us/renaissance.