Gibson Gives gifts guitars to Metro Nashville Public Schools students

For nearly a decade, a unique partnership between Metro Nashville Public Schools, the Mayor's Office and dozens of community organizations has worked to ensure the students of Music City have access to music in their schools.

Recently, Gibson Gives — the philanthropic arm of the iconic guitar company — brought that goal a few steps closer for many students across the district.

With a $300,000 donation of equipment, including guitar strings, amplifiers, guitar stands and most importantly, guitars themselves, the organization hopes to increase student participation in strings programs in schools. 

Gibson Gives:Gibson Guitars gives away 2,500 guitars in two years as part of its Gibson Gives program

And for JC Curleigh, president and CEO of Gibson, he hopes that means he might see more students jamming in their school's rock band in the future. 

"The underpinning of Nashville is music and the next generation of music doesn't always have to come from other places, it can come right here from Nashville," Curleigh told The Tennessean. "I would love nothing more than in five, 10, 15 years to have a kid on a stage who says 'I'm a local from Nashville and I got my start in the sixth grade when a Gibson guitar was put in my hands at my local school.'"

This donation isn't the first Gibson has made to Metro Schools.

The Music Makes Us partnership, an initiative housed within the district, started in 2012 and has been at the forefront of the district — and the community's — efforts to enhance music and arts education in Nashville. 

In 2013, Metro Schools was honored as one of the best communities for music education in the country by the National Association of Music Merchants — for the fourth year running.

Now, the district has 188 music teachers and a music and arts program in every elementary school, according to Jeff Smith, director of visual and performing arts for the district.

Straight to your inbox: Stay up-to-date on Tennessee's top education news by signing up for our new weekly newsletter, School Zone. Sign up here.

Every high school has a traditional band, though some specialty magnet schools don't have marching bands, and some middle schools have band programs as well.

But access to quality instruments and other programs varies. The district conducted a needs assessment of schools' arts programs in partnership with Music Makes Us and The CMA Foundation a few years ago, Smith said. 

They found that some high schools don't have choirs. Some elementary schools only have Orff instruments — classic wooden instruments like xylophones or bass bars — for music class. Some might have guitars or ukuleles, others have keyboards — many donated over the years by the Save the Music Foundation. 

"If we can make sure we are providing access to quality music education programs and quality music instruments and have the resources necessary to be successful in those classrooms and programs, that's the goal," Smith said.

More from Metro Schools:Metro Nashville Public Schools looks to expand 'gold standard' tutoring program to more than 7,000 students

Related:How Nashville schools plan to spend nearly $300M in federal relief funds

Donations like Gibson's recent one help provide professional instruments to students who might not otherwise have access.

Currently, the district has about a thousand guitar students in middle and high schools and a thousand in elementary schools.

The Gibson Gives donation will directly benefit students in schools with existing guitar programs including Antioch High School, Bellevue Middle School, Donelson Middle School, H.G. Hill Middle School, Hillwood High School, John Overton High School, Maplewood High School, McGavock High School, and Nashville School of the Performing Arts, according to Gibson.

"I can't even begin to tell you the smile and enthusiasm on the face of a student when they unbox or play on an instrument that they would otherwise not have access to," Smith said. "When they realize 'Someone values me. Someone saw fit to invest in me and my music education,' that is so powerful. What our kids need now more than ever is adults who care about them." 

Want to read more stories like this? A subscription to one of our Tennessee publications gets you unlimited access to all the latest news throughout the entire USA TODAY Network.

Meghan Mangrum covers education for the USA TODAY Network — Tennessee. Contact her at mmangrum@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.