Lead Guitar Receives NEA Art Works Grant

Arizona-based nonprofit Lead Guitar announced today that it was awarded a coveted National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Art Works grant to fund its 2016-2017 classical guitar programs. The grant is specifically earmarked to support Lead Guitar’s expansion in the greater Phoenix area, where Lead Guitar will partner with seven schools.  Funding from the NEA will ensure the quality and sustainability of Lead Guitar’s Phoenix programs, and the Art Works grant is a terrific nod of approval to Lead Guitar’s work.

About Lead Guitar
Lead Guitar was incorporated as a nonprofit in 2006, but concert guitarist Brad Richter began developing the Lead Guitar curriculum in 1999 for Page High School in Page, AZ. Lead Guitar grew steadily from 1999 until 2013 when it became an outreach program of the University of Arizona College of Fine Arts. In the 2016-2017 school year, over 50 schools will operate Lead Guitar programs in Arizona, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Illinois.  Lead Guitar’s mission is to provide rigorous instrumental music education to the young people who need it most. Lead Guitar establishes and supports classical guitar programs in public schools with reduced access to the arts, focusing on Title I schools and schools with a high percentage of students eligible for federal free and reduced lunch.

About NEA
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation.

Contact
To learn more about Lead Guitar, please contact
Brad Richter, Executive Director
888 N. Euclid Ave. Room 203
Tucson, AZ 85721
(520)390-2077
brad@leadguitar.org