Staff photo by C.B. Schmelter / Songbirds Foundation Director Reed Caldwell, right, sets up a distortion pedal for his lesson with 14-year-old Alex Bell at the Siskin Children’s Institute on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018 in Chattanooga, Tenn.Songbirds lives, at least as a foundation.
During its relatively short three-year life, the Songbirds Guitar Museum, as well as the live music venue’s spaces that came after its opening, created a buzz in Chattanooga as a world-class museum featuring the largest collection of rare and original guitars on the planet.
It didn’t survive the coronavirus pandemic, closing its doors for good in August, but the Songbirds Foundation, created as a side project of the museum to introduce guitar to area youth, will carry on the brand using the former museum space at the Chattanooga Choo Choo.
Foundation Executive Director Reed Caldwell said the organization’s work in the space will be entirely focused on its Guitars for Kids program, which is all about “getting guitars into the hands of kids. Everything we do is for that purpose.”
He said the plan is to spend the next couple of months thinking about how the space can be reworked to feature not only educational displays and teaching spaces, but also a stage for live concerts that will serve as fundraisers for the foundation.