Yesterday (March 13) was the first day of the the exhibition of early guitars “Towards a Guitar Museum” in Granada. It will run until April 14 of this year. This show comes out of a desire to establish a permanent museum of the guitar in Granada (or anywhere else in Spain for that matter). All we really need is a permanent space to house these pieces. The inaugural event included an official recognition of the impact made by the original association Escuela Granadina formed in 1987. The members at that time were:

René Baarslag
Juan Miguel Carmona Trapero
Francisco Manuel Díaz Sánchez
Jonathan Hinves
Juan López Aguilarte
José López Bellido
Manuel López Bellido
Antonio Marín Montero
José Marín Plazuelo
Rafael Moreno Rodríguez
Germán Pérez Barranco
Antonio Raya Pardo
Paco Santiago Marín

José Pérez Mingorance D.E.P.
Bernd Martin D.E.P.
Manuel Fernández Fernández D.E.P.
Antonio Durán Zurita D.E.P.
Eduardo Ferrer Castillo D.E.P.

At that time they organized exhibitions, appeared in specialized magazines and books and took the Granada guitar to countries all over the world. The reputation and the quality of the Granada guitar today is a direct result of the individual efforts and the collective work of these makers. Too often we wait until death takes someone before celebrating his or her achievements. For this reason the town council of Granada and the Asociación de Guitarreros de Granada wanted to pay homage to these makers while they are still working in their workshops.

This is a guitar that I acquired recently on a trade and I am wondering what to do with it. I could try to sell it now to someone interested in Catalonian guitar history or I could restore it and then try to sell it. I really don’t have any interest in collecting guitars although I am grateful that some people do it. Collectors have kept alive guitar history for those of us who are interested in it today. The guitar does need restoration but it has been played in this state.

José Serratosa Blanch was active in Barcelona in the late 19th early 20th centuries and you can read a bit about him on these two pages. Zavaleta’s and Miguel Mateo.  According to the address on the label this guitar was made before 1906.

Once again CSU Summer Arts is holding “La guitarra española” in Granada coinciding with the Granada Guitar Festival. There is really nothing like having the city full of players, teachers and guitar-makers for three weeks. The Antonio Marín guitar-making competition will also be held this year although I have not heard details yet from the organizers. Details for applying to the summer arts program can be found here. The festival and the competition will be posted here as soon as I hear what the dates are.

The foto shows Alberto Cuéllar playing one of the many concerts at last year’s festival.