For anyone who's got a trombone taking up space in the garage or a violin gathering dust in the closet, Liza Blair is looking for those instruments.
A young participant tries out a new instrument at a Folk School of Chattanooga event this year. The Folk School is partnering with the Creative Discovery Museum to collect new and used instruments for both of the organizations' youth outreach programs. Donations can be made at the Creative Discovery Museum's front desk, located at 321 Chestnut St.As arts manager for the Creative Discovery Museum, she knows that pairing those currently underused instruments with a young child can impact that child for the rest of his or her life. According to her, research and experience show that early introduction to music helps develop fine motor skills, vocabulary, pattern recognition, sequencing ability and many other aspects of a young brain.
"Any type of true hands-on experience with music and instruments does so much in terms of development," she said. "With those early skills they can then incorporate them into other areas as they grow older."
Because CDM and the Folk School of Chattanooga understand how important an early introduction to music can be for kids, both organizations are partnering to host an instrument drive this month. Members are seeking banjos, guitars, violins, dulcimers, wind instruments and drums in any condition.
The Folk School of Chattanooga Kids String Band will perform at the museum Sept. 15 from 1:30-2:30 p.m. to kick off the drive, and donations are welcome after that performance. Donations can be brought to the front desk of the Creative Discovery Museum, at 321 Chestnut St.
According to Blair, the instruments will be used in outreach programs both by the museum, which takes instruments into local schools with a pre-K program, and by the by Folk School of Chattanooga for its youth programs. The instruments collected will be split evenly between the organizations, she said.
"For this project we decided to pool our resources together to provide some instruments for children in this community," said Blair. "It's a great opportunity to help two programs and provide a great service."
For more information contact the Creative Discovery Museum at 756-2738.