Guitar Town Unveiling

The Sunset Strip Business Association and Gibson, in partnership with the City of West Hollywood and the West Hollywood Marketing & Visitors Bureau, are pleased to announce the official unveiling of GuitarTown on The Sunset Strip is set for Thursday, August 12 from 5 p.m. – 11 p.m. GuitarTown is a public art project that features 26 ten-foot tall fiberglass Gibson Les Paul model guitars.

The oversized Gibson guitar sculptures were created by local and nationally-acclaimed visual artists, with each guitar sculpture celebrating a musician, personality, or influential moment unique to The Sunset Strip's history and Gibson Guitar. The guitars will be strategically placed along the 1.6-mile Sunset Strip in West Hollywood.

The day's events will kick off at 5 p.m. with the grand "re-opening" of The Strip, featuring a caravan of classic cars and a ribbon cutting by West Hollywood City Councilmembers. The "re-opening" follows the seven month Sunset Strip Beautification Project that included such improvements as repaving the boulevard for the first time in
75 years, repairing and expanding sidewalks and crosswalks to enhance the pedestrian experience and planting new trees along the 1.6 mile stretch.

The 26 ten-foot art guitars that make up GuitarTown on The Sunset Strip include themes such as the jazz era on The Strip, the '60s counterculture movement and the glamour and glitz of the boulevard, as well pieces celebrating Slash, The Doors, Mötley Crüe and Sunset Strip nightclub founders Lou Adler, Mario Maglieri and Elmer Valentine (, and ). Each piece also utilizes its own medium from painting to sculpture and photography. The artists were selected by a committee composed of community leaders, business representatives, City staff and members of the arts community.

Gibson GuitarTown on The Sunset Strip will be on display for the next six months. After the guitars complete their "tour" of The Strip, they will then be sold at a Gala Auction with all proceeds benefitting nonprofit organizations and charities.