Ace Hotels and Martin Guitar expanded their partnership with a music outreach program centered on live concerts in four hotels.
“String Theory with Doug Hream Blunt,” a series of performances by soul artist Doug Hream Blunt of New York-based record label Luaka Bop – founded by the Talking Heads’ David Byrne – will be held at Ace’s hotels in New York, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and New Orleans. Each performance will benefit local adult education and music therapy centers, and Martin guitars will be given at the end of each show.
The partnership also will include the “Ace x Martin High Note Micro-Granting Program,” which provides small grants to musicians in Pittsburgh and New Orleans, which the hotel company says have “suffered a palpable lack of arts funding.” Musicians in the two cities, nominated by the community, will receive a grant to support their artistic efforts.
“The level of trust and creative spirit we have fostered for the past five years with Martin Guitar has really allowed us to push the boundaries of our work together. From hosting shows in our public spaces, to having beautifully crafted guitars in our hotel rooms for our guests to use, we couldn’t be more excited and honored to further this collaboration into fostering local musicians and their communities,” said Kelly Sawdon, Ace Hotel’s partner and chief brand officer.