Georgia Southern University in Savannah is home to an exciting project, in association with Fred and Dinah Gretsch, to preserve the Gretsch company’s rich heritage in the form of a very special museum… We join the museum’s experts to find out more
Apart from funding music education at the university itself, Fred and Dinah Gretsch have donated some historic Gretsch guitars and other artefacts to a museum overseen by the university in Georgia. Situated at the Plant Riverside District in Savannah, it tells the story of the development of Gretsch as a major force in the guitar marketplace and contains some of the brand’s most prized vintage instruments. We join coordinator Aaron Phillips and curator Dr Matthew Hill to find out more.
How did the museum come about?
Aaron Phillips: “Fred and Dinah Gretsch have been in the Savannah area now for over 30 years and they have always had partnerships with Georgia Southern – they’ve had a scholarship in our School of Music, another one in our business programme – so they’ve always had a vested interest in the university. They approached our new president, Dr Kyle Marrero, about making a large gift to the university. It all really started with them wanting to fund our School of Music, because if you know Fred and Dinah at all, especially Dinah, her life’s work is in music education. She’s worked with the Georgia Music Foundation here in the state of Georgia for over 25 years. With that financial donation and the partnership with the School of Music, they also decided to donate their entire personal collection of instruments, artefacts, personal records and a lot of company stuff relating to artists.”
And the museum itself is housed in downtown Savannah?
Aaron: “Our current president had the idea to partner with Richard Kessler, who runs the Kessler Collection here in Georgia; he’s got a series of hotels and resorts around the world. They had just built a new downtown district in Savannah and they were adding on a new building to an existing Savannah’s new entertainment district, the Plant Riverside, houses a permanent display of Gretsch music memorabilia hotel.
They bought an old power plant that sits on the Savannah River, this historic building, and renovated it. That building in and of itself as well is kind of a museum, too, dedicated to natural resources and natural history from around the coastal plains.
“They wanted to do something similar with that new building and our president happened to be having lunch with Richard Kessler, two or three days after we had just signed the contracts with Fred and Dinah. He
