The Les Paul Foundation, whose mission includes honoring and sharing the life, spirit and legacy of Les Paul has announced “Les Paul Thru the Lens,” an exclusive traveling gallery of photos highlighting the life and career of Les Paul, the inventor, musician and icon.
The Les Paul Thru the Lens exhibit features twenty-four gallery matted and framed black and white photographs chronicling Les’ life from a small child to his later career. It includes rare personal family photos, Les behind-the-scenes, famous musicians and photos of the man with a larger than life sense of humor and an amazing curiosity for innovation. Guests of the exhibits can follow along while viewing each photograph on the web-initiated storylines for each rare image. From Les’ time inventing in his famous Hollywood garage studio to his popular Reality TV show and appearances with Mary Ford, the exhibit provides fans with the opportunity to see Les like never before.
Les Paul Thru the Lens will kick off on March 14th at the College of St. Rose in Albany, New York. From there it will travel across the country and back East later in the year. The 2022 schedule is as follows:
March 14-20, 2022 - Esther Massry Gallery located at Massry Center for the Arts at the College of Saint Rose, 1002 Madison Avenue in Albany, New York. The exhibit is free and open to the public from 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. daily. (https://www.strose.edu/.../esther-massry-gallery)
April 1-June 1, 2022 – Museum of Making Music located at 5790 Armada Drive in Carlsbad, California. The exhibit will be open Tuesday-Sunday from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and the exhibit is part of regular admission to the museum. (https://www.museumofmakingmusic.org)
June 3-5, 2022 – NAMM, National Association of Musical Instrument Manufacturers annual convention held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. The exhibit will be open to all attendees and registered guests for the duration of the convention during regular hours and will be held inside the Member Center.
July 1- September 30, 2022 – Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum located at 401 Gay Street in Nashville, Tennessee. The exhibit will be held in the museum’s main lobby and entry is included in the museum’s regular admission. The hours are Monday-Saturday, 10:00 a.m – 5:00 p.m. (www.musicianshalloffame.com).
November 1, 2022 – December 20, 2022 – STAX Museum of American Soul Music located at 926 East McLemore in Memphis, Tennessee. Hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and the exhibit is included to the regular museum admission. (https://staxmuseum.com)
Additional venues will be announced throughout the year.
The Les Paul Thru the Lens traveling exhibit is now taking reservations for the 2023 touring schedule. Venues or partners who wish to host the exhibit can email the contact listed at the bottom of this announcement.
“Les was an icon. His inventions paved the way for musicians all over the globe. His curiosity gave us the most important inventions in the music industry which are still used today. Since we want to celebrate him all year long we created the “Les Paul through the Lens” gallery exhibit. Guests will have the opportunity to find out more about Les through beautifully displayed photographs depicting important people and moments in his life. We hope you love it as much as we do.” – Michael Braunstein, Executive Director of the Les Paul Foundation
Fans will also have the chance to follow along as the exhibit tours the country via all of the Les Paul social media channels with weekly updates and anecdotes from each hosting partner. The Foundation is offering the gallery exhibit to partners, venues, museums, galleries or other suitable organizations who would like to host it for a limited time. Prints of the photographs will also be offered at each hosting venue and through the Les Paul store at the official Les Paul website at www.les-paul.com.
ABOUT THE LES PAUL FOUNDATION:
The mission of the Les Paul Foundation is to honor and share the life, spirit and legacy of Les Paul by supporting music education, engineering and innovation as well as medical research. The Les Paul Foundation is an approved IRC 501(c)3 organization that awards grants to organizations that share Les Paul’s legacy through music, music engineering and sound programs that serve youth. The Foundation also provides grants for medical research related to hearing loss. The Les Paul Foundation supports public exhibits which display Les Paul’s life achievements, events that engage fans and students and music releases and related launches which share the genius of Les Paul. For more information go to www.les-paul.com.
