Kids show up every week who've never held a guitar before. One of them, an 8-year-old named Lars, told us his first lesson was "one of the best days of my life." He'd already assembled a "band before day one. Showed up with his friends in matching outfits, ready to rock.
That's what happens when you put an instrument in the hands of a kid who thought music wasn't for people like them. You're not just teaching chord shapes. You're handing them entry into a lineage — the same one that caught me when I was their age, the same one that's kept me building and playing for decades.
Here's where I need your help:
Alice and I have personally funded the first year of Art House 808. We proved the need is real — the demand has been overwhelming. But we can't sustain this alone.
I've never asked for outside help in my entire career. JHS was built without investors, without loans, without asking anyone for anything. This is a first for me. But Art House isn't about the business I built — it's about what made that business possible in the first place. That red Stratocaster. That tiny amp. The door that opened. I'm trying to hold that door open for kids who are standing where I stood, in a town a lot like the one I came from. In situations just like mine.
Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday, and I know many of you are looking for ways to help others — so I'm asking.
Here's the good news: thanks to partnerships with companies like Ernie Ball, Epiphone, and the Songbirds Foundation, our students have guitars, strings, straps, and tuners covered. The gear is taken care of.
What we need is people.
We're looking to bring on more guitar teachers so we can serve even more kids — and that means paying talented instructors what they're worth. We refuse to cut corners on the people pouring into these students every week. Your gift goes directly to teacher salaries and the overhead it takes to keep our doors open and our classes free.
Right now, our Guitar for Kids program serves 32 students with 2 instructors. That costs $11,520 a year to maintain. But the demand far exceeds what we can offer — so our goal is to raise $20,000. That lets us add more classes, hire more instructors, and actually meet the needs in this community. Every dollar raised beyond that, we continue to expand and reach further into the community!
And while Guitar for Kids is close to my heart — and probably close to yours — it's one part of something bigger. Art House 808 runs classes in improv, watercolor, photography, theatre, songwriting, and textile arts. We also host concerts, artist gatherings, galleries, and community events. We've served over 2,000 people in less than a year and showcased more than 100 local artists who had nowhere else to go. It’s been amazing!
If you've ever wondered whether JHS is just about pedals or if there's something deeper going on here — this is it. This is what it's all about. Creativity changes lives. I know because it changed mine. Now I'm trying to make sure the next generation of kids in my community has the same shot.
Your gift — of any amount — makes a real difference:
$45 covers one student's lessons for a month
$150 sponsors a student for an entire semester
$200 pays for a teacher's time for a full month of classes
$1,200 brings on an additional instructor for an entire year
Every dollar is tax-deductible. We're a real 501(c)(3), and we use Zeffy so 100% of your gift goes to the program — no processing fees. | 
