Artist Amanda Dunbar ’04 will be among those gathering to honor Barbra Streisand as the MusiCares Person of the Year during Grammy Awards weekend in Los Angeles.
Dunbar, whose Precious Rebels art guitars are prized by musicians and other collectors, has been a significant donor, sponsor and contributor to MusiCares for the past 10 years. The MusiCares Foundation was established in 1989 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to aid musicians in financial, personal and medical crisis.
While Dunbar is best known for her wide range of abstract, figurative and conceptual paintings that hang in private, public and corporate collections around the world, her career has always crossed over into the music industry. Her Precious Rebels guitars, which she began creating in 2007, “bridge the gap between art and the world,” says Dunbar, who earned a B.F.A. in art history, cum laude with departmental distinction, from Meadows School of the Arts. “People connect to popular culture, and I want to have that kind connection with people.”
One of Dunbar’s commissioned art guitars is now part of the Recording Academy’s collection commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Grammy Awards. For now, the guitar takes pride of place in the office of Neil Portnow, president of the academy.