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Fourth-year student Nick Adorni tapped into his love of rock music and his skills in sculpture, photography and graphic design when he transformed a nine-foot model of a Fender® Stratocaster® guitar into a work of art seen by millions of people this summer. Adorni was selected to participate in GuitarMania,® a public art project and that has raised over $1.6 million, in three installations since 2002, for the United Way of Greater Cleveland and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's education program.

His sponsor, the Cleveland private equity firm Kirtland Capital Partners, was looking for a design that focused on the theme of partnership. "I used images of a bridge as a metaphor for partnership," explained Adorni, who is majoring in sculpture and minoring in both photography and communication design. "A bridge connects people from one place to people from another place; and really what they do as an investment firm is bridge to businesses and connect different businesses together."

Adorni used his communication design skills to create the proposal that persuaded Kirtland to sponsor him. He photographed the bridges spanning the Cuyahoga River in The Flats district of Cleveland illuminated at night. He then manipulated those images digitally using Kirtland's company colors and created a "more abstract, watercolory" look, he said. When he was happy with the images, he printed them on adhesive vinyl and affixed them to the guitar model, incorporating them into his acrylic and air brush painting.

The result, "The Partnership," was unveiled on the steps of the Rock Hall on Memorial Day weekend and then spent the summer in front of Jacobs Field. The piece was re-installed in front of the Rock Hall at the end of the summer with the other 69 entries, the majority of which will be auctioned off at a gala on Oct. 20.

For information about attending the GuitarMania® auction, call 216/436-2123 or email jdsnyder@uws.org