In 1968 the foundation's founder,
Thomas Heck, was living in
Vienna, Austria, collecting rare sheet music for guitar. His collection included first editions by
Mauro Giuliani. In 1973, Heck wrote the foundation's articles of incorporation in
Santa Barbara, California, creating a non-profit foundation to which he could give his archive of sheet music. Along with Heck, others were interested in forming the first national classical guitar association in the United States, including
Vahdah Olcott-Bickford, who served on the first GFA Board of Directors, Heck created the GFA archive in 1977 in Milwaukee while teaching at the
Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. A catalog of the inventory was assembled and mailed to interested buyers, who could receive photocopies of sheet music on request. A second edition of the catalog was published four years later. During the 1980s, while Heck taught at
Ohio State University in Columbus, the archive grew to include more sheet music, periodicals, and other materials related to classical guitar. In the 1990s the archive moved to the
University of Akron, and in 2015 it was transferred to
California State University, Northridge. ==International Concert Artist Competition==