The Ensemble Theatre presents: The Laramie Project
This Friday marks the Ensemble Theatre’s opening of the historic and heartfelt docudrama The Laramie Project, which focuses on a mid-size Western town after one of the most horrendous hate crimes ever committed. Four performances of the play will be staged this weekend— Friday and Sunday night, as well as Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
The factual play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project draws on hundreds of interviews by the theatre company to dramatize the 1998 death of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man. Shepard was beaten nearly to death and left tied to a fence in a remote area of Laramie, Wyoming. His death five days later drew national attention.
“This is a truly unique piece of theatre that is revolutionary in the way we use our craft as a means to turn a mirror onto society,” says director and cast member Garry Lee Posey, who was acquainted with Shepard when both attended college in North Carolina.
The play mixes real news reports with actor portrayals of friends, family, police officers, killers, and other Laramie residents. The cast includes Posey, Amy Sue Austin, John Thomas Cecil, E’tienne Easley, Becki Jordan, Jonathan Nichols, Stephanie Smith, and Joey Tipton.
The professionally staged production will be presented at the St. Andrews Center at 1918 Union Avenue, behind Highland Park Baptist Church. Performances are Friday, October 16 at 7:30 pm, Saturday, October 17 at 3:30 pm, and Sunday, October 18 at 3:30 pm and 7:30 pm. Tickets are $10 general admission and $8 for student with an ID.
The Laramie Project production will be followed by the play OUT, which Posey himself wrote about his own struggles in dealing with the same incident. OUT will be presented as a staged reading on October 21st (the Wednesday following The Laramie Project) and again on the 29th. Both performances will be held 7pm at St. Andrews Center. Tickets are $4.
On Saturday, CreateHere acted as a facilitator in bringing together some of our city’s specialty artisan chefs for a small tasting. The culinary leg of the Geiger & Associates journalism tour spent a week in Chattanooga exploring local flavor through a jam-packed schedule of farms, shops and restaurants. We got hold of them for a two hour block first thing Saturday morning.
A week prior to this, we sat down with a very talented group of local chefs—Wendy Buckner from The Hot Chocolatier, Trae Moore and Tom Montague from Link 41, Warren Stanko from Alchemy Spice, John Sweet from Niedlov’s Breadworks, and Matt Lewis and Ryan Chilcoat from Terminal Brewhouse—to talk about presenting an artisan tasting for the visiting writers.
As we came to discover in these initial meetings, the local food economy of Chattanooga is unique not only in flavor, but in the intimate connections that exist between those involved. The five diverse food shops that we brought together, as it turns out, either were already using one another’s products to create their own quality treats or were eager to do so.
Niedlov’s bread was already being utilized by Link 41 and Terminal; Terminal has been providing Niedlov’s with its recycled grain for a while now; and everyone involved relies on a variety of Alchemy’s spice blends for their signature flavors. And through the course of organizing the tasting, new relationships were formed—The Hot Chocolatier has now replaced the Guiness in her Extra Stout truffle with Terminal’s Southsidenstein.
With the thickest, richest sipping chocolate you’ve ever tasted, bread dipped in seasoned oils, three varieties of fresh sausage, yummy cheese paired with micro-brew beers, and giant blackberries drizzled in white chocolate, there was little room for this tasting not to be a success. The journalists left full, happy, and without many leftovers. But in case we doubted it, Wendy reports that she was bought out of her Hottie Sipping Chocolate at the Chattanooga Market on Sunday by some familiar faces.
It was a pleasure to both present and learn from this tight-knit community that we are so very proud to have as a part of our city. They are a remarkable element in Chattanooga’s food culture, both as individuals and as the key ingredients in a broader recipe for community-based business relationships.
Thanks to everyone involved for a proud and delicious morning.
Check out the full list of GOOD 100-ers online, or catch a copy of the print edition at news stands.
Posted by Veronique on 10/13 at 02:01 PM Permalink
Creation of Character Luncheon | October 21 @ 11:30 am
As part of the “Persona | Anima” Event Series, 55here will host a luncheon on October 21, from 11:30 to 1 pm. The event is free and is designed for seasoned and aspiring performers as well those who are just plain curious about theater, performance and character development.
I had an opportunity to sit down with Kim Jackson, local actress, and Garry Posey, founder of Theatre Ensemble of Chattanooga, last week to chat about their plans for facilitating the “Creation of Character” Luncheon next Wednesday. I never doubted that they would have big ideas to bring to the table, but they certainly surpassed any expectation I had when we met.
I found out very quickly that this was a serendipitous occurrence for both of them; in that, Kim and Garry knew each other previously and had always wanted to do a project together but never had the chance until now. My hope is that this event will not only serve these individuals in this way, but that it will lead to a number of lasting impressions, informed participation, and serendipitous working relationships.
Kim and Garry have spent a great deal of time collaborating to prepare for the luncheon. And by way of a four-part recipe for interaction and awareness, the duo will engage participants in open discussion, dialogue, monologue, and sceneage. With both improvisational and practiced participation from guests and local players from the theater community, the event will encourage the exploration of the depths of character.
If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to rsvp[at]createhere[dot]org. We hope you will join us!
By Jessica Martin, Senior Arts Fellow
Posted by Veronique on 10/13 at 12:13 PM Permalink
Monday, October 12, 2009
Vote for Chattanooga’s “Head of the Hooch”
Rowers and regatta fans: here’s your chance to get some props for Chattanooga. Rowing News is asking readers what race is the best in town, and Chattanooga’s “Head of the Hooch” is a top contender so far. Cast your vote at Rowing News’ website, and spread the word about our little gem on the river.
Posted by Veronique on 10/12 at 04:17 PM Permalink
Setting the Table for a Movable Feast: Notes from the Field
Josh McManus is one of CreateHere’s co-founders and Creative Strategists. He’s abroad on a month-long trip in conjunction with the Marshall Memorial Fellowship, and sent us this dispatch from Paris.
I arrived in Paris with some anxiety: prior descriptions I’d heard of the French (and you’ve undoubtedly heard them, too) ranged from irrational, blind admiration (we all know a Francophile), all the way to utter disgust (we’ve all had a Freedom Fry). Further, I came to Paris knowing I’d be on my own without much command for the language, and in this country above all others, I’d been told that was a cardinal sin.
My anxiety was grounded in the idea of dissonance and difference. And yet what I found was harmony, the type of raw and edgy harmony that can only happen when people and place intersect, with the very old and the very new working together.
In Blink, Malcom Gladwell gets at an unspoken truth: we have a sixth sense to “know” truth long before we can articulate the “why.” Our guts tell us its good before we have the words to say so. After two hours on foot in Paris, I was able to know the city as Ernest Hemingway did, as a Movable Feast. After 24 hours immersed, I think I have the words to express why Hemingway was able to say that.
In my world, people and place are inextricably connected, so I’ll have to address both. In Paris, I stand in awe of my physical surroundings: around me, the delicate choreography of thousands of people walking, biking, scooting, and driving, graceful as ballerinas, aggressive as teenagers. Cathedrals, palaces, museums and parks, all dreamed up and executed on scales unfathomable at the time of their inception, and perhaps still today.
And the river. The River Seine flows as a primary artery through this city, as in so many of the cities I love. Norman Maclean puts it best: “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.”
As for the people of Paris, they are mixed but not melted. A strong display of personal identity reminds us that individual cultures are to be celebrated, and accepted where they can not be understood. Civil discourse is an art form (a well-regarded one at that) that pairs thought and action. People protest here, and it is meaningfully done. Rather than repressing inner concerns, the French populace finds means to relieve themselves of civic passive aggression. Yes, young guys fight in the streets after succumbing to alcohol, always at hand, but they don’t use weapons: they are bruised but not broken. Call it what you will, but I’ll call it respect.
Exposure is what leads to respect, and it’s perhaps the most important gift we can take away from the ideals of urbanism. Disregard is all too easy when you never cross paths with starving immigrants or wayward travelers. Standing face-to-face, sharing in our joys and our appreciation for beauty: you can not deny our shared humanity.
This shared humanity strikes a chord with this American of European descent. In the faces of those around me here, I’ve begun to see the roots of many of those people who surround me at home. The sharp and still prevalent features of our European ancestors transposed across generations and continents, not as copies, but almost like an old photograph. Their is beauty in the rhyme that is history.
Before I left the US, Dr. Gary Weaver told our group that this trip would “help us understand what it is to be American.” I have to thank Paris for some of my newfound understanding on the subject. This is a city that has returned to me thousands of years of lost personal history, not just the hundreds that I once understood: being an American means knowing that history didn’t start with 1776. Paris is a place that speaks to the ages. And it reminds us, finally: we are more as many than as one.
Paris, je t’aime.
Posted by Veronique on 10/12 at 10:13 AM Permalink
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Institutions and the Future of Collaboration: Notes from the Field
Josh McManus is one of CreateHere’s co-founders and Creative Strategists. He’s on the road for a month-long trip abroad through the Marshall Memorial Fellowship, and sent us this dispatch from a train in Belgium.
Today marked my fourth day in Brussels, Belgium and already, this trip is offering some profound food for thought. My personal and professional experiences here have been woven through with what I recognize to be (sleep- and sweet-tea-deprived though I may be) some exciting, unexpected truths. It’s exhilarating to witness what we all hope for back home: there’s a growing hunger among the world’s progressive thinkers to find new modalities of living and doing business.
But we don’t learn significant lessons in silos, and this lesson, like many, started with time on my feet. After a redeye flight from Washington, we soaked up Brussels’ architectural and cultural heritage. The city is rich: natural Art Noveau swirls and streamline Art Deco curvatures; cookie-like waffles and sweetly effervescent Trappist beers. There’s a sense that history, order, and progress are combined here, that intersectionality isn’t a bi-product of organic growth: it’s a goal.
A large portion of the city’s landscape is dedicated to highly fortified (and somewhat antiseptic) facilities where bureaucracy reigns. The EU and NATO are stark backdrops for a bustling ex-patriot community, and interestingly, an underground creative scene. It’s an exercise in compare, contrast.
Our first night in the city happened to coincide with Nuit Blanche, a celebration of creativity across much of the city center. From fire dancers to rogue art booths to large public dances, over eighty individuals and groups animated public spaces in innovative ways well through the wee hours. It was electric, with citizens and tourists laughing, dancing, learning the night away.
Twenty-four hours later, I found myself in briefings and frank conversations at NATO. A Cold War relic with an uninspiring early ‘80s aesthetic, the place lacks vision. Often times, it seemed from presentations that they’d forgotten their initial purpose: bright people seemed overwhelmed by, but chained to, a bureaucratic inertia. Furthermore, the organizational mission has creeped to a place where climate control is qualified as a North Atlantic security issue.
At this point you might be asking, Josh, what’s with the stream of conscious dispatch? EU bureaucracy and Belgian Waffles… Is it just the jetlag talking?
It’s not random at all, though. NATO and Nuit Blanche are great examples of what Clay Shirky calls a transition as significant, paradigmatically, as Gutenberg’s printing press. That transition is from institution (often entrenched and bureaucratic) to collaboration (platforms for solving issues of shared concern)...
The organizers of Nuit Blanche looked at Brussels, full of people and places, as a series of assets. They set up a framework to bring disparate groups together, to perform and celebrate.
This led the community to see their places in new ways.
Parks, once for strolling, came to be for dancing and twirling fire.
Museums, once for hushed contemplation, emerged as places for hundreds to salsa and tango to the rhythm of live quartets.
City squares, once for simple transit, opened up to reggae DJ’s in pop-up campers and buses and hundreds of diverse dancers.
On the other hand, NATO works together towards an irrelevant mission: security against a singular, known, and predictable enemy. There’s been no cataloging of assets, nor discussion of the world that the members want to live in twenty-five years down the road. Moreover, there’s no evidence of questioning core competencies and opportunities.
Frankly, NATO is stuck in a perpetuity crisis that is plaguing governmental, non-profit and for-profit organizations around the world. For examples of this phenomena, look at our social security system, symphonies across the country (minus LA perhaps…) and corporate stalwarts like General Motors. These institutions have become slaves to sunk costs, legacy systems, and un-adaptive behaviors.
Yet, all is not lost. There is surely a need for a central command and deployment system for entities that seek peace through combined society just as there is a demand to celebrate creativity on the streets of cities worldwide. The task at hand is to embrace a sense of urgency in transforming existing platforms and building anew for the challenges and opportunities of the next one hundred years. No small task… but the future of the world just might depend on it.
Posted by Veronique on 10/08 at 01:47 PM Permalink
Vote for Jordan Thomas in the 2009 CNN Hero Awards
Most of us have learned how to “turn lemons into lemonade,” to use our hardships as motivation for righting a wrong. How often, though, do we forgo our own thirst, put the lemonade on tap and share it with those more terribly parched?
Four years ago, Jordan Thomas was a 16-year-old who loved playing soccer, snow skiing and spending hours on the golf course. A short time later, he became a double-amputee with the daunting task of re-learning to walk. Such a traumatic experience could stifle the biggest of hearts and stun the strongest of spirits.
However, underneath Jordan’s lanky frame and shaggy hair is an unbelievably courageous soul that refused to let the loss of his legs hinder his mobility. Only days after his recovery, Jordan began setting his own ailment aside to focus on helping fellow amputees. Specifically, he saw a need to assist low-income children who rapidly outgrow their prosthetics, whose insurance will only cover ONE set of fittings that cost thousands of dollars apiece. Therein, lies the mission of the Jordan Thomas Foundation, which Jordan and his family founded in 2006 to raise money that will sponsor child-amputees by supplying them with proper prosthetics.
Mr. Roy Exum summed it up very well in his October 4 opinion article in The Chattanoogan:
“So here comes Jordan, a prep school kid born to quiet privilege who could have so easily taken the tack of ‘poor me’ but who, instead, immediately set full sail in the very teeth of the storm, tied himself to the tiller, and silently shouted to his very personal thunder, ‘Bring it on! And, if we’re gonna’ do this, I want all you got!’”
The foundation has already raised over $400,000, one of several actions that landed Jordan as a top-ten finalist for the 2009 CNN Heroes Award, an international celebration of some of the world’s most charitable individuals making major impacts in their own communities.
Please take the time to vote for Jordan or visit his website to learn more about the Jordan Thomas Foundation.
By Trey Meyer, Senior Arts Fellow
Posted by Veronique on 10/08 at 10:23 AM Permalink
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Establishing Shot Video Series, Episode 2: Mia Bergeron
Mia Bergeron is a classically-trained portrait painter who has studied in Providence, RI; Boston MA; and Florence, Italy, who came to Chattanooga after a successful showing at the city’s Four Bridges Arts Festival. Mia has had the opportunity to work with CreateHere on multiple fronts,as both a MakeWork grant recipient and a graduate of the SpringBoard business planning course. Today, she is self-employed in a viable career as a portrait artist. For more information on her work, visit her website.
The Faces of Chattanooga is a year-long endeavor by portrait artist Mia Bergeron in conjunction to a MakeWork grant she received from CreateHere. The mission of this project is to paint portraits of nine Chattanooga residents in order to tell their stories, both tragic and triumphant. All nine portraits will be accompanied by brief stories and biographies, exhibited together publicly.
This project is about starting conversations between seemingly disparate groups. For example, Mia will choose each sitter to represent a different aspect of Chattanooga demographically, and each portrait will be in discussion with the other eight aesthetically. There have also been some additions to the original idea.
So far, this project has given Mia the opportunity to engage a number of local heroes, legends, and characters. Her first was of Brother Ron Fender, a Gregorian monk who washes the feet of the homeless at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen. Mia has also had the fortune of befriending Sandy Bell, a local celebrity and flower aficionado, as well as Kirk Wilder, a handsome young man who has struggled for four years with brain trauma resulting from a stab wound to the head. At the moment, Mia is painting An Ho Nan, an 82-year old woman from China who studied Chinese calligraphy and classical painting with the last emperor’s brother.
In the process of finishing these paintings, there have been tearful afternoons, many reasons to smile, and countless surprising, rich stories. In the end, there will be nine paintings to testify to Chattanooga’s diversity and to the strength and humility of its residents.
Each sitter will name a non-profit in Chattanooga that has been important in their lives. A printed catalogue of the project, along with photographs, in-depth stories, and quotes will be for sale at the exhibition of the nine portraits. All the proceeds of this catalogue will then be donated to the nine organizations named by each sitter. In the end, artists, non-profits and residents will be united in sorting out the realities and common fictions of daily life in Chattanooga.
When I was in High School, the ominous topic of future careers arose quite often. I think I always tentatively said that I wanted to be an artist, a poet or some other trade involving creativity, mystique and no steady income. One of my best friends said she wanted to be a fashion merchandiser—a professional shopper who outfits clothing stores with their goods. A couple weeks ago, I got to do her dream job…sort of.
Along with Senior Arts Fellow Jessica Martin, I spent a day shopping for items to fill the clothing trunk in 55here’s pseudo living room for the Persona | Anima show. As we wandered the aisles of America’s Thrift, our cart became a cornucopia of kitschy home goods and early 90’s garments of all shapes and sizes, including a lime green tracksuit, patterned sports bra, tasseled sweater, tiger-print briefs, not to mention other oddball treasures like a painting of a horse, a stack of old National Geographics, and a neo-baroque clock (which may be coming home with me once the show is over).
Over the following week or two, I did a lot more shopping for the opening reception. Shopping, I’ve found, has this whole new dimension when it’s not a gift, or yourself, that you’re shopping for. It involves expense reports, buying en masse, strategic thinking, and awkward interactions with various cashiers. I’ve learned to double-check receipts, to stifle nervous giggles when I ask the manager at Halloween Express about the possibility of buying false mustaches in bulk, and to load six 24 packs of soda into my cart without crying out, “But they’re not all for me!” Such difficulties, however, are really not difficulties at all considering how much fun it is to buy crazy junk for a living.
And as I sit here in a green wingback chair, staring at the horse painting in a faux-living room, I think about my high school friend and I, and our past ambitions and current occupations. She’s an operations manager for a cosmetics retailer, which seems to suite her just fine. I’m an arts fellow for CreateHere. Neither are the jobs we thought we’d have by now. I haven’t published a novel or continued to make artwork at all really, but I don’t regret it. Over the course of the past two to three weeks, I’ve gotten to co-curate, write, paint, papier-mâché, design, plan, draw, set-up, celebrate, promote, play dress-up—and, of course, shop. So despite the lack of mystique, and with the added bonus of a steady income, really, I’m doing everything I always wanted to do when I grew up. And then some.
SpringBoard is pleased to announce a new project to inspire entrepreneurship citywide. 48Hour Launch unites creative individuals to launch at least one start-up business. In just one weekend.
48Hour Launch, or 48HL, brings bright minds together to participate in an intensive period of community building, planning, incubation, and launching. The first in a series, East Tennessee’s 48HL will be held in Chattanooga on November 13-15, the event is hosted at CreateHere. The first 48HL happens to coincide with the beginning of Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 16-20.
But how does it work? 48HL starts with idea generation. Participants submit and vote on start-up ideas at http://48hourlaunch.org, and start the weekend off with presentations from the top handful of start-up ideas, which have been refined and fleshed-out since voting.
48HL is a collaborative project, so we bring entrepreneurs, writers, designers, developers, programmers, and marketing specialists together. The group divides into teams, each tackling a start-up idea. The Dream Teams take the reins, and it’s a weekend full of innovation, development, and business planning. 48HL provides the mission controllers with room to think, technology, energizing snacks and coffee—lots of it.
As the weekend draws to a close, the teams present their launched businesses. Key team members then commit to take those businesses live, and become the proud parents of collaborative start-ups. After a weekend of entrepreneurial fervor, participants leave with businesses in tow, and inspiration to boot.
Interested in learning more? 48HL will host an informational meeting on Thursday, October 8 at 5:30 pm, hosted in the Market Street Tavern banquet room.
For more information on the East Tennessee 48HL, contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address); or call 423.648.2195. Visit 48HL online at http://48hourlaunch.org.
Posted by Veronique on 10/06 at 03:49 PM Permalink
Even Writers Get Addicted To Art Machines
We’d like to thank the Geiger & Associates travel writers who stopped through CreateHere last Thursday on their quarterly tour of the Southeast for their time, patience, and appreciation for travel-sized art objects. It was a busy week at the office, what with a new gallery show, the end of the Stand’s first phase and the finalization of branding for 48 Hour Launch (not to mention the usual CreateHere madness).
In order to find out what we’re all about, this small team of journalists braved a studio rife with distraction: laptops, brochure deliveries, even the active construction of giant paper mâche letters. Yet shimmering beyond the clutter (and dashing deliverer of a CreateHere spiel) was an item of unmatched seduction — the highly addictive Art-o-Mat.
Some had seen similar use of old vending machines before, but all were enchanted by the mystery held within each cigarette-pack sized cellophane. Each of the visiting journalists wanted to put a coin in the slot and yank the antique knob to see what they would get. No two chose the same, so every purchase of a mini-robot, tiny linocut print or slice of a photograph was followed by a passing around of the little art piece.
And, on Friday morning, I daresay we saw a few familiar faces…
This Saturday, we look forward to hosting the culinary leg of the Geiger tour for a yummy tasting with some of our favorite chefs. We’ll let you know how it goes.
Simon Sees: Eye Magazine Creative Director Speaks in Chattanooga
Tomorrow night, British editorial designer Simon Esterson will be at green|spaces to discuss the state of design in Europe and to sit in on a panel discussion over “The Future of Print.” Beginning as the launch art director of the architecture and design magazine Blueprint, Esterson went on to become the creative director of Italian architecture monthly Domus. He is now creative director and part owner of Eye Magazine: The International Review of Graphic Design.
Esterson is brought to town as a joint effort between local design firm Widgets & Stone and AIGA Chattanooga. Widgets & Stone designer Joseph Shipp, who met Esterson in Luxembourg earlier this year at the international magazine symposium Colophon, says “We are bringing Simon to speak to local designers and design aficionados because we love Eye, and we love Chattanooga.”
Simon will speak at 7 pm tomorrow night at green|spaces. “The Future of Print” panel discussion will follow Esterson’s presentation and include several Chattanoogans involved in publishing: J. Kevin Tugman of custom magazine publisher Sunshine Media, Zachary Cooper of the Chattanooga Pulse, and David Morton of the blog Chattarati.
Anyone and everyone interested in design or publishing should attend this very special opportunity to get a global perspective on both. $5 for AIGA members and students (with student ID) or $10 for the general public. Food and drinks will be provided.
Models in Masks: A Persona|Anima Fashion Event on October 14
In a culture increasingly rich in social programming, we wear many hats. We also wear many outfits. Clothes are a particularly useful tool in the construction of identity, whether we’re donning a power suit for an important interview, stepping into a pair of stilettos to amp up our sex appeal, or decking ourselves out in black and safety pins to express some inner angst. Almost all cultures, even those that exist at the subsistence level, use some form of cosmetic embellishment as a social signifier. Clothes are a sign of who we are, what we’re made of, and what we’re all about.
In conjunction with Persona | Anima, 55here will host an event that celebrates clothing as a locus of identity construction. The event, entitled “Models in Masks,” will take place on Wednesday, October 14, from 6 to 8 at the 55here gallery space, and will feature the work of local designers Alison Burke (of Young Monster), Bridget Miller (of LEO Handmade), Kimara Dawn, and Sondra Aten (of Collective Clothing), as worn by masked models who will mingle with the cocktail crowd instead of strutting the catwalk. The event will also feature an open bar, refreshments, and live music from DJ Dust. As an added bonus, it’s free and open to the public, so fashionistas and fashionists, locallectuals, quasi-lushes, and plain old good time-havers from all walks of live are encouraged to attend.
Establishing Shot Video Series, Episode 1: Aaron Cabeen
As a carpenter’s son, Aaron Cabeen received a lifelong education in woodworking. Now a craftsman in his own right, Cabeen has applied a traditional philosophy to his own sustainable approach to design in establishing the prolific custom furniture company Cabeen Originals.
Based in Chattanooga, TN, Cabeen Originals constructs one-of-a-kind furniture pieces from as much reclaimed lumber as possible, ensuring that each structure is not only distinct in form, but also possesses a unique history.
Officially established just two months after completing SpringBoard’s business planning course, Cabeen Originals rapidly grew legs. Within nine months, Cabeen had used his original business plan to procure a woodshop space at the Business Development Center and quickly contracted two jobs with high local visibility, one at the downtown restaurant Deluxe; as well as at the Southside’s Terminal Brewhouse.
Cabeen’s business model is based on a few clear goals. “We believe in something different. Every piece is made with solid wood every time. No fillers, support pieces, or hidden boards are from engineered wood. We believe this makes a better product with more value. ”
“Salvaged and recycled wood has received more attention recently,” says Cabeen. “The benefits of using salvaged wood are character, rich tones, the history of its previous use, and the conversations that it will bring to your home or business surrounding the piece. With stained nail holes or years of weathering, salvaged wood makes a unique piece.”
In his marriage of business and artistry, Cabeen proves that reuse is a beautiful thing. Interested in seeing his work for yourself? Cabeen will be debuting a brand new furniture line in his booth at this weekend’s Home Show.
